Highness's hectic career (and, incidentally, to that of a blonde lady
from the _Folies Bergeres_), and the Princess had returned to her
brother's home, where, a year later, she died, leaving him in charge of
her infant son.

Mr. Westley's desire from the first had been to eliminate as far as
possible all memory of the late Prince. He gave John his sister's name,
Maude, and brought him up as an American, in total ignorance of his
father's identity. During all the years they had spent together, he had
never mentioned the Prince's name.

He disliked John intensely. He fed him, clothed him, sent him to
college, and gave him a place in his office, but he never for a moment
relaxed his bleakness of front toward him. John was not unlike his
father in appearance, though built on a larger scale, and, as time went
on, little mannerisms, too, began to show themselves, that reminded Mr.
Westley of the dead man, and killed any beginnings of affection.

John, for his part, had the philosophy which goes with perfect health.
He fitted his uncle into the scheme of things, or, rather, set him
outside them as an irreconcilable element, and went on his way enjoying
life in his own good-humored fashion.

It was only lately, since he had joined the firm, that he had been
conscious of any great strain. College had given him a glimpse of a
larger life, and the office cramped him. He felt vaguely that there
were bigger things in the world which he might be doing. His best
friends, of whom he now saw little, were all men of adventure and
enterprise, who had tried their hand at many things; men like Jimmy
Pitt, who had done nearly everything that could be done before coming