diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:41 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:41 -0700 |
| commit | b2a1ec689428a19901a0f02d549031bc52bb5ad0 (patch) | |
| tree | cb1512333baa6142ff1bc002df2d53fe983361bb | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 14491-0.txt | 9972 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14491-0.txt | 9976 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/14491-8.txt | 10362 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/14491-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 202025 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/14491.txt | 10362 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/14491.zip | bin | 0 -> 202000 bytes |
9 files changed, 40688 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14491-0.txt b/14491-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..803be6f --- /dev/null +++ b/14491-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9972 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14491 *** +THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE + +Midsummer's Day + +by + +GRACE S RICHMOND + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. The Curtain Rises on a Home + + II. Richard Changes His Plans + + III. While It Rains + + IV. Pictures + + V. Richard Pricks His Fingers + + VI. Unsustained Application + + VII. A Traitorous Proceeding + + VIII. Roses Red + + IX. Mr. Kendrick Entertains + + X. Opinions and Theories + + XI. "The Taming of the Shrew" + + XII. Blankets + + XIII. Lavender Linen + + XIV. Rapid Fire + + XV. Making Men + + XVI. Encounters + + XVII. Intrigue + + XVIII. The Nailing of a Flag + + XIX. In the Morning + + XX. Side Lights + + XXI. Portraits + + XXII. Roberta Wakes Early + + XXIII. Richard Has Waked Earlier + + XXIV. The Pillars of Home + + XXV. A Stout Little Cabin + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE CURTAIN RISES ON A HOME + + +None of it might ever have happened, if Richard Kendrick had gone into +the house of Mr. Robert Gray, on that first night, by the front door. +For, if he had made his first entrance by that front door, if he had +been admitted by the maidservant in proper fashion and conducted into +Judge Calvin Gray's presence in the library, if he had delivered his +message, from old Matthew Kendrick, his grandfather, and had come away +again, ushered out of that same front door, the chances are that he +never would have gone again. In which case there would have been no +story to tell. + +It all came about--or so it seems--from its being a very rainy night in +late October, and from young Kendrick's wearing an all-concealing +motoring rain-coat and cap. He had been for a long drive into the +country, and had just returned, mud-splashed, when his grandfather, +having taken it into his head that a message must be delivered at once, +requested his grandson to act as his messenger. + +So the young man had impatiently bolted out with the message, had sent +his car rushing through the city streets, and had become a still muddier +and wetter figure than before when he stood upon the porch of the old +Gray homestead, well out in the edge of the city, and put thumb to the +bell. + +His hand was stayed by the shrill call of a small boy who dashed up on +the porch out of the dusk. "You can't get in that way," young Ted Gray +cried. "Something's happened to the lock--they've sent for a man to fix +it. Come round to the back with me--I'll show you." + +So this was why Richard Kendrick came to be conducted by way of the +tall-pillared rear porch into the house through the rear door of the +wide, central hall. There was no light at this end of the hall, and the +old-fashioned, high-backed settee which stood there was in shadow. + +With a glance at the caller's muddy condition the young son of the house +decided it the part of prudence to assign him this waiting-place, while +he himself should go in search of his uncle. The lad had seen the big +motor-car at the gate; quite naturally he took its driver for a +chauffeur. + +Ted looked in at the library door; his uncle was not there. He raced off +upstairs, not noting the change which had already taken place in the +visitor's appearance with the removal of the muddy coat and cap. + +Richard Kendrick now looked a particularly personable young man, well +built, well dressed, of the brown-haired, gray-eyed, clear-skinned type. +The eyes were very fine; the nose and mouth had the lines of +distinction; the chin was--positive. Altogether the young man did not +look the part he had that day been playing--that of the rich young idler +who drives a hundred and fifty miles in a powerful car, over the worst +kind of roads, merely for the sake of diversion and a good luncheon. + +While he waited Richard considered the hall, at one end of which he sat +in the shadow. There was something very homelike about this hall. The +quaint landscape paper on the walls, the perceptibly worn and faded +crimson Turkey carpeting on the floors, the wide, spindle-balustrade +staircase with the old clock on its landing; more than all, perhaps, on +an October night like this, the warm glow from a lamp with crystal +pendants which stood on the table of polished mahogany near the front +door--all these things combined to give the place a quite distinctive +look of home. + +There were one or two other touches in the picture worth mentioning, the +touches which spoke of human life. An old-fashioned hat-tree just +opposite the rear door was hung full with hats. A heavy ulster lay over +a chair close by, and two umbrellas stood in the corner. And over +hat-rack, hats, ulster, and chair, with one end of silken fringe caught +upon one of the umbrella ribs, had been flung by some careless hand, +presumably feminine, a long silken scarf of the most intense +rose-colour, a hue so vivid, as the light caught it from the landing +above, that it seemed almost to be alive. + +From various parts of the house came sounds--of voices and of footsteps, +more than once of distant laughter. Far above somewhere a child's high +call rang out. Nearer at hand some one touched the keys of a piano, +playing snatches of Schumann--_Der Nussbaum, Mondnacht, Die Lotosblume_. +Richard recognized the airs which thus reached his ears, and was sorry +when they ceased. + +Now there might be nothing in all this worth describing if the effect +upon the observer had not been one to him so unaccustomed. Though he had +lived to the age of twenty-eight years, he had never set foot in a place +which seemed so curiously like a vague dream he had somewhere at the +back of his head. For the last two years he had lived with his +grandfather in the great pile of stone which they called home. If this +were no real home, the young man had never had one. He had spent periods +of his life in various sorts of dwelling-places; in private rooms at +schools and college--always the finest of their kind--in clubs, on +ships, in railway trains; but no time at all in any place remotely +resembling the house in which he now waited, a stranger in every sense +of the word, more strange to the everyday, fine type of home known to +the American of good birth and breeding than may seem credible as it is +set down. + +"Hold on there!" suddenly shouted a determined male voice from somewhere +above Richard. A door banged, there was a rush of light-running feet +along the upper hall, closely followed by the tread of heavier ones. A +burst of the gayest laughter was succeeded by certain deep grunts, +punctuated by little noises as of panting breath and half-stifled +merriment. It was easy to determine that a playful scuffle of some sort +was going on overhead, which seemed to end only after considerable +inarticulate but easily translatable protest on the part of the weaker +person involved. + +Then came an instant's silence, a man's ringing laugh of triumph; next, +in a girl's voice, a little breathless but of a quality to make the +listener prick up ears already alert, these most unexpected words: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +"Is it, indeed, Miss Arrogance?" mocked the deeper voice. "Well, if you +had given it back at once, as all laws of justice, not to mention +propriety, demanded, I should not have had to force it away from you. +Oh, I say, did I really hurt that wrist, or are you shamming?" + +"Shamming! You big boys have no idea how brutally violent you are when +you want some little thing you ought not to have. It aches like +anything," retorted the other voice, its very complaints uttered in such +melodious tones of contralto music that the listener found himself +wishing with all his might to know if the face of its owner could by any +possibility match the loveliness of her voice. Dark, he fancied she must +be, and young, and strong--of education, of a gay wit, yet of a +temper--all this the listener thought he could read in the voice. + +"Poor little wilful girl! Did she get hurt, then, trying to have her own +way? Come in here, jade, and I'll fix it up for you," the deeper tones +declared. + +Footsteps again; a door closed. Silence succeeded for a minute; then the +Schumann music began again, a violin accompanying. And suddenly, +directly opposite the settee, a door swung slowly open, the hand upon +the knob invisible. A picture was presented to the stranger's eyes as if +somebody had meant to show it to him. He could but look. Anybody, seeing +the picture, would have looked and found it hard to turn his eyes away. + +For it was the heart of the house, right here, so close at hand that +even a stranger could catch a glimpse of it by chance. A great, +wide-throated fireplace held a splendid fire of burning logs, the light +from it illumining the whole room, otherwise dark in the October +twilight. Before it on the hearth-rug were silhouetted, in distinct +lines against its rich background, two figures. One was that of a woman +in warm middle life, sitting in a big chair, her face full of both +brightness and peace; at her feet knelt a young girl, her arm upon her +mother's knees, her face uplifted. The two faces were smiling into each +other. + +Somebody--it looked to be a tall young man against the fire-glow--came +and abruptly closed the door from within, and the picture was gone. The +fitful music ceased again; the house was quiet. + +Thereupon Richard Kendrick grew impatient. Fully ten minutes must have +elapsed since his youthful conductor had disappeared. He looked about +him for some means of summoning attention, but discovered none. + +Suddenly a latchkey rattled uselessly in the lock of the front door; +then came lusty knocks upon its stout panels, accompanied by the +whirring of a bell somewhere in the distance. + +A maidservant came hurriedly into the hall through a door near Richard, +and at the same moment a boy of ten or eleven came tearing down the +front stairs. As the lad shouted through the door, Richard recognized +his late conductor. + +"You can't get in, Daddy; the lock's gone queer. Come around to the +back. I'll see to him, Mary," the boy called to the maid, who, nodding, +disappeared. + +At this moment the door opposite Richard opened again, and the mother of +the household came out, her comely waist closely clasped by the arm of +the young girl. The two were followed by the tall young man. + +Richard stood up, and was, of course, instantly upon the road to the +delivery of his message. + +Ted, ushering in his father, and spying the waiting messenger, cried +repentantly, "Oh, I forgot!" and the tall young man responded gravely, +"You usually do, don't you, Cub?" This elder son of the house, waving +the small boy aside, attended to taking Richard to the library, and to +summoning Judge Calvin Gray. + +In five minutes the business had been dispatched, Judge Gray had made +friendly inquiry into the condition of his old friend's health, and +Richard was ready to take his departure. Curiously enough he did not now +want to go. As he stood for a moment near the open library door, while +Judge Gray returned to his desk for a newspaper clipping, the caller was +listening to the eager greetings taking place in the hall just out of +his sight. The father of the family appeared to have returned from an +absence of some length, and the entire household had come rushing to +meet and welcome him. Richard listened for the contralto notes he had +heard above, and presently detected them declaring with vivid emphasis: +"Mother has been a dear, splendid martyr. Nobody would have guessed she +was lonely, but--we knew!" + +"She couldn't possibly have been more lonely than I. Next time I'll take +her with me!" was the emphatic response. + +Then the whole group swept by the library door, down the hall, and into +the room of the great fireplace. Nobody looked his way, and Richard +Kendrick had one swift view of them all. Vigorous young men, graceful +young women, a child or two, the mother of them all on the arm of her +husband--there were plenty to choose from, but he could not find the one +he looked for. Then, quite by itself, another figure flashed past him. +He had a glimpse of a dusky mass of hair, of a piquant profile, of a +round arm bared to the elbow. As the figure passed the hat-tree he saw +the arm reach out and catch the rose-coloured scarf, flinging it over +one shoulder. Then the whole vision had vanished, and he stood alone in +the library doorway, with Judge Gray saying behind him: "I cannot find +the clipping. I will mail it to your grandfather when I come upon it." + +"I knew that scarf was hers," Richard was thinking as he went out into +the night by way of the rear door, Judge Gray having accompanied him to +the threshold and given him a cordial hand of farewell. What a voice! +She could make a fortune with it on the stage, if she couldn't sing a +note. The stage! What had the stage to do with people who lived together +in a place like that? + +He looked curiously back at the house as he went down the box-bordered +path which led, curving, from it to the street. It was obviously one of +the old-time mansions of the big city, preserved in the midst of its +grounds in a neighbourhood now rampant with new growth. It was outside, +on this chill October night, as hospitable in appearance as it was +inside; there was hardly a window which did not glow with a mellow +light. As Richard drove down the street, he was recalling vividly the +picture of the friendly-looking hall with its faded Turkey carpet worn +with the tread of many rushing feet, its atmosphere of welcoming +warmth--and the rose-hued scarf flung over the dull masculine belongings +as if typifying the fashion in which the women of the household cast +their bright influence over the men. + +It suddenly occurred to Richard Kendrick that if he had lived in such a +home even until he went away to school, if he had come back to such a +home from college and from the wanderings over the face of the earth +with which he had filled in his idle days since college was over, he +should be perhaps a better, surely a different, man than he was now. + + * * * * * + +Louis Gray, coming into the hall precisely as Richard Kendrick, again +enveloped in his muddy motoring coat, was releasing Judge Gray's hand +and disappearing into the night, looked curiously after the departing +figure. His sister Roberta, following him into the hall a moment after, +rose-coloured scarf still drifting across white-clad shoulder, was in +time to receive his comment: + +"Seems rather odd to see that chap departing humbly by any door but the +front one." + +"You knew him, then. Who was he?" inquired his sister. + +"Didn't you? He's a familiar figure enough about town. Why, he's Rich +Kendrick. Grandson of Matthew Kendrick, of Kendrick & Company, you know. +Only Rich doesn't take much interest in the business. You'll find his +doings carefully noticed in certain columns in certain society +journals." + +"I don't read them, thank you. Do you?" + +"Don't need to. Kendrick's a familiar figure wherever the gay and +youthful rich disport themselves--when he's in the country at all. He's +doing his best to get away with the money his father left him. +Fortunately the bulk of the family fortune is still in the hands of his +grandfather, who seems an uncommonly healthy and vigorous old man." +Louis laughed. "Can't think what Rich Kendrick can be doing here with +Uncle Cal. I believe, though, he and old Matthew Kendrick are good +friends. Probably grandson Richard came on an errand. It certainly +behooves him to do grandfather's errands with as good a grace as he can +muster." + +"He was sitting in the hall quite a while before Uncle Cal saw him," +volunteered Ted, who had tagged at Roberta's heels, and was listening +with interest. + +"Sitting in the hall, eh--like any district messenger?" Louis was +clearly delighted with this news. "How did it happen, Cub? Mary take him +for an everyday, common person?" + +"I let him in. I thought he was a chauffeur," admitted Ted. "He was +awfully wet and muddy. Steve took him in to Uncle Cal." + +An explosion of laughter from his interested elder brother interrupted +him. "I wish I'd come along and seen him. So he had the bad manners to +sit in our hall in a wet and muddy motoring coat, and go in to see Uncle +Cal--" + +"The young man had on no muddy coat when Stephen brought him in to see +me," declared Judge Calvin Gray, coming out and catching the last +sentence. "He put it on in the hall before going out. What are you +saying? That was the grandson of my good friend, Matthew Kendrick, and +so had claim upon my good will from the start, though I haven't laid +eyes upon the boy since his schooldays. He was rather a restless and +obstreperous youngster then, I'll admit. What he is now seems pleasing +enough to the eye, certainly, though of course that may not be +sufficient. A fine, mannerly young fellow he appeared to me, and I was +glad to see that he seemed willing enough to run upon his grandfather's +errands, though they took him out upon a raw night like this." + +But Louis Gray, though he did not pursue the subject further, was still +smiling to himself as he obeyed a summons to dinner. + +At opposite ends of the long table sat Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray. The +head of the house looked his part: fine of face, crisp of speech, +authoritative yet kindly of manner. His wife may be described best by +saying that one had but to look upon her to know that here sat the Queen +of the little realm, the one whose gentle rule covered them all as with +the brooding wing of wise motherhood. Down the sides of the board sat +the three sons: Stephen, tall and slender, grave-faced, quiet but +observant; Louis, of a somewhat lesser height but broad of shoulder and +deep of chest, his bright face alert, every motion suggesting vigour of +body and mind; Ted--Edgar--the youngest, a slim, long-limbed lad with +eyes eager as a collie's for all that might concern him--this was the +tale of the sons of the house. There were the two daughters: Roberta, +she of the rose-coloured scarf--it was still about her shoulders, +seeming to draw all the light in the room to its vivid hue, reflecting +itself in her cheeks--Roberta, the elder daughter, dusky of hair, +adorable of face, her round white throat that of a strong and healthy +girl, her laugh a song to listen to; the other daughter, Ruth, a +fair-haired, sober-eyed creature of growing sixteen, as different as if +of other blood. One would not have said the two were sisters. There was +one more girl at the table; no, not a girl, yet she looked younger than +Roberta--a little person with a wild-rose, charming face, and the +sweetest smile of them all--Rosamond, Stephen's wife, quite incredibly +mother of two children of nursery age, at this moment already properly +asleep upstairs. + +Last but far from least, loved and honoured of them all above the lot of +average man to command such tribute, was the elder brother of the master +of the house, his handsome white head and genial face drawing toward him +all eyes whenever he might choose to speak--Judge Calvin Gray. All in +all they were a goodly family, just such a family as is to be found +beneath many a fortunate roof; yet a family with an individuality all +its own and a richness of life such as is less common than it ought to +be. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RICHARD CHANGES HIS PLANS + + +The next time Richard Kendrick went to the Gray home was a fortnight +later, when old Matthew Kendrick was sending some material for which +Judge Gray had written to ask him--books and pamphlets, and a set of +maps. This time he would have sent a servant, but his grandson Richard +heard him giving directions and came into the affair with a careless +suggestion that he was driving that way and might as well take the stuff +if Mr. Kendrick wished it. The old man glanced curiously at him across +the table where the two sat at luncheon. + +"Glad to have you, of course," he commented, "but you made so many +objections when I asked you before I thought I wouldn't interfere with +your time again. Did you meet any of the family when you went?" + +"Only Judge Gray and two of his nephews," responded Richard, truthfully +enough. + +So he went with the big package. This time, it being a fine, sunny, +summerlike day almost as warm as September, he went clad in careful +dress with only a light motoring coat on over all to preserve the +integrity of his attire. He left this in the car when he leaped out of +it, and appeared upon the doorstep looking not at all like his own +chauffeur, but quite his comely self. + +The door-lock was in full working order now, and he was admitted by the +same little maid whom he remembered seeing before. Upon his inquiry for +Judge Gray he was told that that gentleman was receiving another caller +and had asked to be undisturbed for a short time, but if he could wait-- + +Now there was no reason in the world for his waiting, since the package +of books, pamphlets, and maps was under his arm and he had only to +bestow it upon the maid and give her the accompanying directions. But, +at this precise moment, Richard caught sight of a figure running down +the staircase; concluded in one glance, as he had concluded in one +glance before, that if a personality could be expressed by a speaking +voice, a laugh, and a rose-hued scarf, this must be the one they +expressed; and decided in the twinkling of an eye to wait. The maid +conducted him toward the room on the right of the hall and he followed +her, passing as he did so the person who had reached the foot of the +stairs and who went by him in such haste that he had only time to give +her one short but--it must be described as--concentrated look straight +in the eyes. She in turn bestowed upon him the one glance necessary to +inform her whether she knew him and so must stay long enough in her +rapid progress to greet him. Their eyes therefore met at rather close +range, lingered for the space of two running seconds, and parted. + +Richard Kendrick accepted the chair offered him and sat upon it for the +space of some eighteen-odd minutes; they might have been hours or +seconds, he could not have told which. He could hardly have described +the room to which he had been shown, unless to say that it was a square, +old-fashioned reception room, a little formal, decidedly quaint, and +dignified, and clearly not used by the family as other rooms were used. +Certainly the piano, from which he had heard the Schumann music on his +former visit, was not here, and certainly there were no rose-hued scarfs +flung carelessly about. It was undoubtedly a place kept for the use of +strange callers like himself, and had small part in the life of the +household. + +At length he was summoned to Judge Gray's library. He was met with the +same pleasant courtesy as before, delivered his parcel, and lingered as +long as might be, listening politely to his host's remarks, and looking, +looking--for a chance to make a reason to come again. Quite unexpectedly +it was offered him by the Judge himself. + +"I wonder if you could recommend to me," said Judge Gray as Richard was +about to take his leave, "a capable young man--college-bred, of +course--to come here daily or weekly as I might need him, to assist me +in the work of preparing my book. My eyes, as you see, will not allow me +to use them for much more than the reading of a paragraph, and while my +family are very ready to help whenever they have the time, mine is so +serious a task, likely to continue for so long a period, that I shall +need continuous and prolonged assistance. Do you happen to know--?" + +Well, it can hardly be explained. This was a rich man's heir and the +grandson of millions more, in need--according to his own point of +view--of no further education along the lines of work, and he had a +voyage to the Far East in prospect. Certainly, a fortnight earlier the +thing furthest from his thoughts would have been the engaging of himself +as amanuensis and general literary assistant to an ex-judge upon so +prosaic a task as the history of the Supreme Court of the State. To say +that a rose-hued scarf, a laugh, and an alluring speaking voice explain +it seems absurd, even when you add to these that which the young man saw +during that moment of time when he looked into the face of their owner. +Rather would I declare that it was the subtle atmosphere of that which +in all his travels he had never really seen before--a home. At all +events a new force of some sort had taken hold upon him, and was leading +him whither he had never thought to go. + +If Judge Gray was surprised that the grandson of his old friend Matthew +Kendrick should thus offer himself for the obscure and comparatively +unremunerative post of secretary, he gave no evidence of it. Possibly it +did not seem strange to him that this young man should show interest in +the work the Judge himself had laid out with an absorbing enthusiasm. +Therefore a trial arrangement was soon made, and Richard Kendrick agreed +to present himself in Judge Gray's library on the following morning at +ten o'clock. The only stipulation he made was that if, for any reason, +he should decide suddenly to go upon a journey he had had some time in +contemplation, he should be allowed to provide a substitute. He had not +yet so completely surrendered to his impulse that he was not careful to +leave himself a loophole of escape. + +The young man laughed to himself all the way down the avenue. What would +his grandfather say? What would his friends say? His friends should not +know--confound them!--it was none of their business. He would have his +evenings; he would appear at his clubs as usual. If comments were made +upon his absence at other hours he would quietly inform the observing +ones that he had gone to work, but would refuse to say where. It +certainly was a joke, his going to work; not that his grandfather had +not often and strenuously recommended it, saying that the boy would +never know happiness until he shook hands with labour; not that he +himself had not fully intended some day to go into the training +necessary to the assuming of the cares incident to the handling of a +great fortune. But thus far--well, he had never been ready to begin. One +journey more, one more long voyage-- + +Her eyes--had they been blue or black? Blue, he was quite sure, although +the masses of her hair had been like night for dusky splendour, and her +cheeks of that rich bloom which denotes young vigour and radiant health. +He could hear her voice now, quoting a serious poet to fit a madcap +mood--and quoting him in such a voice! What were the words? He +remembered her mockingly exaggerated inflection: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +Well, from his flash-fire observation of her he should say that a man +might need a giant's strength to overcome her, if she chose to oppose +him, in any situation whatever. What a glorious task--to overcome +her--to teach that lovely, teasing voice gentler words-- + +He laughed again. Since he had left college he had not been so +interested in what was coming next--not even on the day he met Amelie +Penstoff in St. Petersburg--nor on the day, in Japan, when his friend +Rogers made an appointment with him to meet that little slant-eyed girl, +half Japanese, half French, and whole minx--the beauty!--he could not +even recall her name at this moment--with whom he had had an absorbing +experience he should be quite unwilling to repeat. And now, here was a +girl--a very different sort of girl--who interested him more than any of +them. He wondered what was her name. Whatever it was, he would know it +soon--call her by it--soon. + +He went home. He did not tell his grandfather that night. There was not +much use in putting it off, but--somehow--he preferred to wait till +morning. Business sounds more like business--in the morning. + + * * * * * + +The first result of his telling his grandfather in the morning was a +note from old Matthew Kendrick to old Judge Gray. The note, which almost +chuckled aloud, was as follows: + +MY DEAR CALVIN GRAY: Work him--work the rascal hard! He's a lazy chap +with a way with him which plays the deuce with my foolish old heart. I +could make my own son work, and did; but this son of his--that seems to +be another matter. Yet I know well enough the dangers of idleness--know +them so well that I'm tickled to death at the mere thought of his +putting in his time at any useful task. He did well enough in college; +there are brains there unquestionably. I didn't object seriously to his +travelling--for a time--after his graduation; but that sort of life has +gone on long enough, and when I talk to him of settling down at some +steady job it's always "after one more voyage." I don't yet understand +what has given him the impulse--whim--caprice--I don't venture to give +it any stronger name--to accept this literary task from you. He vows +he's not met the women of your household, or I should think that might +explain it. I hope he will meet them--all of them; they'll be good for +him--and so will you, Cal. Do your best by the boy for my sake, and +believe me, now as always, + +Gratefully your old friend, + +MATTHEW. + +"Eleanor, have you five minutes to spare for me?" Judge Gray, his old +friend's note in hand, hailed his brother's wife as she passed the open +door of his library. She came in at once, and, though she was in the +midst of household affairs, sat down with that delightful air of having +all the time in the world to spare for one who needed her, which was one +of her endearing characteristics. + +When she had heard the note she nodded her head thoughtfully. "I think +the grandfather may well congratulate himself that the grandson has +fallen into your hands, Calvin," said she. "The work you give him may +not be to him the interesting task it would be to some men, but it will +undoubtedly do him good to be harnessed to any labour which means a bit +of drudgery. By all means do as Mr. Kendrick bids you--'work him hard.'" +She smiled. "I wonder what the boy would think of Louis's work." + +"He would take to his heels, probably, if it were offered him. It's +plain that Matthew's pleased enough at having him tackle a gentleman's +task like this, and hopes to make it a stepping-stone to something more +muscular. I shall do my best by Richard, as he asks. You note that he +wants the young man to meet us all. Are you willing to invite him to +dinner some time--perhaps next week--as a special favour to me?" + +"Certainly, Calvin, if you consider young Mr. Kendrick in every way fit +to know our young people." + +Her fine eyes met his penetratingly, and he smiled in his turn. "That's +like you, Eleanor," said he, "to think first of the boy's character and +last of his wealth." + +"A fig for his wealth!" she retorted with spirit. "I have two +daughters." + +"I have made inquiries," said he with dignity, "of Louis, who knows +young Kendrick as one young man knows another, which is to the full. He +considers him to be more or less of an idler, and as much of a +spendthrift as a fellow in possession of a large income is likely to be +in spite of the cautions of a prudent grandfather. He has a passion for +travel and is correspondingly restless at home. But Louis thinks him to +be a young man of sufficiently worthy tastes and standards to have +escaped the worst contaminations, and he says he has never heard +anything to his discredit. That is considerable to say of a young man in +his position, Eleanor, and I hope it may constitute enough of a passport +to your favour to permit of your at least inviting him to dinner. +Besides--let me remind you--your daughters have standards of their own +which you have given them. Ruth is a girl yet, of course, but a mighty +discerning one for sixteen. As for Roberta, I'll wager no young +millionaire is any more likely to get past her defences than any young +mechanic--unless he proves himself fit." + +"I am confident of that," she agreed, and with her charming gray head +held high went on about her household affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHILE IT RAINS + + +The advanced age of the Honourable Calvin Gray, and the precarious state +of his eyesight, made it possible for him to work at his beloved +self-appointed task for only a scant number of hours daily. His new +assistant, therefore, found his own working hours not only limited but +variable. Beginning at ten in the morning, by four in the afternoon +Judge Gray was usually too weary to proceed farther; sometimes by the +luncheon hour he was ready to lay aside his papers and dismiss his +assistant. On other days he would waken with a severe headache, the +result of the overstrain he was constantly tempted to give his eyes, in +spite of all the aid that was offered him. On such days Richard could +not always find enough to do to occupy his time, and would be obliged to +leave the house so early that many hours were on his hands. When this +happened, he would take the opportunity to drop in at one or two of his +clubs, and so convey the impression that only caprice kept him away on +other days. Curiously enough, this still seemed to him an object; he +might have found it difficult to explain just why, for he assuredly was +not ashamed of his new occupation. + +Rather unexplainably to Richard, nearly the first fortnight of his new +experience went by without his meeting any members of the family except +the heads thereof and the younger son, Edgar, familiarly called by every +one "Ted." With this youthful scion of the house he was destined to form +the first real acquaintance. It came about upon a particularly rainy +November day. Richard had found Judge Gray suffering from one of his +frequent headaches, as a result of the overwork he had not been able +wholly to avoid. Therefore a long day's work of research in various +ancient volumes had been turned over to his assistant by an employer who +left him to return to a seclusion he should not have forsaken. + +Richard was accustomed to run down to an excellent hotel for his +luncheon, and was preparing to leave the house for this purpose when Ted +leaped at him from the stairs, tumbling down them in great haste. + +"Mr. Kendrick, won't you stay and have lunch with me? It's pouring +'great horn spoons' and I'm all alone." + +"Alone, Ted? Nobody here at all?" + +"Not a soul. Uncle Cal's going to have his upstairs and he says I may +ask you. Please stay. I don't go to school in the afternoon and maybe I +can help you, if you'll show me how." + +Richard smiled at the notion, but accepted the eager invitation, +and presently found himself sitting alone with the lad at a big, +old-fashioned mahogany table, being served with a particularly tempting +meal. + +"You see," Ted explained, spooning out grapefruit with an energetic +hand, "father and mother and Steve and Rosy have gone to the country to +a funeral--a cousin of ours. Louis and Rob aren't home till night except +Saturdays and Sundays, and Ruth is at school till Friday nights. It +makes it sort of lonesome for me. Wednesdays, though, every other week, +Rob's home all day. When she's here I don't mind who else is away." + +"I was just going to ask if you had three brothers," observed Richard. +"Do I understand 'Rob' is a girl?" + +"Sure, Rob's a girl all right, and I'm mighty glad of it. I wouldn't be +a girl myself, not much; but I wouldn't have Rob anything else--I should +say not. Name's Roberta, you know, after father. She's a peach of a +sister, I tell you. Ruth's all right, too, of course, but she's +different. She's a girl all through. But Rob's half boy, or--I should +say there's just enough boy about her to make her exactly right, if you +know what I mean." + +He looked inquiringly at Richard, who nodded gravely. "I think I get +something of your idea," he agreed. "It makes a fine combination, does +it?" + +"I should say it did. You know a girl that's all girl is too much girl. +But one that likes some of the things boys like--well, it helps out a +lot. Through with the grapefruit, Mary," he added, over his shoulder, to +the maid. "Have you any brothers or sisters, Mr. Kendrick?" he inquired +interestedly, when he had assured himself that the clam broth with which +he was now served was unquestionably good to eat. + +"Not one--living. I had a brother, but he died when I was a little +chap." + +"That was too bad," said Ted with ready sympathy. He looked straight +across the table at Richard out of sea-blue eyes shaded by very heavy +black lashes, which, it struck Richard quite suddenly, were much like +another pair which he had had one very limited opportunity of observing. +The boy also possessed a heavy thatch of coal-black hair, a lock of +which was continually falling over his forehead and having to be thrust +back. "Because father says," Ted went, on, "it's a whole lot better for +children to be brought up together, so they will learn to be polite to +each other. I'm the youngest, so I'm most like an only child. But, you +see," he added hurriedly, "the older ones weren't allowed to give up to +me, and I had to be polite to them, so perhaps"--he looked so in earnest +about it that Richard could not possibly laugh at him--"I won't turn out +as badly as some youngest ones do." + +There was really nothing priggish about this statement, however it may +sound. And the next minute the boy had turned to a subject less +suggestive of parental counsels. He launched into an account of his +elder brother Louis's prowess on the football fields of past years, +where, it seemed, that young man had been a remarkable right tackle. He +gave rather a vivid account of a game he had witnessed last year, +talking, as Richard recognized, less because he was eager to talk than +from a sense of responsibility as to the entertainment of his guest. + +"But he won't play any more," he added mournfully. "He took his degree +last year and he's in father's office now, learning everything from the +beginning. He's just a common clerk, but he won't be long," he asserted +confidently. + +"No, not long," agreed Richard. "The son of the chief won't be a common +clerk long, of course." + +"I mean," explained Ted, buttering a hot roll with hurried fingers, +"he'll work his way up. He won't be promoted until he earns it; he +doesn't want to be." + +Richard smiled. The boy's ideals had evidently been given a start by +some person or persons of high moral character. He was considering the +subject in some further detail with the lad when the dining-room door +suddenly opened and the owner of the black-lashed blue eyes, which in a +way matched Ted's, came most unexpectedly in upon them. She was in +street dress of dark blue, and her eyes looked out at them from under +the wide gray brim of a sombrero-shaped hat with a long quill in it, the +whole effect of which was to give her the breezy look of having +literally blown in on the November wind which was shaking the trees +outside. Her cheeks had been stung into a brilliant rose colour. Two +books were tucked under her arm. + +"Why, Rob!" cried her younger brother. "What luck! What brought you +home?" + +Rising from his chair Richard observed that Ted had risen also, and he +now heard Ted's voice presenting him to his sister with the ease of the +well-bred youngster. + +From this moment Richard owed the boy a debt of gratitude. He had been +waiting impatiently for a fortnight for this presentation and had begun +to think it would never come. + +Roberta Gray came forward to give the guest her hand with a ready +courtesy which Richard met with the explanation of his presence. + +"I was asked to keep your brother company in the absence of the family. +I can't help being glad that you didn't come in time to forestall me." + +"I'm sure Ted's hospitality might have covered us both," she said, +pulling off her gloves. He recognized the voice. At close range it was +even more delightful than he had remembered. + +"I doubt it, since he tells me that when you're here he doesn't mind who +else is away." + +"Did you say that, Teddy?" she asked, smiling at the boy. "Then you'll +surely give me lunch, though it isn't my day at home. I'm so hungry, +walking in this wind. But the air is glorious." + +She went away to remove her hat and coat, and came back quickly, her +masses of black hair suggesting but not confirming the impression that +the wind had lately had its way with them. Her eyes scanned the table +eagerly like those of a hungry boy. + +"Some of your scholars sick?" inquired Ted. + +"Two--and one away. So I'm to have a whole beautiful afternoon, though I +may have to see them Wednesday to make up. I am a teacher in Miss +Copeland's private school," she explained to Richard as simply as one of +the young women he knew would have explained. "I have singing lessons of +Servensky." + +This gave the young man food for thought, in which he indulged while +Miss Roberta Gray told Ted of an encounter she had had that morning with +a special friend of his own. This daughter of a distinguished man--of a +family not so rich as his own, but still of considerable wealth and +unquestionably high social position--was a teacher in a school for +girls; a most exclusive school, of course--he knew the one very +well--but still in a school and for a salary. To Richard the thing was +strange enough. She must surely do it from choice, not from necessity; +but why from choice? With her face and her charm--he felt the charm +already; it radiated from her--why should she want to tie herself down +to a dull round of duty like that instead of giving her thoughts to the +things girls of her position usually cared for? Taking into +consideration the statement Ted had lately made about his elder brother, +it struck Richard Kendrick that this must be a family of rather +eccentric notions. Somewhat to his surprise he discovered that the idea +interested him. He had found people of his own acquaintance tiresomely +alike; he congratulated himself on having met somebody who seemed likely +to prove different. + +"So you rejoice in your half-holiday, Miss Gray," Richard observed when +he had the chance. "I suppose you know exactly what you are going to do +with it?" + +"Why do you think I do?" she asked with an odd little twist of the lip. +"Do you always plan even unexpected holidays so carefully?" + +It occurred to Richard that up to the last fortnight his days since he +left college had been all holidays, and there had been plenty of them +throughout college life itself. But he answered seriously: "I don't +believe I do. But I had the idea that teachers were so in the habit of +living on schedules scientifically made out that even their holidays +were conscientiously lived up to, with the purpose of getting the full +value out of them." + +Even as he said it he could have laughed aloud at the thought of these +straitlaced principles being applicable to the young person who sat at +the table with himself and Ted. She a teacher? Never! He had known no +women teachers since his first governess had been exchanged for a tutor, +the sturdy youngster having rebelled, at an extraordinarily early age, +against petticoat government. His acquaintance included but one woman of +that profession--and she was a college president. He and she had not got +on well together, either, during the brief period in which they had been +thrown together--on an ocean voyage. But he had seen plenty of teachers, +crossing the Atlantic in large parties, surveying cathedrals, taking +coach drives, inspecting art galleries--all with that conscientious air +of making the most of it. Miss Roberta Gray one of that serious company? +It was incredible! + +"Dear me," laughed Roberta, "what a keen observer you are! I am almost +afraid to admit that I have no conscientiously thought-out plan--but +one. I am going to put myself in Ted's hands and let him personally +conduct my afternoon." + +Blue eyes met blue eyes at that and flashed happy fire. Lucky Ted! + +"Oh, jolly!" exclaimed that delighted youth. "Will you play basket-ball +in the attic?" + +"Of course I will. Just the thing for a rainy day." + +"Bowls?