I was glad to
notice it. Most fellers look for a marked passage, but I like to train
'em out to pan everything I say, an' then do their own testin'. Bill
was all right. "Now, dear teacher," sez he, "if we are through with
that lesson, we shall return to the original subject." We both laughed,
lookin' into each other's eyes, an' it did us good.

"Now this Cleighton family is a great family in England and Scotland,"
sez Bill, "The Earl of Clarenden is the head of one branch an' the Duke
of Avondale is the head of another. The sons are called lords, an' they
have lots of land, but are running shy on money, an' the main stem of
the family is getting purty well thinned out."

"About this younger son that came to America, now?" sez I.

"Well, the present Earl married beneath him--I visited close to
Clarenden Castle, an' I know all about it," sez Bill. "He married an
American girl with lots of money, Florence Jamison of Philadelphia."

"Jamison?" sez I.

"Yes, Jamison," sez Bill. "I suppose you are well acquainted with the
Philadelphia Jamisons?"

"Well, that name does awaken a purty tol'able fairsized echo," sez I,
"but still, to be perfectly frank with you, me an' the Jamisons ain't
on what you could call intimate terms any more."

"I'm glad to learn it," sez Bill. "I'd hate to think that I had
irritated you by implicatin' that it was a come-down for an English
Earl to marry into your circle." Bill most generally squoze all the
dampness out of his jokes. "This was his second marriage," Bill went
on, "an' he had one son by it, named James Arthur Fitzhugh Patrick--"

"That's plenty for me," sez I, breakin' in. "The first two names is
interestin' to me, but the' ain't no use loadin' down a feller with
names till he has to pay excess baggage on 'em. Now, how did this one
get to be a younger son?"

"Why, the first marriage of the Earl also resulted in a son," sez Bill.
"His first wife was a lady of quality, but she had a weak constitution
an' the son has epolepsy. The younger son was fitted for the army, but
he got into a scrape, was given a lump sum by his father, an' came to
this country, where he disappeared. He also had an inheritance from an
aunt, a maiden sister of his mother, who didn't like the first son for
a minute."

"What kind of a scrape did the youngster get into, Bill?" sez I.

"He was engaged to the daughter of the curat at Avondale Chapel," sez
Bill, "an' he bein' the heir presumptive to the title--"