Do you know that your father was related--distantly of course--to the Earl of Netherly ?" "I do remember his mentioning it, once.

I know he said that it was a distant connection; and that he knew nothing, whatever, about the earl or his family." "Well, curiously enough, it is not so distant, now," the other said.

"I was a pretty distant connection of his.

He was childless; and the family, generally, don't seem to have been prolific.

A good many of them died; and the result was that, the year before I left England, an uncle of mine succeeded to the title.