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Take a cross-country tramp?" His eyes were sparkling. + +Roberta glanced out of the window. The rain was dashing hard against the +pane. "If you won't go through the West Wood marshes," she stipulated. + +"Sure I won't. They'd be pretty wet even for me on a day like this. Is +there anything you'd specially like to do yourself?" he bethought +himself at this stage to inquire. + +Roberta shrugged her shoulders. "Of course it seems tame to propose +settling down by the living-room fire and popping corn, after we get +back and have got into our dry clothes," said she, "but--" + +Ted grinned. "That's the stuff," he acknowledged. "I knew you'd think of +the right thing to end up the lark with." He looked across at Richard +with a proud and happy face. "Didn't I tell you she was a peach of a +sister?" he challenged his guest. + +Richard nodded. "You certainly did," he said. "And I see no occasion to +question the statement." + +His eyes met Roberta's. Never in his life had the thought of a +cross-country walk in the rain so appealed to him. At the moment he +would have given his eagerly planned trip to the Far East for the chance +to march by her side to-day, even though the course should lie through +the marshes of West Wood, unquestionably the wettest place in the +country on that particular wet afternoon. But nobody would think of +inviting him to go--of course not. And while Roberta and Ted were +dashing along country lanes--he could imagine how her cheeks would look, +stung with rain, drops clinging to those bewildering lashes of hers--he +himself would be looking up references in dry and dusty State Supreme +Court records, and making notes with a fountain pen--a fountain +pen--symbol of the student. What abominable luck! + +Roberta was laughing as his eyes met hers. The gay curve of her lips +recalled to him one of the things Ted had said about her, concerning a +certain boyish quality in her makeup, and he was strongly tempted to +tell her of it. But he resisted. + +"I can see you two are great chums," said he. "I envy you both your +afternoon, clear through to the corn-popping." + +"If you are still at work when we reach that stage we will--send you in +some of it," she promised, and laughed again at the way his face fell. + +"I thought perhaps you were going to invite me in to help pop," he +suggested boldly. + +"I understand you are engaged in the serious labour of collecting +material for a book on a most serious subject," she replied. "We +shouldn't dare to divert your mind; and besides I am told that Uncle +Calvin intends to introduce you formally to the family by inviting you +to dinner some evening next week. Do you think you ought to steal in by +coming to a corn-popping beforehand? You see now I can quite truthfully +say to Uncle Calvin that I don't yet know you, but after I had popped +corn with you--" + +She paused, and he eagerly filled out the sentence: "You would know me? +I hope you would! Because, to tell the honest truth, literary research +is a bit new and difficult to me as yet, and any diversion--" + +But she would not ask him to the corn-popping. And he was obliged to +finish his luncheon in short order because Roberta and Ted, plainly +anxious to begin the afternoon's program, made such short work of it +themselves. They bade him farewell at the door of the dining-room like a +pair of lads who could hardly wait to be ceremonious in their eagerness +to be off, and the last he saw of them they were running up the +staircase hand in hand like the comrades they were. + +During his intensely stupid researches Richard Kendrick could hear +faintly in the distance the thud of the basket-ball and the rumble of +the bowls. But within the hour these tantalizing sounds ceased, and, in +the midst of the fiercest dash of rain against the library window-panes +that had yet occurred that day, he suddenly heard the bang of the +back-hall entrance-door. He jumped to his feet and ran to reconnoitre, +for the library looked out through big French windows upon the lawn +behind the house, and he knew that the pair of holiday makers would +pass. + +There they were! What could the rain matter to them? Clad in high +hunting boots and gleaming yellow oilskin coats, and with hunters' caps +on their heads, they defied the weather. Anything prettier than +Roberta's face under that cap, with the rich yellow beneath her chin, +her face alight with laughter and good fellowship, Richard vowed to +himself he had never seen. He wanted to wave a farewell to them, but +they did not look up at his window, and he would not knock upon the +pane--like a sick schoolboy shut up in the nursery enviously watching +his playmates go forth to valiant games. + +When they had disappeared at a fast walk down the gravelled path to the +gate at the back of the grounds, taking by this route a straight course +toward the open country which lay in that direction not more than a mile +away, the grandson of old Matthew Kendrick went reluctantly back to his +work. He hated it, yet--he was tremendously glad he had taken the job. +If only there might be many oases in the dull desert such as this had +been! + + * * * * * + +"How do you like him, Rob?" inquired the young brother, splashing along +at his sister's side down the country road. + +"Like whom?" Roberta answered absently, clearing her eyes of raindrops +by the application of a moist handkerchief. + +"Mr. Kendrick." + +"I think Uncle Cal might have looked a long way and not picked out a +less suitable secretary," said she with spirit. + +"Is that what he is? What is a seccertary anyway?" demanded Ted. + +"Several things Mr. Kendrick is not." + +"Oh, I say, Rob! I can't understand--" + +"It is a person who has learned how to be eyes, ears, hands, and brain +for another," defined Roberta. + +"Gee! Hasn't Uncle Cal got all those things himself--except eyes?" + +"Yes, but anybody who serves him needs them all, too. I don't believe +Mr. Kendrick ever helped anybody before in his life." + +"Maybe he has. He's got loads of money, Louis says." + +"Oh, money! Anybody can give away money." + +"They don't all, I guess," declared Ted, with boyish shrewdness. "Say, +Rob, why wouldn't you ask him to the corn-pop frolic?" + +Roberta looked round at him. Drenched violets would have been dull and +colourless beside the living tint of her eyes, the raindrops clinging to +her lashes. "Because he was too busy," she replied, and looked away +again. + +"I didn't think he seemed so very much in a hurry to get back to the +library," observed Ted. "When I went down to the kitchen after the corn +I looked in the door and he was sitting at the desk looking out of the +window. But then I look out of the window myself at school," he +admitted. + +"Ted, shall we take this path or the other?" asked his sister, halting +where three trails across the meadow diverged. + +"This one will be the wettest," said he promptly. "But I like it best." + +"Then we'll take it." And she plunged ahead. + +"I say, Rob, but you're a true sport!" acknowledged her young brother +with admiration. "Any girl I know would have wanted the dry path." + +"Dry?" Roberta showed him a laughing profile over her shoulder. "Where +all paths are soaking, why be fastidious? The wetter we are the more +credit for keeping jolly, as Mark Tapley would say. Lead on, MacDuff!" + +"You seem to be leading yourself," shouted Ted, as she unexpectedly +broke into a run. + +"It's only seeming, Ted," she called back. "Whenever a woman seems to be +leading, you may take my word for it she's only following the course +pointed out by some man. But--when she seems to be following, look out +for her!" + +But of this oracular statement Ted could make nothing and wisely did not +try. He was quite content to splash along in Rob's wake, thinking +complacently how hot and buttery the popped corn would be an hour hence. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PICTURES + + +Richard Kendrick had been guest at a good many dinners in the course of +his experience, dinners of all sorts and of varying degrees of +formality. Club dinners, college-class dinners, "stag" dinners at +imposing hotels and cafés, impromptu dinners hurriedly arranged by three +or four fellows in for a good time, dinners at which women were present, +more at which they were not--these were everyday affairs with him. But, +strange to say, the one sort of dinner with which he was not familiar +was that of the family type--the quiet gathering in the home of the +members of the household, plus one or two fortunate guests. He had never +sat at such a table under his own roof, and when he was entertained in +the homes of his friends the occasion was invariably made one for +summoning many other guests, and for elaborate feasting and diversion of +all kinds. + +It will be seen, therefore, that Richard looked forward to a totally new +experience, without in the least realizing that he did so. His principal +thought concerning the invitation to the Grays' was that he should at +last have the chance to meet again the niece of his employer, in a way +that would show him considerably more of her as a woman than he had been +able to observe on the occasion when they had so hurriedly finished a +luncheon together, and she had escaped from him as fast as possible in +order to set forth on a madcap adventure with her small brother. + +On the day of which he expected to spend the evening with the Grays he +found it not a little difficult to keep his mind upon his work with the +Judge, and that gentleman seemed to him extraordinarily particular, even +fussy, about having every fact brought to him painstakingly verified +down to the smallest detail. When at last he was released, and he rushed +home in his car to dress, he discovered that his spirits were dancing as +he could not remember having felt them dance for a year. And all over a +simple invitation to a family dinner! + +As he dressed it might have been said of him that he also could be +particular, even fussy. When, at length, he was ready, he was as +carefully attired as ever he had been in his life--and this not only in +body but in mind. It was curious, to his own observation of himself, how +differently he felt, in what different mood he was, than had ever been +the case when he had left his room for the scene of some accustomed +pleasure-making. He could not just define this difference to himself, +though he was conscious of it; but there was in it a sense of wishing +the people he was to meet to think well of him, according to their own +standards, and he was somehow rather acutely aware that their standards +were not likely to be those with which he was most intimate. + +When he entered the now familiar door of the Gray homestead he was +surprised to hear sounds which seemed to indicate that the affair was, +after all, much larger and more formal than he had been led to suppose. +Strains of music fell upon his ears--music from a number of stringed +instruments remarkably well played--and this continued as he made his +entrance into the long drawing-room at the left of the hall, of whose +interior he had as yet caught only tempting glimpses. + +As he greeted his hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray, Judge Calvin Gray, +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Gray, wondering a little where the rest of the +family could be, his eye fell upon the musicians, and the problem was +solved. Ruth, the sixteen-year-old, sat before a harp; Louis, the elder +son, cherished a violin under his chin; Roberta--ah, there she was! +wearing a dull-blue evening frock above which gleamed her white neck, +her half-uncovered arms showing exquisite curves as she handled the bow +which was drawing long, rich notes from the violoncello at her knee. + +Not one of the trio looked up until the nocturne they were playing was +done. Then they rose together, laying aside their instruments, and made +the guest welcome. He had a vivid impression of being done peculiar +honour by their recognition of him as a new friend, for so they received +him. As he looked from one to another of their faces he experienced +another of those curious sensations which had from time to time assailed +him ever since he had first put his head inside the door of this house, +the sensation of looking in upon a new world of which he had known +nothing, and of being strangely drawn by all he saw there. It was not +alone the effect of meeting a more than ordinarily alluring girl, for +each member of the family had for him something of this drawing quality. +As he studied them it was clear to him that they belonged together, that +they loved each other, that the very walls of this old home were +eloquent of the life lived here. + +He had of course seen and noted families before, noted them carelessly +enough: rich families, poor families, big families, little, newly begun +families; but of a certain sort of family of which this was the +interesting and inviting type he knew as little as the foreigner, newly +landed on American shores, knows of the depths of the great country's +interior. And as he studied these people the desire grew and grew within +him to know as much of them as they would let him know. The very +grouping of them, against the effective background of the fine old +drawing-room, made, it seemed to him, a remarkable picture, full of a +certain richness of colour and harmony such as he had never observed +anywhere. + +The evening did not contain as much of gay encounter with Roberta as +he had anticipated--but, somehow, as he afterwards looked back upon it, +he could not feel that there had been any lack. He had fancied himself, +in prospect, sitting beside her at the table, exchanging that pleasant, +half-foolish badinage with which young men are wont to entertain +girls who are their companions at dinners, both nearly oblivious of +the rest of the company. But it turned out that his seat was between +his hostess and her younger daughter, Ruth, and though Roberta was +nearly opposite him at the table and he could look at her to his full +content--conservatively speaking--he was obliged to give himself to +playing the part of the deferential younger man where older and more +distinguished men are present. + +Yet--to his surprise, it must be admitted--he found himself not bored by +that table-talk. It was such table-talk, by the way, as is not to be had +under ordinary roofs. He now recognized that he had only partially +appreciated the qualities of mind possessed by Judge Gray--certainly not +his capacity for brilliant conversation. Mr. Robert Gray was quite his +elder brother's match, however, and more than once Kendrick caught Louis +Gray's eye meeting his own with the glance which means delighted pride +in the contest of wits which is taking place. All three young men +enjoyed it to the full, and even Ted listened with eyes full of eager +desire to comprehend that which he understood to be worth trying hard +for. + +"They enjoy these encounters keenly," said Mrs. Gray, beside Richard, as +a telling story by Mr. Robert Gray, in illustration of a point he had +made, came to a conclusion amid a burst of appreciative laughter. "They +relish them quite as much, we think, as if they often succeeded in +convincing each other, which they seldom do." + +"Are they always in such form?" asked Richard, looking into the fresh, +attractive face of the lady who was the mistress of this home, and +continuing to watch her with eyes as deferential as they were admiring. +She, too, represented a type of woman and mother with which he was +unfamiliar. Grace and charm in women who presided at dinner-tables he +had often met, but he could not remember when before he had sat at the +right hand of a woman who had made him begin, for almost the first time +in his life, to wonder what his own mother had been like. + +"Nearly always, at night, I think," said she, her eyes resting upon her +husband's face. Richard, observing, saw her smile, and guessed, without +looking, that there had been an exchange of glances. He knew, because he +had twice before noted the exchange, as if there existed a peculiarly +strong sympathy between husband and wife. This inference, too, possessed +a curious new interest for the young man--he had not been accustomed to +see anything of that sort between married people of long standing--not +in the world he knew so well. He seemed to be learning strange new +possibilities of existence at every step, since he had discovered the +Grays--he who at twenty-eight had not thought there was very much left +in human experience to be discovered. + +"Is it different in the morning?" Richard inquired. + +"Quite different. They are rather apt to take things more seriously in +the morning. The day's work is just before them and they are inclined to +discuss grave questions and dispose of them. But at night, when the +lights are burning and every one comes home with a sense of duty done, +it is natural to throw off the weights and be merry over the same +matters which, perhaps, it seemed must be argued over in the morning. We +all look forward to the dinner-table." + +"I should think you might," agreed Richard, looking about him once more +at the faces which surrounded him. He caught Roberta's eye, as he did +so--much to his satisfaction--and she gave him a straightforward, steady +look, as if she were taking his measure for the first time. Then, quite +suddenly, she smiled at him and turned away to speak to Ted, who sat by +her side. + +Richard continued to watch, and saw that immediately Ted looked his way +and also smiled. He wanted so much to know what this meant, that, as +soon as dinner was over and they were all leaving the room, he fell in +with the boy and, putting his hand through Ted's arm, whispered with +artful intent: "Was my tie under my left ear?" + +Ted stared up at him. "Your tie's all right, Mr. Kendrick." + +"Then it wasn't that. Perhaps my coat collar was turned up?" + +"Why, no," the boy laughed. "You look as right as anything. What made +you think--" + +"I saw you and your sister laughing at me and it worried me. I thought I +must be looking the guy some way." + +Ted considered. "Oh, no!" he said. "She asked me if I thought you were +enjoying the dinner as well as you would have liked the corn-popping." + +"And what did you decide?" + +"I said I couldn't tell, because I never saw you at a corn-popping. I +asked her that day we went to walk why she wouldn't ask you to it, but +she just said you were too busy to come. I didn't think you acted too +busy to come," he said naïvely, glancing up into Richard's down-bent +face. + +"Didn't I? Haven't I looked very busy whenever you have seen me in your +uncle's library?" + +Ted shook his head. "I don't think you have--not the way Louis looks +busy in father's office, nor the way father does." + +Richard laughed, but somehow the frank comment stung him a little, as he +would not have imagined the comment of an eleven-year-old boy could have +done. "See here, Ted," he urged, "tell me why you say that. I think +myself I've done a lot of work since I've been here, and I can't see why +I haven't looked it." + +But Ted shook his head. "I don't think it would be polite to tell you," +he said, which naturally did not help matters much. + +Still holding the lad's arm, Richard walked over to Roberta, who had +gone to the piano and was arranging some sheets of music there. + +"Miss Gray," he said, "have you accomplished a great deal to-day?" + +She looked up, puzzled. "A great deal of what?" she asked. + +"Work--endeavour--strenuous endeavour." + +"The usual amount. Lessons--and lessons--and one more lesson. I have +really more pupils than I can do justice to, but I am promised an +assistant if the work grows too heavy," she answered. "Why, please?" + +"I've been wondering if the motto of the Gray family might be 'Let us, +then, be up and doing.' Ted gives me that notion." + +Roberta glanced at Ted, whose face had grown quite grave. "Can you tell +him what the motto is, Ted?" + +"Of course I can," responded Ted proudly. "It's _Hoc age_." + +Richard hastily summoned his Latin, but the verb bothered him for a +minute. "_This do_," he presently evolved. "Well, I should say I came +pretty near it." + +"What's yours?" the boy now inquired. + +"My family motto? I believe it is _Crux mihi ancora_; but that doesn't +just suit me, so I've adopted one of my own"--he looked straight at +Roberta--"_Dum vivimus, vivamus_. Isn't that a pleasanter one in this +workaday world?" + +Ted was struggling hard, but his two months' experience with the +rudiments of Latin would not serve him. "What do they mean?" he asked +eagerly. + +"The second one means," said Roberta, with her arm about the slim young +shoulders, "'While we live, let us live--well.'" Her eyes met Richard's +with a shade of defiance in them. + +"Thank you," said he. "Do you expect me to adopt the amendment?" + +"Why not?" + +"Even you--take cross-country runs." + +She nodded. "And am all the better teacher for them next day." + +He laughed. "I should like to take one with you some time," said he. He +saw Judge Gray coming toward them. "I wonder if I'm likely ever to have +the chance," he added hurriedly. + +"_You_ take a cross-country run when you could have a sixty-mile spin in +that motor-car of yours instead?" + +"I couldn't go cross-country in that. You see I've been by the beaten +track so much I should like to try exploring something new." + +He was eager to say more, but Judge Gray, coming up to them, laid an +affectionate hand on his niece's shoulder. + +"She doesn't look the part she plays by day, does she?" he said to +Richard. "Curious, how times have changed. In my day a teacher looked a +teacher every minute of her time. One stood in awe of her--or +him--particularly of her. A prim, stuff gown, hair parted in the middle +and drawn smoothly away"--his glance wandered from Roberta's ivory neck +to the dusky masses of her hair--"spectacles, more than likely--with +steel bows. And a manner--ye gods--the manner! How we were impressed by +it! Well, well! Fine women they were and true to their profession. These +modern girls who look younger than their pupils--" He shook his head +with an air of being quite in despair about them. + +"Uncle Calvin," said Roberta, demurely, with her hand upon his arm, "do +tell Mr. Kendrick about your teaching school 'across the river' when you +were only sixteen years old." + +And, of course, that settled the chance of Richard's hearing anything +about Roberta's teaching, for, though Judge Gray was called out of the +room in the midst of his story, Stephen and Louis came up and joined the +group and switched the talk a thousand miles away from schools and +school-teaching. + +Presently there was music again, and this time Richard found himself +sitting beside young Mrs. Stephen Gray. Between numbers he found +questions to ask, which she answered with evident pleasure. + +"These three must have been playing together a good many years?" + +"Dear me, yes--ever since they were born, I think. They do make real +harmony, don't they?" + +"They do--in more ways than one. Is that colour scheme intentional, do +you think?" + +Mrs. Stephen's glance followed his as it dwelt upon the group. "I hadn't +noticed," she admitted, "but I see it now; it's perfect. And I've no +doubt Ruth thought it out. She's quite a wonderful eye for colour, and +she worships Rob and likes to dress so as to offset her--always giving +Rob the advantage--though of course she would have that, anyway, by +virtue of her own colouring." + +"Blue and corn-colour--should you call it?--and gold. Dull tints in the +background, and the candle-light on Miss Ruth's hair and her sister's +cheek. It makes the prettiest picture yet in my new collection of family +groups." + +Mrs. Stephen looked at him curiously. "Are you making a collection of +family groups?" she inquired. "Beginning away back with your first +memories?" + +"My first memories are not of family groups--only of nurses and tutors, +with occasional portraits of my grandfather making inquiries as to how I +was getting on. And my later memories are all of school and +college--then of travel. Not a home scene among them." + +"You poor boy!" There was something maternal in Mrs. Stephen's tone, +though she looked considerably younger than the object of her pity. "But +you must have looked at plenty of other family groups, if you had none +of your own." + +"That's exactly what I haven't done." + +"But you've lived--in the world," she cried under her breath, puzzled. + +A curious expression came into the young man's face. "That's exactly +what I have done," he said quietly. "In the world, not in the home. I've +not even _seen_ homes--like this one. The sight of brother and sisters +playing violin and harp and 'cello together, with the father and mother +and brother and uncle looking on, is absolutely so new to me that it has +a fascination I can't explain. I find myself continually watching you +all--if you'll forgive me--in your relations to each other. It's a new +interest," he admitted, smiling, "and I can't tell you what it means to +me." + +She shook her head. "It sounds like a strange tale to me," said she, +"but I suppose it must be true. How much you have missed!" + +"I'm just beginning to realize it. I never knew it till I began to come +here. I thought I was well enough off--it seems I'm pretty poor." + +It was rather a strange speech for a young man of his class to make. +Possibly it indicated the existence of those "brains" with which his +grandfather had credited him. + +"Well, Rob, do you think he had as dull a time as you said he would +have?" + +The inquirer was Ruth. She stood, still in the corn-coloured frock, in +the doorway of her sister's room, from which her own opened. "Please +unhook me," she requested, approaching Roberta and turning her back +invitingly. + +Roberta, already out of the blue-silk gown, released her young sister +from the imprisonment of her hooks and eyes. + +"His manners are naturally too good to make it clear whether he had a +dull time or not," was Roberta's non-committal reply. + +"I don't believe his manners are too good to cover up his being bored, +if he was bored," Ruth went on. "He certainly wasn't bored _all_ the +time, anybody could tell that. He's very good-looking, isn't he?" + +"If you care for that sort of good looks--yes." + +"What sort?" + +"The kind that doesn't express anything--except having had a good time +every minute of one's life." + +"Why, Rob, what's the matter with you? Anybody would think you had +something against poor Mr. Kendrick." + +"If he were 'poor Mr. Kendrick' there might be a chance of liking him, +for he would have had to _do_ something." + +Roberta was pulling out hairpins with energy, and now let the whole dark +mass tumble about her shoulders. The half-curling locks were very thick +and soft, and as she shook them away from her face she reminded Ruth of +a certain wild little Arabian pony of her own. + +"You throw back your head just like Sheik when he's going to bolt," Ruth +cried, laughing. "I wish my hair were like that. It looks perfectly dear +whatever you do with it, and mine's only pretty when it's been put just +right." + +"It certainly was put just right to-night then," said a third voice, and +Rosamond, Stephen's wife, appeared in Roberta's half-open door. "May I +come in? Steve hasn't come up yet, and I'm so comfortable in this loose +thing I want to sit up a while and enjoy it." + +Rosamond looked hardly older than Roberta; there were times when she +looked younger, being small and fair. Ruth considered her quite as much +of a girl as either herself or Roberta, and welcomed her eagerly to the +discussion in which she herself was so much interested. + +"Rosy," was her first question, "did _you_ think our guest was bored +to-night?" + +"Bored?" exclaimed Mrs. Stephen in surprise. "Why should he be? He +didn't look it whenever I observed him. And if you had seen him when the +trio was playing you wouldn't have thought so. By the way, he has an eye +for colour. He noticed how your frock and Rob's went together in the +candle-light, with the harp to give a touch of gold." + +"Did he say so?" cried Ruth in delight. + +"He asked if the colour scheme was intentional. I said I thought it +probably was--on your part. Rob never thinks of colour schemes." + +"Neither does any _man_," murmured Roberta from the depths of the hair +she was brushing with an energetic arm. "Unless it happens to be his +business," she amended. + +"Rob doesn't like him," declared Ruth, "just because he has money and +good looks and doesn't work for his living, and likes pretty colour +schemes. He probably gets that from having seen so much wonderful art in +his travels. Aren't painters just as good as bridge-builders? Rob +doesn't think so. She wants every man to get his hands grubby." + +Roberta turned about, laughing. "This one isn't even a painter. Go to +bed, you foolish, analytical child. And don't dream of the beautiful +guest who admired your corn-coloured frock." + +"He only liked it because it set off your blue one," Ruth shot back. + +"He said nothing whatever about my lovely new white gown," Rosamond +called after her. + +Roberta came up to her sister-in-law from behind and put both arms about +her. "Stephen came and whispered in my ear to-night," said she, "and +wanted to know if I had ever seen Rosy look sweeter. I said I had--an +hour before. He asked what you had on, and I said, 'A gray kimono--and +the baby on her arm.' He smiled and nodded--and I saw the look in his +eyes." + +"Rob, you're the dearest sister a girl ever had given to her," Rosamond +answered, returning the embrace. + +"And yet you two say I don't care for colour schemes," Roberta reminded +her as she returned to her hair-brushing. "I care enough for them to +want them made up of colours that will wash--warranted not to fade--that +will stand sun and rain and only grow the more beautiful!" + +"What _are_ you talking about now, dear?" laughed Rosamond happily, +still thinking of what Stephen had said to Roberta. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RICHARD PRICKS HIS FINGERS + + +Hoofbeats on the driveway outside the window! Beside the window stood +the desk at which Richard was accustomed to work at Judge Gray's +dictation. And at the desk on this most alluring of all alluring +Indian-summer days in middle November sat a young man with every drop of +blood in his vigorous body shouting to him to drop his work and rush +out, demanding: "Take me with you!" + +For there, walking their horses along the driveway from the distant +stables, were three figures on horseback. There was one with sunny +hair--Ruth--her brown habit the colour of the pretty mare she rode; one +with russet-gaitered legs astride of the little Arabian pony called +Sheik--Ted; one, all in dark, beautifully tailored green, with a soft +gray hat pulled over masses of dusky hair, her face--Richard could see +her face now as the horses drew nearer--all gay and eager for the +ride--Roberta. + +Judge Gray, his glance following his companion's, looked out also. He +rose and came and stood behind Richard at the window and tapped upon the +pane, waving his hand as the riders looked up. Instantly all three faces +lighted with happy recognition and acknowledgment. Ruth waved and +nodded. Ted pulled off his cap and swung it. Roberta gave a quick +military salute, her gray-gauntleted hand at her hat brim. + +Richard smiled with the Judge at the charming sight, and sighed with the +next breath. What a fool he had been to tie himself down to this desk +when other people were riding into the country! Yet--if he hadn't been +tied to that desk he would neither have known nor cared who rode out +from the old Gray stables, or where they went. + +The Judge caught the slight escaping breath and smiled again as the +riders passed out of sight. "It makes you wish for the open country, +doesn't it?" said he. "I don't blame you. I should have gone with the +young folks myself if I had been ten years younger. It _is_ a fine day, +isn't it? I've been so absorbed I hadn't observed. Suppose we stop work +at three and let ourselves out into God's outdoors? Not a bad idea, eh?" + +"Not bad," agreed Richard with a leap of spirits, "if it pleases you, +sir. I'm ready to work till the usual time if you prefer." + +"Well spoken. But I don't prefer. I shall enjoy a stroll down the avenue +myself in this sunshine. What sunshine--for November!" + +It was barely three when the Judge released his assistant, two hours +after the riding party had left. As he opened the front door and ran to +his waiting car, Richard was wondering how many miles away they were and +in what direction they had gone. He wanted nothing so much as to meet +them somewhere on the road--better yet, to overtake and come upon them +unawares. + +A powerful car driven by a determined and quick-witted young man may +scour considerable country while three horses, trotting in company, are +covering but a few short miles. Richard was sure of one thing: whichever +road appealed to the young Grays as most picturesque and secluded on +this wonderful Indian-summer afternoon would be their choice. Not the +main highways of travel, but some enticing by-way. Where would that be? +He decided on a certain course, with a curious feeling that he could +follow wherever Roberta led, by the invisible trail of her radiant +personality. He would see! Mile after mile--he took them swiftly, +speeding out past the West Wood marshes with assurance of the fact that +this was certainly one of the favourite ways. + +Twelve miles out he came to a fork in the road. Which trail? One led up +a steep hill, the other down into the river valley, soft-veiled in the +late sunshine. Which trail? He could seem to see Roberta choosing the +hill and putting her horse up it, while Ruth called out that the valley +road was better. With a sense of exhilaration he sent the car up the +hill, remembering that from the top was a broad view sure to be worth +while on a day like this. Besides, up here he might be able to see far +ahead and discern the party somewhere in the distance. + +Just over the brow he came upon them where they had camped by the +roadside. It was a road quite off the line of travel and they were a +hundred feet back among a clump of pine trees, their horses tied to the +fence-rail. A bonfire sent up a pungent smoke half veiling the figures. +But the car had come roaring up the hill, and they were all looking his +way. Two of the horses had plunged a little at the sudden noise, and Ted +ran forward. Richard stopped his engine, triumphant, his pulses +quickening with a bound. + +"Oh, hullo!" cried Ted in joyful excitement. "Where'd you come from, Mr. +Kendrick? Isn't this luck!" + +"This is certainly luck," responded Richard, doffing his hat as the +figures by the fire moved his way, the one in brown coming quickly, the +one in green rather more slowly. "Your uncle released me at three and I +rushed for the open. What a day!" + +"Isn't it wonderful?" Ruth came up to the brown mare, which was eying +the big car with some resentment. She patted the velvet nose as she +spoke. "Don't you mind, Bess," she reproached the mare. "It's nothing +but a puffing, noisy car. It's not half so nice as you." + +She smiled up at Richard and he smiled back. "I rather think you're +right," he admitted. "I used to think myself there was nothing like a +good horse. I'd like to exchange the car for one just now; I'm sure of +that." + +"It wouldn't buy any one of ours." Roberta, coming up, glanced from the +big machine to the trio of interested animals, all of which were keeping +watchful eyes on the intruder. "Nonsense, Colonel,--stand still!" + +"I don't want to buy one of yours; I want one of my own, to ride back +with you--if you'd let me." + +"Anyhow, you can stop and have a bite with us," said Ted, with a sudden +thought. "Can't he, Rob?" + +Roberta smiled. "If he is as hungry as he looks." + +"Do I look hungry?" + +"Starving. So do we, no doubt. Come and have some sandwiches." + +"We're going to toast them," explained Ruth, walking back to the fire +with Richard when he had leaped with alacrity over the fence, his hat +left behind, his brown head shining in the sun, his face happier than +any of his fellow-clubmen had seen it in a year, as they would have been +quick to notice if any of them had come upon him now. "We have ginger +ale, too; do you like ginger ale?" + +"Immensely!" Richard eyed the preparations with interest. "How do you +toast your sandwiches?" + +"On forks of wood; Ted's going to cut them." + +"Please let me." And the guest fell to work. He found a keen enjoyment +in preparing these implements, and afterward in the process of toasting, +which was done every-one-for-himself, with varying degrees of success. +The sandwiches were filled with a rich cheese mixture, and the result of +toasting them was a toothsome morsel most gratifying to the hungry +palate. + +"One more?" urged Ruth, offering Richard the nearly empty box which had +contained a good supply. + +"Thank you--no; I've had seven," he refused, laughing. "Nothing ever +tasted quite so good. And I'm an interloper." + +"Here's to the interloper!" Ruth raised her glass and drank the last of +her ginger ale. "We always provide for one. Usually it's a small boy." + +"More often a pair of them. And always there are Bess, Colonel, and +Sheik." Roberta rose to her feet, the last three sandwiches in hand, and +walked away to the horses tied to the fence-rail. + +Richard's eyes followed her. In the austere lines of her riding-habit he +could see more clearly than he had yet done what a superb young image of +health and energy she was. + +"Rob adores horses," Ruth remarked, looking after her sister also. "You +ought to see her ride cross-country. My Bess can't jump, but her Colonel +can. I don't believe there's anything in sight Rob and Colonel couldn't +jump. But I can never get used to seeing her; I have to shut my eyes +when Colonel rises, and I don't open them till I hear him land. But he's +never fallen with her, and she says he never will." + +"He won't." + +"Why not? Any horse might, you know, if he slipped on wet ground or +something." + +"He never will with her on his back. He's more likely to jump so high +he'll never come down." + +Ruth laughed. "Look at Colonel rub his nose against her, now he's had +the sandwich. Don't you wish you had a picture of them?" + +"Indeed I do!" The tone was fervent. Then a thought struck him and he +jumped to his feet. "By all luck, I believe there's a little camera in +the car. If there is we'll have it." + +He ran to the fence, took a flying leap over, and fell to searching. In +a moment he produced something which he waved at Ruth. She and Ted went +to meet him as he returned. Roberta, busy with the horses, had not seen. + +"There are only two exposures left on the film, but they'll do, if +she'll be good. Will she mind if I snap her, or must I ask her +permission?" + +"I think you'd better ask it," counselled Ruth doubtfully. "If it were +one of us she wouldn't mind--" + +"I see." He set the little instrument with a skilled touch and rapidly, +then walked toward Roberta and the horses. He aimed it with care, then +he called: "You won't mind if I take a picture of the horses, will you?" + +Roberta turned quickly, her hand on Colonel's snuggling nose. "Not at +all," she answered, and took a quick step to one side. But before she +had taken it the sharp-eyed little lens of the camera had caught her, +her attitude at the instant one of action, the expression of her face +that of vivacious response. She flew out of range and before she could +speak the camera clicked again, this time the lens so obviously pointed +at the animals, and not at herself, that the intent of the operator +could not be called in question. + +She looked at him with indignant suspicion, but his glance in return was +innocent, though his eyes sparkled. + +"They'll make the prettiest kind of a picture, won't they?" he observed, +sliding the small black box back into its case. "I wish I had another +film; I'd take a lot of pictures about this place. I mean always to be +loaded, but November isn't usually the time for photographs, and I'd +forgotten all about it." + +"If you find you have a picture of me on one of those shots I can trust +you not to keep it?" + +"I may have caught you on that first shot. I'll bring it to you to see. +If your hat is tilted too much or you don't like your own expression--" + +"I shall not like it, whatever it is. You stole it. That wasn't +fair--and when you had just been treated to sandwiches and ginger ale!" + +He looked into her brilliant face and could not tell what he saw there. +He opened the camera box again and took out the instrument. He removed +the roll of films carefully from its position, sealed it, and held it +out to her. His manner was the perfection of courtesy. + +"There are other pictures on the roll, I suppose?" she said doubtfully, +without accepting it. + +"Certainly. I forget what they are. But it doesn't matter." + +"Of course it matters. Have them developed--and give me back my own." + +"If I develop them I shall be obliged to see yours--if you are on it. If +I once see it I may not have the force of character to give it back. +Your only safe course is to take it now." + +Ted burst into the affair with a derisive shout. "Oh, Rob! What a silly +to care about that little bit of a picture! Let him have it. It was only +the horses he wanted anyway!" + +The two pairs of eyes met. His were full of deference, yet compelling. +Hers brimmed with restrained laughter. With a gesture she waved back the +roll and walked away toward the fire. + +"Thank you," said he behind her. "I'll try to prove myself worthy of the +trust." + +"Rufus! Dare you to run down the hill to that big tree with me!" Ted, no +longer interested in this tame conclusion of what had promised to be an +exciting encounter, challenged his sister. Ruth accepted, and the pair +were off down a long, inviting slope none too smooth, with a stiff +stubble, but not the less attractive for that. + +Richard and Roberta were left standing at the top of the hill near the +place where the fire was smouldering into dulness. Before them stretched +the valley, brown and yellow and dark green in the November sunlight, +with a gray-blue river winding its still length along. In the far +distance a blue-and-purple haze enveloped the hills; above all stretched +a sky upon whose fairness wisps of clouds were beginning to show here +and there, while in the south the outlines of a rising bank of gray gave +warning that those who gazed might look their fill to-day--to-morrow +there would be neither sunlight nor purple haze. The two looked in +silence for a minute, not at the boy and girl shouting below, but at the +beauty in the peaceful landscape. + +"An Indian-summer day," said Roberta gravely, as if her mood had changed +with the moment, "is like the last look at something one is not sure one +shall ever see again." + +At the words Richard's gaze shifted from the hill to the face of the +girl beside him. The sunshine was full upon the rich bloom of her cheek, +upon the exquisite line of her dark eyebrow. What was the beauty of an +Indian-summer landscape compared with the beauty of budding summer in +that face? But he answered her in the same quiet way in which she had +spoken: "Yes, it's hard to have faith that winter can sweep over all +this and not blot it out forever. But it won't." + +"No, it won't. And after all I like the storms. I should like to stand +just here, some day when Nature was simply raging, and watch. I wish I +could build a stout little cabin right on this spot and come up here and +spend the worst night of the winter in it. I'd love it." + +"I believe you would. But not alone? You'd want company?" + +"I don't think I'd even mind being alone--if I had a good fire for +company--and a dog. I should be glad of a dog," she owned. + +"But not one good comrade, one who liked the same sort of thing?" + +"So few people really do. It would have to be somebody who wouldn't talk +when I wanted to listen to the wind, or wouldn't mind my not +talking--and yet who wouldn't mind my talking either, if I took a sudden +notion." She began to laugh at her own fancy, with the low, rich note +which delighted his ear afresh every time he heard it. "Comrades who are +tolerant of one's every mood are not common, are they? Mr. Kendrick, +what do you suppose those dots of bright scarlet are, halfway down the +hill? They must be rose haws, mustn't they? Nothing else could have that +colour in November." + +"I don't know what 'rose haws' are. Do you want them--whatever they are? +I'll go and get them for you." + +"I'll go, too, to see if they're worth picking. They're thorny things; +you won't like them, but I do." + +"You think I don't like thorny things?" he asked her as they went down +the hillside, up which Ted and Ruth were now struggling. It was steep +and he held out his hand to her, but she ignored it and went on with +sure, light feet. + +"No, I think you like them soft and rounded." + +"And you prefer them prickly?" + +"Prickly enough to be interesting." + +They reached the scraggly rosebush, bare except for the bright red haws, +their smooth hard surfaces shining in the sun. Richard got out his +knife, and by dint of scratching his hands in a dozen places, succeeded +in gathering quite a cluster. Then he went to work at getting rid of the +thorns. + +"You may like things prickly, but you'll be willing to spare a few of +these," he observed. + +He succeeded in time in pruning the cluster into subordination, bound +them with a tough bit of dried weed which he found at his feet, and held +out the bunch. "Will you do me the honour of wearing them?" + +She thrust the smooth stems into the breast of her riding-coat, where +they gave the last picturesque touch to her attire. "Thank you," she +acknowledged somewhat tardily. "I can do no less after seeing you +scarify yourself in my service. You might have put on your gloves." + +"I might--and suffered your scarifying mirth, which would have been much +worse. 