Transcriber's note
- Obvious punctuation errors have been repaired silently.
- Word errors have been corrected and a list of corrections can be found after the book.
The Return of
the Prodigal
The Macmillan Company
New York—Boston—Chicago
Dallas—Atlanta—San Francisco
Macmillan & Co., Limited
London—Bombay—Calcutta
Melbourne
The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
Toronto
The Return of
The Prodigal
By
May Sinclair
Author of "The Divine Fire," etc.
New York
The Macmillan Company
1914
Copyright, 1914
By MAY SINCLAIR
Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1914.
Contents
Page
The Gift25
Appearances153
THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL
I
"Stephen K. Lepper, Pork-Packing Prince, fromChicago, U. S. A., by White Star Line, for Liverpool."Such was the announcement with which the ChicagoCentral Advertiser made beautiful its list of arrivalsand departures.
It was not exactly a definition of him. To be sure,if you had caught sight of him anywhere down thesumptuous vista of the first-class sleeping-saloon of theNew York and Chicago Express, you would have judgedit adequate and inquired no more. You might evenhave put him down for a Yankee.
But if, following him on this side of the Atlantic,you had found yourself boxed up with him in a third-classcompartment on the London and North-westernRailway, your curiosity would have been aroused. Thefirst thing you would have noticed was that everythingabout him, from his gray traveling hat to the goldmonogram