Out of Africa

Daddy Doll has this twin brother, Mycroft Edward Dahl, known to the children as Uncle Ned. He was born half an hour before Daddy, so when Grandpa Dahl died, Ned inherited all the money there was, which was a whole lot. It was kept in trust for him, but all was okay as far as Grandma and Alexis were concerned, because Sir Barry B.-O. was waiting to marry Grandma and take them into his big house, and he had plenty of money, though not an excess.

When Ned came of age and got his rich inheritance, he took off for parts unknown and wound up in Africa.

Daddy Doll talks a lot of travel and adventure, but in practice he is a home body who prefers his books, dogs and pipes to any kind of movement. The "hunting dogs" are mostly for show, because Alexis doesn't even own a gun. He was horrified when Ned sent him the two baby giraffes from Africa--Daddy thought they came from the taxidermist, but they turned out to be wood carvings by a native artist. So he installed them in the study and hung a map of Africa above the old wall-mounted telephone, which is swiftly becoming an antique.