'He jests at scars that never felt a wound,' but he who jests at +them after he has felt them is the hero. Observe that I still jest." He +put his lips to a bleeding tear on his wrist as he spoke. "My only +regret is that the rose haws were not where they are now when I +photographed the horses. Only, mine is not a colour camera. I must get +one and have it with me when I drive, in case of emergencies like this +one." + +A whimsical expression touching his lips, he gazed off over the +landscape as he spoke, and she glanced at his profile. She was obliged +to admit to herself that she had seldom noted one of better lines. +Curiously enough, to her observation there did not lack a suggestion of +ruggedness about his face, in spite of the soft and easy life she +understood him to have led. + +Ted and Ruth now came panting up to them, and the four climbed together +to the hilltop. + +Roberta turned and scanned the sun. Immediately she decreed that it was +time to be off, reminding her protesting young brother that the November +dusk falls early and that it would be dark before they were at home. + +Richard put both sisters into their saddles with the ease of an old +horseman. "I've often regretted selling a certain black beauty named +Desperado," he remarked as he did so, "but never more than at this +minute. My motor there strikes me as disgustingly overadequate to-day. I +can't keep you company by any speed adjustment in my control, and if I +could your steeds wouldn't stand it. I'll let you start down before me +and stay here for a bit. It's too pleasant a place to leave. And even +then I shall be at home before you--worse luck!" + +"We're sorry, too," said Ruth, and Ted agreed, vociferously. As for +Roberta, she let her eyes meet his for a moment in a way so rare with +her, whose heavy lashes were forever interfering with any man's direct +gaze, that Richard made the most of his opportunity. He saw clearly at +last that those eyes were of the deepest sea blue, darkened almost to +black by the shadowing lashes. If by some hard chance he should never +see them again he knew he could not forget them. + +With beat of impatient hoofs upon the hard road the three were off, +their chorusing farewells coming back to him over their shoulders. When +they were out of sight he went back to the place on the hilltop where he +had stood beside Roberta, and thought it all over. In that way only +could he make shift to prolong the happiness of the hour. + +The happiness of the hour! What had there been about it to make it the +happiest hour he could recall? Such a simple, outdoor encounter! He had +spent many an hour which had lingered in his memory--hours in places +made enchanting to the eye by every device of cunning, in the society of +women chosen for their beauty, their wit, their power to allure, to +fascinate, to intoxicate. He had had his senses appealed to by every +form of attraction a clever woman can fabricate, herself a miracle of +art in dress, in smile, in speech. He had gone from more than one door +with his head swimming, the vivid recollection of the hour just past a +drug more potent than the wine that had touched his lips. + +His head was not swimming now, thank heaven, though his pulses were +unquestionably alive. It was the exhilaration of healthy, powerful +attraction, of which his every capacity for judgment approved. He had +not been drugged by the enchantment which is like wine--he had been +stimulated by the charm which is like the feel of the fresh wind upon +the brow. Here was a girl who did not need the background of +artificiality, one who could stand the sunlight on her clear cheek--and +the sunlight on her soul--he knew that, without knowing how he knew. It +was written in her sweet, strong, spirited face, and it was there for +men to read. No man so blind but he can read a face like that. + +The darkness had almost fallen when he forced himself to leave the spot. +But--reward for going while yet a trace of dusky light remained--he had +not reached the bottom of the hill road, up which his car had roared an +hour before, when he saw something fallen there which made him pull the +motor up upon its throbbing cylinders. He jumped out and ran to rescue +what had fallen. It was the bunch of rose haws he had so carefully +denuded of thorns, and which she had worn upon her breast for at least a +short time before she lost it. She had not thrown it away intentionally, +he was sure of that. If she had she would not have flung it +contemptuously into the middle of the road for him to see. + +He put it into the pocket of his coat, where it made a queer bulge, but +he could not risk losing it by trusting it to the seat beside him. Until +he had won something that had been longer hers, it was a treasure not to +be lost. + +Four miles toward town he passed the riding party and exchanged a fire +of gay salutations with them. When he had left them behind he could not +reach home too soon. He hurried to his rooms, hunted out a receptacle of +silver and crystal and filled it with water, placed the bunch of rose +haws in it and set the whole on his reading-table, under the electric +drop-light, where it made a spot of brilliant colour. + +He had an invitation for the evening; he had cared little to accept it +when it had been given him; he was sorry now that he had not refused it. +As the hour drew near, his distaste grew upon him, but there was no way +in which he could withdraw without giving disappointment and even +offence. He went forth, therefore, with reluctance, to join precisely +such a party as he had many times made one of with pleasure and elation. +To-night, however, he found the greatest difficulty in concealing his +boredom, and he more than once caught himself upon the verge of actual +discourtesy, because of his tendency to become absent-minded and let the +merry-making flow by him without taking part in it. + +Altogether, it was with a strong sense of relief and freedom that he at +last escaped from what had seemed to him an interminable period of +captivity to the uncongenial moods and manners of other people. He +opened the door of his rooms with a sense of having returned to a place +where he could be himself--his new self--that strange new self who +singularly failed to enjoy the companionship of those who had once +seemed the most satisfying of comrades. + +The first thing upon which his eager glance fell was the bunch of +scarlet rose haws under the softly illumining radiance of the +drop-light. His eyes lighted, his lips broke into a smile--the lips +which had found it, all evening, so hard to smile with anything +resembling spontaneity. + +Hat in hand, he addressed his treasure: "I've come back to stay with +you!" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UNSUSTAINED APPLICATION + + +"Mr. Kendrick, do you understand typewriting?" + +Judge Gray's assistant looked up, a slight surprise on his face. "No, +sir, I do not," he said. + +"I am sorry. These sheets I am sending to the Capitol to be looked over +and criticised ought to be typewritten. I could send them downtown, but +I want the typist here at my elbow." + +He sat frowning a little with perplexity, and presently he reached for +the telephone. Then he put it down, his brow clearing. "This is +Saturday," he murmured. "If Roberta is at home--" + +He left the room. In five minutes he was back, his niece beside him. +Richard Kendrick had not set eyes upon her for a fortnight; he rose at +her appearance and stood waiting her recognition. She gave it, stopping +to offer him her hand as she passed him, smiling. But, this little +ceremony over, she became on the instant the business woman. Richard saw +it all, though he did his best to settle down to his work again and +pursue it with an air of absorption. + +Roberta went to a cupboard which opened from under bookshelves, and drew +therefrom a small portable typewriter. This she set upon a table beside +a window at right angles from Richard and all of twenty feet away from +him; she could hardly have put a greater distance between them. The +Judge drew up a chair for her; she removed the cover from the compact +little machine, and nodded at him. He placed his own chair beside her +table and sat down, copy in hand. + +"This is going to be a rather difficult business," said he. "There are +many points where I wish to indicate slight changes as we go along. I +can't attempt to read the copy to you, but should like to have you give +me the opening words of each paragraph as you come to it. I think I can +recall those which contain the points for revision." + +The work began. That is to say, work at the typewriter side of the room +began, and in earnest. From the first stroke of the keys it was evident +that the Judge had called to his aid a skilled worker. The steady, +smooth clicking of the machine was interrupted only at the ends of +paragraphs, when the Judge listened to the key words of the succeeding +lines. Roberta sat before that "typer" as if she were accustomed to do +nothing else for her living, her eyes upon the keys, her profile +silhouetted against the window beside her. + +As far as the mechanical part of the labour was concerned, Richard had +never seen a task get under way more promptly nor proceed with greater +or smoother dispatch. As he sat beside his own window he nearly faced +the pair at the other window. Try as he would he could not keep his mind +upon his work. It was a situation unique in his experience. That he, +Richard Kendrick, should be employed in serious work in the same room +with the niece of a prosperous and distinguished gentleman, a girl who +had not hesitated to learn a trade in which she had become proficient, +and that the three of them should spend the morning in this room +together, taking no notice of each other beyond that made necessary by +the task in hand--it was enough to make him burst out laughing. At the +same time he felt a genuine satisfaction in the situation. If he could +but work in the same room with her every day, though she should +vouchsafe him no word, how far from drudgery would the labour be then +removed! + +He managed to keep up at least the appearance of being closely engaged, +turning the leaves of books, making notes, arising to consult other +books upon the shelves. But he could not resist frequent furtive glances +at the profile outlined against the window. It was a distracting +outline, it must be freely admitted. Even upon the hill, seen against +the blue-and-purple haze, it had hardly been more so. What indeed could +a young man do but steal a look at it as often as he might? There was no +knowing when he should have such another chance. + +Things proceeded in this course without interruption until eleven +o'clock. The Judge, finding it possible to get ahead so satisfactorily +by this new method, decided to send on considerably more material to be +passed upon by his critical coadjutor at the Capitol than he had +originally intended to do at this time. But as the clock struck the hour +a caller's card was sent in to him, and with a word to Roberta he left +the room to see his visitor elsewhere. + +Roberta finished her paragraph, then sat studying the next one. She did +not look up, nor did Richard. The moments passed and the Judge did not +return. Roberta rose and threw open the window beside her, letting in a +great sweep of December air. + +Richard seized his opportunity. "Good for you!" he applauded. "Shall I +open mine?" + +"Please. It will warm up again very quickly. It began to seem stifling." + +"Not much like the place where you want to build a cabin and stay alone +in a storm. Or--not alone. You are willing to have a dog with you. What +sort of a dog?" + +"A Great Dane, I think. I have a friend who owns one. They are +inseparable." + +By the worst of luck the Judge chose this moment to return, and the +windows went down with a rush. + +The Judge shivered, smiling at the pair. "You young things, all warmth +and vitality! You are never so happy as when the wind is lifting your +hair. Now I think I'm pretty vigorous for my years, but I wouldn't sit +and talk in a room with two open windows, in December." + +"Neither can we--hang it!" thought Richard. "Why couldn't that chap have +stayed a few minutes longer--when we'd just got started?" + +At luncheon-time Roberta's part in the work was not completed. Her uncle +asked for two hours more of her time and she cheerfully promised it. So +at two o'clock the stage was again set as a business office, the actors +again engaged in their parts. But at three the situation was abruptly +changed. + +"I believe there are no more revisions to be made," declared Judge Gray +with a sigh of weariness. "I have taxed you heavily, my dear, but if you +are equal to finishing these eleven sheets for me by yourself I shall be +grateful. My eyes have reached the limit of endurance, even with all the +help you have given me. I must go to my room." + +He paused by Richard's desk on his way out. "Have you finished the +abstract of the chapter on Judge Cahill?" he asked. "No? I thought you +would perhaps have covered that this morning. But--I do not mean to +exact too much. It will be quite satisfactory if you can complete it +this afternoon." + +"I am sorry," said his assistant, flushing in a quite unaccustomed +manner. "I have been working more slowly than I realized. I will finish +it as rapidly as I can, sir." + +"Don't apologize, Mr. Kendrick. We all have our slow days. I undoubtedly +underestimated the amount of time the chapter would require. Good +afternoon to you." + +Richard sat down and plunged into the task he now saw he had merely +played with during the morning. By a tremendous effort he kept his eyes +from lifting to the figure at the typewriter, whose steady clicking +never ceased but for a moment at a time, putting him to shame. Yet try +as he would he could not apply himself with any real concentration; and +the task called for concentration, all he could command. + +"You are probably not used to working in the same room with a +typewriter," said his companion, quite unexpectedly, after a full half +hour of silence. She had stopped work to oil a bearing in her machine. +There was an odd note in her voice; it sounded to Richard as if she +meant: "You are not used to doing anything worth while." + +"I don't mind it in the least," he protested. + +"I'm sorry not to take my work to another room," Roberta went on, +tipping up her machine and manipulating levers with skill as she applied +the oil. "But I shall soon be through." + +"Please don't hurry. I ought to be able to work under any conditions. +And I certainly enjoy having you at work in the same room," he ventured +to add. It was odd how he found himself merely venturing to say to this +girl things which he would have said without hesitation--putting them +much more strongly withal--to any other girl he knew. + +"One needs to be able to forget there's anybody in the same room." There +was a little curl of scorn about her lips. + +"That might be easier to do under some conditions than others." He did +not mean to be trampled upon. + +But Roberta finished her oiling in silence and again applied herself to +her typing with redoubled energy. + +He went at his abstract, suddenly furious with himself. He would show +her that he could work as persistently as she. He could not pretend to +himself that she was not absorbed. Only entire absorption could enable +her to reel off those pages without more than an infrequent stop for the +correction of an error. + +Turning a page in the big volume of records of speeches in the State +Legislature, which he was consulting, Richard came upon a sheet of paper +on which was written something in verse. His eye went to the bottom of +the sheet to see there the source of the quotation--Browning--with +reference to title and page. No harm to read a quoted poem, certainly; +his eyes sought it eagerly as a relief from the sonorous phrasing of the +speech he was attempting to read. He had never seen the words before; +the first line--and he must read to the end. What a thing to find in a +dusty volume of forgotten speeches of a date long past! + +Such a starved bank of moss + Till, that May-morn, +Blue ran the flash across: + Violets were born! + +Sky--what a scowl of cloud + Till, near and far, +Ray on ray split the shroud: + Splendid, a star! + +World--how it walled about + Life with disgrace +Till God's own smile came out: + That was thy face! + +Speeches were forgotten; he devoured the words over and over again. They +seemed to him to have been made expressly for him. A starved bank of +moss--that was exactly what he had been, only he had not known it, but +had fancied himself a garden of rich resource. He knew better now, +starved he was, and starved he would remain--unless he could make the +violets his own. No doubt but he had found them! + +He followed an impulse. Rising, the sheet of yellowed paper in his hand, +he walked over to the typewriter. Without apology he laid the sheet upon +the pile of typed ones at her side. + +"See what I've found in an old volume of state speeches." + +Roberta's busy hand stopped. Her eyes scanned the yellow page upon which +the stiff, fine handwriting, clearly that of a man, stood out legibly as +print. Business woman she might be, but she could not so far abstract +herself as not to be touched by the hint of romance involved in finding +such words in such a place. + +"How strange!" she owned. "And they've been there a long time, by the +look of the paper and ink. I never saw the handwriting before. Perhaps +Uncle Calvin lent the book to somebody long ago and the 'somebody' left +this in it." + +"Shall I put it back, or show it to Judge Gray?" + +He remained beside her though she had handed back the paper. + +"Put it back, don't you think? If you wrote out such words and left them +in a book, you would want them to stay there, not to be looked at +curiously by other eyes fifty years after." + +"That's somebody's heart there on that sheet of old paper," said he. +Apparently he was looking at the paper; in reality he was stealing a +glance past it at her down-bent face. + +"Not necessarily. Somebody may merely have been attracted by the music +of the lines. Put it back, Mr. Secretary, and concern yourself with +Judge Cahill. It's to be hoped that you won't find any more distracting +verse between his pages." + +"Why not? Oughtn't one to get all the poetry one can out of life?" + +"Not in business hours." + +He laughed in spite of himself at the failure of his effort to make her +self-conscious by any reading of such lines in his presence. Clearly she +meant to allow no personal relation to arise between them while they +were thrown together by Judge Gray's need of them. She fell to typing +again with even more energy than before, if that were possible, while +he--it must be confessed that before he laid the verses away between the +pages for another fifty years' sleep he had made note of their identity, +that he might look them up again in a seldom opened copy of the English +poet on his shelves at home. They belonged to him now! + +In half an hour more Roberta's machine stopped clicking. Swiftly she +covered it, set it away in the book-cupboard, and put her table in +order. She laid the typewritten sheets together upon Judge Gray's desk +in a straight-edged pile, a paperweight on top. In her simple dress of +dark blue, trim as any office woman's attire, she might have been a +hired stenographer--of a very high class--putting her affairs in order +for the day. + +Richard waited till she approached his desk, which she had to pass on +her way out. Then he rose to his feet. + +"Allow me to congratulate you," said he, "on having accomplished a long +task in the minimum length of time possible. I am lost in wonder that a +hand which can play the 'cello with such art can play the typewriter +with such skill." + +"Thank you." There was a flash of mirth in her eyes. "There's music in +both if you have ears to hear." + +"I have recognized that to-day." + +"You never heard it before? Music in the hammer on the anvil, in the +throb of the engine, in the hum of the dynamo." + +"And in the scratch of the pen, the pounding of the boiler shop, and +the--the--slide and grind of the trolley-car, I suppose?" + +"Indeed, yes--even in those. And there'll surely be melody in the +closing of the door which shuts you in to solitude after this +distracting day. Listen to it! Good-bye." + +He long remembered the peculiar parting look she gave him, satiric, +mischievous, yet charmingly provocative. She was keen of mind, she was +brilliant of wit, but she was all woman--no doubt of that. He was +suddenly sure that she had known well enough all day the effect that she +had had upon him, and that it had amused her. His cheek reddened at the +thought. He wondered why on earth he should care to pursue an attempt at +acquaintance with one whose manner with him was frequently so disturbing +to his self-conceit. Well, at least he must forget her now, and redeem +himself with an hour's solid effort. + +But, strange to say, although he had found it difficult to work in her +presence, in her absence he found it impossible to work at all. He stuck +doggedly to his desk for the appointed hour, then gave over the attempt +and departed. The moral of all this, which he discovered he could not +escape, was that though he had taken his university degree, and had +supplemented the academic education with the broader one of travel and +observation, he had not at his command that first requisite for +efficient labour: the power of sustained application. In a way he had +been dimly suspicious of this since the day he had begun this pretence +of work for his grandfather's old friend. To-day, at sight of a girl's +steady concentration upon a wearisome task in spite of his own +supposably diverting presence, it had been brought home to him with +force that he was unquestionably reaping that inevitable product of +protracted idleness: the loss of the power to work. + +As he drove away it suddenly occurred to him that on the morrow, instead +of coming to the house in his car, he would leave it in the garage and +walk. Between the discovery of his inefficiency and his resolution to +dispense with a hitherto accustomed luxury there may have been a subtler +connection than appears to the eye. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TRAITOROUS PROCEEDING + + +"We shall have to make our work count this week, Mr. Kendrick. Next week +I anticipate that there will be no chance whatever to do a stroke." So +spoke Judge Gray to his assistant on one Monday morning as he shook +hands with him in greeting. + +"Very well, sir," replied the young man, with, however, a sense of its +not being at all well. It was to him a regrettable fact that he seldom +saw much of the various members of the household, and of one particular +member so little that he was tempted to wonder if she ever took the +trouble to evade him. But, of course, there was always the chance of an +encounter, and he never opened the house door without the feeling that +just inside might be a certain figure on its way out. + +"Next week is Christmas week," explained Judge Gray. He stood upon the +hearth-rug, his back to the open fire, warming his hands preparatory to +taking up his pen. His fingers were apt to be a little stiff on these +December mornings. "During Christmas week this house is always given +over to such holiday doings as I don't imagine another house in town +ever knows. Christmas house-parties are plenty, I believe, but not the +sort of house-party we indulge in. I am inclined to think ours beats the +world." + +He chuckled, running his hand through the thick white locks above his +brow with a gesture which Richard had come to know meant special +satisfaction. + +"You have so many and such delightful people?" suggested his assistant. + +The white head nodded. "The house would hardly hold more, nor could they +be more delightful. You see, there are five brothers of us. I am the +eldest, Robert the youngest. Rufus, Henry, and Philip come between. +Henry and Philip live in small towns, Rufus in the country proper. Each +has a good-sized family, with several married sons and daughters who +have children of their own. It has been my brother Robert's custom for +twenty years to ask them all here for Christmas week." He began to +laugh. "If the family keeps on growing much larger I don't know that +there will be room to accommodate them all, but so far my sister has +always managed. Fortunately this is an even more roomy old homestead +than it looks. But you may easily imagine, Mr. Kendrick, that there is +very little chance for solitude and quiet work during that week." + +"I can fully imagine," agreed Richard. "And yet I can't imagine," he +amended. "I never saw such a gathering in my life." + +"Never did, eh? You must come in some time during the week and get a +glimpse of it. We have fine times, I can tell you. My old head sometimes +whirls a bit," the Judge admitted, "before the week is over, but--it's +worth it. Particularly on the night of the party. The children always +have a party on Christmas Eve in the attic. It's a great affair. No +dancing-parties nor balls in other places can be mentioned in the same +breath with it. You should see brother Rufus taking out my niece +Roberta, and brother Henry dancing with Stephen's little wife. The girls +accommodate themselves to the old-fashioned steps in great style." + +"I certainly should like to see it," Richard said, wondering if there +were any possible chance of his being invited. + +But Judge Gray offered no suggestion of the sort, and Richard made up +his mind that the Christmas Eve dance would be a strictly family affair. +"Probably the country relatives are a queer lot," he decided, "and the +Grays don't care to show them off. Still--that's not like them, either. +It's certainly like them to do such an eccentric thing as to get their +cousins all here and try to give them a good time. I should like to see +it. I should!" + +He found his thoughts wandering many times during the morning's work to +the image of Roberta dancing with the old uncle from the country. He had +never met her at any of the society dances which were now and then +honoured by his presence. Unquestionably the Grays moved in a circle +with which he was not familiar--a circle made up of people distinguished +rather for their good birth and the things which they had done than for +their wealth. Nobody in the city stood upon a higher social level than +the Grays, but they lived in a world in which the gay and fashionable +set Richard knew were totally unknown and unhonoured. + +The more he thought about it the more he wished that, if only for a +week, he were at least a sixteenth cousin of the Gray family, that he +might be present at that Christmas party. But during the week chance did +not even throw him in the way of meeting the various members of the +family proper, and when Saturday night came he had discovered no +prospect of attaining his wish. He knew that the guests were to arrive +on the following Monday. Christmas Day was on Saturday; the night of the +party then would be Friday night. And the Judge, in taking leave of him, +did not even mention again his wish that Richard might see the guests +together. + +He was coming out of the library, on his way to the hall door, hope +having died hard and his spirits being correspondingly depressed, when +Fate at last intervened in his behalf. Fate took the form of young Mrs. +Stephen Gray, descending the stairs with a two-year-old child in her +arms, such a rosy, brown-eyed cherub of a child that an older and more +hardened bachelor than Richard Kendrick need not have been suspected of +dissimulation if he had stopped short in his course as Richard did, to +admire and wonder. + +"Is that a real, live boy?" cried the young man softly. "Or have you +stolen him out of a frame somewhere?" + +Mrs. Stephen stood still, smiling, on the bottom stair, and Richard +approached with eager interest. He came close and stood looking into the +small face with eyes which took in every exquisite feature. + +"Jove!" he said, under his breath, and looked up at the young mother. "I +didn't know they made them like that." + +She laughed softly, with a mother's happy pride. "His little sister +really ought to have had his looks," she said. "But we're hoping she'll +develop them, and he'll grow plain in time to save him from being +spoiled." + +"Do you really hope that?" he laughed incredulously. "Don't hope it too +fast. See here, Boy, are you real? Come here and let me see." He held +out his arms. + +"He's very shy," began Mrs. Stephen in explanation of the situation she +now expected to have develop. It did develop in so far that the child +shyly buried his head in her shoulder. But in a moment he peeped out +again. Richard continued to hold out his arms, smiling, and suddenly the +little fellow leaned forward. Richard gently drew him away from his +mother, and, though he looked back at her as if to make sure that she +was there, he presently seemed to surrender himself with confidence into +the stranger's care and gave him back smile for smile. + +Richard sat down with little Gordon Gray on his knee, and then ensued +such a conversation between the two, such a frolic of games and smiles, +as his mother could only regard in wonder. + +"He never makes friends easily," she said. "I can't understand it. You +must have had plenty of experience with little children somehow, in +spite of those statements about your never having seen a family like +ours before." + +"I never held a child like this one before in my life," said Richard +Kendrick. He looked up at her as he spoke. + +"If Roberta could see him now," thought Mrs. Stephen, "she wouldn't be +so hard on him. No man who isn't worth knowing can win a baby's +confidence like that. I think he has one of the nicest faces I ever +saw--even though it isn't lined with care." Aloud she said: "It +surprises me that you should care to begin now." + +"It's one of those new experiences I'm getting from time to time under +this roof; that's the only way I can account for it. I never even +guessed at the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a small chap like +this. But I've no right to keep you while I taste new experiences. Thank +you for this one. I shan't forget it." + +He surrendered the boy with evident reluctance. "I hear you are to have +a houseful of guests next week," he ventured to add. "Do they include +any first cousins of this little man?" + +"Two--of his own age--and any number of older ones. I'll take you up to +the playroom some afternoon next week and show you the babies together, +if you're interested, and if Uncle Calvin will let me interrupt his work +for a few minutes." + +"Thank you; I'll gladly come to the house for that special purpose, if +you'll let me know when. Judge Gray has decided not to try to work at +all next week; he's giving me a holiday I really don't want." + +"Are you so interested in your labours with him?" + +Their eyes met. There was something very sweet and womanly in Mrs. +Stephen's face and in the eyes which scanned his, or he would never have +dared to say what he said next. + +"Not in the work itself," he confessed frankly, "though I don't find it +as hard as I did at first. But--the association with Judge Gray, +the--well, I suppose it's really having something definite to do with my +time. Above all, just being in this house, though I don't belong to it, +is getting to seem so interesting to me that I'm afraid I shall hardly +know what to do with myself all next week." + +She could not doubt the genuineness of his admission, strange as it +sounded. So the young aristocrat was really dreading a week's vacation, +he who had done nothing but idle away his time. She felt a touch of pity +for him; yet how absurd it was! + +"I wish you could meet some of the people who will be here next week," +she said. "I wonder if you would care to?" + +"If they're anything like those of the Gray family, I already know I +should care immensely." He spoke with enthusiasm. + +"I think some of them are the most interesting people I have ever met. +My husband's Uncle Rufus, Judge Gray's brother--why, you must meet Uncle +Rufus. I'll speak to Mrs. Robert Gray about it. I'm sure if she thought +you cared she'd be delighted to have you know him. Then there's the +Christmas Eve dance. I wonder if you would enjoy that? We don't usually +have many people outside of the family, but there are always some of +Rob's and Louis's special friends asked for the dance, and I'm sure I +can arrange it. I'll mention it to Roberta." + +"Must it--er--rest with Miss Roberta? I'm afraid she won't ask me," +declared Richard anxiously. + +"Won't she? Why? She will probably say that she doesn't believe you will +enjoy it, but if I assure her that you want to come I think she will +trust me. She's very exacting as to the qualifications of the guests at +this dance, and will have nobody who isn't ready for a good time in +every unconventional way. I warn you, Mr. Kendrick, who are used to +leading cotillions, you may have to dance the Virginia reel with one of +the dear little country cousins. I wonder if you will have the +discernment to see that some of them are better worth meeting than a +good many of the girls you probably know." + +She gave him a keen, analyzing look. Small and sweet as she was, clearly +she belonged to this singular Gray family as if she had been born in it. +He met her look unflinchingly. Then his glance fell to little Gordon. + +"You trusted me with the boy," said he. "I think you may trust me with +the little country cousin--if she will do me the honour." + +"I will see that you have the chance," she assured him, and he went away +feeling like a boy who has been promised a long-desired and despaired-of +treat. + +But it was not of the Virginia reel he was thinking as he went swinging +away down the wintry street. + + * * * * * + +They were sitting, most of them, before the living-room fire, discussing +the plans for the week of the house-party, when Rosamond broke the news. + +"I've taken a great liberty," said she serenely, "for which I hope +you'll all forgive me. I've--tentatively--promised Mr. Kendrick an +invitation to the Christmas dance." + +There was a shout from Louis and Ted together. Ruth beamed with delight. +Across the fireplace Roberta shot at her sister-in-law one rebellious +glance. + +"I knew I had no right to do it," admitted Rosamond gayly. "But I knew +we always asked a few young people to swell the company to the dancing +size, and I was sure you couldn't ask anybody who would appreciate it +more." + +"Hasn't the poor fellow a chance at any other merry-making?" mocked +Louis. "Poor little millionaire! Won't anybody invite him to lead a +Christmas Eve cotillion? I believe there's to be a most gorgeous affair +of the sort at Mrs. Van Tassel Grieve's that night. Has he been +inadvertently overlooked? Not with Miss Gladys Grieve to oversee the +list of the lucky ones, I'll wager. It's a wonder he hadn't accepted +that invitation before you got in yours." + +"I didn't get mine in," was Rosamond's demure rejoinder. "I laid it in +an humbly beseeching hand." + +"How on earth did he know there was to be a dance here?" Stephen +inquired. + +"I mentioned it." + +"I had already told him of it," put in Judge Gray from the background, +where he was listening with interest. "I'm glad you asked him, Rosamond, +and I'll answer for your forgiveness. While you are inviting I should +like to invite his grandfather also. Christmas Eve is a lonely time for +him, I'll be bound, and it would do him good to meet Rufus and Phil, and +the rest again." + +"I'll tell you what we're going to end by being," murmured Louis to +Roberta:--"a 'Discontented Millionaires' Home.'" + + * * * * * + +On the stairs an hour afterward a brief but significant colloquy took +place between Rosamond Gray and her sister-in-law, Roberta. + +"Why do you mind having him come, Rob? Haven't you any charity for the +poor at Christmas time?" + +"Poor! He's poor enough, but he doesn't know it." + +"Doesn't he? The night he was here at dinner he told me he felt poor." +Rosamond's look was triumphant. "He feels it very much; he's never known +what family life meant." + +"Do you imagine he can adapt himself to the conditions of the Christmas +party? If I catch him laughing--ever so covertly--I'll send him home!" + +"You savage person! You don't expect to catch him laughing! He's a +gentleman. And I believe he's enough of a man to appreciate the aunts +and uncles and cousins, even those of them who don't patronize city +tailors and dressmakers. Why, they're perfectly delightful people, every +one of them, and he will have the discernment to see it." + +"I don't believe it. Where have you seen him that you have so much more +confidence than I have?" + +"I've had one or two little talks with him that have told me a good +deal. And this afternoon he met me as I was coming downstairs with +Gordon. Rob, what do you think? Gordon went to him exactly as he goes to +Stephen; they had the greatest time. Gordon knows better than you do +whom to trust." + +"You and Gordon are very discerning. A handsome face and a wheedling +manner--and you think you have a fine, strong character. Handsome is as +handsome does, Rosy Gray of the soft heart, and a wheedling manner is +dust and ashes compared with the ability to accomplish something worth +effort. But--bring your nice young man to the party if you like; only +take care of him. I shall be busy with the real men!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ROSES RED + + +It was certainly rather a curious coincidence that when Mr. Matthew +Kendrick and his grandson Richard entered upon the scene of the Grays' +Christmas Eve party it should be at the moment when Mr. Rufus Gray and +his niece Roberta were dancing a quadrille together. Richard had just +been received by his hosts and had turned from them to look about him, +when his searching eye caught sight of the pair. This was the precise +moment--he always afterward recalled it--when his heart gave its first +great, disconcerting leap at sight of her, such a leap as he had never +known could shake a man to the foundations. + +He had never seen precisely this Roberta before; he explained it to +himself in that way. It was a good explanation. Any sane man who saw her +for the first time that night must instantly have fallen under her +spell. + +The Christmas party was the event of the year dearest to Roberta's +heart. The planning for it, since she had been old enough to take her +part, had been in her hands; it was she who was responsible for every +detail of decoration. The great attic room, which was a glorious +playroom the rest of the year, was transformed on Christmas into a +fairyland. The results were brought about in much the same way as in +other places of revelry, with lighting and draping and the use of +evergreens and flowers; but somehow one felt that no drawing-room +similarly treated could have been half so charming as the big attic +spaces with their gables. + +And the company! At first Richard saw only the pair who danced together +in the quadrille. If he had glanced about him he might have observed +that the gaze of nearly all who were not dancing was centred upon those +two. + +Uncle Rufus was the plumpest, jolliest, most altogether delightful +specimen of the country gentleman that Richard had ever seen. His ruddy +face was clean-shaven, his heavy gray hair waved a little with a boyish +effect about his ears. He was carefully dressed in a frock coat of a cut +not so ancient as to be at all odd, and it fitted his broad shoulders +with precision. He wore a white waistcoat and a flowing black tie, which +helped to carry out the impression of his being a boy whose hair had +accidentally turned gray. As he danced he put every possible +embellishment of posture and step into his task, and when he bowed to +Roberta his attitude expressed the deepest reverence, offset only by his +laughing face as he advanced to take her hand. + +But as for the girl herself--what was she? A beauty stepping out of a +portrait by one of the masters? She wore her grandmother's ball gown of +rose-coloured brocade, and her hair was arranged in the fashion that +went with it, small curls escaping from the knot at the back of her +head, a style which set off her radiant face with peculiarly piquant +effect. Her cheeks matched her frock, and her eyes--what were her eyes? +Black stars, or wells of darkness into which a man might fall and drown +himself? + +She seemed to draw to herself, as she danced, among the soberer colours +of her elders and the white frocks of the country cousins, all the light +in the room. "I would look at something else if I could," thought +Richard to himself, "but it would be only a blur to me after looking at +her." + +When Roberta returned Uncle Rufus's bow it was with a posturing such as +Richard had seen only in plays; it struck him now that the graceful +droop of her whole figure to the floor was the most perfect thing he had +ever seen; and when her head came up and he saw her laughing face lift +again to meet her partner's, he considered the boyish old gentleman who +took her hand and led her on in the intricate figures of the dance a +person to be envied. + +"Aren't Rob and Uncle Rufus the greatest couple you ever laid eyes on?" +exulted Louis Gray, coming up to greet him. "The next is going to be a +waltz. Will you ask Mrs. Stephen? We'll let you begin easily, but shall +expect you to end by dancing with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife--which +will be no hardship when you really know her, I assure you. We indulge +in no ultra-modern dances on Christmas Eve, you see, and have no +dance-cards; it's always part of the fun to watch the scramble for +partners when the number is announced." + +So presently Richard found himself upon the floor with little Mrs. +Stephen Gray, waltzing with her according to his own discretion, though +all around them were dancers whose steps ranged from present-day methods +to the ancient fashion of turning round and round without ever a +reverse. He saw Roberta herself revolving in slow circles in an endless +spiral, piloted by the proud arm of Mr. Philip Gray. She nodded at him +past her uncle's shoulder, and he wondered seriously if she meant to +dance with elderly uncles all the evening. + +Before he could approach her she was off in the next dance with a young +cousin, a lad of seventeen. Richard himself took out one of the country +cousins to whom Mrs. Stephen had presented him, a very pretty, +fair-haired girl in white muslin and blue ribbons; and he did his best +to give her a good time. He found her pleasant company, as Mrs. Stephen +had prophesied, and at another time--any time--before he came into the +attic room to-night, he might have found no little enjoyment in her +bright society. But in his present condition his one hope and endeavour +was to get the queen of the revels, the rose of the garden, into his +possession. + +With this end in view he faithfully devoted himself to whatever partner +was given him by Louis, who had taken him in charge and was enjoying to +the full the spectacle of "Rich" Kendrick exerting himself, as he had +probably never done before, to give pleasure to those with whom he was +thrown. At last Fate and Roberta were kind to him. It was Louis, +however, who manipulated Fate in his behalf. + +Catching his sister as one of her cousins, a young son of Uncle Henry, +released her, Louis drew her into a corner--as much of a corner as one +could get into with a sister at whom, wherever she turned, half the +company was looking. + +"See here, Rob, you're not playing fair with the guest. Here's the +evening half over and you haven't given him a solitary chance. What's +the matter? You're not afraid of His Highness?" + +"This is a dance for the uncles and cousins," retorted Roberta, "not for +society young men." + +"But he's done his duty like a man and a brother. He's danced with aunts +and cousins, too, and has done it as if it were the joy of his life. But +I know what he wants and I think he deserves a reward. The next waltz +will be a peach, 'Roses Red.' Give it to the poor young millionaire, +Robby; there's a good girl." + +"Bring him here," said she with an air of resignation, and she turned to +a group of young people who had followed her as bees follow their queen. +"Not this time, dears," said she. "I'm engaged for this dance to a poor +young man who has wandered in here and must be made to feel at home." + +"Is that the one?" asked one of the pretty country cousins, indicating +Richard, who, obeying Louis's beckoning hand, was crossing the floor in +their direction. "Oh, you won't mind dancing with him. He's as nice as +he is good-looking, too." + +"I'm delighted to hear it," said Roberta. + +The next minute "the poor young man" was before her. "Am I really to +have it?" he asked her. "Will you give me the whole of it and not cut it +in two, as I saw you do with the last one?" + +"It would be rather a pity to cut 'Roses Red' in two, wouldn't it?" said +she. + +"The greatest pity in the world." He was looking at her cheek in the +last instant before they were off. Talk of roses! Was there ever a rose +like that cheek? + +Then the music sent them away upon its wings and for a space measured by +the strains of "Roses Red" Richard Kendrick knew no more of earth. Not a +word did he speak to her as they circled the great room again and again. +He did not want to mar the beauty of it by speech--ordinary exchange of +comment such as dancers feel that they must make. He wanted to dream +instead. + +"Look at Rob and Mr. Kendrick," said Ruth in Rosamond's ear. "Aren't +they the most wonderful pair you ever saw? They look as if they were +made for each other." + +"Don't tell Rob that," Rosamond warned her enthusiastic sister-in-law. +"She would never dance with him again." + +"I can't think what makes her dislike him so. Look at her face--turned +just as far away as she can get it. And she never speaks to him at all. +I've been watching them." + +"It won't hurt him to be disliked a little," declared Mrs. Stephen +wisely. "It's probably the first time in his life a girl has ever turned +away her head--except to turn it back again instantly to see if he +observed." + +"What would Forbes Westcott say if he could see them? Do you know he's +coming back soon? Then Rob will have her hands full! Do you suppose she +will marry