“Where the fun in being ‘tough’ comes in,” he concluded, “I don’t see.”
At Christmas time Mrs. Pell had Mrs. Raynor and Florence in for a visit.
“Has Miles heard from Jimmy Morrisey yet?” Rex inquired.
“No,” Florence replied. “He didn’t write till about three weeks ago.”
“You’ll let him come in and see us New Year’s, won’t you?” Rex went on.
“Yes indeed, if you would like to have him.”
Miles came for New Year’s and brought the information that he had heard from Jimmy Morrisey at last. He was a hall boy in a New York hotel, and said that as near as he could remember the name he had heard his father mention that night in his talk with his mother was Darley.
Rex wrote the name down on a piece of paper and put it away to show to Sydney on his return from his Florida trip, for his health had been growing steadily poorer and Mrs. Pell had persuaded him finally to go South with a friend for a while.
“You know he isn’t really my own brother,” Rex confided to Miles. “But he’s a distant relative. His father and mother died when he was very little.”
Miles was much interested on hearing this. It served in some way to establish another bond between himself and the Pells.