He had a trick of fastening upon the inconsequent, though that was scarcely the case now.
"That, my lord, is my name.

I believe I have the honor of sharing it with your lordship." "Ye'll belong to some younger branch of the family," the earl supposed.
"Like enough--some outlying branch," answered the imperturbable Caryll--a jest which only himself could appreciate, and that bitterly.
"And how came you into this ?" Rotherby sneered audibly--in self-mockery, no doubt, as he came to reflect that it was he, himself, had had him fetched.
"They needed another witness," said Mr.Caryll, "and hearing there was at the inn a gentleman newly crossed from France, his lordship no doubt opined that a traveller, here to-day and gone for good tomorrow, would be just the witness that he needed for the business he proposed.

That circumstance aroused my suspicions, and--" But the earl, as usual, seemed to have fastened upon the minor point, although again it was not so.

"You are newly crossed from France ?" said he.

"Ay, and your name is the same as mine.