him?" + +"Little matchmaker! I don't know. Nobody ever knows what Rob is going to +do." + +Nobody ever did, least of all her newest acquaintance. If he was to have +a moment with her after the dance he realized that he must be clever +enough to manage it in spite of her. He laid his plans, and when the +last strains of "Roses Red" were hastening to a delirious finish he had +Roberta at the far end of the room, at a point fairly deserted and close +to one of the gable corners where rugs and chairs made a resting-place +half hidden by a screen of holly. + +"Please give me just a fraction of your time," he begged. "You've been +dancing steadily all the evening; surely you're ready for a bit of +quiet." + +"I'm not as tired as I was before that dance," said she, and let him +seat her, though she still looked like some spirited creature poised for +flight. + +"Aren't you really?" His face lighted with pleasure. "I feel as if I had +had a draught of--well, something both soothing and exhilarating, but I +didn't dare to hope you enjoyed it, too." + +"Oh, yes, you did," said she coolly, looking up at him for an instant. +"You know perfectly well that you're one of the best dancers who ever +made a girl feel as if she had wings. Of course I knew you would be. The +leader of cotillions--" + +"That's the second time I've had that accusation flung at me under this +roof," said he, and his face clouded as quickly as it had lighted. "I am +beginning to wonder what kind of a crime you people think it to be a +leader of cotillions. As a matter of fact, I'm not one, for I never +accept the part when I can by any chance get out of it." + +"You have the enviable reputation of being the most accomplished person +in that rôle the town can produce. You should be proud of it." + +He pulled up a chair in front of her and sat down, looking--or trying to +look--straight into her eyes. + +"See here, Miss Gray," said he with sudden earnestness, "if that's the +only thing you think I can do you're certainly rating me pretty low." + +"I'm not rating you at all. I don't know enough about you." + +"That's a harder blow than the other one." He tried to speak lightly, +but chagrin was in his face. "If you'd just added 'and don't want to +know' you'd have finished your work of making me feel about three feet +high." + +"Would you prefer to be made to feel eight feet? Plenty of people will +do that for you. You see I so often find a yardstick measures my own +height, I know the humiliating sensation it is. And I'm never more +convinced of my own smallness than when I see my uncles and their +families at Christmas, especially Uncle Rufus. Do you know which one he +is?" + +"You were dancing with him when I came in." + +"I didn't see you come in." + +"I might have known that," he admitted with a rueful laugh. "Well, did +you dance an old-fashioned square dance with him, and is he a delightful +looking, elderly gentleman with a face like a jolly boy?" + +"Exactly that--and he's a boy in heart, too, but a man in mind. I wonder +if--" + +"He'd care to meet me? I'm sure you weren't going to ask if I'd care to +meet him. But I'd consider it an honour if he'd let me be presented to +him." + +"Now you're talking properly," said she. "It is an honour to be allowed +to know Uncle Rufus, and I think you'll feel it so." She rose. + +He got up reluctantly. "Thank you, I certainly shall," said he quite +soberly. "But--must we go this minute? Surely you can sit out one +number, and I'll promise after that to stand on my head and dance with a +broomstick if it will please your guests." + +"I've a mind to hold you to that offer," said she, with mischief in her +eyes. "But the next number is the old-time 'Lancers,' and I'm needed. +Should you like to dance it?" + +"With you? I--" + +"Of course not. With--well, with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife. You +ought to know her if you're to know him. She's just a bit lame, but we +always get her to dance the 'Lancers' once on Christmas Eve, and if you +want the dearest partner in the room you shall have her." + +"I'll be delighted, if you'll tell me how it goes. If it's like the +thing I saw you dancing I can manage it, I'm sure." + +"It's enough like it so you'll have no trouble. I'll dance opposite you +and keep you straight. See here--" and she gave him a hasty outline of +the figures. + +His eyes were sparkling as he followed her out of the alcove. To be +allowed to dance opposite Roberta and be "kept straight" by her through +the figures of an unfamiliar, old-fashioned affair like the "Lancers" +was a privilege indeed. He laughed to himself to think what certain +people he knew would say to his new idea of privilege. + +He bent before Mrs. Rufus Gray, offered her his arm, and took her out +upon the floor, accommodating his step to the little limp of his +partner. As he stood waiting with her he was observing her as he had +never before observed a woman of her years. Of all, the sweet faces, of +all the bright eyes, of all the pleasant voices--Aunt Ruth captured his +interest and admiration from the moment when she first smiled at him. + +He threw himself into the dance with the greatest heartiness. The music +was played rather slowly, to give Aunt Ruth time to get about, and the +result was almost the stately effect of a minuet. Never had he put more +grace and finish into his steps, and when he bowed to Aunt Ruth it was +as a courtier drops knee before a queen. His unfamiliarity with the +figures gave him excuse to keep his eyes upon Roberta, and she found him +a pupil to whom she had only to nod or make the slightest gesture of the +hand to show his part. + +"Did you ever see anything so fascinating as Aunt Ruth and Mr. +Kendrick?" asked Mrs. Stephen in her husband's ear as they stood looking +on. + +"There's certainly no criticism of his manner toward her," Stephen +replied. "I'll say for him that he's a pastmaster at adaptation. I'll +wager he's enjoying himself, too. It's a new experience for the society +youth." + +"Stevie, why do you all insist on making a 'society youth' of him? It's +his misfortune to have been born to that sort of thing, but I don't +believe he cares half as much for it as he does for--just this sort." + +"This is a novelty to him, that's all. And he's clever enough to see +that to please Rob he must be polite to her family. Rob is the stake +he's playing for--till some other pretty girl takes his fancy." + +Rosamond shook her head. "You all do him injustice, I believe. Of course +he admires Rob; men always do if they've any discrimination whatever. +But--there are other things that appeal to him. Stephen"--her appealing +face flushed with interest--"when you have a chance, slip out with Mr. +Kendrick and take him upstairs to see Gordon and Dorothy asleep. I just +went up; they look too dear!" + +"Why, Rosy, you don't imagine he'd care--" + +"Try him--just to please me. I could take him myself, but I'd rather you +would. I want you to look at his face when he looks at them." + +"He _has_ got round you--" began her husband, but she made him promise. + +When Stephen came upon Richard the guest was with Uncle Rufus and Aunt +Ruth. The young man was entering with great spirit into his conversation +with the pair, and they were evidently enjoying him. + +"I'll have to give him credit for possessing genuine courtesy," thought +Stephen. + +At this moment a group of young people came up and demanded the presence +of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray in another part of the room, and Richard was +set at liberty. Stephen took him by the arm. + +"Before you engage again in the antic whirl I have a special exhibit to +show you outside the ballroom. Spare me five minutes?" + +"Spare you anything," responded the guest, following Stephen out of +the room as if he wanted nothing so much as to do whatever might be +suggested to him. + +In two minutes they were downstairs and at the far end of a long +corridor which led to the rooms in a wing of the big house occupied by +the Stephen Grays. Richard was led through a pleasant living-room where +a maid was reading a book under the drop-light. She rose at their +appearance and Stephen nodded an "All right" to her. He conducted +Richard to the door of an inner room, which, as he opened it, let a rush +of cold air upon the two men entering. + +"Turn up your collar; it's winter in here," said Stephen softly. He +switched on a shaded light which revealed a nursery containing two small +beds side by side. Two large windows at the farther end of the room were +wide open, and all the breezes of the December night were playing about +the sleepers. + +The sleepers! Richard bent over them, one after the other, scanning each +rosy face. The baby girl lay upon her side, a round little cheek, a +fringe of dark eyelashes, and a tangle of fair curls showing against the +pillow. The boy was stretched upon his back, his arms outflung, his head +turned toward the light so that his face was fully visible. If he had +been attractive with his wonderful eyes open, he was even more winsome +with them closed. He looked the picture of the sleeping angel who has +never known contact with earth. + +"I thought he would never be done looking," Stephen acknowledged +afterward when he told his exulting wife about the scene. "I was half +frozen, but he acted like a man hypnotized. Finally he looked up at me. +'Gray, you're a rich man,' said he. 'I suppose you know it or you +wouldn't have brought me up here to show me your wealth.' 'I believe I +know it,' said I. 'What does it feel like,' he asked, 'to look at these +and know they're yours?' I told him that that was a thing I couldn't +express. 'Forgive me for asking,' said he. 'No man would want to try to +express it--to another.' I began to like him after that, Rosy--I really +did. The fellow seems to have a heart that hasn't been altogether +spoiled by the sort of life he's lived. On our way upstairs he said +nothing until we were nearly back to the attic. Then he put his hand on +my arm. 'Thank you for taking me, Gray,' he said. I told him you wanted +me to do it. He only gave me a look in answer to that; but I fancy you +would have liked the look, little susceptible girl." + +It was Ted who got hold of the guest next. "I hope you're having a good +time, Mr. Kendrick," said the young son of the house, politely. "I've +been so busy myself, dancing with all my girl cousins, I haven't had +time to ask you." + +"I've been having the time of my life, Ted. I can't remember when I've +enjoyed anything so much." + +"I saw you once with Rob. You're lucky to get her. She hasn't had time +to dance once with me and I'd rather have her than any girl here, she's +so jolly. She always keeps me laughing. You and she didn't seem to be +laughing at all, though." + +"Did we look so serious? Perhaps she felt like laughing inside, though, +at my awkward steps." + +Ted stared. "Why, you're a bully dancer," he declared. "What girl are +you going to have for the Virginia reel? We always end with that--at +twelve o'clock, you know." + +"I haven't a partner, Ted. I wish you'd get me the one I want." + +"Tell me who it is and I'll try. We're going down to bring up supper +now, we fellows. Want to help?" + +"Of course I do. How is it done?" + +"Everything's in the dining-room and some of the younger ones go down. +But we boys and men go and bring up everything for the older folks. +Maybe I oughtn't to ask you, though," he hesitated. "You're company." + +"Let me be one of the family to-night," urged Richard. "I'll bring up +supper for Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray and pretend they're my aunt and +uncle, too. I wish they were." + +"I don't blame you; they _are_ the jolliest ever, aren't they? Come on, +then. Rosy's looking at us; maybe she'll tell you not to go." + +They hurried away downstairs, racing with each other to the first floor. + +"Hullo! you, too?" Louis greeted the guest from the farther side of the +table filled with all manner of toothsome viands, where he was piling up +a tray to carry aloft. "Glad to see you're game for the whole show. Take +one of those trays and load it with discretion--weight equally +distributed, or you'll get into trouble on the stairs. You're new at +this job, and it takes training." + +"I'll manage it," and the young man fell to work, capably assisted by a +maid, who showed him what to take first and how to insure its safe +delivery. + +On his way up, walking cautiously on account of the cups of smoking +bouillon which he was concerned lest he spill, he encountered a +rose-coloured brocade frock on its way down. + +"Good for you, Mr. Kendrick," hailed Roberta's voice, full and sweet. + +He paused, balancing his tray. "Why are you going down? Won't you let me +bring up yours when I've given this to Unc--to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray?" + +"Are you enjoying your task so well? Look out, keep your eye on the +tray! There's nothing so treacherous to carry as cups so full as those." + +"Stop laughing at me and I'll get through all right. All I need is a +little practice. Next time I come up I'm going to try balancing the +whole thing on my hand and carrying it shoulder-high." + +"Please practice that some time when you're all alone in your own +house." + +"I'll remember. And please remember I'm going to bring up your +supper--and my own. May we have it in the place where we were after the +dance?" + +"Yes, with six others who are waiting there already. That will be +lovely, thank you. I'll be back by the time you have everything up." + +"Of all the hard creatures to corner," thought Richard, going on upward +with his tray. "Anyhow, I can have the satisfaction of waiting on her, +which is better than nothing." + +He found it so. The six people in the gable corner proved to be of the +younger boys and girls, and, though they were all eyes and ears for +himself and Roberta, he had a sufficient sense of being paired off with +the person he wanted to keep him contented. They ate and drank merrily +enough, and the food upon his plate seemed to Richard the best he had +ever tasted at an affair of the kind. + +The evening was gone before he knew it. He could secure no more dances +with Roberta, but he had one with Ruth, during which he made up for his +silence with her sister by exchanging every comment possible during +their exhilarating occupation. He began it himself: + +"It's a real sorrow to me, Miss Ruth, to be warned that this party is +nearly over." + +"Is it, Mr. Kendrick? It would be to me if to-morrow weren't Christmas +Day. It's worth having this stop to get to that. You see, to-night we +hang up our stockings." + +"Good heavens, Miss Ruth--where? Not in front of any one chimney?" + +"No, each in our own room, at the foot of the bed. The things that won't +go into the stockings are on the breakfast-table." + +"I'll think of you when I'm waking to my solitary dressing. I never hung +up my stocking in my life." + +"You haven't!" Ruth's tone was all dismay. "But you must have had heaps +of Christmas presents?" + +"Oh, yes, I've a friend or two who present me with all sorts of +interesting articles I seldom find a use for. And when I was a little +chap I remember they always had a tree for me." + +"I don't care much for trees," Ruth confided. "I like them better in +shop windows than I do at home. But to hang up your stocking and then +find it all stuffed and knobby in the morning, with always something +perfectly delightful in the toe for the very last! Oh, I love it!" + +"I wish I were a cousin of yours, so I could look after that toe present +myself," said Richard daringly. + +"You do miss a lot of fun, not having a jolly family Christmas like +ours." + +"I'm convinced of it. See here, Miss Ruth, there's something I want you +to do for me if you will. When you waken to-morrow morning send me--a +Christmas thought. Will you? I'll be looking for it." + +Ruth drew back her head in order to look up into his face for an +instant. "A Christmas thought?" she repeated, surprised. + +He nodded. "As if I were a brother, you know, far away at the other side +of the world--and lonely. I'll really be as far away from all your +merry-making as if I were at the other side of the world, you see--and +I'm not sure but I'll be as lonely." + +"Why, Mr. Kendrick! You--lonely! I can't believe it!" Ruth almost forgot +to keep step in her surprise. "But--of course, just you and your +grandfather! Only--I've heard how popular--" + +She paused, not venturing to tell him all she had heard of his gay and +fashionable friends and how they were always inviting and pursuing him. +"Are you always lonely at Christmas?" she ended. + +"Always; though I've never realized what was the matter with me till +this year. Do you care about finishing this dance? Let's stop in this +nice corner and talk about it a minute." + +It was the same corner, deserted now, where he had twice tried to keep +her elusive sister. Ruth was easier to manage, for she was genuinely +interested. + +"Just this year," he explained, "I've found out why I've never cared for +Christmas. It's a beastly day to me. I spend it as I should Sunday--get +through with it somehow. At last I go out to dinner somewhere in the +evening, and so end the day." + +"We all go to church on Christmas morning," Ruth told him. "That's a +lovely way to spend part of the morning, I think. It gives you the real +Christmas feeling. Don't you ever do it?" + +He shook his head. "Never have; but I will to-morrow if you'll tell me +where you go." + +"To St. Luke's. The service is so beautiful, and we all have been there +since we were old enough to go. I'm sure you'll like it. Wouldn't your +grandfather like to go with you?" + +Richard stared at her. "Why, I shouldn't have thought of it. Possibly he +would. We never go anywhere together, to tell the truth." + +"That's queer, when you're both so lonely. He must be lonely, too, +mustn't he?" + +"I never thought about it," said the young man. "I suppose he is. He +never says so." + +"You never say so either, do you?" suggested the girl naïvely. + +The two looked at each other for a minute without speaking. + +"Miss Ruth," said her companion at length, lowering his eyes to the +floor and speaking thoughtfully, "I believe, to tell the truth, I'm a +selfish beast. You've put a totally new idea into my head--more shame to +me that it should be new. It strikes me that I'll try a new way of +spending Christmas; I'll see to it that whoever is lonely grandfather +isn't--if I can keep him from it." + +"You can!" cried Ruth, beaming at him. "He thinks the world of you; +anybody can see that. And you won't be lonely yourself!" + +"Won't I? I'm not so sure of that--after to-night. But I admit it's +worth trying. May I report to you how it works?" he asked, smiling. + +Ruth agreed delightedly, and, when they separated, watched with interest +to see that the new idea had already begun to work, as indicated by the +way the younger Kendrick approached the elder, who was making his +farewells. + +"Going now, grandfather?" said he, with his hand on old Matthew +Kendrick's arm. "We'll go together. I'll call James." + +"You going too, Dick?" inquired his grandfather, evidently surprised. +"That's good." + +As he took leave of Roberta, Richard found opportunity to exchange with +her ever so brief a conversation. "This has been quite a wonderful +experience to me, Miss Gray," said he. "I shall not forget it." + +Her eyes searched his for an instant, but found there only sincerity. +"You have done your part better than could have been expected," she +admitted. + +"What grudging commendation! What should you have expected? That I +should sulk in a corner because I couldn't have things all my own way?" + +She coloured richly, and he rejoiced at having put her in confusion for +an instant. "Of course not. But every one wouldn't have eyes to see the +beauties of a family party where all the fun wasn't for the young +people." + +"There was only one dance I enjoyed better than the one with Mrs. Rufus +Gray." He lowered his tone so that she could hear. "Since you have +commended me for doing as your brother bade me--be all things to all +partners--will you give me my reward by letting me tell you that I shall +never hear 'Roses Red' again without thinking of the most perfect dance +I ever had?" + +"That sounds like an appropriate farewell from the cotillion leader," +said Roberta. Then instantly she knew that in her haste to cover a very +girlish sense of pleasure in the thing he had said she herself had said +an unkind one. She knew it as a slow red came into her guest's handsome +face and his eyes darkened. Before he could speak--though, indeed, he +did not seem in haste to speak--she added, putting out her hand +impulsively: + +"Forgive me; I didn't mean it. You have been lovely to every one +to-night, and I have appreciated it. I am wrong; I think you are much +more--and have in you far more--than--as if you were only--the thing I +said." + +He made no immediate reply, though he took the hand she gave him. He +continued to look at her for so long that her own eyes fell. When he did +speak it was in a low, odd tone which she could not quite understand. + +"Miss Gray," said he, "if you want to cut a man to the quick, insist on +thinking him that which he has never had any love for being, and which +he has grown to detest the thought of. But perhaps it's a salutary sort +of surgery, for--by the powers! if I can't make you think differently of +me it won't be for lack of will. So--thank you for being hard on me, +thank you for everything. Good-night!" + +As she looked at him march away with his head up, her hand was aching +with the force of the almost brutally hard grip he had given it with +that last speech. Her final glimpse of him showed him with a tinge of +the angry red still lingering on his cheek, and a peculiar set to his +finely cut mouth which she had never noticed there before. But, in spite +of this, anything more courtly than his leave-taking of her mother and +her Aunt Ruth she had never seen from one of the young men of the day. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MR. KENDRICK ENTERTAINS + + +On their way downstairs, Matthew Kendrick and his grandson, escorted by +Louis Gray, encountered a small company of people apparently just +arrived from a train. Louis stopped for a moment to greet them, turned +them over to his brother Stephen, whom he signalled from a stair-landing +above, and went on down to the entrance-hall with the Kendricks. + +"Too bad they're late for the party," he observed. "They had written +they couldn't come, I believe. Mother will have to do a bit of figuring +to dispose of them. But the more the merrier under this roof, every +time." + +"It's rather late to be putting people up for the night," Richard +observed. "Your mother will be sending some of them to a hotel, I +imagine. Couldn't we"--he glanced at his grandfather--"have the pleasure +of taking them in our car? or of sending it back for them, if there are +too many?" + +"Thank you, but I've no doubt mother can arrange--" Louis Gray began, +when old Matthew Kendrick interrupted him: + +"We can do better than that, Dick," said he. He turned to Louis. "We +will wait," said he, "while you present my compliments to your mother +and say that it will give me great satisfaction if she will allow me to +entertain an overflow party of her guests." + +Hardly able to believe his ears, Richard stared at his grandfather. What +had come over him, who had lived in such seclusion for so many years, +that he should be offering hospitality at midnight to total strangers? +He smiled to himself. But the next moment a thought struck him. + +"Grandfather," he said hurriedly, "why not specially invite that +delightful couple--the one they call 'Uncle Rufus' and his wife?" + +"An excellent idea," Mr. Kendrick agreed, "though they might not be +willing to make the change at so late an hour." + +"People who were dancing with spirit ten minutes ago will be ready to +travel right now," prophesied Richard. He took flying leaps up the +stairs in pursuit of Louis. Catching him on the next floor, he made his +request known. Louis received it without sign of surprise, but inwardly, +as he hurried away, he was speculating upon what agencies could be at +work with the young man, that he should be so eager to do this deed of +extraordinary friendliness. + +Mrs. Gray hesitated over Matthew Kendrick's invitation, although her +hospitable home was already crowded to the roof-tree. But, taking Judge +Calvin Gray into her counsels, she was so strongly advised by him to +accept the offer that she somewhat reluctantly consented to do so. + +"It's great, Eleanor, simply great!" he urged. "It will do my friend +Matthew mere good than anything that has happened to him in a +twelvemonth. As for young Richard--from what I've seen to-night you've +nothing to fear from his part in the affair. Let them have Rufus and +Ruth--they'll enjoy it hugely. And give them as many more as will +relieve the congestion. Matthew could take care of a regiment in that +stone barracks of his." + +"Sending Rufus and Ruth would give me quite space enough," she declared. +"Rufus has the largest room in the house, and I could put this last +party there. It is really very kind of Mr. Kendrick, and I shall be glad +to solve my problem in that way, since you think it best." + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, having the question put to them, acceded to it +with readiness. Both had been warmly drawn toward Richard, and though +his grandfather had seemed to them a figure of somewhat unnecessarily +dignified reserve, the mere fact of his extending the invitation at all +was to them sufficient proof of his cordiality. + +"It's nothing at all to pack up," Mrs. Rufus asserted. "I'll just take +what I need for the night, and we'll be coming over for the tree in the +morning, so I can get my other things then. I shall call it a real treat +to be inside the home of such a wealthy man. How lonely he must be, +living in such a great house, with only his grandson!" + +So Aunt Ruth descended the stairs, wearing her little gray silk bonnet +and a heavy cape of gray cloth, her hand on her husband's arm, her +bright eyes shining with anticipation. Aunt Ruth dearly loved a bit of +excitement and seldom found much in her quiet life upon the farm. As +Matthew Kendrick looked up and saw her coming slowly down, her husband +carefully adjusting himself to the dip and swing of her step as she put +always the same foot foremost, he found himself distinctly glad of his +grandson's suggestion, since it gave him so charming a guest to +entertain as Mrs. Rufus Gray. + +In the interval Richard had retired to a telephone, and had made the +wires between his present position and the stone pile warm with his +orders. In consequence a certain gray-haired housekeeper, lately +returned from some family festivities of her own and about to retire, +found herself galvanized into activity by the sound of a well-known and +slightly imperious voice issuing upsetting instructions to have the best +suite of rooms in the house made ready within half an hour for +occupancy, and the house itself lighted for the reception of the guests. +Other commands to butler and Mr. Richard's own manservant followed in +quick succession, and when the young man turned away from the telephone +he was again smiling to himself at thought of the consternation he was +causing in a household accustomed to be run upon such lines of +conservatism and well defined routine that any deviation therefrom was +likely to prove most unacceptable. He himself was at home there such a +small portion of his time, and during the periods he spent there was so +careful never to bring within its walls any festival-making of his own, +he knew just how astonishing to the middle-aged housekeeper, the +solemn-faced old butler, and the rest of them, would be these midnight +orders. He was enjoying the giving of such orders all the more for that! + +Old Matthew Kendrick assisted Mrs. Rufus Gray into his luxuriously +fitted, electric-lighted town-car as if she had been a royal personage, +wrapping about her soft, thick rugs until she was almost lost to view. + +"Why, I couldn't be cold in this shut-in place," she protested. "Not a +breath could touch any one in here, I should say." + +"I should call it pretty snug," Rufus Gray agreed with his wife, looking +about him at the comfortable appointments of the car. "But there's just +one thing a carriage like this wouldn't be good for, and that's taking a +party of young folks on a sleigh ride, on a snapping winter's night!" +His bright brown eyes regarded those of Matthew Kendrick with some +curiosity. "I reckon you never took that sort of a ride, when you were a +boy?" he queried. + +"Yes, yes, I have--many a time," Mr. Kendrick insisted. "And great times +we had. Boys and girls needed no electricity to keep them comfortable on +the coldest of nights. It's my grandson Richard who feels this sort of +thing a necessity. Until he came home a carriage and pair had been all +the equipage I needed." + +"Grandfather is getting where a little extra warmth on a blustering +winter's day is essential to his comfort," Richard declared, feeling a +curious necessity, somehow, to justify the use of the expensive and +commodious equipage in the eyes of the country gentleman who seemed to +regard it so lightly. + +"It's very nice," Mrs. Gray said quickly. "I should hardly know I was +outdoors at all. And how smoothly it runs along over the streets. The +young man out there in front must be a very good driver, I should think. +He doesn't seem to mind the car-tracks at all." + +"No, Rogers doesn't bother much about car-tracks," Richard agreed +gravely. "His idea is to get home and to bed." + +"It is pretty late--and I'm afraid waiting for us has made you a good +deal later than you would have been," said Mrs. Gray regretfully. + +"Not a bit--no, no." + +"We'll go right to our room as soon as we get there," said she, "and you +mustn't trouble to do a thing extra for us." + +"It's going to be a great pleasure to have you under our roof," the +young man assured her, smiling. + +Arrived at the great stone mansion which was the well-known residence of +Matthew Kendrick, as it had been of his family for several generations, +Richard stared up at it with a sense of strangeness. Except for the +halls and dining-room, his grandfather's quarters and his own, he could +not remember seeing it lighted as other homes were lighted, with rows of +gleaming windows here and there, denoting occupancy by many people. Now, +one whole wing, where lay the special suite of guest-rooms used at long +intervals for particularly distinguished persons, was brilliantly +shining out upon the December night. + +The car drew up beneath a massive covered entrance-porch, and a great +door swung back. A heavy-eyed, elderly butler admitted the party, which +were ushered into an impressive but gloomy and inhospitable looking +reception-room. Matthew Kendrick glanced somewhat uncertainly at his +nephew, who promptly took things in charge. + +"I thought perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Gray would have some sandwiches +and--er--something more--with us, before they go to their rooms," +Richard suggested, nodding at Parks, the heavy-eyed. + +"Yes, yes--" agreed Mr. Kendrick, but Mrs. Rufus broke in upon him. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Kendrick!" she cried softly, much distressed. "Please don't +think of such a thing--at this hour. And we've just had refreshments at +Eleanor's. Don't let us keep you up a minute. I'm sure you must be tired +after this long evening." + +"Not at all, Madam. Nor do you yourself look so," responded Matthew +Kendrick, in his somewhat stately manner. "But you may be feeling like +sleep, none the less. If you prefer you shall go to your rest at once." +He turned to his grandson again. "Dick--" + +"I'll take them up," said that young man, eagerly. He offered his arm to +Aunt Ruth. + +Uncle Rufus looked about him for the hand-bag which his wife had so +hurriedly packed. "We had a little grip--" said he, uncertainly. + +"We'll find it upstairs, I think," Richard assured him, and led the way +with Aunt Ruth. "I'm sorry we have no lift," he said to her, "but the +stairs are rather easy, and we'll take them slowly." + +Aunt Ruth puzzled a little over this speech, but made nothing of it and +wisely let it go. The stairs were easy, extremely easy, and so heavily +padded that she seemed to herself merely to be walking up a slight, +velvet-floored incline. The whole house, it may be explained, was fitted +and furnished after the style of that period in the latter half of the +last century, when heavily carpeted floors, heavily shrouded windows, +heavily decorated walls, and heavily upholstered chairs were considered +the essentials of luxury and comfort. Old Matthew Kendrick had never +cared to make any changes, and his grandson had had too little interest +in the place to recommend them. The younger man's own private rooms he +had altered sufficiently to express his personal tastes, but the rest of +the house was to him outside the range of his concern. The whole place, +including his own quarters, was to him merely a sort of temporary +habitation. He had no plans in relation to it, no sense of +responsibility in regard to it. When he had ordered the finest suite of +rooms in the house to be put in readiness for the guests, it was +precisely as he would have requested the management of a great hotel to +place at his disposal the best they had to offer. To tell the truth, he +had no recollection at all of how the rooms looked or what their +dimensions were. + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, entering the first room of the series, a large +and elaborately furnished apartment with the effect of a drawing-room, +much gilt and brocade and many mirrors in evidence, looked at Richard in +some surprise, as he seated them. He himself went to the door of a +second room, glanced in, nodded, and returned to his guests. + +"I hope you will find everything you want in there," he said. "If you +don't, please ring. You will see your dressing-room on the left, Mr. +Gray. I will send you my man in the morning to see if he can do anything +for you." + +"I shan't need any man, thank you," protested Mr. Gray. + +When, after lingering a minute or two, their young host had bade them +good-night and left them, the elderly pair looked at each other. Uncle +Rufus's eyes were twinkling, but in his wife's showed a touch of soft +indignation. + +"It seems like making a joke of us," said she, "to put us in such a +place as this, when he can guess what we're used to." + +"He doesn't mean it as a joke," her husband protested good-humouredly. +"He wants to give us the best he's got. I don't mind a mite. To be sure, +I could get along with one looking-glass to shave myself in, but it's +kind of interesting to know how many some folks think necessary when +they aren't limited. Let's go look in our sleeping-room. Maybe that's a +little less princely." + +Aunt Ruth limped slowly across the Persian carpet, and stood still in +the doorway of the room Richard had designated as hers. Uncle Rufus +stared in over her small shoulder. + +"Well, well," he chuckled. "I reckon Napoleon Bonaparte wouldn't have +thought this any too fine for him, but it sort of dazzles me. I'm glad +somebody's got that bed ready to sleep in. I shouldn't have been sure +'twas meant for that, if they hadn't. There seems to be another room on +behind this one--what's that?" + +He marched across and looked in. "Now, if I was rich, I wouldn't mind +having one of these opening right out of my room. What there isn't in +here for keeping yourself clean can't be thought of." + +"Rufus," said his wife solemnly, following him into the white-tiled +bathroom, "I want you should look at these bath-towels. I never in my +life set eyes on anything like them. They must have cost--I don't know +what they cost--I didn't know there were such bath-towels made!" + +"I don't want to wrap myself in a blanket," asserted her husband. "I +want to know I've got a towel in my hand, that I can whisk round me and +slap myself with. Look here, let's get to bed. We could sit up all night +examining round into our accommodations. For my part, Eleanor's style of +living suits me a good deal better than this kind of elegance. Her house +is fine and comfortable, but no foolishness. There's one thing I do +like, though. This carpet feels mighty good to your bare feet, I'll make +sure!" + +He presently made sure, walking back and forth barefooted across the +soft floor, chuckling like a boy, and making his toes sink into the +heavy pile of the great rug. He surveyed his small wife, in her +dressing-gown, sitting before the wide mirror of an elaborate +dressing-table, putting her white locks into crimping pins. + +"Ruth," said he, with sudden solemnity, "I forgot to undress in my +dressing-room. Had I better put my clothes on and go take 'em off again +in there?" + +He pointed across to an adjoining room, brilliant with lights and +equipped with all manner of furnishings adapted to masculine uses. + +His wife turned about, laughing like a girl. "Maybe in there," she +suggested, "you could find a chair small enough to hang your coat across +the back of. I'm afraid it'll get all wrinkled, folded like that." + +Uncle Rufus explored. After a minute he came back. "There's a queer sort +of bureau-thing in there all filled with coat-and-pants hangers," he +announced. "I'm going to put my things in it. It'll keep 'em from +getting wrinkled, as you say." + +When he returned: "There's another bed in there," he said. "I don't know +what it's for. It's got the covers all turned back, too, just like this +one. Maybe we've made a mistake. Maybe there's somebody that has that +room, and he hasn't come in yet. Do you suppose I'd better shut the door +between?" + +"Maybe you had," agreed his wife anxiously. "It would be dreadful if he +should come in after a while. Still--young Mr. Kendrick called it your +dressing-room." + +"And my clothes are in there," added Uncle Rufus. "It's all right. +Probably the girl made a mistake when she fixed that bed--thought there +was a child with us, maybe." + +"You might just shut the door," Aunt Ruth suggested. "Then if anybody +did come in--" + +Uncle Rufus shook his head. "It's meant for us," he asserted with +conviction as he climbed into bed. "He said 'dressing-room' and pointed. +The girl's made a mistake, that's all. It's a good place for my clothes, +and I'm going to leave 'em there. Will you put out the lights?" + +Aunt Ruth looked around the wall. "I can never get used to electric +lights at Eleanor's," said she. "And I don't see the place here, at +all." + +She searched for the switches some time in vain, but at length +discovered them and succeeded in extinguishing the lights of the room +the pair were in. But the lights of the adjoining rooms still burned +with brilliancy. + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed softly. Then she appealed to her husband. + +Uncle Rufus, who had nearly fallen asleep while his wife had been +searching, spoke without opening his eyes. "Shut all the doors and leave +'em going," he advised, + +"Oh, no, I can't do that! Think of the cost, running all night so." + +"I reckon they can afford it," he commented drowsily. + +But Aunt Ruth continued to hunt, first in the large outer room which +looked like a drawing-room, and possessed an elaborate central +electrolier whose control, even after she discovered the switch, caused +the little lady considerable perplexity. When she had at length +succeeded in extinguishing the illumination she returned, guided by the +lights in the other rooms. The bathroom keys were soon found, and then +she applied herself to discovering those in the dressing-room. These +eluded her for some minutes, but at length, all lights being turned off, +Aunt Ruth found herself in total darkness. She groped about in it for +some time without success, for the heavy curtains had been closely +drawn, and not a ray of light penetrated the spacious rooms from any +quarter. After having followed the wall for what seemed an interminable +distance without reaching a recognizable position, she was forced to +call to her husband. He was asleep, and responded only after being many +times addressed. Then he sat up in bed. + +"Hey? What? What's the matter?" he inquired anxiously, peering into the +darkness. + +"Nothing, dear--only I couldn't find the bed after I turned the lights +out. Keep on talking, and I'll work my way to you," answered his wife's +voice from some distance. + +Guided by his voice--he found plenty to say on the subject of putting +people to bed in the midst of large, unfamiliar spaces--she groped her +way to his side. He put out a gentle hand to welcome her, and as she +took her place the two fell to laughing softly over the whole situation. + +"Why," said Uncle Rufus, "for all I've slept for forty years in the same +room--and a pretty sizable room I've always thought it--I've never got +so I could plough a straight furrow through it in the dark. I reckon a +lifetime would be too short to get to know my way round this +plantation." + +He could with difficulty be restrained from telling Richard about the +incident next morning, when that young man came to their rooms to escort +them down to breakfast. + +"I'm glad to have somebody pilot me," Uncle Rufus declared, his eyes +twinkling as he followed after his wife, who leaned on Richard's arm. "A +man must have a pretty good sense of direction to keep his bearings in a +house as big as this." + +Richard laughed. "It's rather a straight road to the dining-room. I +think I must have worn a path there since I came. Here we are--and +here's grandfather down before us. He's the first one in the house to be +up, always." + +Matthew Kendrick advanced to meet his guests, shaking hands with great +cordiality. + +"It seems very wonderful, Madam Gray," said he, "to have a lady in the +house on Christmas morning. Will you do me the honour to take this +seat?" He put her in a chair before a massive silver urn, under which +burned a spirit lamp. "And will you pour our coffee? It's many a year +since we've had coffee served from the table, poured by a woman's hand." + +"Why, I should be greatly pleased to pour the coffee," cried Aunt Ruth +happily. Her bright glance was fastened upon a mass of scarlet flowers +in the centre of the table, for which Richard had sent between dark and +daylight. He smiled across the table at her. + +"Are they real?" she breathed. + +"Absolutely! Splendid colour, aren't they? I can't remember the name, +but they look like Christmas." + +Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Rufus Gray had ever in their lives eaten such a +breakfast as was now served to them. Such extraordinary fruits, such +perfectly cooked game, such delicious food of various sorts--they could +only taste and wonder. Richard, with a young man's healthy appetite, +kept them company, but his grandfather made a frugal meal of toast, +coffee, and a single egg, quite as if he were more accustomed to such +simple fare than to any other. + +The breakfast over, Mr. Kendrick took them to his own private rooms, to +show them a painting of which he had been telling them. Richard +accompanied them, having constituted himself chief assistant to Mrs. +Gray, to whom he had taken a boyish liking which was steadily growing. +Establishing her in a comfortable armchair, he sat down beside her. + +"Now, Mr. Richard," said she, presently, while Mr. Matthew Kendrick and +her husband were discussing an interesting question over their cigars in +an adjoining room--Mr. Kendrick's adherence to the code of an earlier +day making it impossible for him to think of smoking in the presence of +a lady--"I wonder if there isn't something you would let me do for you. +You and your grandfather living alone, so, you must have things that +need a woman's hand. While I sit here I'd enjoy mending some socks or +gloves for you." + +Richard looked at her. The sincerity of her offer was so evident that he +could not turn it aside with an evasion or a refusal. But he had not an +article in the world that needed mending. When things of his reached +that stage they were invariably turned over to his man, Bliss. He +considered. + +"That's certainly awfully kind of you, Mrs. Gray," said he. "But--have +you--" + +She put her hand into a capacious pocket and produced therefrom a tiny +"housewife," stocked with thimble, needles, and all necessary +implements. + +"I never go without it," said she. "There's always somebody to be mended +up when you least expect it. My niece Roberta tripped on one of her +flounces last night, dancing--and not being used to dancing in such +full, old-fashioned skirts. Rosy was starting to pin it up, but I +whipped out my kit--and how they laughed, to see a pocket in a best +dress!" She laughed herself, at the recollection. "But I had Robby sewed +up in less time than it takes to tell it--much better than pinning!" + +"How beautifully she danced those old-fashioned dances," Richard +observed eagerly. "It was a great pleasure to see her." + +"Yes, it's generally a pleasure to see Robby do things," Roberta's aunt +agreed. "She goes into them with so much vim. When she comes out to +visit us on the farm it's the same way. She must have a hand in the +churning, or the sweeping, or something that'll keep her busy. Aren't +you going to get me the things, Mr. Richard?" + +The young man hastened away. Arrived before certain drawers and +receptacles, he turned over piles of hosiery with a thoughtful air. +Presently selecting a pair of black silk socks of particularly fine +texture, he deliberately forced his thumb through either heel, taking +care to make the edges rough as possible. Laughing to himself, he then +selected a pair of gray street gloves, eyed them speculatively for a +moment, then, taking out a penknife, cut the stitches in several places, +making one particularly long rent down the side of the left thumb. He +regarded these damages doubtfully, wondering if they looked entirely +natural and accidental; then, shaking his head, he gathered up the socks +and gloves and returned with them to Aunt Ruth. + +She looked them over. "For pity's sake," said she, "you wear out your +things in queer ways! How did you ever manage to get holes in your heels +right on the bottom, like that? All the folks I ever knew wear out their +heels on the back or side." + +Richard examined a sock. "That is rather odd," he admitted. "I must have +done it dancing." + +"I shall have to split my silk to darn these places," commented Aunt +Ruth. "These must be summer socks, so thin as this." She glanced at the +trimly shod foot of her companion and shook her head. "You young folks! +In my day we never thought silk cobwebs' warm enough for winter." + +"Tell me about your day, won't you, please?" the young man urged. "Those +must have been great days, to have produced such results." + +The little lady found it impossible to resist such interest, and was +presently talking away, as she mended, while her listener watched her +flying fingers and enjoyed every word of her entertaining discourse. He +artfully led her from the past to the present, brought out a tale or two +of Roberta's visits at the farm, and learned with outward gravity but +inward exultation that that young person had actually gone to the +lengths of begging to be allowed to learn to milk a cow, but had failed +to achieve success. + +"I can't imagine Miss Roberta's failing in anything she chose to +attempt," was his joyous comment. + +"She certainly failed in that." Aunt Ruth seemed rather pleased herself +at the thought. "But then she didn't really go into it seriously--it was +because Louis put her up to it--told her she couldn't do it. She only +really tried it once--and then spent the rest of the morning washing her +hair. Such a task--it's so heavy and curly--" Aunt Ruth suddenly stopped +talking about Roberta, as if it had occurred to her that this young man +looked altogether too interested in such trifles as the dressing of +certain thick, dark locks. + +Presently, the mending over, the Grays were taken, according to promise, +back to the Christmas celebrations in the other house, and Richard, +returning to his grandfather, proposed, with some unwonted diffidence of +manner, that the two attend service together at St. Luke's. + +The old man looked up at his grandson, astonishment in his face. + +"Church, Dick--with you?" he repeated. "Why, I--" He hesitated. "Did the +little lady we entertained last night put that into your head?" + +"She put several things into my head," Richard admitted, "but not that. +Will you go, sir? It's fully time now, I believe." + +Matthew Kendrick's keen eyes continued to search his grandson's face, to +Richard's inner confusion. Outwardly, the younger man maintained an +attitude of dignified questioning. + +"I am willing to go," said Mr. Kendrick, after a moment. + +At St. Luke's, that morning, from her place in the family pew, Ruth +Gray, remembering a certain promise, looked about her as searchingly as +was possible. Nowhere within her line of vision could she discern the +figure of Richard Kendrick, but she was none the less confident that +somewhere within the stately walls of the old church he was taking part +in the impressive Christmas service. When it ended and she turned to +make her way up the aisle, leading a bevy of young cousins, her eyes, +beneath a sheltering hat-brim, darted here and there until, unexpectedly +near-by, they encountered the half-amused but wholly respectful +recognition of those they sought. As Ruth made her slow progress toward +the door she was aware that the Kendricks, elder and younger, were close +behind her, and just before the open air was reached she was able to +exchange with Richard a low-spoken question and answer. + +"Wasn't it beautiful? Aren't you glad you came?" + +"It _was_ beautiful, Miss Ruth--and I'm more than glad I came." + + * * * * * + +Several hours earlier, on that same Christmas morning, Ruth had rushed +into Roberta's room, crying out happily: + +"Flowers--flowers--flowers! For you and Rosy and mother and me! They +just came. Mr. Richard Loring Kendrick's card is in ours; of course it's +in yours. Here are yours; do open the box and let me see! Mother's are +orchids, perfectly wonderful ones. Rosy's are mignonette, great +clusters, a whole armful--I didn't know florists grew such +richness--they smell like the summer kind. She's so pleased. Mine are +violets and lilies-of-the-valley. I'm perfectly crazy over them. +Yours--" + +Roberta had the cover off. Roses! Somehow she had known they would be +roses--after last night. But such roses! + +Ruth cried out in ecstasy, bending to bury her face in the glorious +mass. "They're exactly the colour of the old brocade frock, Robby," she +exulted. She picked up the card in its envelope. "May I look at it?" she +asked, with her fingers already in the flap. "Ours all have some +Christmas wish on, and Rosy's adds something about Gordon and Dorothy." + +"You might just let me see first," said Roberta carelessly, stretching +out her hand for the card. Ruth handed it over. Roberta turned her head. +"Who's calling?" she murmured, and ran to the door, card in hand. + +"I didn't hear any one," Ruth called after her. + +But Roberta disappeared. Around the turn of the hall she scanned her +card. + +"_Thorns to the thorny_," she read, and stood staring at the unexpected +words written in a firm, masculine hand. That was all. Did it sting? +Yet, curiously enough, Roberta rather liked that odd message. + +When she came back, Ruth, in the excitement of examining many other +Christmas offerings, had rushed on, leaving the box of roses on +Roberta's bed. The recipient took out a single rose and examined its +stem. Thorns! She had never seen sharper ones--and not one had been +removed. But the rose itself was perfection. