"Eh?--Oh, well, he USED to. You see that was twenty-five years ago, when
he left here for boarding-school. He ran away from there, as I told you;
went to sea, and finally brought up at San Francisco."

"And you haven't had any picture, or photograph of him, since?"

"No--that is--I say!--you haven't, any of you, got a picture of
Sylvester, have you?" he turned in a vague parenthetical appeal to the
company of relatives and friends collected in the drawing-room after
dinner.

"Cousin Jane has; she knows all about him!"

But it appeared that Cousin Jane had only heard Susan Marckland say
that Edward Bingham had told her that he was in California when
"Uncle Sylvester" had been nearly hanged by a Vigilance Committee for
protecting a horse thief or a gambler, or some such person. This was
felt to be ineffective as a personal description.

"He's sure to wear a big beard; they all do when they first come back,"
said Amos Gunn, with metropolitan oraculousness.

"He has a big curling mustache, long silken hair, and broad shoulders,"
said Marie du Page.

There was such piquant conviction in the manner of the speaker, who was
also a very pretty girl, that they all turned towards her, and Kitty
quickly said,--