"JOHN BROWN" CHANGES HIS NAME "So we shall soon be together again as of old.

Your loving brother, Benjamin." The sentence which had met his eyes as he picked up the note which his caller had dropped was still before them, burned into his memory.
Benjamin! "Bennie D."! the loathed and feared and hated Bennie D., cause of all the Bascom matrimonial heartbreaks, had written to say that he and his sister-in-law were soon to be together as they used to be.

That meant that there had been no quarrel, but merely a temporary separation.

That she and he were still friendly.

That they had been in correspondence and that the "inventor" was coming back to take his old place as autocrat in the household with all his old influence over Emeline.