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OPINIONS AND THEORIES + + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray were the last to leave the city, after the +house-party. They returned to their brother Robert's home for a day, +when the other guests had gone, and it was on the evening before their +departure that they related their experiences while at the house of +Matthew Kendrick. With most of the members of the Gray household, they +were sitting before the fire in the living-room when Aunt Ruth suddenly +spoke her mind. + +"I don't know when I've felt so sorry for the too rich as I felt in that +house," said she. She was knitting a gray silk mitten, and her needles +were flying. + +"Why, Aunt Ruth?" inquired her nephew Louis, who sat next her, revelling +in the comfort of home after a particularly harassing day at the office. +"Did they seem to lack anything in particular?" + +"I should say they did," she replied. "Nothing that money can buy, of +course, but about everything that it can't." + +"For instance?" he pursued, turning affectionate eyes upon his aunt's +small figure in its gray gown, as the firelight played upon it, touching +her abundant silvering locks and making her eyes seem to sparkle almost +as brilliantly as her swiftly moving needles. + +Aunt Ruth put down her knitting for an instant, looking at her nephew. +"Why, you know," said she. "You're sitting in the very middle of it this +minute!" + +Louis looked about him, smiling. He was, indeed, in the midst of an +accustomed scene of both home-likeness and beauty. The living-room was +of such generous proportions that even when the entire family were +gathered there they could not crowd it. On a wide couch, at one side of +the fireplace, sat his father and mother, talking in low tones +concerning some matter of evident interest, to judge by their intent +faces. Rosamond, like the girl she resembled, sat, girl fashion, on a +pile of cushions close by the fire; and Stephen, her husband, not far +away, by a table with a drop-light, was absorbed in a book. Uncle Rufus +was examining a pile of photographs on the other side of the table. Ted +sprawled on a couch at the far end of the room, deep in a boy's +magazine, a reading light at his elbow. At the opposite end of the room, +where the piano stood, Roberta, music rack before her, was drawing her +bow across nearly noiseless strings, while Ruth picked softly at her +harp: indications of intention to burst forth into musical strains when +a hush should chance to fall upon the company. + +Judge Calvin Gray alone was absent from the gathering, and even as +Louis's eyes wandered about the pleasant room, his uncle's figure +appeared in the doorway. As if he were answering his sister Ruth, Judge +Gray spoke his thought. + +"I wonder," said he, advancing toward the fireside, "if anywhere in this +wide world there is a happier family life than this!" + +Louis sprang up to offer Judge Gray the chair he had been occupying--a +favourite, luxuriously cushioned armchair, with a reading light beside +it ready to be switched on at will, which was Uncle Calvin's special +treasure, of an evening. Louis himself took up his position on the +hearth-rug, opposite Rosamond. + +Aunt Ruth answered her brother energetically: "None happier, Calvin, +I'll warrant, and few half as happy. I can't help wishing those two +people Rufus and I've been visiting could look in here just now." + +"Why make them envious?" suggested Louis, who loved to hear his Aunt +Ruth's crisp speeches. + +"The question is--would they be envious?" This came from Stephen, whose +absorption in his book evidently admitted of penetration from the +outside. + +"Why, of course they would!" declared Aunt Ruth. "You should have seen +the way they had me pour the coffee and tea, all the while I was there. +That young man Richard was always getting me to pour something--said he +liked to see me do it. And he was always sending a servant off and doing +things for me himself. If I'd been a young girl he couldn't have hovered +round any more devotedly." + +A general laugh greeted this, for Aunt Ruth's expression of face as she +told it was provocative. + +"We can readily believe that, Ruth," declared Judge Gray, and his +brother Robert nodded. The low-voiced talk between Mr. Robert Gray and +his wife had ceased; Stephen had laid down his book; Ruth had stopped +plucking at her harp strings; and only Roberta still seemed interested +in anything but Aunt Ruth and her experiences and opinions. + +"I mended his socks and gloves for him," announced Aunt Ruth +contentedly. "You needn't tell me they don't miss a woman's hand about +the house, over there." + +"She mended Rich Kendrick's socks and gloves!" murmured Louis, with a +laughing, incredulous glance at Rosamond, who lifted delighted eyes to +him. "I can't believe it. He must have made holes in them on purpose." + +"Why, not even a spendthrift would do that!" Aunt Ruth promptly denied +the possibility of such folly. "I don't say but they are lavish with +things there. Rufus and I were a good deal bothered by all their lights. +We couldn't seem to get them all put out. And every time we put them +out, anywhere, somebody'd turn them on again for us." + +Uncle Rufus broke in here, narrating their experience with the various +switch-buttons in the suite of rooms, and the company laughed until they +wept over his comments. + +"But all that's neither here nor there," said he, finally. "Of course we +weren't up to such elaborate arrangements, and it made us feel sort of +rustic. But I can tell you they didn't spare any pains to make us +comfortable and at home--if, as Ruth says, you can make anybody feel at +home in a great place like that. I feel, as she does, sorry for 'em +both. They're pretty fine gentlemen, if I'm any judge, and I don't know +which I like better, the older or the younger." + +"There can be no question about the older," said his brother, Robert +Gray, joining in the talk with evident interest. "Mr. Matthew Kendrick +made his place long ago in the business world as one of the great and +just. He has taught that world many fine lessons of truth and honour, as +well as of success." + +Judge Gray nodded. "I'm glad to hear that you appreciate him, Robert," +said he. "Few know better than I how deserved that is. And still fewer +recognize the fine and sensitive nature behind the impression of power +he has always given. He is the type of man, as sister Ruth here is quick +to discern, who must be lonely in the midst of his great wealth, for the +lack of just such a privilege as this we have here to-night, the close +association with people whom we love, and with whom we sympathize in all +that matters most. Matthew Kendrick was a devoted husband and father. In +spite of his grandson's presence, of late, he must sorely long for +companionship." + +"His grandson's going to give him more of that than he has," declared +Aunt Ruth, smiling over her knitting as if recalling a pleasant memory. +"He and I had quite a bit of talk while I was there, and he's beginning +to realize that he owes his grandfather more than he's given him. I had +a good chance to see what was in that boy's heart, and I know there's +plenty of warmth there. And there's real character in him, too. I've had +enough sons of my own to know the signs, and the fact that they were +poor in this world's goods, and he is rich--too rich--doesn't make a +mite of difference in the signs!" + +Mrs. Robert Gray, who had been listening with an intent expression in +eyes whose beauty was not more appealing than their power of observation +was keen, now spoke, and all turned to her. She was a woman whose +opinion on any subject of common interest was always waited for and +attended upon. Her voice was rich and low--her family did not fully know +how dear to their ears was the sound of that voice. + +"Young Mr. Kendrick," said she, "couldn't wish, Ruth, for a more +powerful advocate than you. To have you approve him, after seeing him +under more intimate circumstances than we are likely to do, must commend +him to our good will. To tell the frank truth, I have been rather afraid +to admit him to my good graces, lest there be really no great force of +character, or even promise of it, behind that handsome face and winning +manner. But if you see the signs--as you say--we must look more +hopefully upon him." + +"She's not the only one who sees signs," asserted Judge Gray. "He's +coming on--he's coming on well, in his work with me. He's learning +really to work. I admit he didn't know how when he came to me. Something +has waked him up. I'm inclined to think," he went on, with a mischievous +glance toward the end of the room where sat the noiseless musicians, "it +might have been my niece Roberta's shining example of industry when she +spent a day with us in my library, typing work for me back in October. +Never was such a sight to serve as an inspiration for a laggardly young +man!" + +There was a general laugh, and all eyes were turned toward that end of +the room devoted to the users of the musical instruments. In response +came a deep, resonant note from Roberta's 'cello, over which the silent +bow had been for some time suspended. There followed a minor scale, +descending well into the depths and vibrating dismally as it went. +Louis, a mocking light in his eye, strolled down the room to his +sisters. + +"That's the way you feel about it, eh?" he queried, regarding Roberta +with brotherly interest. "Consigning the poor, innocent chap to the +bottom of the ladder, when he's doing his best to climb up to the +sunshine of your smile. Have you no respect for the opinion of your +betters?" + +"Get out your fiddle and play the Grieg _Danse Caprice_, with us," was +her reply, and Louis obeyed, though not without a word or two more in +her ear which made her lift her bow threateningly. Presently the trio +were off, playing with a spirit and dash which drew all ears, and at the +close of the _Danse_ hearty applause called for more. After this +diversion, naturally enough, new subjects came up for discussion. + +Returning to the living-room in search of a dropped letter, after the +family had dispersed for the night, Roberta found her mother lingering +there alone. She had drawn a low chair close to the fire, and, having +extinguished all other lights, was sitting quietly looking into the +still glowing embers. Roberta, forgetting her quest, came close, and +flinging a cushion at her mother's knee dropped down there. This was a +frequent happening, and the most intimate hours the two spent together +were after this fashion. + +There was no speech for a little, though Mrs. Gray's hand wandered +caressingly about her daughter's neck in a way Roberta dearly loved, +drawing the loosened dark locks away from the small ears, or twisting a +curly strand about her fingers. Suddenly the girl burst out: + +"Mother, what are you to do when you find all your theories upset?" + +"_All_ upset?" repeated Mrs. Gray, in her rich and quiet voice. "That +would be a calamity indeed. Surely there must be one or two of yours +remaining stable?" + +"It seems not, just now. One disproved overturns another. They all hinge +on one another--at least mine do." + +"Perhaps not as closely as you think. What is it, dear? Can you tell me +anything about it?" + +"Not much, I'm afraid. Oh, it's nothing very real, I suppose--just a +sort of vague discomfort at feeling that certain ideals I thought were +as fixed as the stars in the heavens seem to be wobbling as if they +might shoot downward any minute, and--and leave only a trail of light +behind!" + +The last words came on a note of rather shaky laughter. Roberta's arm +lay across her mother's knee, her head upon it. She turned her head +downward for an instant, burying her face in the angle of her arm. Mrs. +Gray regarded the mass of dark locks beneath her hand with a look amused +yet sympathetic. + +"That sort of discomfort attacks us all, at times," she said. "Ideals +change and develop with our growth. One would not want the same ones to +serve her all her life." + +"I know. But when it's not a new and better ideal which displaces the +old one, but only--an attraction--" + +"An attraction not ideal?" + +Roberta shook her head. "I'm afraid not. And I don't see why it should +be an attraction at all. It ought not to be, if my ideals have been what +they should have been. And they have. Why, you gave them to me, mother, +many of them--or at least helped me to work them out for myself. And +I--I had confidence in them!" + +"And they're shaken?" + +"Not the ideals--they're all the same. Only--they don't seem to be proof +against--assault. Oh, I'm talking in riddles, I know. I don't want to +put any of it into words, it makes it seem more real. And it's only a +shadowy sort of difficulty. Maybe that's all it will be." + +Mothers are wonderful at divination; why should they not be, when all +their task is a training in understanding young natures which do not +understand themselves. From these halting phrases of mystery Mrs. Gray +gathered much more than her daughter would have imagined. But she did +not let that be seen. + +"If it is only a shadowy difficulty the rising of the sun will put it to +flight," she predicted. + +Roberta was silent for a space. Then suddenly she sat up. + +"I had a long letter from Forbes Westcott to-day," she said, in a tone +which tried to be casual. "He's staying on in London, getting material +for that difficult Letchworth case he's so anxious to win. It's a +wonderfully interesting letter, though he doesn't say much about the +case. He's one of the cleverest letter writers I ever knew--in the +flesh. It's really an art with him. If he hadn't made a lawyer of +himself he would have been a man of letters, his literary tastes are so +fine. It's quite an education in the use of delightfully spirited +English, a correspondence with him. I've appreciated that more with each +letter." + +She produced the letter. "Just listen to this account of an interview he +had with a distinguished Member of Parliament, the one who has just made +that daring speech in the House that set everybody on fire." And she +read aloud from several closely written pages, holding the sheets toward +the still bright embers, and giving the words the benefit of her own +clear and understanding interpretation. Her mother listened with +interest. + +"That is, indeed, a fine description," she agreed. "There is no question +that Forbes has a brilliant mind. The position he already occupies +testifies to that, and the older men all acknowledge that he is rising +more rapidly than could be expected of any ordinary man. He will be one +of the great men of the legal profession, your father and uncle think, I +know." + +"One of the great men," repeated Roberta, her face still bent over her +letter. "I suppose there's no doubt at all of that. And, mother--you may +imagine that when he sets himself to persuade--any one--to--any course, +he knows how to put it as irresistibly as words can." + +"Yes, I should imagine that, dear," said her mother, her eyes on the +down-bent profile, whose outlines, against the background of the +firelight, would have held a gaze less loving than her own. + +"His age makes him interesting, you know," pursued Roberta. "He's just +enough older--and maturer--than any of the men I know, to make him seem +immensely more worth while. His very looks--that thin, keen face of +his--it's plain, yet attractive, and his eyes look as if they could +see through stone walls. It flatters you to have him seem to find +the things you say worth listening to. I can't just explain his +peculiar--fascination--I really think it is that, except that it's his +splendid mind that grips yours, somehow. Oh, I sound like a, +schoolgirl," she burst out, "in spite of my twenty-four years. I wonder +if you see what I mean." + +"I think I do," said her mother, smiling a little. "You mean that your +judgment approves him, but that your heart lags a little behind?" + +"How did you know?" Roberta folded her arms upon her mother's lap, and +looked up eagerly into her face. "I didn't say anything about my heart." + +"But you did, dear. The very fact that you can discuss him so coolly +tells me that your heart isn't seriously involved as yet. Is it?" + +"That's what I don't know," said the girl. "When he writes like +this--the last two pages I can't read to you--I don't know what I think. +And I'm not used to not knowing what I think! It's disconcerting. It's +like being taken off your feet and--not set down again. Yet, when I'm +with him--I'm not at all sure I should ever want him nearer than--well, +than three feet away. And he's so insistent--persistent. He wants an +answer--now, by mail." + +"Are you ready to give it?" + +"No. I'm afraid to give it--at long distance." + +"Then do not. You are under no obligation to do that. The test of actual +presence is the only one to apply. Let him wait till he comes home. It +will not hurt him." + +She spoke with spirit, and her daughter responded to the tone. + +"I know that's the best advice," Roberta said, getting to her feet. +"Mother, you like him?" + +"Yes, I have always liked Forbes," said Mrs. Gray, with cordiality. +"Your father likes him, and trusts him, as a man of honour, in his +profession. That is much to say. Whether he is a man who would make you +happy--that is a different question. No one can answer that but +yourself." + +"I haven't wanted any one to make me happy." Roberta stood upon the +hearth-rug, a figure of charm among the lights and shadows. "I've been +absorbed in my work--and my play. I enjoy my men friends--and am glad +when they go away and leave me. Life is so full--and rich--just of +itself. There are so many wonderful people, of all sorts. The world is +so interesting--and home is so dear!" She lifted her arms, her head up. +"Mother, let's play the Bach _Air_," she said. "That always takes the +fever out of me, and makes me feel calm and rational. Is it very +late?--are you too tired? Nobody will be disturbed at this distance." + +"I should love to play it," said Mrs. Gray, and together the two went +down the room to the great piano which stood there in the darkness. +Roberta switched on one hooded light, produced the music for her mother, +and tuned her 'cello, sitting at one side away from the light, with no +notes before her. Presently the slow, deep, and majestic notes of the +"Air for the G String" were vibrating through the quiet room, the 'cello +player drawing her bow across and across the one string with affection +for each rich note in her very touch. The other string tones followed +her with exquisite sympathy, for Mrs. Gray was a musician from whom +three of her four children had inherited an intense love for harmonic +values. + +But a few bars had sounded when a tall figure came noiselessly into the +room, and Mr. Robert Gray dropped into the seat before the fire which +his wife had lately occupied. With head thrown back he listened, and +when silence fell at the close of the performance, his deep voice was +the first to break it. + +"To me," he said, "that is the slow flowing and receding of waves upon a +smooth and rocky shore. The sky is gray, but the atmosphere is warm and +friendly. It is all very restful, after a day of perturbation." + +"Oh, is it like that to you?" queried Roberta softly, out of the +darkness. "To me it's as if I were walking down the nave of a great +cathedral--Westminster, perhaps--big and bare and wonderful, with the +organ playing ever so far away. The sun is shining outside and so it's +not gloomy, only very peaceful, and one can't imagine the world at the +doors." She looked over at her mother, whose face was just visible in +the shaded light. "What is it to you, lovely lady?" + +"It is a prayer," said her mother slowly, "a prayer for peace and purity +in a restless world, yet a prayer for service, too. The one who prays +lies very low, with his face concealed, and his spirit is full of +worship." + +The light was put out; the three, father, mother, and daughter, came +together in the fading fire-glow. Roberta laid a warm young hand upon the +shoulder of each. "You dears," she said, "what fortunate and happy +children your four are, to be the children of you!" + +Her father placed his firm fingers under her chin, lifting her face. +"Your mother and I," said he, "consider ourselves fairly fortunate and +happy to be the parents of you. You are an interesting quartette. 'Age +cannot wither nor custom stale' your 'infinite variety.' But age will +wither you if you often sit up to play Bach at midnight, when you must +teach school next day. Therefore, good-night, Namesake!" + +Yet when she had gone, her father and mother lingered by the last embers +of the fire. + +"God give her wisdom!" said Roberta's mother. + +"He will--with you to ask Him," replied Roberta's father, with his arms +about his wife. "I think He never refuses you anything! I don't see how +He could!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"THE TAMING OF THE SHREW" + + +"School again, Rob! Don't you hate it?" + +"No, of course I don't hate it. I'm much, much happier when I'm teaching +Ethel Revell to forget her important young self and remember the part +she is supposed to play, than I am when I am merely dusting my room or +driving downtown on errands." + +As she spoke Roberta pushed into place the last hairpin in the close and +trim arrangement of her dark hair, briefly surveyed the result with a +hand-glass, and rose from her dressing-table. Ruth, at a considerably +earlier stage of her dressing, regarded her sister's head with interest. + +"I can always tell the difference between a school day and another day, +just by looking at your hair," she observed, sagely. + +"How, Miss Big Eyes, if you please?" + +"You never leave a curl sticking out, on school days. They sometimes +work out before night, but that's not your fault. You look like one of +Jane Austen's heroines, now." + +Roberta laughed a laugh of derision. "Miss Austen's heroines undoubtedly +had ringlets hanging in profusion on either side of their oval faces." + +"Yes, but I mean every hair of theirs was in order, and so are yours." + +"Thank you. Only so can I command respect when I lecture my girls on +their frenzied coiffures. Oh, but I'm thankful I can live at home and +don't have to spend the nights with them! Some of them are dears, but to +be responsible for them day and night would harrow my soul. Hook me up, +will you, Rufus, please?" + +"You look just like a smooth feathered bluebird in this," commented +Ruth, as she obediently fastened the severely simple school dress of +dark blue, relieved only by its daintily fresh collar and cuffs of +embroidered white lawn. + +"I mean to. Miss Copeland wouldn't have a fluffy, frilly teacher in her +school--and I don't blame her. It's difficult enough to train fluffy, +frilly girls to like simplicity, even if one's self is a model of +plainness and repose." + +"And you're truly glad to go back, after this lovely vacation? Shouldn't +you sort of like to keep on typing for Uncle Calvin, with Mr. Richard +Kendrick sitting close by, looking at you over the top of his book?" + +Roberta wheeled, answering with vehemence: "I should say not, you +romantic infant! When I work I want to work with workers, not with +drones! A person who can only dawdle over his task is of no use at all. +How Uncle Calvin gets on with a mere imitation of a secretary, I can't +possibly see. Why, Ted himself could cover more ground in a morning!" + +"I don't think you do him justice," Ruth objected, with all the dignity +of her sixteen years in evidence. "Of course he couldn't work as well +with you in the room--he isn't used to it. And you are--you certainly +are, awfully nice to look at, Rob." + +"Nonsense! It's lucky you're going back to school yourself, child, to +get these sentimental notions out of your head. Come, vacation's over! +Let's not sigh for more dances; let's go at our work with a will. I've +plenty before me. The school play comes week after next, and I haven't +as good material this year as last. How I'm ever going to get Olivia +Cartwright to put sufficient backbone into her _Petruchio_, I don't +know. I only wish I could play him myself!" + +"Rob! Couldn't you?" + +"It's never done. My part is just to coach and coach, to go over the +lines a thousand times and the stage business ten thousand, and then to +stay behind the scenes and hiss at them: 'More spirit! More life! Throw +yourself into it!' and then to watch them walk it through like puppets! +Well, _The Taming of the Shrew_ is pretty stiff work for amateurs, no +doubt of that--there's that much to be said. Breakfast time, childie! +You must hurry, and I must be off." + +Half an hour later Ruth watched her sister walk away down the street +with Louis, her step as lithe and vigorous as her brother's. Ruth +herself was accustomed to drive with her father to the school which she +attended--a rival school, as it happened, of the fashionable one at +which Roberta taught. She was not so strong as her sister, and a +two-mile walk to school was apt to overtire her. But Roberta chose to +walk every day and all days, and the more stormy the weather the surer +was she to scorn all offers of a place beside Ruth in the brougham. + +Louis's comment on the return of his sister to her work at Miss +Copeland's school was much like that of Ruth. "Sorry vacation's over, +Rob? That's where I have the advantage of you. The office never closes +for more than a day; therefore I'm always in training." + +"That's an advantage, surely enough. But I'm ready to go back. As I was +telling Ruth this morning, I'm anxious to know whether Olivia Cartwright +has forgotten her lines, and whether she's going to be able to infuse a +bit of life into her _Petruchio_. This trying to make a schoolgirl play +a big man's part--" + +"You could do it, yourself," observed Louis, even as Ruth had done. + +"And shouldn't I love to! I'm just longing to stride about the stage in +_Petruchio's_ boots." + +"I'll wager you are. I'd like to see you do it. But the part of +_Katherine_ would be the thing for you--fascinating shrew that you could +be." + +"This--from a brother! Yes, I'd like to play _Katherine_, too. But give +me the boots, if you please. Do you happen to remember Olivia +Cartwright?" + +"Of course I do. And a mighty pretty and interesting girl she is. I +should think she might make a _Petruchio_ for you." + +"I thought she would. But the boots seem to have a devastating effect. +The minute she gets them on--even in imagination, for we haven't had a +dress rehearsal yet--her voice grows softer and her manner more +lady-like. It's the funniest thing I ever knew, to hear her say the +lines-- + +"'What is this? mutton?... +'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat. +What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook? + +"How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser, +And serve it thus to me that love it not? + There, take it to you, trenchers, cups and all, +You heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves!'" + +Passersby along the street beheld a young man consumed with mirth as +Louis Gray heard these stirring words issuing from his sister's pretty +mouth in a clever imitation of the schoolgirl _Petruchio's_ "lady-like" +tones. + +"Now speak those lines as you would if you wore the boots," he urged, +when he had recovered his gravity. + +Roberta waited till they were at a discreet distance from other +pedestrians, then delivered the lines as she had already spoken them for +her pupil twenty times or more, with a spirit and temper which gave them +their character as the assumed bluster they were meant to picture. + +"Good!" cried Louis. "Great! But you see, Sis, you have learned the +absolute control of your voice, and that's a thing few schoolgirls have +mastered. Besides, not every girl has a throat like yours." + +"I mean to be patient," said Roberta soberly. "And Olivia has really a +good speaking voice. It's the curious effect of the imaginary boots that +stirs my wonder. She actually speaks in a higher key with them on than +off. But we shall improve that, in the fortnight before the play. They +are really doing very well, and our _Katherine_--Ethel Revell--is going +to forget herself completely in her part, if I can manage it. In spite +of the hard work I thoroughly enjoy the rehearsing of the yearly +play--it's a relief from the routine work of the class. And the girls +appreciate the best there is, in the great writers and dramatists, as +you wouldn't imagine they could do." + +"On the whole, you would rather be a teacher than an office +stenographer?" suggested Louis, with a touch of mischief in his tone. +"You know, I've always been a bit disappointed that you didn't come into +our office, after working so hard to make an expert of yourself." + +"That training wasn't wasted," defended Roberta. "I'm able to make +friends with my working girls lots better on account of the stenography +and typewriting I know. And I may need that resource yet. I'm not at all +sure that I mean to be a teacher all my days." + +"I'm very sure you'll not," said her brother, with a laughing glance, +which Roberta ignored. It was a matter of considerable amusement to her +brothers the serious way in which she had set about being independent. +They fully approved of her decision to spend her time in a way worth the +while, but when it came to planning for a lifetime--there were plenty of +reasons for skepticism as to her needing to look far ahead. Indeed, it +was well known that Roberta might have abandoned all effort long ago, +and have given any one of several extremely eligible young men the +greatly desired opportunity of taking care of her in his own way. + +The pair separated at a street corner, and, as it happened, Louis heard +little more about the progress of the school rehearsals for _The Taming +of the Shrew_ until the day before its public performance--if a +performance could be called public which was to be given in so private a +place as the ballroom in the home of one of the wealthiest patrons of +the school, the audience composed wholly of invited guests, and +admission to the affair for others extremely difficult to procure on any +ground whatever. + +Appearing at the close of the final rehearsal to escort his sister +home--for the hour, like that of all final rehearsals, was late--Louis +found a flushed and highly wrought Roberta delivering last instructions +even as she put on her wraps. + +"Remember, Olivia," he heard her say to a tall girl wrapped in a long +cloak which evidently concealed male trappings, "I'm not going to tone +down my part one bit to fit yours. If I'm stormy you must be blustering; +if I'm furious you must be fierce. You can do it, I know." + +"I certainly hope so, Miss Gray," answered a none-too-confident voice. +"But I'm simply frightened to death to play opposite you." + +"Nonsense! I'll stick pins into you--metaphorically speaking," declared +Roberta. "I'll keep you up to it. Now go straight to bed--no sitting up +to talk it over with Ethel--poor child! Good-night, dear, and don't you +dare be afraid of me!" + +"Are you going to play the boots, after all?" Louis queried as he and +Roberta started toward home, walking at a rapid pace, as usual after +rehearsals. + +"I wish I were, if I must play some part. No, it's _Katherine_. Ethel +Revell has come down with tonsilitis, just at the last minute. It was to +be expected, of course--somebody always does it. But I did hope it +wouldn't be one of the principals. Of course there's nobody who could +possibly get up the part overnight except the coach, so I'm in for it. +And the worst of it is that unless I'm very careful I shall +over-_Katherine_ my _Petruchio_! If Olivia will only keep her voice +resonant! She can stride and gesture pretty well now, but highly +dramatic moments always cause her to raise her key--and then the boots +only serve to make the effect grotesque." + +"Never mind; unconscious humour is always interesting to the audience. +And we shall all be there to see your _Katherine_. I had thought of +cutting the performance for a rather important address, but nothing +would induce me to miss my sister as the _Shrew_." + +Roberta laughed. "Nobody will question my fitness for the part, I fear. +Well, if I teach expression, in a girls' school, I must take the +consequences, and be willing to express anything that comes along." + +If Roberta had expected any sympathy from her family in the exigency of +the hour, she was disappointed. Instead of condoling with her, the +breakfast-table hearers of the news, next morning, were able only to +congratulate themselves upon the augmented interest the school play +would now have for Roberta's friends, confident that the presence of one +clever actress of maturer powers would compensate for much +amateurishness in the others. Ruth, young devotee of her sister, was +delighted beyond measure with the prospect, and joyfully spent the day +taking necessary stitches in the apparel Roberta was to wear, +considerable alteration being necessary to adapt the garments intended +for the slim and girlish _Katherine_ of Ethel Revell's proportions to +the more perfectly rounded lines of her teacher. + +Late in the afternoon, something was needed to complete Roberta's +preparations which could be procured only in a downtown shop, and Ruth +volunteered to order the brougham--now on runners--and go down for it. +She left the house alone, but she did not complete her journey alone, +for halfway down the two-mile boulevard she passed a figure she knew, +and turned to bestow a girlish bow and smile. + +Richard Kendrick not only took off his hat but waved it with a gesture +of entreaty, as he quickened his steps, and Ruth, much excited by the +encounter, bade Thomas stop the horses. + +"Would you take a passenger?" he asked as he came up; "unless, of +course, you're going to stop for some one else?" + +"Do get in," she urged shyly. "No, I'm all alone--going on an errand." + +"I guessed it--not the errand, but the being alone. You looked so small, +wrapped up in all these furs, I felt you needed company," explained +Richard, smiling down into the animated young face, with its delicate +colour showing fresh and fair in the frosty air. There was something +very attractive to the young man in this girl, who seemed to him the +embodiment of sweetness and purity. He never saw her without feeling +that he would have liked just such a little sister. He would have done +much to please her, quite as he had followed her suggestion about the +church-going on Christmas Day. + +"I'm rushing down to find a scarf of a certain colour for Rob," +explained Ruth, too full of her commission to keep it to herself. "You +see, she's playing _Katherine_ to-night. The girl who was to have played +it--Ethel Revell--is ill. Do you know any of Miss Copeland's girls? +Olivia Cartwright plays _Petruchio_." + +"Olivia Cartwright? Is she to be in some play? She's a distant cousin of +mine." + +"It's a school play--Miss Copeland's school, where Rob teaches, you +know. The play is to be in the Stuart Hendersons' ballroom." And Ruth +made known the situation to a listener who gave her his undivided +attention. + +"Well, well,--seems to me I should have had an invitation for that +play," mused Richard, searching his memory. "I wish I'd had one. I +should like to see your sister act _Katherine_. I suppose it's quite +impossible to get one at this late hour?" + +"I'm afraid so. It's really not at all strange that any one is left out +of the list of invitations," Ruth hastened to make clear. "You see, each +girl is allowed only six, and that usually takes just her family or +nearest friends. And if you are only a distant cousin of Olivia's--" + +"It's not at all strange that she shouldn't ask me, for I'm afraid I've +neglected to avail myself of former invitations of hers," admitted +Richard, ruefully. "Too bad. Punishment for such neglect usually +follows--and I certainly have it now. I know the Stuart Hendersons, +though--I wonder--Never mind, Miss Ruth, don't look so sorry. You'll +tell me about it afterward, some time, won't you?" + +"Indeed I will. Oh, it's been such an exciting day. Rob's been +rehearsing her lines all day--when she wasn't trying on. She says she +could have played _Petruchio_ much better, because she's had to coach +Olivia Cartwright for that part so much more than she's had to coach +Ethel for _Katherine_. But, then, she knows the whole play--she could +take any part. She would have loved to play _Petruchio_, though, on +account of the boots and the slashing round the stage the way he does. +But I think it's just as well, for _Katherine_ certainly slashes, +too--and Rob's not quite tall enough for _Petruchio_." + +"I'm glad she plays _Katherine_," said Richard Kendrick decidedly. "I +can't imagine your sister in boots! I've no doubt, though, she'd make +them different from other boots--if she wore them!" + +"Of course she would," agreed Ruth. Then she began to talk about +something else, for a bit of fear had come into her mind that Rob +wouldn't enjoy all this discussion of herself, if she should know about +it. + +She was such an honest young person, however, that she had a good deal +of difficulty, when she had done her errand and was at home again, in +not telling Roberta of her meeting with Richard Kendrick. She did +venture to ask a question. + +"Is Mr. Kendrick invited for to-night, Rob?" + +"Not by me," Roberta responded promptly. + +"He might be, by one of the girls, I suppose?" + +"The girls invite whom they like. I haven't seen the list. I don't +imagine he would be on it. I hope not, certainly." + +"Why? Don't you think he would enjoy it?" + +"No, I do not. Musical comedies are probably more to his taste than +amateur productions of Shakespeare. But I'm not thinking about the +audience--the players are enough for me." Then, suddenly, an idea which +flashed into her mind caused her to turn and scan Ruth's ingenuous young +face. + +"You haven't been inviting Mr. Kendrick yourself, Rufus?" + +"Why, how could I?" But the girl flushed rosily in a way which betrayed +her interest. "I just--wondered." + +"How did you come to wonder? Have you seen him?" + +Ruth being Ruth, there was nothing to do but to tell Roberta of the +encounter with Richard. "He said he was glad you were to play +_Katherine_, because he couldn't imagine you in boots," she added, +hoping this news might appease her sister. But it did nothing of the +sort. + +"As if it made the slightest difference to him! But if he feels that +way, I wish I were to wear the boots, and I wish he might be there to +see me do it. As it is, I hope Mrs. Stuart Henderson will be deaf to his +audacity, if he dares to ask an invitation. It would be quite like him!" + +"I don't see why--" began Ruth. + +But Roberta interrupted her. "There are lots of things you don't see, +little sister," said she, with a swift and impetuous embrace of the +slender form beside her. Then she turned, frowned, flung out her arm, +and broke into one of _Katherine's_ flaming speeches: + +_"'Why, sir, I trust, I may have leave to speak: +And speak I will: I am no child, no babe: +Your betters have endured me say my mind +And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.'"