No doubt you've set me down as a cad and a blackleg.

Perhaps I am.

I've not had the advantages you have.
But, cad or no cad, I've a right to sign myself your brother,-- "Roger Ingleton, _alias_ Robert Ratman." Roger read this remarkable epistle once or twice, in a state of mind bordering on stupefaction.

Robert Ratman, cad, sharper, blasphemer, insolent profligate, his brother! The notion was ludicrous.

And yet, when he tried to laugh, the laugh died on his lips.