Clarifying his thoughts, Peter tried first to see where his duty lay.
To his parents, first of all, he decided, for he was a devoted son, and all his life he had loved and revered both father and mother more than most boys do. Julie, too, but, so far he had no reason to think she had any special claim on him.
Well, then, what did his duty to his parents dictate?
Common sense said that they would far rather have their son with them alive than to rest secure in the success of the book his father had written.
But the book itself was, to his mind, quite outside the pale of common sense, and could not be judged by any such standards.
Certain pages, special paragraphs in that book, stood out in his mind, and he knew that never had there been such a fiasco as would ensue if the long lost and deeply mourned hero of it should return! His return in the spirit was so gloatingly related, so triumphantly averred, that his return in the flesh would be a terrific anti-climax.
He remembered the gypsy's prophecy—how it had come true!
But the return, foretold by the second gypsy, was now verified in the flesh and put to naught all the fake returns narrated in the book.
Much stress was laid, in his father's story, on the spiritual return being what the gypsy meant. Now, Peter had proved that that prophecy meant, if it meant anything at all, his return in the flesh.
Anyway, here he was, very much alive, and very uncertain what to do with his live self.