_ + +"Oh, but you do have such a lovely voice!" cried Ruth. "You can't make +even the _Shrew_ sound shrewish--in her tone, I mean." + +"Can't I, indeed? Wait till to-night! If your friend Mr. Kendrick is to +be there I'll be more shrewish than you ever dreamed--it will be a real +stimulus!" + +Ruth shook her head in dumb wonder that any one could be so impervious +to the charms of the young man who so appealed to her youthful +imagination. Three hours afterward, when she turned in her chair, in the +Stuart Henderson ballroom, at the summons of a low voice in her ear, to +find Richard Kendrick in the row behind her, she wondered afresh what +there could possibly be about him to rouse her sister's antagonism. His +face was such an interesting one, his eyes so clear and their glance so +straightforward, his fresh colour so pleasant to note, his whole +personality so attractive, Ruth could only answer him in the happiest +way at her command with a subdued but eager: "Oh, I'm so glad you came!" + +"That's due to Mrs. Cartwright's wonderful kindness. She's the mother of +_Petruchio_, you know," explained Richard, with a smiling glance at the +gorgeously gowned woman beside him, who leaned forward also to say to +Ruth: + +"What is one to do with a sweetly apologetic young cousin who begs to be +allowed to come, at the last moment, to view his cousin in doublet and +hose? But I really didn't venture to tell Olivia. She would have fled +from the stage if she had guessed that cousin Richard, whom she greatly +admires, was to be here. I can only hope she will not hear of it till +the play is over." + +"If his being here is going to make _Petruchio_ tremble more, and +_Katherine_ act naughtier, I shall feel dreadfully guilty," thought +Ruth. But somehow when the curtain went up she could not help being glad +that he was there, behind her. + +Roberta had said much, in hours of relaxation after long and tense +rehearsals, of the difficulty of making schoolgirls forget themselves in +any part. It had been difficult, indeed, to train her pupils to speak +and act with naturalness in rôles so foreign to their experience. But +she had been much more successful than she had dared to believe, and her +own enthusiasm, her tireless drilling, above all her inspiring example +as she spoke her girls' lines for them and demonstrated to them each +telling detail of stage business, had done the work with astonishing +effect. The hardest task of all had been to find and develop a +satisfactory delineator of the difficult part of the _Tamer of the +Shrew_, but Roberta had persevered, even taking a journey of some hours +with Olivia Cartwright to have her see and study one of the greatest of +_Petruchios_ at two successive performances. She had succeeded in +stimulating Olivia to a real determination to be worthy of her teacher's +expressed belief in her, even to the mastering of her girlish tendency +to let her voice revert to a high-keyed feminine quality just when it +needed to be deepest and most stern. + +The audience, as the play began, was in the customary benevolent mood of +audiences beholding amateur productions, ready to see good if possible, +anxious to show favour to all the young actors and to praise without +discrimination, aware of the proximity of proud fathers and mothers. But +this audience soon found itself genuinely interested and amused, and +with the first advent of the enchanting _Shrew_ herself became absorbed +in her personality and her fortunes quite as it might have been in those +of any talented actress of reputation. + +To Ruth, sitting wide eyed and hot cheeked, her sister seemed the most +spirited and bewitching _Katherine_ ever played. Her shrewishness was +that of the wilful madcap girl who has never been crossed rather than +that of the inherently ill-tempered woman, and her every word and +gesture, her every expression of face and tone of voice, were worth +noting and watching. By no means finished work--as how should it be, in +a young teacher but few years out of school herself--it yet had an +originality and freshness of interpretation all its own, and the +applause which praised it was very spontaneous and genuine. Roberta had +been the joy of her class in college dramatics, and several of her +former classmates, in her audience to-night, gleefully told one another +that she was surpassing anything she had formerly done. + +"It's simply superb, you know, don't you?--your sister's acting," said +Richard Kendrick's voice in Ruth's ear again at the end of the first +act, and she turned her burning cheek his way as she answered happily: + +"It seems so to me--but then I'm prejudiced, you know." + +"We're all prejudiced, when it comes to that--made so by this +performance. I'm pretty proud of my cousin _Petruchio_, too," he went +on, including Mrs. Cartwright at his side. "I'd no idea boots could be +so becoming to any girl--outside of a chorus. Olivia's splendid. Do you +suppose"--he was addressing Ruth again--"you and I might go behind the +scenes and tell them how we feel about it?" + +"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Kendrick," Ruth replied, much shocked. "It's lots +different, a girls' play like this, from the regular theatre. They'd be +so astonished to see you. Rob's told me, heaps of times, how they go +perfectly crazy after every act, and she has all she can do to keep them +cool enough for the next. She'd never forgive us. And besides, Olivia +Cartwright's not to know you're here, you know." + +"That's true. I'd forgotten how disturbing my presence is supposed to +be," and Richard leaned back again to laugh with Mrs. Cartwright. + +But, behind the scenes, the news had penetrated, nobody knew just how. +Roberta learned, to her surprise and distraction, that Richard Kendrick +was somehow a particularly interesting figure in the eyes of her young +players, and she speedily discovered that they were all more or less +excited at the knowledge that he was somewhere below the footlights. +Olivia, indeed, was immediately in a flutter, quite as her mother had +predicted, at the thought of Cousin Richard's eyes upon her in her +masculine attire; and Roberta, in the brief interval she could spare for +the purpose, had to take her sternly in hand. An autocratic _Katherine_ +might, then, have been overheard addressing a flurried _Petruchio_, in a +corner: + +"For pity's sake, child, who is he that you need be afraid of him? He's +no critic, I'll wager, and if he's your cousin he'll be sure to think +you act like a veteran, anyhow. Forget him, and go ahead. You're doing +splendidly. Don't you dare slump just because you're remembering your +audience!" + +"Oh, of course I'll try, Miss Gray," replied an extremely feminine voice +from beneath _Petruchio's_ fierce mustachios. "But Richard Kendrick +really is awfully sort of upsetting, don't you know?" + +"Of course I don't know," denied Roberta promptly. "As long as Miss +Copeland herself is pleased with us, nobody else matters. And Miss +Copeland is delighted--she sent me special word just now. So stiffen +your backbone, _Petruchio_, and make this next dialogue with me as rapid +as you know. Come back at me like flash-fire--don't lag a breath--we'll +stir the house to laughter, or know the reason why. Ready?" + +Her firm hand on Olivia's arm, her bracing words in Olivia's ear, put +courage back into her temporarily stage-struck "leading man," and Olivia +returned to the charge determined to play up to her teacher without +lagging. In truth, Roberta's actual presence on the stage was proving a +distinct advantage to those of the players who had parts with her. She +warmed and held them to their tasks with the flash of her own eyes, not +to mention an occasional almost imperceptible but pregnant gesture, and +they found themselves somehow able to "forget the audience," as she had +so many times advised them to do, the better that she herself seemed so +completely to have forgotten it. + +The work of the young actors grew better with each act, and at the end +of the fourth, when the curtain went down upon a scene which had been +all storm on the part of the players and all laughter on the part of the +audience, the applause was long and hearty. There were calls for the +entire cast, and when they had several times responded there was a +special and persistent demand for _Katherine_ herself, in the character +of the producer of the play. She refused it until she could no longer do +so without discourtesy; then she came before the curtain and said a few +winsome words of gratitude on behalf of her "company." + +Ruth, staring up at her sister's face brilliant with the mingled +exertion and emotion of the hour, and thinking her the prettiest picture +there against the great dull-blue silk curtain of the stage she had ever +seen, had no notion that just behind her somebody was thinking the same +thing with a degree of fervour far beyond her own. Richard Kendrick's +heart was thumping vigorously away in his breast as he looked his fill +at the figure before the curtain, secure in the darkness of the house +from observation at the moment. + +When he had first met this girl he had told himself that he would soon +know her well, would soon call her by her name. He wondered at himself +that he could possibly have fancied conquest of her so easy. He was not +a whit nearer knowing her, he was obliged to acknowledge, than on that +first day, nor did he see any prospect of getting to know her--beyond a +certain point. Her chosen occupation seemed to place her beyond his +reach; she was not to be got at by the ordinary methods of approach. +Twice he had called and asked for her, to be told that she was busy with +school papers and must be excused. Once he had ventured to invite her to +go with Mrs. Stephen and himself to a carefully chosen play and a +supper, but she had declined, gracefully enough--but she had declined, +and Mrs. Stephen also. He could not make these people out, he told +himself. Did they and he live in such different worlds that they could +never meet on common ground? + +_The Taming of the Shrew_ came to a triumphant end; the curtain fell +upon the effective closing scene in which the lovely _Shrew_, become a +richly loving and tender wife, without, somehow, surrendering a particle +of her exquisite individuality, spoke her words of wisdom to other +wives. Richard smiled to himself as he heard the lines fall from +Roberta's lips. And beneath his breath he said: + +"I don't see how you can bring yourself to say them, you modern girl. +You'd never let a real husband feel his power that way, I'll wager. If +you did--well--it would go to his head, I'm sure of that. What an idiot +I am to think I could ever make her look at me the way she looked even +at that schoolgirl _Petruchio_--with a clever imitation of devotion. O +Roberta Gray! But I'd rather worship you across the footlights than take +any other girl in my arms. And somehow--somehow I've got to make you at +least respect me. At least that, Roberta! Then--perhaps--more!" + +At Ruth's side, when the play was ended, Richard hoped to attain at +least the chance to speak to Ruth's sister. The young players all +appeared upon the stage, the curtain being raised for the rest of the +evening, and the audience came up, group by group, to offer +congratulations and pour into gratified ears the praise which was the +reward of labour. Richard succeeded in getting by degrees into the +immediate vicinity of Roberta, who was continuously surrounded by happy +parents bent on presenting their felicitations. But just as he was about +to make his way to her side a diversion occurred which took her +completely away from him. A girl near by, who on account of physical +frailty had had a minor part, grew suddenly faint, and in a trice +Roberta had impressed into her service a strong pair of male arms, +nearer at hand than Richard's, and had had the slim little figure +carried behind the scenes, herself following. + +Ten minutes later he learned from Ruth that Roberta had gone back to +Miss Copeland's school with the girl, recovered but weak. + +"Couldn't anybody else have gone?" he inquired, considerable impatience +in his voice. + +"Of course--lots of people could, and would. Only it's just like Rob to +seize the chance to get away from this, and not come back. You'll +see--she won't. She hates being patted on the back, as she calls it. I +never can see why, when people mean it, as I'm sure they do to-night. +She's the queerest girl. She never wants what you'd think she would, or +wants it the way other people do. But she's awfully dear, just the +same," Ruth hastened to add, fearful lest she seem to criticise the +beloved sister. "And somehow you don't get tired of her, the way you do +of some people. Perhaps that's just because she's different." + +"I suspect it is," Richard agreed with conviction. Certainly, a girl who +would run away from such adulation as she had been receiving must be, he +considered, decidedly and interestingly "different." He only wished he +might hit upon some "different" way to pique her interest. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BLANKETS + + +There was destined to be a still longer break in the work which had been +going on in Judge Calvin Gray's library than was intended. He and his +assistant had barely resumed their labours after the Christmas +house-party when the Judge was called out of town for a period whose +limit when he left he was unable to fix. He could leave little for +Richard to do, so that young man found his time again upon his hands and +himself unable to dispose of it to advantage. + +His mind at this period was in a curious state of dissatisfaction. Ever +since the evening of the Christmas dance, when a girl's careless word +had struck home with such unexpected force he had been as restless and +uneasy as a fish out of water. His condition bore as much resemblance to +that of the gasping fish as this: in the old element of life about town, +as he had been in the habit of living it, he now had the sensation of +not being able to breathe freely. + +It was with the intention of getting into the open, both mentally and +physically, that on the second day following the Judge's departure +Richard started on a long drive in his car. Beyond a certain limit he +knew that the roads were likely to prove none too good, though the +winter had thus far been an open one and there was little chance of his +encountering blocking snowdrifts "up State." He took no one with him. He +could think of no one with whom he cared to go. + +As he drove his mind was busy with all sorts of speculations. In his +hurt pride he had said to a girl: "If I can't make you think differently +of me it won't be for lack of will." That meant--what did it mean? That +he had recognized the fact that she despised idlers--and that young rich +men who spent a few hours, on an average of five days of the week, in +assisting elderly gentlemen bereft of their eyesight in looking up old +records, did not thereby in her estimation remove themselves from the +class of those who do nothing in the world but attend to the spending of +their incomes. + +What should he do--how prove himself fit to deserve her approval? +Unquestionably he must devote himself seriously to some serious +occupation. All sorts of ideas chased one another through his mind in +response to this stimulus. What was he fitted to do? He had a certain +facility in the use of the pen, as he had proved in the service of Judge +Calvin Gray. Should he look for a job as reporter on one of the city +dailies? He certainly could not offer himself for any post higher than +that of the rawest scribe on the force; he had had no experience. The +thought of seeking such a post made his lip curl with the absurdity of +the notion. They would make a society reporter of him; it would be the +first idea that would occur to them. It was the only thing for which +they would think him fit! + +The thing he should like to do would be to travel on some interesting +commission for his grandfather. On what commission, for instance? The +purchasing of rare works of art for the picture-gallery of the great +store? No mean exhibition it was they had there. But he had not the +training for such a commission; he would be cheated out of hand when it +came to buying! They sent skilled buyers on such quests. + +He thought of rushing off to the far West and buying a ranch. That was a +fit and proper thing for a fellow like himself; plenty of rich men's +sons had done it. If she could see him in cowboy garb, rough-clad, +sunburnt, muscular, she would respect him then perhaps. There would be +no more flinging at him that he was a cotillion leader! How he hated the +term! + +The day was fair and cold, the roads rather better than he had expected, +and by luncheon-time he had reached a large town, seventy miles away +from his own city, where he knew of an exceptionally good place to +obtain a refreshing meal. With this end in view, he was making more than +ordinary village speed when disaster befell him in the shape of a break +in his electric connections. Two blocks away from the hotel he sought, +the car suddenly went dead. + +While he was investigating, fingers blue with cold, a voice he knew +hailed him. It came from a young man who advanced from the doorway of a +store, in front of which the car had chanced to stop. "Something wrong, +Rich?" + +Richard stood up. He gripped his friend's hand cordially, glancing up at +the sign above the store as he did so. + +"Mighty glad to see you, Benson," he responded. "I didn't realize I'd +stopped in front of your father's place of business." + +Hugh Benson was a college classmate. In spite of the difference between +their respective estates in the college world, the two had been rather +good friends during the four years of their being thrown together. Since +graduation, however, they had seldom met, and for the last two years +Richard Kendrick had known no more of his former friend than that the +good-sized dry-goods store, standing on a prominent corner in the large +town through which he often motored without stopping, still bore the +name of Hugh Benson's father. + +When the car was running again Benson climbed in and showed Richard the +way to his own home, where he prevailed on his friend to remain for +lunch with himself and his mother. Richard learned for the first time +that Benson's father had died within the last year. + +"And you're going on with the business?" questioned Richard, as the two +lingered alone together in Benson's hall before parting. The talk during +the meal had been mostly of old college days, of former classmates, and +of the recent history of nearly every mutual acquaintance except that of +the speakers themselves. + +"There was nothing else for me to do when father left us," Benson +responded in a low tone. "I'm not as well adapted to it as he was, but +I expect to learn." + +"I remember you thought of doing graduate work along scientific lines. +Did you give that up?" + +"Yes. I found father needed me at home; his health must have been +failing even then, though I didn't realize it. I've been in the store +with him ever since. I'm glad I have--now." + +"It's not been good for you," declared Richard, scrutinizing his +friend's pale and rather worn face critically. It would have seemed to +him still paler and more worn if he could have seen it in contrast with +his own fresh-tinted features, ruddy with his morning's drive. "Better +come with me for an afternoon spin farther up State, and a good dinner +at a place I know. Get you back by bedtime." + +"There's nothing I'd like better, Rich," said Benson longingly; "but--I +can't leave the store. I have rather a short force of clerks--and on a +sunny day--" + +"You'd sell more goods to-morrow," urged Richard, feeling increasingly +anxious to do something which might bring light into a face he had not +remembered as so sombre. + +But Benson shook his head again. Afterward, in front of the store to +which the two had returned in the car, Richard could only give his +friend a warm grip of the hand and an urgent invitation to visit him in +the city. + +"I suppose you come down often to buy goods," he suggested. "Or do you +send buyers? I don't know much about the conduct of business in a town +like this--or much about it at home, for that matter," he owned. "Though +I'm not sure I'm proud of my ignorance." + +"It doesn't matter whether you know anything about it or not, of +course," said Benson, looking up at him with a queer expression of +wistfulness. "No, I'm my own buyer. And I don't buy of a great, +high-grade firm like yours; I go to a different class of fellows for my +stuff." + +Richard drove on, thinking hard about Benson. What a pity for a fellow +of twenty-six or seven to look like that, careworn and weary. He +wondered whether it was the loss of his father and the probably +sorrowful atmosphere at home that accounted for the look in Benson's +eyes, or whether his business was not a particularly successful one. He +recalled that the one careless glance he had given the windows of +Benson's store had brought to his mind the fleeting impression that +village shopkeepers had not much art in the dressing of their windows as +a means of alluring the public. + +As he drove on he felt in his pockets for a cigar and found his case +unexpectedly empty. He turned back to a drugstore, went in and supplied +himself from the best in stock--none too good for his fastidious taste. + +"What's your best dry-goods shop here?" he inquired casually. + +"Artwell & Chatford's the best--now," responded the druggist, glancing +across the street, where a sign bearing those names met the eye. +"Chaffee Brothers has run 'em a close second since Benson's dropped out +of the competition. Benson's used to be the best, but it's fallen way +behind. Look at Artwell's window display over there and see the reason," +he added, pointing across the street with the citizen's pride in a +successful enterprise in no way his own rival. + +"Gorgeous!" responded Richard, eying an undoubtedly eye-catching +arrangement of blankets of every hue and quality piled about a centre +figure consisting of a handsome brass bed made up as if for occupancy, +the carefully folded-back covers revealing immaculate and downy blankets +with pink borders, the whole suggestive of warmth and comfort throughout +the most rigorous winter season. + +"Catchy--on a day like this!" suggested the druggist, with a chuckle. +"I'll admit they gave me the key for my own windows." + +Richard's gaze followed the other's glance and rested on piles of +scarlet flannel chest-protectors, flanked by small brass tea-kettles +with alcohol lamps beneath. + +"We carry a side line of spirit-lamp stuff," explained the dealer. "It +sells well this time of year. Got to keep track of the popular thing. +Afternoon teas are all the go among the women of this town now. The +hardware's the only other place they can get these--and they don't begin +to keep the variety we do." + +Richard congratulated the dealer on his window. Lingering by it, his +hand on the door, he said: + +"I noticed Benson's as I came by, and I see now the force of what you +say about window display. I'm not sure I can tell what was in their +windows." + +"Nor anybody else," declared the druggist, chuckling, "unless he went +with a notebook and made an inventory. Since the old man died last year +the windows have been a hodgepodge of stuff that attracts nobody. It's +merely an index to the way the place is running behind. Young Benson +doesn't know how to buy nor how to sell; he'll never succeed. The store +began to go down when the old man got too feeble to take the whole +responsibility. Hugh began to overstock some departments and understock +others. It's not so much lack of capital that'll be responsible for +Hugh's failure when it comes--and I guess it's not far off--as it is +lack of business experience. Why, he's got so little trade he's turned +off half his salespeople; and you know that talks!" + +It did indeed. It talked louder now in the light of the druggist's +shrewd commentaries than it had when Benson had spoken of his "short +force." Richard wondered just how short it was, that the proprietor +could not venture to leave for even a few hours. + +He drove on thoughtfully. He wanted to go back and look those windows +over again, wanted to go through the whole store, but recognized that +though he could have done this when he first arrived, he could not go +back and do it now without exciting his friend's suspicion that sympathy +was his motive. + +He turned about at a point far short of the one he had intended to +reach, and made record time back to the city, impelled by an odd wish he +could hardly explain, to go by the windows of the great department +stores of Kendrick & Company and examine their window displays. Since he +was ordinarily accustomed to select any other streets than those upon +which these magnificent places of custom were situated, merely because +he not only had no interest in them but a positive distaste for seeing +his own name emblazoned--though ever so chastely--above their princely +portals, it may be understood that an entirely new idea was working in +his brain. + +Speed as he would, however, running the risk as he approached the city +streets of being stopped by some watchful authority for exceeding the +limits, he could not get back to the broad avenue upon which the stores +stood before six o'clock. There was all the better chance on that +account, nevertheless, for examining the windows before which belated +shoppers were still stopping to wonder and admire. + +Well, looking at them with Benson's forlorn windows in his mind as a +foil, he saw them as he never had before. What beauty, what originality, +what art they showed! And at a time of year when, the holiday season +past, it might seem as if there could be no real summons for anybody to +go shopping. They were fairly dazzling, some of them, although many of +them showed only white goods. His car came to a standstill before one +great plate-glass frame behind which was a representation of a +sewing-room with several people busily at work. So perfect were the +figures that it hardly seemed as if they could be of wax. One pretty +girl was sewing at a machine; another, on her knees, was fitting a frock +to a little girl who laughed over her shoulder at a second child who was +looking on. The mother of the family sewed by a drop-light on a +work-table. The whole scene was really charming, combining precisely the +element of domesticity with that of accomplishment which strikes the eye +of the average passer as "looking like home," no matter of what sort the +home might be. + +"By heavens! if poor Ben had something like that people wouldn't pass +him by for the blanket store," he said to himself; and drove on, still +thinking. + +The next day, at an hour before the morning tide of shopping at Kendrick +& Company's had reached the flood, two pretty glove clerks were suddenly +tempted into a furtive exchange of conversation at an unoccupied end of +their counter. + +"Look quick! See the young man coming this way? It's Rich Kendrick." + +"It is? They told me he never came here. Say, but he's the real thing!" + +"I should say. Never saw him so close myself. Wish he'd stop here." + +"Bet you couldn't keep your head if he spoke to you!" + +"Bet I could! Don't you worry; he don't buy his gloves in his own +department store. He--" + +"Sh! Granger's looking!" + +There was really nothing about Richard Kendrick to attract attention +except his wholesome good looks, for he dressed with exceptional +quietness, and his manner matched his clothes. A floorwalker recognized +him and bowed, but the elevator man did not know him, and on his way to +the offices he passed only one clerk who could lay claim to a speaking +acquaintance with the grandson of the owner. + +But at the office of the general manager he was met by an office boy who +knew and worshipped him from afar, and in five minutes he was closeted +with that official, who gave him his whole attention. + +"Mr. Henderson, I wish you could give me"--was the substance of +Richard's remarks--"somebody who would go up to Eastman with me and tell +me what's the matter with a dry-goods store there that's on the verge of +failure." + +The general manager was, to put it mildly, astonished. He was a mighty +man of valour himself, so mighty that his yearly salary would have been +to the average American citizen a small fortune. The office was one to +fill which similar houses had often scoured the country without avail. +Other business owners had been forced to remain at the helm long after +health and happiness demanded retirement. Among these, Henderson was +held to be so competent a man that Matthew Kendrick was considered +incredibly lucky to keep his hold upon him. + +To Matthew Kendrick's grandson Henderson put a number of pertinent +inquiries concerning the store in question which Richard found he could +not intelligently answer. He flushed a little under the fire. + +"I suppose you think I might have investigated a bit for myself," said +he. "But that's just what I don't want to do. I want to send a man up +there whom the owner doesn't know; then we can get at things without +giving ourselves away." + +The general manager inferred from this that philanthropy, not business +interest, was at the bottom of young Kendrick's quest and his surprise +vanished. The young man was known as kind-hearted and generous; he was +undoubtedly merely carrying out a careless impulse, though he certainly +seemed much in earnest in the doing of it. + +"You might take Carson, assistant buyer for the dress-goods department, +with you," suggested Henderson after a little consideration. "He could +probably give you a day just now. Alger, his head, is back from London +this week. Carson's a bright man--in line for promotion. He'll put his +finger on the trouble without hesitation--if it lies in the lack of +business experience, buying and selling, as you say. I'll send for him." + +In two minutes Richard Kendrick and Alfred Carson were face to face, +and an appointment had been made for the following day. Richard took +a liking to the assistant buyer on the spot. He felt as if he were +selecting a competent physician for his friend, and was glad to send +him a man whose personality was both prepossessing and inspiring of +confidence. + +As for Carson, it was an interesting experience for him, too. He +thoroughly enjoyed the seventy-mile drive at the side of the young +millionaire, who sent his powerful car flying over the frozen roads at a +pace which made his passenger's face sting. Carson was more accustomed +to travel in subways and sleeping-cars than by long motor drives, and by +the time Eastman was reached he was glad that the return drive would be +preceded by a hot luncheon. + +"We won't go past the store," Richard explained, making a détour from +the main street of the town, regardless of the fact that he forsook a +good road for a poor one. "I don't want him to see me to-day." + +He pressed upon his guest the best that the hotel afforded, then sent +him to the corner store with instructions to let nothing escape his +attention. "Though I don't need to tell you that," he added with a +laugh. "You'll see more in a minute than I should in a month." + +Then he lighted a cigar--from his own case this time, though he strolled +in to see his friend the druggist when he had finished it, and bought of +him various other sundries. He did not venture to mention Benson to-day, +but the druggist did. Evidently Benson's imminent failure was the talk +of the town, and the regret, as well, of those who were not his rivals. + +"Man can't succeed at a thing he picks up so late, and when he'd rather +do something else," volunteered the druggist. "Now I began in this shop +by sweeping out, mornings, and running errands, delivering goods. Got +interested--came to be a clerk after a while. Always saw myself making +up dope, compounding prescriptions. Went off to a school of +pharmacy--came back--showed the old man I could look after the +prescription business. Finally bought him out. Trained for the trade +from the cradle as you might say." + +"I wonder if I'm going to be useless," thought Richard, "because I'm +not trained from the cradle. Carson says he began as a wrapper at +fifteen. At my age--he looks my age--he's assistant buyer for one of +Kendrick & Company's biggest departments, and 'in line for promotion,' +as Henderson says. Rich Kendrick, do you think you're in line for +promotion--anywhere? I wonder!" + +He had gone back to the hotel and was impatiently awaiting Carson for +some time before the buyer appeared. Carson came in with a look of great +interest and eagerness on his face. The assistant buyer had, Richard +thought, one of the brightest faces he had ever seen. He was sure he had +asked the right man to diagnose the case of the invalid business, even +before Carson began to talk. As the talk progressed he was convinced of +it. + +Yet Carson began at the human, not the business, end of the matter. +Richard Kendrick, himself full of concern for his friend Hugh Benson, +liked that, too. + +"I never felt sorrier for a man in my life," said Carson. "He shows a +lot of pluck; he never once owned that the thing was too much for him. +But I got him to talking--a little. Didn't need to talk much; the whole +place was shouting at me--every counter, every showcase. Thunder!" + +"How did you get him to talking?" Richard asked eagerly. + +"Represented myself as an ex-travelling man--the dry-goods line. It's +true enough, if not just the way he took it. Of course he didn't give me +any facts about his business, but we discussed present conditions of the +trade pretty well, and he owned that a good many things puzzled him just +as much as when he was a little chap and used to listen to his father +giving orders. What's going to be wanted and how much? When to load up +and when to unload? How to catch the public fancy and not get caught +yourself? In short, how to turn over the stock in season and out of +season--turn it over and get out from under! He knows no more than a man +who can't swim how to keep his head above water. Nice fellow, too; I +could see it in every word he said. He'd be a success in, say, a +professorship in a college--and not a business college, either." + +"If the place were yours," Richard, alive with interest, put it to him, +"now, this minute, what would be the first thing you would do?" + +Carson laughed--not derisively, but like a boy who sees a chance at a +game he likes to play. "Have a bonfire, I'd like to say," he vowed. "But +that wouldn't be good business, and I wouldn't do it if I had the +chance--unless there was insurance to cover! And there's money in the +stock. Part of it could be got out. But it ought to be got out before +the moon is old. Then I'd like the fun of stocking up with new lines, +new departments, things the town never heard of. I'd make that blanket +window you told me about look sick. That is," he added modestly, "I +think I could. Any good general buyer could. I'm a dress-goods man +myself, only I've grown up under Kendrick & Company's roof and I've been +watching other lines than my own. It interests me--the possibilities of +that store. Why, the man ought not to fail! He has the best location in +town, the biggest windows, the best fixtures, judging by the outside of +the places I saw as I came along. I looked at the blanket-window place. +That's a dark store when you get back a dozen feet. Benson's, being on +the corner, is fairly light to the back door. That counts more than any +other thing about the building itself. And the fellow has his underwear +in the brightest spot in the shop and the dress goods in the darkest! +His heavy lines by the door and his notions and fancy stuff way back +where you've got to hunt for them! And his windows--oh, blazes! I wanted +to climb up and jump on the mess and then throw it out!" + +Richard drove Carson back to town, his heart afire with longing to do +something, he did not yet know what. He could not consult Carson about +the matter further than to find out from him what was wrong with the +business from the standpoint of the customer; why the place did not +attract the customer. Details of this phase of the question Carson had +given him in plenty, all leading back to the one trouble--Benson had not +understood how to appeal to the class of custom at his doors. He had not +the right goods, nor the right means of display; he had not the right +salespeople; in brief, he had nothing, according to Carson, that he +ought to have, and everything, poor fellow, that he ought not! It was a +hard case. + +As to actual business foundations and resources, neither of the young +men could judge. They had no means of knowing how deeply Benson was in +debt, nor what were his assets beyond the visible stock. Yet his fellow +shopkeepers considered him on the verge of bankruptcy; they must know. + +"I've enjoyed this trip, Mr. Kendrick," Carson said at parting, "in more +ways than I can tell you. If I can be of use to you in any way, call on +me, please. I'm honestly interested in your friend Mr. Benson. I'd like +to see him win out." + +"So should I." Richard shook hands heartily. "I've enjoyed the trip, +too, Mr. Carson. I never had better company. Thank you for going--and +for teaching me a lot of things I wanted to know." + +As he drove away he was thinking, "Carson's a success; I'm not. Odd +thing, that I should find myself envying a chap whose place I couldn't +be hired to take. I envy him--not exactly his knowledge and skill, but +his being a definite factor, his being a man who carries +responsibilities and makes good, so that--well, so that he's 'in line +for promotion.' That phrase takes hold of me somehow; I wonder why? +Well, the next thing is to see grandfather." + + * * * * * + +Old Matthew Kendrick was alone. His grandson had just left him. He was +marching up and down his private library. His hands were clasped tightly +behind his back; above his flushed brow his white hair stood erect from +frequent thrustings of his agitated fingers; even his cravat, slightly +awry, bore witness to his excitement. + +"Gad!" he was saying to himself. "The boy's alive after all! The boy's +waked up! He's taking notice! And the thing that's waked him up is a +country store--by cricky! a country store! I believe I'm dreaming yet!" + +If the citizens of the thriving town of Eastman, almost of a size to +call itself a young city and boast of a mayor, could have heard him they +might not have been flattered. Yet when they remembered that this was +the owner of a business so colossal that its immense buildings and +branches were to be found in three great cities, they might have +understood that to him the corner store of Hugh Benson looked like a toy +concern, indeed. But he liked the look of it, as it had been presented +to his mind's eye that night; no doubt but he liked the look of it! + +"Give him Carson to go up there and manage the business for those two +infants-in-arms? Gad! yes, go myself and make change at the desk for the +new firm," he chuckled, "if that would keep Dick interested. But I guess +he's interested enough or he wouldn't have agreed to my ruling that he +must go into the thing himself, not stand off and throw out a rope to +his drowning friend Benson. If young Benson's the man Dick makes him +out, it's as I told Dick: he wouldn't grasp the rope. But if Dick goes +in after him, that's business. Bless the rascal! I wish his father could +see him now. Sitting on the edge of my table and talking window-dressing +to me as if he'd been born to it, which he was, only he wouldn't accept +his birthright, the proud beggar! Talking about moving one of our +show-windows up there bodily for a white-goods sale in February; date a +trifle late for Kendrick & Company, but advance trade for Eastman, +undoubtedly. Says he knows they can start every mother's daughter of 'em +sewing for dear life, if they can get their eye on that sewing-room +scene. Well"--he paused to chuckle again--"he says Carson says that +window cost us five hundred dollars; but if it did it's cheap at the +price, and I'll make the new firm a present of it. Benson & Company--and +a grandson of Matthew Kendrick the Company!" + +He laughed heartily, then paused to stand staring down into the jewelled +shade of his electric drop-light as if in its softly blending colourings +he saw the outlines of a new future for "the boy." + +"I wonder what Cal will say to losing his literary assistant," he mused, +smiling to himself. "I doubt if Dick's proved himself invaluable, and I +presume the man he speaks of will give Cal much better service; but I +shall be sorry not to have him going to the Grays' every day; it seemed +like a safe harbour. Well, well, I never thought to find myself +interested again in the fortunes of a country store. Gad! I can't get +over that. The fellow's been too proud to walk down the aisles of +Kendrick & Company to buy his silk socks at cost--preferred to pay two +prices at an exclusive haberdasher's instead! And now--he's going to +have a share in the sale of socks that retail for a quarter, five pairs +for a dollar! O Dick, Dick, you rascal, your old grandfather hasn't been +so happy since you were left to him to bring up. If only you'll stick! +But you're your father's son, after all--and my grandson; I can't help +believing you'll stick!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LAVENDER LINEN + + +"I'm going to drive into town. Any of you girls want to go with me?" + +Mr. Rufus Gray addressed his wife and their two guests, his nieces, +Roberta and Ruth Gray. It was the midwinter vacation at the school where +Roberta taught and at the equally desirable establishment where Ruth was +taking a carefully selected course of study. Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth +had invited them to spend the four days of this vacation at their +country home, according to a custom they had of decoying one or another +of the young people of Rufus's brothers' families to come and visit the +aunt and uncle whose own children were all married and gone, sorely +missed by the young-hearted pair. Roberta and Ruth had accepted eagerly, +always delighted to spend a day or a month at the "Gray Farm," a most +attractive place even in winter, and in summer a veritable +pleasure-ground of enjoyment. + +They all wanted to go to town, the three "girls," including the +white-haired one whose face was almost as young as her nieces' as she +looked out from the rear seat of the comfortable double sleigh driven by +her husband and drawn by a pair of the handsomest horses the countryside +could boast. It was only two miles from the fine old country homestead +to the centre of the neighbouring village, and though the air was keen +nobody was cold among the robes and rugs with which the sleigh +overflowed. + +"You folks want to do any shopping?" inquired Uncle Rufus, as he drove +briskly along the lower end of Eastman's principal business street. "I +suppose there's no need of asking that. When doesn't a woman want to go +shopping?" + +"Of course we do," Ruth responded, without so much as consulting the +back seat. + +"I meant to bring some lavender linen with me to work on," said Roberta +to Aunt Ruth. "Where do you suppose I could find any, here?" + +"Why, I don't know, dearie," responded Aunt Ruth doubtfully. "White +linen you ought to get anywhere; but lavender--you might try at Artwell +& Chatford's. We'll go past Benson's, but it's no use looking there any +more. Everybody's expecting poor Hugh to fail any day." + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Roberta warmly. "I always liked Hugh Benson. Mr. +Westcott told me some time ago that he was afraid Hugh wasn't +succeeding." + +"The store's been closed to the public a fortnight now," explained Uncle +Rufus over his shoulder. "Hugh hasn't failed yet, and something's going +on there; nobody seems to know just what. Inventory, maybe, or getting +ready for a bankrupt sale. The Benson sign's still up just as it was +before Hugh's father died. Windows covered with white soap or whitewash. +Some say the store's going to open up under new parties--guess nobody +knows exactly. Hullo! who's that making signs?" + +He indicated a tall figure on the sidewalk coming toward them at a rapid +rate, face alight, hat waving in air. + +"It's Mr. Forbes Westcott," exulted Ruth, twisting around to look at her +sister. "Funny how he always happens to be visiting his father and +mother just as Rob is visiting you, isn't it, Aunt Ruth?" + +Uncle Rufus drew up to the sidewalk, and the whole party shook hands +with a tall man of dark, keen features, who bore an unmistakable air of +having come from a larger world than that of the town of Eastman. + +"Mrs. Gray--Miss Roberta--Miss Ruth--Mr. Gray--why, this is delightful. +When did you come? How long are you going to stay? It seems a thousand +years since I saw you last!" + +He was like an eager boy, though he was clearly no boy in years. He +included them all in this greeting, but his eyes were ardently on +Roberta as he ended. Ruth, screwed around upon the front seat and +watching interestedly, could hardly blame him. Roberta, in her furry +wrappings, was as vivid as a flower. Her eyes looked black beneath their +dusky lashes, and her cheeks were brilliant with the touch of the winter +wind. + +"When did you come? How did you find your father and mother?" inquired +Roberta demurely. + +"Well and hearty as ever, and apparently glad to see their son--as he +was to see them. I've been devoting myself to them for three days now, +and mean to give them the whole week. It's only fair--isn't it?