"I left it for good long ago, or for bad. I have been about the world for ever so many years; I've only just got back to town. I've been hunting in Texas, and rearing cattle in Kansas--that sort of thing. I left Keeton because I didn't get on with my people."
Minola could not help smiling at what seemed the odd similarity in their history.
"You smile because you think it was no wonder they didn't get on with me, I suppose? I left long ago--cut and run long before you were born. My brother and I don't get on; never shall, I dare say. I am generally considered to have disgraced the family. He's going back to Keeton, where he hasn't been for years; and so am I, for a while. He's been travelling in the East and living in Italy, and all that sort of thing, while I've been hunting buffaloes and growing cattle out West."
"Are you going to settle in Keeton now?" Miss Grey asked, for lack of anything else to say.
"Not I; oh, no! I don't suppose I could settle anywhere now. You can't, I think, when you've got into the way of knocking about the world. I don't know a soul down there now, I suppose. I'm going to Keeton now chiefly to annoy my brother." And he laughed a laugh of half-cynical good humor, and thrust his hands deep into his pockets.
"Yes, isn't it? We were always like that, I assure you; the elders and the youngers never could hit off--always quarrelling. I'm one of the youngers, though you wouldn't think so to look at me, Miss Grey? Do look at me."
Miss Grey looked at him very composedly. He gazed into her bright eyes with undisguised admiration.
"Well, I'm going to thwart my good brother in Keeton. He's coming home, and going to do all his duties awfully regular and well, don't you know; and first of all, he's going to have a regular, good, obedient Conservative member--a warming-pan. Do you understand that sort of thing? I believe the son of some honest poor-rate collector, or something of that sort--a fellow named Sheppard. Did you ever hear of any fellow in Keeton named Sheppard?--Jack Sheppard, I shouldn't wonder."
"I know Mr. Augustus Sheppard, and he is a very respectable man."
"Deuce he is; but not a lively sort of man, I should think."
"No; he wouldn't suit my brother if he was. Hope he isn't a friend of yours? Well, we're going to oppose him for the fun of the thing. How very glad my brother will be to see me. I am afraid I pass for a regular scamp in the memories of you Keeton people. You must have heard of me, Miss Grey. No? Before your time, I suppose. Besides, I didn't call myself St. Paul then; I took on that name in America; it's my mother's family name; that's how you wouldn't remember about me, even if you had heard. You know the mausoleum in the park, I dare say?"