--after +being away so long. How fortunate for me that I should meet you; I might +not have found it out till I had missed much time." + +"You've missed much time already," put in Uncle Rufus. "They came last +night." + +"Put your hat on, Forbes," was Aunt Ruth's admonition as Westcott +continued to stand beside Roberta, exchanging question and answer +concerning the long interval which had intervened since they last met. +"Come over to supper to-night, and then you young people can talk +without danger of catching your death of cold." + +Westcott laughed and accepted, but the hat was not replaced upon his +smooth, dark head until the sleigh had gone on. + +"Subjects always keep uncovered before their queen," whispered Ruth in +Uncle Rufus's ear, and he laughed and nodded. + +"Times have changed since I was a young man," said he. "A fellow would +have looked queer in my day unwinding his comforter and pulling off his +coonskin cap and standing holding those things while he talked on a +February morning. He'd have gone home and taken some pepper-tea to ward +off the effects of the chill!" + +"There's Benson's," Roberta interrupted, "and it's open. Why, look at +the people in front of the windows! Look at the windows themselves. +There must be a new firm. Poor Hugh!" + +"There's a new sign over the old one; a '_Successors to_,' I think; but +Benson's name is on it, '_Benson & Company_,'" announced Ruth, straining +her eyes to make it out. + +"Somebody must have come to the rescue," said Uncle Rufus with joyous +interest. "Well, well; the thing has been kept surprisingly still, and I +can't think who it can be, but I'm certainly glad. I hated to see the +boy fail. I suppose you all want to go in?" + +They unquestionably did, but they wanted first to sit still and look at +the windows from their vantage point above the passers-by on foot, who +were all stopping as they came along. It was small wonder that they +should stop. The town of Eastman had never in its experience seen within +its borders window displays like these. + +Benson's possessed the advantage of having larger fronts of clear +plate-glass than any store in town. As it was a corner store, there were +not only two big windows on the front but one equally large upon the +side. Each of these showed an artful arrangement of fresh and alluring +white goods, and in the centre of each was a special scheme arranged +with figures and furnishings to form a charming tableau. In one was the +sewing-room scene, adapted from that one which had first challenged +Richard's interest in his grandfather's store; in a second a children's +tea-party drew many admiring comments from the crowd; and in the side +window the figure of a pretty bride with veil and orange blossoms +suggested that the surrounding draperies were fit for uses such as hers. +The clever adaptability of Carson's art showed in the fact that the +figure wore no longer the costly French robe with which she had been +draped when she stood in a glass case at _Kendrick & Company's_, but a +delicate frock of simpler materials, such as any village girl might +afford, yet so cunningly fashioned that a princess might have worn it as +well, and not have been ashamed. + +Aunt Ruth and her nieces went enthusiastically in, and Uncle Rufus, +declaring that he must go also and congratulate Hugh on this +extraordinary transformation, tied his horses across the street where +they could not interfere with the view of passing sleighs. + +Entering, the visitors found inside the same atmosphere of successful, +timely display of fresh and attractive goods as had been promised by the +outside. The store did not look like a village store at all; its whole +air was metropolitan. The smallest counter carried out this effect; on +every hand were goods selected with rare skill, and this description +held good of the cheaper articles as well as of those more expensive. + +"Well, Hugh, we don't understand, but we are very glad," said Aunt Ruth +heartily, shaking hands with the young man who advanced to meet them. + +"That's kind of you. It goes without saying that I am very glad, too," +responded the proprietor of the place. His thin face flushed a little as +he greeted the others, and his eyes, like Westcott's, dwelt a trifle +longer on the face of one of the party than on any of the others. + +"Rob, I believe you'll find your lavender linen here," said Ruth in her +sister's ear, as Uncle Rufus came in and Benson began to show them all +about the store. "Look, there are all kinds of white linens; let's stop +and ask." + +With a word of explanation, Roberta delayed at the counter Ruth had +indicated, making inquiry for the goods she sought. It chanced that this +department was next to an inclosure which was partially of glass, the +new office of the firm. The old firm had had no office, only a desk in a +dark corner. In this place two men were talking. One was facing the +store, his glance even as he spoke upon the way things were going +outside; the other's back was turned. But Ruth, gazing interestedly +around as her sister examined linens, discovered something familiar +about the set of one of the heads just beyond the glass partition, +though she could not see the face. When this head was suddenly thrown +back with a peculiar motion she had noted when its owner was +particularly amused over something, Ruth said to herself: "Why, that's +Mr. Richard Kendrick! What in the world is he doing out here at +Eastman?" + +As if she had called him Richard turned about and his look encountered +Ruth's. The next instant he was out of the glass inclosure and at her +side. Roberta, hearing Ruth's low but eager, "Why, Mr. Kendrick, who +ever expected to see you in Eastman!" turned about with an expression of +astonishment, which was reflected in both the faces before her. + +An interested village salesgirl now looked on at a little scene the like +of which had never come within the range of her experience. That three +people, clearly so surprised to meet in this particular spot, should not +proceed voluminously to explain to each other within her hearing the +cause of their surprise, was to her an extraordinary thing. But after +the first moment's expression of wonder the three seemed to accept the +fact as a matter of course, and began to exchange observations +concerning the weather, the roads, and various other matters of +comparatively small importance. It was not until Uncle Rufus, rounding a +high-piled counter with his wife and Hugh Benson, came upon the group, +that anything was said of which the curious young person behind the +counter could make enough to guess at the situation. + +"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Kendrick!" he exclaimed, after one keen +look, and hastened forward, hand outstretched. So the group now became +doubled in size, and Uncle Rufus expressed great pleasure at seeing +again the young man whose hospitality he had enjoyed during the +Christmas house-party. + +"But I didn't suppose we should ever see you up here in our town," said +he, "especially in winter. Come by the morning train?" + +"I've been here for a month, most of the time," Richard told him. + +"You have? And didn't come to see us? Well, now--" + +"I didn't know this was your home, Mr. Gray," admitted the young man +frankly. "I don't remember your mentioning the name of Eastman while you +and Mrs. Gray were with us. Probably you did, and if I had realized you +were here--" + +"You'd have come? Well, you know now, and I hope you'll waste no time in +getting out to the 'Gray Farm.' Only two miles out, and the trolley runs +by within a few rods of our turn of the road--conductor'll tell you. +Better come to-night," he urged genially, "seeing my nieces are here and +can help make you feel at home. They'll be going back in a day or two." + +Richard, smiling, looked at Aunt Ruth, then at Roberta. "Do come," urged +Aunt Ruth as cordially as her husband, and Roberta gave a little nod of +acquiescence. + +"I shall be delighted to come," he agreed. + +"Putting up at the hotel?" inquired Uncle Rufus. + +"I'm staying for the present with my friend Mr. Benson," Richard +explained, with a glance toward Benson himself, who had moved aside to +speak to a clerk. "We were classmates at college. We have--gone into +business together here." + +It was out. As he spoke the words his face changed colour a little, but +his eyes remained steadily fixed on Uncle Rufus. + +"Well, well," exclaimed Mr. Rufus Gray. "So it's you who have come to +the rescue of--" + +But Richard interrupted him quickly. "I beg your pardon, not at all," +said he. "It is my friend who has come to my rescue--given me the +biggest interest I have yet discovered--the game of business. I'm having +the time of my life. With the help of our mutual friend, Mr. Carson, who +is to be the business manager of the new house, we hope to make a +success." + +Roberta was looking curiously at him, and his eyes suddenly met hers. +For an instant the encounter lasted, and it ended by her glance dropping +from his. There was something new to her in his face, something she +could not understand. Instead of its former rather studiedly impassive +expression there was an awakened look, a determined look, as if he had +something on hand he meant to do--and to do as soon as the present +interview should be over. Strangely enough, it was the first time she +had met him when he seemed not wholly occupied with herself, but rather +on his way to some affair of strong interest in which she had no concern +and from which she was detaining him. It was not that he was failing in +the extreme courtesy she had learned to expect from him under all +conditions. But--well, it struck her that he would return to his +companion in the glass-screened office and immediately forget her. This +was a change, indeed! + +"However you choose to put it," declared Uncle Rufus kindly, "it's a +mighty fine thing for Hugh, and we wish you both success." + +"You will have it. I have found my lavender linen," said Roberta, +turning back to the counter. + +Richard came around to her side. "Didn't you expect to find it?" he +inquired with interest. + +"I really didn't at all. We seldom find summer goods shown in a town +like this till spring is well along, least of all coloured dress linens. +But you have several shades, besides a beautiful lot of white." + +"That's Carson's buying," said he, fingering a corner of the +lilac-tinted goods she held up. "I shouldn't know it from gingham. I +didn't know what gingham was till the other day. But I can recognize it +now on sight, and am no end proud of my knowledge." + +"I suppose you are familiar with silk," said she with a quick glance. + +He returned it. "Aren't you?" + +"I'm not specially fond of it." + +"What fabrics do you like best?" + +"Thin, sheer things, fine but durable." + +"Linens?" + +"No, cottons, batistes, voiles--that sort of thing." + +"I'm afraid you've got me now," he owned, looking puzzled. "Perhaps I'd +know them if I saw them. If Benson has any--I mean, if we have any," he +amended quickly, "I'd like to have you see them. Let me go and ask +Carson." + +He was off to consult the man in the office and was back in a minute. +When Roberta had purchased the yard of lavender linen he led her into +another aisle and requested the clerk to show her his finest goods. +Roberta looked on, much amused, while the display was made, and praised +liberally. But suddenly she pounced upon a piece of white material with +a tiny white flower embroidered upon its delicate surface. + +"That's one of the prettiest pieces of Swiss muslin I ever saw," said +she. "And at such a reasonable price. It looks like one of the finest +imported Swisses. I'm going to have that pattern this minute." + +She gave the order without hesitation. + +"I didn't know women ever shopped like that," said Richard in her ear. + +"Like what?" + +"Why, bought the thing right off without asking to see everything in the +store. That's what--I've been told they did." + +"Not if they're wise--when they see a thing like that. There was only +the one pattern. Why, another woman might have walked up and said right +over my shoulder that she would take it." + +"If she had I'd have seen that you got it," declared Richard. + +He accompanied the party to the door when they went; he saw them to the +sleigh and tucked them in. + +"Bareheaded again," observed Uncle Rufus, regarding him with interest. + +"Again?" queried Richard. + +"All the young men we meet this morning insist on standing round +outdoors with their hats off," explained the elder man. "It looks +reckless to me." + +"It would be more reckless not to, I imagine," returned Richard, +laughing with Ruth and Roberta. + +"We'll see you to-night," Uncle Rufus reminded him as he drove off. +"Bring Hugh with you. I asked him in the store, but he seemed to +hesitate. It will do him good to get out." + +When the sleigh was a quarter of a mile up the road Ruth turned to her +uncle. "Do you imagine, Uncle Rufus," said she, "that all those men +you've asked for to-night will be grateful--when they see one another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RAPID FIRE + + +"Well, now, we're glad to see you at our place, Mr. Kendrick," was Mr. +Rufus Gray's hearty greeting. He had heard the sound of the motor-car as +it came to a standstill just outside his window, and was in the doorway +to receive his guests. "As for Hugh, he knows he's always welcome, +though it's a good while since he took advantage of it. Sit down here by +the fire and warm up before we send you out again. You see," he +explained enjoyingly, "we have instructions what to do with you." + +Richard Kendrick noted the pleasant room with its great fireplace +roaring with logs ablaze; he noted also its absence of occupants. Only +Aunt Ruth, coming forward with an expression of warm hospitality on her +face, was to be discovered. "They're all down at the river, skating," +she told the young men. "Forbes Westcott is just home again, and he and +Robby had so much to talk over we asked him out to supper. He and the +girls--and Anna Drummond, one of our neighbours' daughters," she +explained to Kendrick, "were taken with the idea of going skating. They +didn't wait for you, because they wanted to get a fire built. When +you're warmed up you can go down." + +"There'll be a girl apiece for you," observed Uncle Rufus. "Hugh knows +Anna--went to school with her. She's a fine girl, eh, Hugh?" + +"She certainly is," agreed Benson heartily. "But I don't see how either +of us is to skate with her or with anybody without--" + +"Oh, that's all right. Look there," and Uncle Rufus pointed to a long +row of skates lying on the floor in a corner. "All the nieces and +nephews leave their skates here to have 'em handy when they come." + +So presently the two young men were rushing down the winding, snowy road +which led through pasture and meadow for a quarter of a mile toward a +beckoning bonfire. + +"I don't know when I've gone skating," said Hugh Benson. + +"The last time I skated was two years ago on the Neva at St. Petersburg. +Jove! but it was a carnival!" And Richard's thoughts went back for a +minute to the face of the girl he had skated with. He had not cared much +for skating since that night. All other opportunities had seemed tame +after that. + +"You've travelled a great deal--had a lot of experiences," Benson said, +with a suppressed sigh. + +"A few. But they don't prevent my looking forward to a new one to-night. +I never went skating on a river in the country before. How far can you +go?" + +"Ten miles, if you like, down. Two miles up. There they are, coming +round the bend four abreast. Westcott has more than his share of girls." + +"More than he wants, probably. He'll cling to one and joyfully hand over +the others." + +"You'll like Anna Drummond; we're old school friends. Forbes and Miss +Roberta naturally seem to get together wherever they are. And Miss Ruth +is a mighty nice little girl." + +Across the blazing bonfire two men scrutinized each other: Forbes +Westcott, one of the cleverest attorneys of a large city, a man with a +rising reputation, who held himself as a man does who knows that every +day advances his success; Richard Kendrick, well-known young +millionaire, hitherto a travelled idler and spender of his income, now +a newly fledged business man with all his honours yet to be won. They +looked each other steadily in the eye as they grasped hands by the +bonfire, and in his inmost heart each man recognized in the other an +antagonist. + +Richard skated away with Miss Drummond, a wholesomely gay and attractive +girl who could skate as well as she could talk and laugh. He devoted +himself to her for half an hour; then, with a skill of which he was +master from long exercise, he brought about a change of partners. The +next time he rounded the bend into a path which led straight down the +moonlight it was in the company he longed for. + +Richard's heart leaped exultantly as he skated around the river bend in +the moonlight with Roberta. And when his hands gathered hers into his +close grasp it was somehow as if he had taken hold of an electric +battery. He distinctly felt the difference between her hands and those +of the other girl. It was very curious and he could not wholly +understand it. + +"What kind of gloves do you wear?" was his first inquiry. He held up the +hand which was not in Roberta's muff and tried to see it in the dim +light. + +"You _are_ deep in the new business, aren't you?" she mocked. "Whatever +they are, will you put them into your stock?" + +"Don't you dare make fun of my new business. I'm in it for scalps and +have no time for joking. Of course I want to put this make in stock. I +never took hold of so warm a hand on so cold a night. The warmth comes +right through your glove and mine to my hand, runs up my arm, and stirs +up my circulation generally. It was running a little cold with some of +the things Miss Drummond was telling me." + +"What could they be?" + +"About how all the rest of you know each other so well. She described +all sorts of good times you have all had together on this river in the +summer. It seems odd that Benson never told me about any of them while +we were together at college." + +"They have happened mostly in the last two summers, since Mr. Benson +left college. We always spend at least part of our summers here, and we +have had worlds of fun on the river and beside it--and in it." + +"I'm glad I'm a business man in Eastman. I can imagine what this river +is like in summer. It's wonderful to-night, isn't it? Let's skate on +down to the mouth and out to sea. What do you say?" + +"A beautiful plan. We have a good start; we must make time or it will be +moonset before we come to the sea." + +"This is a glorious stroke; let's hit it up a little, swing a little +farther--and make for the mouth of the river. No talking till we come in +sight. We're off!" + +It was ten miles to the mouth of the river, as they both understood, so +this was nonsense of the most obvious sort. But the imagination took +hold of them and they swung away on over the smooth, shining floor with +the long vigorous strokes which are so exhilarating to the accomplished +skater. In silence they flew, only the warm, clasped hands making a link +between them, their faces turned straight toward the great golden disk +in the eastern heavens. Richard was feeling that he could go on +indefinitely, and was exulting in his companion's untiring progress, +when he felt her slowing pull upon his hands. + +"Tired?" he asked, looking down at her. + +"Not much, but we've all the way back to go--and we ought not to be away +so long." + +"Oughtn't we? I'd like to be away forever--with you!" + +She looked straight up at him. His eyes were like black coals in the dim +light. His hands would have tightened on hers, but she drew them away. + +"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Mr. Richard Kendrick," said she, as quietly as +one can whose breath comes with some difficulty after long-sustained +exertion. "By the time we reached--even the mouth of the river, you'd be +tired of my company." + +"Should I? I think not. I've thought of nothing but you since the day I +saw you first." + +"Really? That's--how long? Was it November when you came to help Uncle +Calvin? This is February. And you've never spent so much as a whole hour +alone with me. You see, you don't even know me. What a foolish thing to +say to a girl you barely know!" + +"Foolish, is it?" He felt his heart racing now. What other girl he knew +would have answered him like that? "Then you shall hear something that +backs it up. I've loved you since that day I saw you first. What will +you do with that?" + +She was silent for a moment. Then she turned, striking out toward home. +He was instantly after her, reached for her hands, and took her along +with him. But he forced her to skate slowly. + +"You'll trample on that, too, will you?" said he, growing wrathful under +her silence. + +But she answered, quite gently, now: "No, Mr. Kendrick, I don't trample +on that. No girl would. I simply--know you are mistaken." + +"In what? My own feeling? Do you think I don't know--" + +"I _know_ you don't know. I'm not your kind of a girl, Mr. Kendrick. You +think I am, because--well, perhaps because my eyes are blue and my +eyelashes black; just such things as that do mislead people. I can dance +fairly well--" + +He smothered an angry exclamation. + +"And skate well--and play the 'cello a little--and--that's nearly all +you know about me. You don't even know whether I can teach well--or talk +well--or what is stored away in my mind. And I know just as little about +you." + +"I've learned one thing about you in this last minute," he muttered. +"You can keep your head." + +"Why not?" There was a note of laughter in her voice. "There needs to be +one who keeps her head when the other loses his--all because of a little +winter moonlight. What would the summer moonlight do to you, I wonder?" + +"Roberta Gray"--his voice was rough--"the moonlight does it no more than +the sunlight. Whatever you think, I'm not that kind of fellow. The day +I saw you first you had just come in out of the rain. You went back into +it and I saw you go--and wanted to go with you. I've been wanting it +ever since." + +They moved on in silence which lasted until they were within a +quarter-mile of the bonfire, whose flashing light they could see above +the banks which intervened. Then Roberta spoke: + +"Mr. Kendrick"--and her voice was low and rich with its kindest +inflections--"I don't want you to think me careless or hard because I +have treated what you have said to-night in a way that you don't like. +I'm only trying to be honest with you. I'm quite sure you didn't mean to +say it to me when you came to-night, and--we all do and say things on a +night like this that we should like to take back next day. It's quite +true--what I said--that you hardly know me, and whatever it is that +takes your fancy it can't be the real Roberta Gray, because you don't +know her!" + +"What you say is," he returned, staring straight ahead of him, "that I +can't possibly know what you really are, at all; but you know so well +what I am that you can tell me exactly what my own thoughts and feelings +are." + +"Oh, no, I didn't mean--" + +"That's precisely what you do mean. I'm so plainly labelled 'worthless' +that you don't have to stop to examine me. You--" + +"I didn't--" + +"I beg your pardon. I can tell you exactly what you think of me: A young +fool who runs after the latest sensation, to drop it when he finds a +newer one. His head turned by every pretty girl--to whom he says just +the sort of thing he has said to you to-night. Superficial and ordinary, +incapable of serious thought on any of the subjects that interest you. +As for this business affair in Eastman--that's just a caprice, a game to +be dropped when he tires of it. Everything in life will be like that to +him, including his very friends. Come, now--isn't that what you've been +thinking? There's no use denying it. Nearly every time I've seen you +you've said some little thing that has shown me your opinion of me. I +won't say there haven't been times in my life when I may have deserved +it, but on my honour I don't think I deserve it now." + +"Then I won't think it," said Roberta promptly, looking up. "I truly +don't want to do you an injustice. But you are so different from the +other men I have known--my brothers, my friends--that I can hardly +imagine your seeing things from my point of view--" + +"But you can see things from mine without any difficulty!" + +"It isn't fair, is it?" Her tone was that of the comrade, now. "But you +know women are credited with a sort of instinct--even intuition--that +leads them safely where men's reasoning can't always follow." + +"It never leads them astray, by any chance?" + +"Yes, I think it does sometimes," she owned frankly. "But it's as well +for the woman to be on her guard, isn't it? Because, sometimes, you +know, she loses her head. And when that happens--" + +"All is lost? Or does a man's reasoning, slower and not so infallible, +but sometimes based on greater knowledge, step in and save the day?" + +"It often does. But, in this case--well, it's not just a case of +reasoning, is it?" + +"The case of my falling in love with a girl I've only +known--slightly--for four months? It has seemed to me all along it was +just that. It's been a case of the head sanctioning the heart--and you +probably know it's not always that way with a young man's experiences. +Every ideal I've ever known--and I've had a few, though you might not +think it--every good thought and purpose, have been stimulated by my +contact with the people of your father's house. And since I have met you +some new ideals have been born. They have become very dear to me, those +new ideals, Miss Roberta, though they've had only a short time to grow. +It hurts to have you treat me as if you thought me incapable of them." + +"I'm sorry," she said simply, and her hands gave his a little quick +pressure which meant apology and regret. His heart warmed a very little, +for he had been sure she was capable of great generosity if appealed to +in the right way. But justice and generosity were not all he craved, and +he could see quite clearly that they were all he was likely to get from +her as yet. + +"You think," he said, pursuing his advantage, "we know too little of +each other to be even friends. You are confident my tastes and pleasures +are entirely different from yours; especially that my notions of real +work are so different that we could never measure things with the same +footrule." + +He looked down at her searchingly. + +She nodded. "Something like that," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean +that either tastes or notions in either case are necessarily unworthy, +only that they are different." + +"I wonder if they are? What if we should try to find out? I'm going to +stick pretty closely to Eastman this winter, but of course I shall be in +town more or less. May I come to see you, now and then, if I promise not +to become bothersome?" + +It was her turn to look up searchingly at him. If he had expected the +usual answer to such a request, he began, before she spoke, to realize +that it was by no means a foregone conclusion that he should receive +usual answers from her to any questioning whatsoever. But her reply +surprised him more than he had ever been surprised by any girl in his +life. + +"Mr. Kendrick," said she slowly, "I wish that you need not see me again +till--suppose we say Midsummer Day,[A] the twenty-fourth of June, you +know." + +[Footnote A: Midsummer comes at the time of the summer solstice, about +June 21st, but Midsummer Day, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, is the +24th of June.] + +He stared at her. "If you put it that way," he began stiffly, "you +certainly need not--" + +"But I didn't put it that way. I said I wished that you need not see me. +That is quite different from wishing I need not see you. I don't mind +seeing you in the least--" + +"That's good of you!" + +"Don't be angry. I'm going to be quite frank with you--" + +"I'm prepared for that. I can't remember that you've ever been anything +else." + +"Please listen to me, Mr. Kendrick. When I say that I wish you would not +see me--" + +"You said 'need not.'" + +"I shall have to put it 'would not' to make you understand. When I say I +wish you would not see me until Midsummer I am saying the very kindest +thing I can. Just now you are under the impression--hallucination--that +you want to see much of me. To prove that you are mistaken I'm going to +ask this of you--not to have anything whatever to do with me until at +least Midsummer. If you carry out my wish you will find out for yourself +what I mean--and will thank me for my wisdom." + +"It's a wish, is it? It sounds to me more like a decree." + +"It's not a decree. I'll not refuse to see you if you come. But if you +will do as I ask I shall appreciate it more than I can tell you." + +"It is certainly one of the cleverest schemes of getting rid of a fellow +I ever heard. Hang it all! do you expect me not to understand that you +are simply letting me down easy? It's not in reason to suppose that +you're forbidding all other men the house. I beg your pardon; I know +that's none of my business; but it's not in human nature to keep from +saying it, because of course that's bound to be the thing that cuts. If +you were going into a convent, and all other fellows were cooling their +heels outside with me, I could stand it." + +"My dear Mr. Kendrick, you can stand it in any case. You're going to put +all this out of mind and work at building up this business here in +Eastman with Mr. Benson. You will find it a much more interesting game +than the old one of--" + +"Of what? Running after every pretty girl? For of course that's what you +think I've done." + +She did not answer that. He said something under his breath, and his +hands tightened on hers savagely. They were rounding the last bend but +one in the river, and the bonfire was close at hand. + +"Can't you understand," he ground out, "that every other thought and +feeling and experience I've ever had melts away before this? You can put +me under ban for a year if you like; but if at the end of that time +you're not married to another man you'll find me at your elbow. I told +you I'd make you respect me; I'll do more, I'll make you listen to me. +And--if I promise not to come where you have to look at me till +Midsummer, till the twenty-fourth of June--heaven knows why you pick out +that day--I'll not promise not to make you think of me!" + +"Oh, but that's part of what I mean. You mustn't send me letters and +books and flowers--" + +"Oh--thunder!" + +"Because those things will help to keep this idea before your mind. I +want you to forget me, Mr. Kendrick--do you realize that?--forget me +absolutely all the rest of the winter and spring. By that time--" + +"I'll wonder who you are when we do meet, I suppose?" + +"Exactly. You--" + +"All right. I agree to the terms. No letters, no books, no--ye gods! if +I could only send the flowers now! Who would expect to win a girl +without orchids? You do, you certainly do, rate me with the +light-minded, don't you? Music also is proscribed, of course; that's the +one other offering allowed at the shrine of the fair one. All right--all +right--I'll vanish, like a fairy prince in a child's story. But before I +go I--" + +With a dig of his steel-shod heel he brought himself and Roberta to a +standstill. He bent over her till his face was rather close to hers. She +looked back at him without fear, though she both saw and felt the +tenseness with which he was making his farewell speech. + +"Before I go, I say, I'm going to tell you that if you were any other +girl on the old footstool I'd have one kiss from you before I let go of +you if I knew it meant I'd never have another. I could take it--" + +She did not shrink from him by a hair's breadth, but he felt her +suddenly tremble as if with the cold. + +"--but I want you to know that I'm going to wait for it till--Midsummer +Day. Then"--he bent still closer--"you will give it to me yourself. I'm +saying this foolhardy sort of thing to give you something to remember +all these months--I've got to. You'll have so many other people saying +things to you when I can't that I've got to startle you in order to make +an impression that will stick. That one will, won't it?" + +A reluctant smile touched her lips. "It's quite possible that it may," +she conceded. "It probably would, whoever had the audacity to say it. +But--to know a fate that threatens is to be forewarned. +And--fortunately--a girl can always run away." + +"You can't run so far that I can't follow. Meanwhile, tell me just one +thing--" + +"I'll tell you nothing more. We've been gone for ages now--there come +the others--please start on." + +"Good-bye, dear," said he, under his breath. "Good-bye--till Midsummer. +But then--" + +"No, no, you must _not_ say it--or think it." + +"I'm going to think it, and so are you. I defy you to forget it. You may +see that lawyer Westcott every day, and no matter what you're saying to +him, every once in a while will bob up the thought--Midsummer Day!" + +"Hush! I won't listen! Please skate faster!" + +"You _shall_ listen--to just one thing more. Just halfway between now +and Midsummer may I come to see you--just once?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"Because--I shall not want to see you." + +"That's good," said he steadily. "Then let me tell you that I should not +come even if you would let me. I wanted you to know that." + +A little, half-smothered laugh came from her in spite of herself, in +which he rather grimly joined. Then the others, calling questions and +reproaches, bore down upon them, and the evening for Richard Kendrick +was over. But the fight he meant to win was just begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MAKING MEN + + +"Grandfather, have you a good courage for adventure?" + +Matthew Kendrick looked up from his letters. His grandson Richard stood +before him, his face lighted by that new look of expectancy and +enthusiasm which the older man so often noted now. It was early in the +day, Mr. Kendrick having but just partaken of his frugal breakfast. He +had eaten alone this morning, having learned to his surprise that +Richard was already off. + +"Why, Dick? What do you want of me?" his grandfather asked, laying down +his letters. They were important, but not so important, to his mind, as +the giving ear to his grandson. It was something about the business, he +had no doubt. The boy was always talking about the business these days, +and he found always a ready listener in the old man who was such a +pastmaster in the whole difficult subject. + +"It's the mildest sort of weather--bright sun, good roads most of the +way, and something worth seeing at the other end. Put on your fur-lined +coat, sir, will you? and come with me up to Eastman. I want to show you +the new shop." + +Mr. Kendrick's eye brightened. So the boy wanted him, did he? Wanted to +take him off for the day, the whole day, with himself. It was pleasant +news. But he hesitated a little, looking toward the window, where the +late March sun was, surely enough, streaming in warmly. The bare +branches outside were motionless; moreover, there was no wind, such as +had prevailed of late. + +"I can keep you perfectly warm," Richard added, seeing the hesitation. +"There's an electric foot-warmer in the car, and you shall have a heavy +rug. I'll have you there in a couple of hours, and you'll not be even +chilled. If the weather changes, you can come back by train. Please +come--will you?" + +"I believe I will, Dick, if you'll not drive too fast. I should like to +see this wonderful new store, to be sure." + +"We'll go any pace you like, sir. I've been looking for a day when you +could make the trip safely, and this is it." He glanced at the letters. +"Could you be ready in--half an hour?" + +"As soon as I can dictate four short replies. Ring for Mr. Stanton, +please, and I'll soon be with you." + +Richard went out as his grandfather's private secretary came in. +Although Matthew Kendrick no longer felt it necessary to go to his +office in the great store every day, he was accustomed to attend to a +certain amount of selected correspondence, and ordinarily spent an hour +after breakfast in dictation to a young stenographer who came to him for +the purpose. + +Within a half hour the two were off, Mr. Kendrick being quite as alert +in the matter of dispatching business and getting under way toward fresh +affairs as he had ever been. It was with an expression of interested +anticipation that the old man, wrapped from head to foot, took his place +in the long, low-hung roadster, beneath the broad hood which Richard had +raised, that his passenger might be as snug as possible. + +For many miles the road was of macadam, and they bowled along at a rate +which consumed the distance swiftly, though not too fast for Mr. +Kendrick's comfort. Richard artfully increased his speed by fractional +degrees, so that his grandfather, accustomed to being conveyed at a very +moderate mileage about the city in his closed car, should not be +startled by the sense of flight which he might have had if the young man +had started at his usual break-neck pace. + +They did not talk much, for Matthew Kendrick was habitually cautious +about using his voice in winter air, and Richard was too engaged with +the car and with his own thoughts to attempt to keep up a one-sided +conversation. More than once, however, a brief colloquy took place. One +of the last of these, before approaching their destination, was as +follows: + +"Keeping warm, grandfather?" + +"Perfectly, Dick, thanks to your foot-warmer." + +"Tired, at all?" + +"Not a particle. On the contrary, I find the air very stimulating." + +"I thought you would. Wonderful day for March, isn't it?" + +"Unusually fine." + +"We'll be there before you know it. There's one bad stretch of a couple +of miles, beyond the turn ahead, and another just this side of Eastman, +but Old Faithful here will make light work of 'em. She could plough +through a quicksand if she had to, not to mention spring mud to the +hubs." + +"The car seems powerful," said the old man, smiling behind his upturned +fur collar. "I suppose a young fellow like you wouldn't be content with +anything that couldn't pull at least ten times as heavy a load as it +needed to." + +"I suppose not," laughed Richard. "Though it's not so much a question of +a heavy load as of plenty of power when you want it, and of speed--all +the time. Suppose we were being chased by wild Indians right now, +grandfather. Wouldn't it be a satisfaction to walk away from them +like--this?" + +The car shot ahead with a long, lithe spring, as if she had been using +only a fraction of her power, and had reserves greater than could be +reckoned. Her gait increased as she flew down the long straightaway +ahead until her speedometer on the dash recorded a pace with which the +fastest locomotive on the track which ran parallel with the road would +have had to race with wide-open throttle to keep neck to neck. Richard +had not meant to treat his grandfather to an exhibition of this sort, +being well aware of the older man's distaste for modern high speed, but +the sight of the place where he was in the habit of racing with any +passing train was too much for his young blood and love of swift flight, +and he had covered the full two-mile stretch before he could bring +himself to slow down to a more moderate gait. + +Then he turned to look at as much of his grandfather's face as he could +discern between cap-brim and collar. The eagle eyes beneath their heavy +brows were gazing straight ahead, the firmly moulded lips were +close-set, the whole profile, with its large but well-cut nose, +suggested grim endurance. Matthew Kendrick had made no remonstrance, +nor did he now complain, but Richard understood. + +"You didn't like that, did you, grandfather? I had no business to do it, +when I said I wouldn't. Did I chill you, sir? I'm sorry," was his quick +apology. + +"You didn't chill my body, Dick," was the response. "You did make me +realize the difference between--youth and age." + +"That's not what I ever want to do," declared the young man, with swift +compunction. "Not when your age is worth a million times my youth, in +knowledge and power. And of course I'm showing up a particularly +unfortunate trait of youth--to lose its head! Somehow all the boy in me +comes to the top when I see that track over there, even when there's no +competing train. Did you ever know a boy who didn't want to be an engine +driver?" + +"I was a boy once," said Matthew Kendrick. "Trains in my day were doing +well when they made twenty-five miles an hour. I shouldn't mind your +racing with one of those." + +"I'm racing with one of the fastest engines ever built when I set up a +store in Eastman and try to appropriate some of your methods. I wonder +what you'll think of it?" said Richard gayly. "Well, here's the bad +stretch. Sit tight, grandfather. I'll pick out the best footing there +is, but we may jolt about a good bit. I'm going to try what can be done +to get these fellows to put a bottom under their spring mud!" + +When the town was reached Richard convoyed his companion straight to the +best hotel, saw that he had a comfortable chair and as appetizing a meal +as the house could afford, and let him rest for as long a time afterward +as he himself could brook waiting. When Mr. Kendrick professed himself +in trim for whatever might come next Richard set out with him for the +short walk to the store of Benson & Company. + +The young man's heart was beating with surprising rapidity as the two +approached the front of the brick building which represented his present +venture into the business world. He knew just how keen an eye was to +inspect the place, and what thorough knowledge was to pass judgment upon +it. + +"Here we are," he said abruptly, with an effort to speak lightly. "These +are our front windows. Carson dresses them himself. He seems a wonder to +me--I can't get hold of it at all. Rather a good effect, don't you +think?" + +He was distinctly nervous, and he could not conceal it, as Matthew +Kendrick turned to look at the front of the building, taking it all in, +it seemed, with one sweeping glance which dwelt only for a minute apiece +on the two big windows, and then turned to the entrance, above which +hung the signs, old and new. The visitor made no comment, only nodded, +and made straight for the door. + +As it swung open under Richard's hand, the young man's first glance was +for the general effect. He himself was looking at everything as if for +the first time, intensely alive to the impression it was to make upon +his judge. He found that the general effect was considerably obscured by +the number of people at the counters and in the aisles, more, it seemed +to him, than he had ever seen there before. His second observation was +that the class of shoppers seemed particularly good, and he tried to +recall the special feature of Carson's advertisement of the evening +before. There were several different lines, he remembered, to which +Carson had called special attention, with the assertion that the values +were absolute and the quality guaranteed. + +But his attention was very quickly diverted from any study of the store +itself to the even more interesting and instructive study of the old man +who accompanied him. He had invited an expert to look the situation +over, there could be no possible doubt of that. And the expert was +looking it over--there could be no doubt of that, either. As they passed +down one aisle and up another, Richard could see how the eagle eyes +noted one point after another, yet without any disturbing effect of +searching scrutiny. Here and there Mr. Kendrick's gaze lingered a trifle +longer, and more than once he came close to a counter and brought an +eyeglass to bear on the goods there displayed, nodding pleasantly at the +salespeople as he did so. And everywhere he went glances followed him. + +It seemed to Richard that he had never realized before what a +distinguished looking old man his grandfather was. He was not of more +than average height; he was dressed, though scrupulously, as +unobtrusively as is any quiet gentleman of his years and position; but +none the less was there something about him which spoke of the man of +affairs, of the leader, the organizer, the general. + +Alfred Carson came hurrying out of the little office as the two +Kendricks came in sight. Matthew Kendrick greeted him with distinct +evidence of pleasure. + +"Ah, Mr. Carson," he said, "I am very glad to see you again. I have +missed you from your department. How do you find the new business? More +interesting than the old, eh?" + +"It is always interesting, sir," responded Carson, "to enlarge one's +field of operations." + +Mr. Kendrick laughed heartily at this, turning to Richard as he did so. +"That's a great compliment to you, Dick," he said, "that Mr. Carson +feels he has enlarged his field by coming up here to you, and leaving +me." + +"Don't you think it's true, grandfather?" challenged Richard boldly. + +"To be sure it's true," agreed Mr. Kendrick. "But it sometimes takes a +wise man to see that a swing from the centre of things to the rim is the +way to swing back to the centre finally. Well, I've looked about quite a +bit,--what next, Dick?" + +"Won't you come into the office, sir, and ask us any questions that you +like? We want your criticism and your suggestions," declared Richard. +"Where's Mr. Benson, Mr. Carson? I'd like him to meet my grandfather +right away. I thought we'd find him somewhere about the place before +now." + +"He's just come into the office," said Carson, leading the way. "He'll +be mightily pleased to see Mr. Kendrick." + +This prophecy proved true. Hugh Benson, who had not known of his +partner's intention to bring Mr. Kendrick, Senior, to visit the store, +flushed with pleasure and a little nervousness when he saw him, and gave +evidence of the latter as he cleared a chair for his guest and knocked +down a pile of small pasteboard boxes as he did so. + +"We don't usually keep such things in here," he apologized, and sent +post-haste for a boy to take the offending objects away. Then the party +settled down for a talk, Richard carefully closing the door, after +notifying a clerk outside to prevent interruption for so long as it +should remain closed. + +"Now, grandfather, talk business to us, will you?" he begged. "Tell us +what you think of us, and don't spare us. That's what we want, isn't +it?" And he appealed to his two associates with a look which bade them +speak out. + +"We certainly do, Mr. Kendrick," Hugh Benson assured the visitor +eagerly. "It's our chance to have an expert opinion." + +"It will be even more than that," said Alfred Carson. "It will be the +opinion of the master of all experts in the business world." + +"Fie, Mr. Carson," said the old man, with, however, a kind look at the +young man, who, he knew, did not mean to flatter him but to speak the +undeniable truth, "you must remember the old saying about praise to the +face. Still, I must break that rule myself when I tell you all that I am +greatly pleased with the appearance of the place, and with all that +meets the eye in a brief visit." + +Richard glowed with satisfaction at this, but both Benson and Carson +appeared to be waiting for more. The old man looked at them and nodded. + +"You have both had much more experience than this boy of mine," said he, +"and you know that all has not been said when due acknowledgment has +been made of the appearance of a place of business. What I want to know, +gentlemen, is--does the appearance tell the absolute truth about the +integrity of the business?" + +Richard looked at him quickly, for with the last words his grandfather's +tone had changed from mere suavity to a sudden suggestion of sternness. +Instinctively he straightened in his chair, and his glance at the other +two young men showed that they had quite as involuntarily straightened +in theirs. As the head of the firm, Hugh Benson, after a moment's pause, +answered, in a quietly firm tone which made Richard regard him with +fresh respect: + +"If it didn't, Mr. Kendrick, I shouldn't want to be my father's +successor. He may have been a failure in business, but it was not for +want of absolute integrity." + +The keen eyes softened as they rested on the young man's face, and Mr. +Kendrick bent his head, as if he would do honour to the memory of a +father who, however unsuccessful as the world judges success, could make +a son speak as this son had spoken. "I am sure that is true, Mr. +Benson," he said, and paused for a moment before he went on: + +"It is the foundation principle of business--that a reputation for +trustworthiness can be built only on the rock of real merit. The +appearance of the store must not tell one lie--not one--from front door +to back--not even the shadow of a lie. Nothing must be left to the +customer's discretion. If he pays so much money he must get so much +value, whether he knows it or not." He stopped abruptly, waited for a +little, his eyes searching the faces before him. Then he said, with a +change of tone: + +"Do you want to tell me something about the management of the business, +gentlemen?" + +"We want to do just that, Mr. Kendrick," Benson answered. + +So they set it before him, he and Alfred Carson, as they had worked it +out, Richard remaining silent, even when appealed to, merely saying +quietly: "I'm only the crudest kind of a beginner--you fellows will have +to do the talking," and so leaving it all to the others. They showed Mr. +Kendrick the books of the firm, they explained to him their system of +buying, of analyzing their sales that they might learn how to buy at +best advantage and sell at greatest profit; of getting rid of goods +quickly by attractive advertising; of all manner of details large and +small, such as pertain to the conduct of a business of the character of +theirs. + +They grew eager, enthusiastic, as they talked, for they found their +listener ready of understanding, quick of appreciation, kindly of +criticism, yet so skilful at putting a finger on their weak places that +they could only wonder and take earnest heed of every word he said. As +Richard watched him, he found himself understanding a little Matthew +Kendrick's extraordinary success. If his personality was still one to +make a powerful impression on all who came in contact with him, what +must it have been, Richard speculated, in his prime, in those wonderful +years when he was building the great business, expanding it with a +daring of conception and a rapidity of execution which had fairly taken +away the breath of his contemporaries. He had introduced new methods, +laid down new principles, defied old systems, and created better ones +having no precedent anywhere but in his own productive brain. It might +justly be said that he had virtually revolutionized the mercantile +world, for when the bridges that he built were found to hold, in spite +of all dire prophecy to the contrary, others had crossed them, too, and +profited by his bridge building. + +The three young men did their best to lead Mr. Kendrick to talk of +himself, but of that he would do little. Constantly he spoke of the work +of his associates, and when it became necessary to allude to himself it +was always as if they had been identified with every move of his own. It +was Alfred Carson who best recognized this trait of peculiar modesty in +the old man, and who understood most fully how often the more impersonal +"we" of his speech really stood for the "I" who had been the mainspring +of all action in the growth of the great affairs he spoke of. Carson was +the son of a man who had been one of the early heads of a newly created +department, in the days when departments were just being tried, and he +had heard many a time of the way in which Matthew Kendrick had held to +his course of introducing innovations which had startled the men most +closely associated with him, and had made them wonder if he were not +going too far for safety or success. + +"Well, well, gentlemen," said Mr. Kendrick, rising abruptly at last, +"you have beguiled me into long speech. It takes me back to old days to +sit and discuss a young business like this one with young men like you. +It has been very interesting, and it delights me to find you so ready to +take counsel, while at the same time you show a healthy belief in your +own judgment. You will come along--you will come along. You will make +mistakes, but you will profit by them. And you will remember always, I +hope, a motto I am going to give you." + +He paused and looked searchingly into each face before him: Hugh +Benson's, serious and sincere; Alfred Carson's, energy and purpose +showing in every line; his own boy's, Richard's, keen interest and a +certain proud wonder looking out of his fine eyes as he watched the old +man who seemed to him to-day, somehow, almost a stranger in his +unwontedly aroused speech. + +"The most important thing a business can do," said Matthew Kendrick +slowly, "is to make men of those who make the business." + +He let the words sink in. He saw, after an instant, the response in each +face, and he nodded, satisfied. He held out his hand to each in turn, +including his grandson, and received three hearty grips of gratitude and +understanding. + +As he drove away with Richard his eyes were bright under their heavy +brows. It had done him good, this visit to the place where his thoughts +had often been of late, and he was pleased with the way Richard had +borne himself throughout the interview. He could not have asked better +of the heir to the Kendrick millions than the unassuming and yet quietly +assured manner Richard had shown. It had a certain quality, the old man +proudly considered, which was lacking in that of both Benson and Carson, +fine fellows though they were, and well-mannered in every way. It +reminded Matthew Kendrick of the boy's own father, who had been a man +among men, and a gentleman besides. + +"Grandfather, we shall pass Mr. Rufus Gray's farm in a minute. Don't you +want to stop and see them?" + +"Rufus Gray?" questioned Mr. Kendrick. "The people we entertained at +Christmas? I should like to stop, if it will not delay us too long. It +seems a colder air than it did this morning." + +"There's a bit of wind, and it's usually colder, facing this way. If you +prefer, after the call, I'll take you back to the station and run down +alone." + +"We'll see. Is this the place we're coming to? A pleasant old place +enough, and it looks like the right home for such a pair," commented Mr. +Kendrick, gazing interestedly ahead as the car swung in at a stone +gateway, and followed a winding roadway toward a low-lying, hospitable +looking white house, with long porches beyond masses of bare shrubbery. + +It seemed that the welcoming look of the house was justified in the +attitude of its inmates, for the car had but stopped when the door flew +open, and Rufus Gray, his face beaming, bade them enter. Inside, his +wife came forward with her well-remembered sunny smile, and in a trice +Matthew Kendrick and his grandson found themselves sitting in front of a +blazing fire upon a wide hearth, receiving every evidence that their +presence brought delight. + +Richard looked on with inward amusement and satisfaction at the unwonted +sight of his grandfather partaking of a cup of steaming coffee rich with +country cream, and eating with the appetite of a boy a huge, +sugar-coated doughnut which his hostess assured him could not possibly +hurt him. + +"They're the real old-fashioned kind, Mr. Kendrick," said she. "Raised +like bread, you know, and fried in lard we make ourselves in a way I +have so that not a bit of grease gets inside. My husband thinks they're +the only fit food to go with coffee." + +"They are the most delicious food I ever ate, certainly, Madam Gray, and +I find myself agreeing with him, now that I taste them," declared Mr. +Kendrick, and Richard, disposing with zest of a particularly huge, light +specimen of Mrs. Gray's art, seconded his grandfather's appreciation. + +They made a long call, Mr. Kendrick appearing to enjoy himself as +Richard could not remember seeing him do before. He and Mr. Gray found +many subjects to discuss with mutual interest, and the nodding of the +two heads in assent at frequent intervals proved how well they found +themselves agreeing. + +Richard, as at the time of the Grays' brief visit at his own home, +devoted himself to the lady whom he always thought of as "Aunt Ruth," +secretly dwelling on the hope that he might some day acquire the right +to call her by that pleasant title. He led her, by artful +circumlocutions, always tending toward one object, to speak of her +nieces and nephews, and when he succeeded in drawing from her certain +all too meagre news of Roberta, he exulted in his ardent soul, though he +did his best not to betray himself. + +"Maybe," said she, quite suddenly, "you'd enjoy looking at the family +album. Robby and Ruth always get it out when they come here--they like +to see their father and mother the way they used to look. There's some +of themselves, too, though the photographs folks have now are too big to +go in an old-fashioned album like this, and the ones they've sent me +lately aren't in here." + +Never did a modern young man accept so eagerly the chance to scan the +collection of curious old likenesses such as is found between the covers +of the now despised "album" of the days of their grandfathers. Richard +turned the pages eagerly, scanning them for faces he knew, and +discovered much satisfaction in one charming picture of Roberta's mother +at eighteen, because of its suggestion of the daughter. + +"Eleanor was the beauty of the family, and is yet, I always say," +asserted Aunt Ruth. "Robby's like her, they all think, but she can't +hold a candle to her mother. She's got more spirit in her face, maybe, +but her features aren't equal to Eleanor's." + +Richard did not venture to disagree with this opinion, but he privately +considered that, enchanting as was the face of Mrs. Robert Gray at +eighteen, that of her daughter Roberta, at twenty-four, dangerously +rivalled it. + +"I could tell better about the likeness if I saw a late picture of Miss +Roberta," he observed, his eyes and mouth grave, but his voice +expectant. Aunt Ruth promptly took the suggestion, and limping daintily +away, returned after a minute with a framed photograph of Roberta and +Ruth, taken by one of those masters of the art who understand how to +bring out the values of the human face, yet to leave provocative shadows +which make for mystery and charm. Richard received it with a respectful +hand, and then had much ado to keep from showing how the sight of her +pictured face made his heart throb. + +When the two visitors rose to go Aunt Ruth put in a plea for their +remaining overnight. + +"It's turned colder since you came up this morning, Mr. Kendrick," said +she. "Why not stay with us and go back in the morning? We'd be so +pleased to entertain you, and we've plenty of room--too much room for us +two old folks, now the children are all married and gone." + +To Richard's surprise his grandfather did not immediately decline. He +looked at Aunt Ruth, her rosy, smiling face beaming with hospitality, +then he glanced at Richard. + +"Do stay," urged Uncle Rufus. "Remember how you took us in at midnight, +and what a good time you gave us the two days we stayed? It would make +us mighty happy to have you sleep under our roof, you and your grandson +both, if he'll stay, too." + +"I confess I should like to sleep under this roof," admitted Matthew +Kendrick. "It reminds me of my father's old home. It's very good of you, +Madam Gray, to ask us, and I believe I shall remain. As to Richard--" + +"I'd like nothing better," declared that young man promptly. + +So it was settled. Richard drove back to the store and gathered together +various articles for his own and his grandfather's use, and returned to +the Gray fireside. The long and pleasant evening which followed the +hearty country supper gave him one more new experience in the long list +of them he was acquiring. Somehow he had seldom been happier than when +he followed his hostess into the comfortable room upstairs she assigned +him, opening from that she had given the elder man. Cheerful fires +burned in old-fashioned, open-hearthed Franklin stoves, in both rooms, +and the atmosphere was fragrant with the mingled breath of crackling +apple-wood, and lavender from the fine old linen with which both beds +had been freshly made. + +"Sleep well, my dear friends," said Aunt Ruth, in her quaintly friendly +way, as she bade her guests good-night and shook hands with them, +receiving warm responses. + +"One must find sweet repose under your roof," said Matthew Kendrick, and +Richard, attending his hostess to the door, murmured, "You look as if +you'd put two small boys to bed and tucked them in!" at which Aunt Ruth +laughed with pleasure, nodding at him over her shoulder as she went +away. + +Presently, as Matthew Kendrick lay down in the soft bed, his face toward +the glow of his fire that he might watch it, Richard knocked and came in +from his own room and, crossing to the bed, stood leaning on the +foot-board. + +"Too sleepy to talk, grandfather?" he asked. + +"Not at all, my boy," responded the old man, his heart stirring in his +breast at this unwonted approach at an hour when the two were usually +far apart. Never that he could remember had Richard come into his room +after he had retired. + +"I wanted to tell you," said the young man, speaking very gently, "that +you've been awfully kind, and have done us all a lot of good to-day. And +you've done me most of all." + +"Why, that's pleasant news, Dick," answered old Matthew Kendrick, his +eyes fixed on the shadowy outlines of the face at the foot of the bed. +"Sit down and tell me about it." + +So Richard sat down, and the two had such a talk as they had had never +before in their lives--a long, intimate talk, with the barriers +down--the barriers which both felt now never should have existed. Lying +there in the soft bed of Aunt Ruth's best feathers, with the odour of +her lavender in his nostrils, and the sound of the voice he loved in his +ears, the old man drank in the delight of his grandson's confidence, and +the wonder of something new--the consciousness of Richard's real +affection, and his heart beat with slow, heavy throbs of joy, such as he +had never expected to feel again in this world. + +"Altogether," said Richard, rising reluctantly at last, as the tall old +clock on the landing near-by slowly boomed out the hour of midnight, +"it's been a great day for me. I'd been looking forward with quite a bit +of dread to bringing you up, I knew you'd see so plainly wherever we +were lacking; but you were so splendidly kind about it--" + +"And why shouldn't I be kind, Dick?" spoke his grandfather eagerly. +"What have I in the world to interest me as you and your affairs +interest me? Can any possible stroke of fortune seem so great to me as +your development into a manhood of accomplishment? And when it is in the +very world I know so well and have so near my heart--" + +Richard interrupted him, not realizing that he was doing so, but full of +longing to make all still further clear between them. "Grandfather, I +want to make a confession. This world of yours--I didn't want to enter +it." + +"I know you didn't, Dick. And I know why. But you are getting over that, +aren't you? You are beginning to realize that it isn't what a man does, +but the way he does it, that matters." + +"Yes," said Richard slowly. "Yes, I'm beginning to realize that. And do +you want to know what made me realize it to-day, as never before?" + +The old man waited. + +"It was the sight of you, sir--and--the recognition of the power you +have been all your life;--and the--sudden appreciation of the"--he +stumbled a little, but he brought the words out forcefully at the +end--"of the very great gentleman you are!" + +He could not see the hot tears spring into the old eyes which had not +known such a sign of emotion for many years. But he could feel the throb +in the low voice which answered him after a moment. + +"I may not deserve that, Dick, but--it touches me, coming from you." + +When Richard had gone back to his own room, Matthew Kendrick lay for a +long time, wide awake, too happy to sleep. In the next room his +grandson, before he slept, had formulated one more new idea: + +"There's something in the association with people like these that makes +a fellow feel like being absolutely honest with them, with +everybody--most of all with himself. What is it?" + +And pondering this, he was lost in the world of dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ENCOUNTERS + + +"By the way, Rob, I saw Rich Kendrick to-day." Louis Gray detained his +sister Roberta on the stairs as they stopped to exchange greetings on a +certain evening in March. "It struck me suddenly that I hadn't seen him +for a blue moon, and I asked him why he didn't come round when he was in +town. He said he was sticking tight to that new business of his up in +Eastman, but he admitted he was to be here over Sunday. I invited him +round to-night, but to my surprise he wouldn't come. Said he had another +engagement, of course--thanked me fervently and all that--but there was +no getting him. It made me a bit suspicious of you, Bobby." + +"I can't imagine why." But, in spite of herself, Roberta coloured. "He +came here when he was helping Uncle Calvin. There's no reason for his +coming now." + +Her brother regarded her with the observing eye which sisters find it +difficult to evade. "He would have taken a job as nursemaid for Rosy, if +it would have given him a chance to go in and out of this old house, I +imagine. Rosy stuck to it, it was his infatuation for the home and the +members thereof, particularly Gordon and Dorothy. He undoubtedly was +struck with them--it would have been a hard heart that wasn't touched by +the sight of the boy--but if it was the kiddies he wanted, why didn't he +keep coming? Steve and Rosy would have welcomed him." + +"You had better ask him his reasons, next time you see him," Roberta +suggested, and escaped. + +It was two months since she had seen Richard Kendrick. He seemed never +so much as to pass the house, although it stood directly on his course +when he drove back and forth from Eastman in his car. She wondered if he +really did make a détour each time, to avoid the very chance of meeting +her. It was impossible not to think of him, rather disturbingly often, +and to wonder how he was getting on. + +The month of March in the year of this tale was on the whole an +extraordinarily mild and springlike piece of substitution for the +rigorous, wind-swept season it should by all rights have been. On one +of its most beguiling days Roberta Gray was walking home from Miss +Copeland's school. Usually she came by way of the broad avenue which led +straight home. To-day, out of sheer unwillingness to reach that home and +end the walk, she took a quite different course. This led her up a +somewhat similar street, parallel to her own but several blocks beyond, +a street of more than ordinary attractiveness in that it was less of a +thoroughfare than any other of equal beauty in the residential portion +of the city. + +She was walking slowly, drawing in the balmy air and noting with delight +the beds of crocuses which were beginning to show here and there on +lawns and beside paths, when a peculiar sound far up the avenue caught +her ear. She recognized it instantly, for she had heard it often and she +had never heard another quite like it. It was the warning song of a +coming motor-car and it was of unusual and striking musical quality. So +Roberta knew, even before she caught sight of the long, low, powerful +car which had stood many times before her own door during certain weeks +of the last year, that she was about to meet for the first time in two +months the person upon whom she had put a ban. + +Would he see her? He could hardly help it, for there was not another +pedestrian in sight upon the whole length of the block, and the March +sunshine was full upon her. As the car came on the girl who walked +sedately to meet it found that her pulses had somehow curiously +accelerated. So this was the route he took, not to go by her home. + +Did he see her? Evidently as far away as half a block, for at that +distance his motor-cap was suddenly pulled off, and it was with bared +head that he passed her. At the moment the car was certainly not running +as fast as it had been doing twenty rods back; it went by at a pace +moderate enough to show the pair to each other with distinctness. +Roberta saw clearly Richard Kendrick's intent eyes upon her, saw the +flash of his smile and the grace of his bow, and saw--as if written upon +the blue spring sky--the word he had left with her, "Midsummer." If he +had shouted it at her as he passed, it could not have challenged her +more definitely. + +He was obeying her literally--more literally than she could have +demanded. Not to slow down, come to a standstill beside her, exchange at +least a few words of greeting--this was indeed a strict interpretation +of her edict. Evidently he meant to play the game rigorously. Still, he +had been a compellingly attractive figure as he passed; that instant's +glimpse of him was likely to remain with her quite as long as a more +protracted interview. Did he guess that? + +"I wonder how I looked?" was her first thought as she walked on--a +purely feminine one, it must be admitted. When she reached home she +glanced at herself in the hall mirror on her way upstairs--a thing she +seldom took the trouble to do. + +A figure got hastily to its feet and came out into the hall to meet her +as she passed the door of the reception-room. "Miss Roberta!" said an +eager voice. + +"Why, Mr. Westcott! I didn't know you were in town!" + +"I didn't intend to be until next month, as you knew. But this wonderful +weather was too much for me." + +He held her hand and looked down into her face from his tall height. He +told her what he thought of her appearance--in detail with his eyes, in +modified form with his lips. + +"In my old school clothes?" laughed Roberta. "How draggy winter things +seem the first warm days. This velvet hat weighs like lead on my head +to-day." She took it off. "I'll run up and make myself presentable," +said she. + +"Please don't. You're exactly right as you are. And--I want you to go +for a walk if you're not too tired. The road that leads out by the West +Wood marshes--it will be sheer spring out there to-day. I want to share +it with you." + +So Roberta put on her hat again and went to walk with Forbes Westcott +out the road that led by the West Wood marshes. There was not a more +romantic road to be found in a long way. + +When they were well out into the country he began to press a question +which she had heard before, and to which he had had as yet no answer. + +"Still undecided?" said he, with a very sober face. "You can't make up +your mind as to my qualifications?" + +"Your qualifications are undoubted," said she, with a face as sober as +his. "They are more than any girl could ask. But I--how can I know? I +care so much for you--as a friend. Why can't we keep on being just good +friends and let things develop naturally?" + +"If I thought they would ever develop the way I want them," he said +earnestly, "I would wait patiently a great while longer. But I don't +seem to be making any progress. In fact, I seem to have gone backward a +bit in your good graces. Since I saw that young prince of shopkeepers in +your company over at Eastman, I've been wondering--" + +"Prince of shopkeepers! What an extraordinary characterization! I +thought he was a most amateurish shopkeeper. He didn't even know the +name of his own batiste, much less where it was kept." + +"He knew how to skate and to take you along with him. I beg your pardon! +But ever since that night I've been experiencing a most disconcerting +sense of jealousy whenever I think of that young man. He was such a +magnificent figure there in the firelight; he made me feel as old as the +Pyramids. And when you two were gone so long and came back with such an +odd look, both of you--oh, I beg your pardon again! This is most +unworthy of me, I know. But--set me straight if you can! Have you seen +much of him since that night?" + +"Absolutely nothing," said Roberta quickly, with a sense of great +relief. "To-day he passed me in his car, on my way home from school, +over on Egerton Avenue, and didn't even stop." + +He scanned her face closely. "And you are not even interested in him?" + +"Mr. Forbes Westcott," said Roberta desperately, "I have told you often +and often that I'm not interested in any man except as one or two are my +very good friends. Why can't all girls be allowed to live along in peace +and comfort until they are at least thirty years old? You didn't have +anybody besieging you to marry before you were thirty. If anybody had +you'd have said 'No' quickly enough. You had that much of your life +comfortably to yourself." + +He bit his lip, but he was obliged to laugh. His thin, keen face was +more attractive when he laughed, but there was an odd, tense expression +on it which did not leave it even then. + +"I can see you are still hopeless," he owned. "But so long as you are +hopeless for other men I can endure it, I suppose. I really meant not to +speak again for a long time, as I promised you. But the thought of that +embryo plutocrat making after you, as he has after so many girls--" + +"How many girls, I wonder?" queried Roberta quite carelessly. "Do you +happen to know? Has his fame spread so far?" + +"I know nothing about him, of course, except that he's a gay young +spendthrift. It goes without saying that he's made love to every pretty +face, for that kind invariably do." + +"If it goes without saying, why say it?--particularly as you don't know +it. I dare say he has--what serious harm? I presume it's quite as likely +they've run after him. I'm sure it's a matter of no concern to me, for I +know him very little and am likely to know him much less now that he +doesn't come to work with Uncle Calvin any more. Let's go back, Mr. +Westcott. I came out to look for pussy-willows, not for +Robby-will-you's!" + +With which piece of audacity she dismissed the subject. It certainly was +not a subject which harmonized well with that of Midsummer Day, and the +thought of Midsummer Day, quickened into active life by the unexpected +sight of the person who had made a certain preposterous prophecy +concerning it, was a thought which was refusing to down. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +INTRIGUE + + +"Hi!--Mr. Kendrick!--I say, Mr. Kendrick! Wait a minute!" + +The car, about to leave the curb in front of one of Kendrick & Company's +great city stores, halted. Its driver turned to see young Ted Gray +tearing across the sidewalk in hot pursuit. + +"Well, well--glad to see you, Ted, boy. Jump in and I'll take you +along." + +Ted jumped in. He gave Richard Kendrick's welcoming hand a hard squeeze. +"I haven't seen you for an awful while," said he reproachfully. "Aren't +you ever coming to our house any more?" + +"I hope so, Ted. But, you see," explained Richard carefully, "I'm a man +of business now and I can't have much time for calls. I'm in Eastman +most of the time. How are you, Ted? Tell me all about it. Can you go for +a spin with me? I had to come into town in a hurry, but there's no great +hurry about getting back. I'll take you out into the country and show +you the prettiest lot of apple trees in full bloom you ever saw in May." + +"I'd like to first-rate, but could you take me home first? I have to let +mother know where I am after school." + +"All right." And away they flew. But Richard turned off the avenue three +blocks below the corner upon which stood Ted's home and ran up the +street behind it. "Run in the back way, will you, Ted?" he requested. "I +want to do a bit of work on the car while you're in." + +So while Ted dashed up through the garden to the back of the house +Richard got out and unscrewed a nut or two, which he screwed again into +place without having accomplished anything visible to the eye, and was +replacing his wrench when the boy returned. + +"This is jolly," Ted declared. "I'll bet Rob envies me. This is her +Wednesday off from teaching, and she was just going for a walk. She +wanted me to go with her, but of course she let me go with you instead. +I--I suppose I could ride on the running board and let you take her if +you want to," he proposed with some reluctance. + +"I'd like nothing better, but she wouldn't go." + +"Maybe not. Perhaps Mr. Westcott is coming for her. They walk a lot +together." + +"I thought Mr. Westcott practised law with consuming zeal." + +"With what? Anyhow, he's here a lot this spring. About every Wednesday, +I think. I say, this is a bully car! If I were Rob I'd a lot rather ride +with you than go walking with old Westcott--especially when it's so +warm." + +"I'm afraid," said Richard soberly, "that walking in the woods in May +has its advantages over bowling along the main highway in any kind of a +car." + +Nevertheless he managed to make the drive a fascinating experience to +Ted and a diverting one to himself. And on the way home they stopped at +the West Wood marshes to gather a great bunch of trilliums as big as +Ted's head. + +"I'll take 'em to Rob," said her younger brother. "She likes 'em better +than any spring flower." + +"Take my bunch to Mrs. Stephen Gray then. And be sure you don't get them +mixed." + +"What if I did? They're exactly the same size." Ted held up the two +nosegays side by side as the car sped on toward home. + +"I know, but it's of the greatest importance that you keep them +straight. That left-hand one is yours; be sure and remember that." + +Ted looked piercingly at his friend, but Richard's face was perfectly +grave. + +"Must be you don't like Rob, if you're so afraid your flowers will get +to her," he reflected. "Or else you think so much of Rosy you can't bear +to let anybody else have the flowers you picked for her. I'll have to +tell Steve that." + +"Do, by all means. Mere words could never express my admiration for Mrs. +Stephen." + +"She is pretty nice," agreed Ted. "I like her myself. But she isn't in +it with Rob. Why, Rosy's afraid of lots of things, regularly afraid, you +know, so Steve has to laugh her out of them. But Rob--she isn't afraid +of a thing in the world." + +"Except one." + +"One?" Ted pricked up his ears. "What's that? I'll bet she isn't really +afraid of it--just shamming. She does that sometimes. What is it? Tell +me, and I'll tell you if she's shamming." + +"I'd give a good deal to know, but I'm afraid I can't tell you what it +is." + +"Why not? If she isn't really afraid of it she won't mind my knowing. +And if she is maybe I can laugh her out of it, the way Steve does Rosy." + +"I don't believe you're competent to treat the case, Ted. It's not a +thing to be laughed out of, you see. The thing for you to remember is +which bunch of trilliums you are to give Mrs. Stephen Gray from me." + +"This one." Ted waved his left arm. + +"Not a bit of it. The left one is yours." + +"No, because mine was a little the biggest, and you see this right one +is." + +"You are mistaken," Richard assured him positively. "You give Mrs. +Stephen the right one, and I'll take the consequences." + +"Did yours have a red one in?" + +"Has that right one?" + +"No, the left one has. I remember seeing you pick it." + +"But afterward I threw it out. You picked one and left it in. The right +is mine." + +"You've got me all mixed up," vowed Ted discontentedly, at which his +companion laughed, delight in his eye. The left-hand bunch was +unquestionably his own, but if he could only convince Ted of the +contrary he should at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the +flowers he had plucked had reached his lady, though they would have no +significance to her. When the lad jumped out of the car at his own rear +gate he had agreed that the bunch with the one deep red trillium was to +go to Roberta. + +Ted turned to wave both white clusters at his friend as the car went on, +then he proceeded straight to his sister's room. Finding her absent, he +laid one great white-and-green mass in a heap upon her bed and went his +way with the other to Mrs. Stephen's room. Here he found both Roberta +and Rosamond playing with little Gordon and Dorothy, whom their nurse +had just brought in from an airing. + +"Here's some trilliums for you, Rosy," announced Ted. "Mr. Kendrick sent +'em to you. I left yours on your bed, Rob. I picked yours; at least I +think I did. He was awfully particular that his went to Rosy, but we got +sort of mixed up about which picked which, so I can't be sure. I don't +see any use of making such a fuss about a lot of trilliums, anyhow." + +Roberta and Rosamond looked at each other. "I think you are decidedly +mixed, Ted," said Rosamond. "It was Rob Mr. Kendrick meant to send his +to." + +Ted shook his head positively. "No, it wasn't. He said something about +you that I told him I was going to tell Steve, only--I don't know as I +can remember it. Something about his admiring you a whole lot." + +"Delightful! And he didn't say anything about Rob?" + +"Not very much. Said she was afraid of something. I said she wasn't +afraid of anything, and he said she was--of one thing. I tried to make +him say what it was, because I knew he was all off about that, but he +wouldn't tell." + +"Evidently you and Mr. Kendrick talked a good deal of nonsense," was +Roberta's comment, on her way from the room. + +She found the mass of green and white upon her bed and stood +contemplating it for a moment. The one deep red trillium glowed richly +against its snowy brethren, and she picked it out and examined it +thoughtfully, as if she expected it to tell her whereof Richard Kendrick +thought she was afraid. But as it vouchsafed no information she gathered +up the whole mass and disposed it in a big crystal bowl which she set +upon a small table by an open window. + +"If I thought that really was the bunch he picked," said she to herself, +"I should consider he had broken his promise and I should feel obliged +to throw it away. Perhaps I'd better do it anyhow. Yet--it seems a pity +to throw away such a beautiful bowlful of white and green, and--very +likely they were of Ted's picking after all. But I don't like that one +red one against all the white." + +She laid fingers upon it to draw it out. But she did not draw it out. "I +wonder if that represents the one thing I'm afraid of?" she considered +whimsically. "What does his majesty mean--himself? Or--myself? +Or--of--of--Yes, I suppose that's it! Am I afraid of it?" + +She stood staring down at the one deep red flower, the biggest, finest +bloom of them all. It really did not belong there with the others in +their cool, chaste whiteness. Quite suddenly she drew it out. She made +the motion of throwing it out the window, but it seemed to cling to her +fingers. + +"Poor little flower," said she softly, "why should you have to go? +Perhaps you're sorry because you're not white like the rest. But you +can't help it; you were made that way." + +If Richard Kendrick could have seen her standing there, staring down at +the flower he had picked, he would have found it harder than ever to go +on his appointed course. For this was what she was thinking: + +"I ought--I ought--to like best the white flowers of intellect--and +ability--and training--and every sort of fitness. I try and try to like +them best. But, oh!--they are so white--compared with this red, red one. +I like the white ones; they are pure and cool and beautiful. But--the +red one is warm, warm! Oh, I don't know--I don't know. And how am I +going to know? Tell me that, red flower. Did he pick you? Shall I keep +you--on the doubt? Well--but not where you will show. Yes, I'll keep +you, but away down in the middle, where no one will see you, and where +you won't distract my attention from the beautiful white flowers that +are so different from you." + +She bent over the bowlful of snowy spring blossoms, drew them apart, and +sunk the red flower deep among them, drawing them together again so that +not a hint of their alien brother should show against their whiteness. + +"There," said she, turning away with a little laugh, but speaking over +her shoulder, "you ought to be satisfied with that. That's certainly +much better than being thrown out of the window, to wilt in the sun!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE NAILING OF A FLAG + + +"Well--well--well!" drawled a voice at Richard Kendrick's elbow. "How +are you, old man? Haven't seen you since before the days of Noah! Off to +that country shop of yours? I say, take me along, will you? Time hangs +heavy on my hands just now, and I want to see you anyhow, about a plan +of mine." + +"Hop in, Lorimer. Mighty glad to see you. Want to go all the way to +Eastman? That's fine! This is great weather, eh?" + +Belden Lorimer hopped in, if that word may be used to express his eager +acceptance rather than the alacrity of his movements, for he was +accustomed to act with as much deliberation as he spoke. He was one of +Richard's college friends, also one of his late intimate companions at +clubs and in social affairs. Lorimer possessed as much money in his own +right as Richard himself, though his expectations were hardly as great. + +"To tell the truth," said Lorimer, when the car had left the city and +was bowling along the main travelled highway "up the State," "I wanted +to see you as much as anything to get a good look at you. Fellows say +you've changed. Say you have that 'captain-of-industry' expression now. +Say you've acquired that broad brow--alert eye--stern mouth--dominant +chin--and so forth, that goes with indomitable determination to 'get +there.' To be sure, I'd have thought you'd arrived, or your family +before you, but they say you've started out to arrive some more. It's a +wonderful example for a chap like me--fellows say. Think so myself. Mind +imparting--" + +Richard broke in on Lorimer's drawl. It was rather an engaging drawl, by +the way, and he had always enjoyed hearing it, but it struck upon his +ears now with a certain futility. In a world of pressing affairs why +should a man cultivate a tone like that? But he liked Lorimer too much +to mind how he talked. + +"I'm delighted if I've acquired that expression," said he, letting out +the car another notch, although it was already in swift flight. "It's +been a lot of trouble. I've had to practise before a mirror a good deal. +It was the chin bothered me most. It sticks out pretty well, but not as +far as my grandfather's. Could you advise any method of--" + +"What I want to know is," proceeded Lorimer calmly, "how you came to go +into it. Understand you wanted to help fellow out of the ditch--good old +Benson--most worthy. Couldn't help him out without getting in yourself? +But going to get out soon as possible, of course? Unthinkable for Rich +Kendrick to be a country shopkeeper!" + +"Unthinkable, is it? Wait till you see the shop. It's the most fun I +ever had. Get out? Not by a long shot. I'm in for keeps." + +"Not you. With the Kendrick establishments waiting for you to come into +your own? Which will mean, in your case, becoming the nominal head of a +great system, while it continues to be run for you, as now, by a lot of +trained heads under salary--big salary." + +"Great idea of my future you have, Lorry, haven't you? Well, I can't +wonder. I've been doing my best for all the years of my life to implant +that idea in your mind. But, what about you? What are you at, yourself? +You said you had a plan." + +"He asks what I'm 'at,'" remarked Belden Lorimer to the rural landscape +through which the car was passing. "Ever know me to be 'at' anything? +It's as much as I can do to support life until I can be off on my next +little travel-plan. It's me for a leisurely cruise around the world, in +the governor's little old boat--the _Ariel_--painted up within an inch +of her life, brass all shining, lockers filled, a first-class cook +engaged, and a brand-new skipper and crew--picked men. Sounds pretty +good to me. How about you? Shop keeping in it with that, me lord?" + +His usually languid glance was sharp, as he eyed his friend. + +"Jove!" ejaculated Richard Kendrick, under his breath. + +"I thought so. 'Jove!' it is, too--and also Jupiter! You've always said +you'd be ready when I was. Well, I'm ready." + +Richard was silent for a long minute, while his friend waited +confidently. Then, "Good luck to you, old Lorry," he said. "It's mighty +fine of you to remember our ancient vow to do that trick some day. And +I'd like to go--you know that. But--I've a previous engagement." + +"Not with that fool store up in the backwoods? Can't make me believe +that, you know." + +Richard's face was a study. + +"Believe it or not, it's a fact. That store is the joint property of +Benson & Company. I'm the Company. I can't desert my partner just as +we're getting the ground under our feet." + +"Well--I'll--be--hanged," drawled Lorimer, more heavily than ever, as +was his custom when opposed, "if I see it. You go and help a fellow out +with capital and set him on his feet. You save his pride, I suppose, by +making yourself a partner. Fine, sporty thing to do. But you've done it. +You've contributed the capital. Can't reasonably suppose you +contribute anything else. If you don't mind my saying it, +your--previous--training--" + +"Doesn't make me indispensable to the success of the business? Hardly, +as yet. But for the very reason that I lack training, I've got to stay +and get it." + +"Take lessons in shopkeeping from Hugh Benson?" + +"Exactly. And from Alf Carson. He's our manager." + +"Don't know him. But from the way you allude to him I judge +he has the details at his fingers-ends. That's all right. +Leave--him--on--the--job." + +"I will--and stay myself." + +Richard's eyes were straight ahead, as the eyes of a man must be whose +powerful car is running at high speed along a none too smoothly surfaced +portion of state road. Therefore the glances of the two young men could +not meet. But Lorimer's eyes could silently scan the well-cut profile +presented to his view against the green of the fields beyond. + +"Never observed," said he, with a peculiar inflection, "just +how--rock-like--that chin of yours is, Rich. Reminds me of your +grandfather's, for fair." + +"Glad to hear it." + +"You know," pursued Lorimer presently, "you gave me your promise, once, +that you'd be with me on this cruise, whenever it came off. That's where +the chin ought to come in. Man of your word, you know, and all that." + +"I'm mighty sorry, my dear fellow. Let's not talk about it." + +And clearly he was sorry. It had been a pleasant plan, and he had not +forgotten the circumstances of the laughing yet serious pledge the two +had given each other one evening less than two years ago. + +They kept on their way with a change of conversation, and at the rate of +speed which Richard maintained were running into Eastman before they +were half done with asking each other questions concerning the months +during which they had seldom met. + +"This the busy mart?" queried Lorimer, as the car came to a standstill +before the corner store. "Well, beside Kendrick & Company's massive +edifices of stone and marble--" + +"Luckily, it's not beside them," retorted Richard, maintaining his good +humour. "Will you come in?" + +"Thanks, I will. That's what I came for. Curiosity leads me to want to +view you behind the--No, no, of course it's behind the office glass +partition that I'll view you, my boy. I want to hear Rich Kendrick +talking business--with a big B." + +"I'll talk business to you, if you don't let up," declared his friend. +"You've got to be cured of the idea that this is some kind of a joke, +Lorry. Will you be kind enough to take me seriously?" + +"Find--that--impossible," drawled Lorimer, under his breath, as he +followed Richard into the store. + +But once there, of course, his manner changed to the most courteous of +which he was master. He was taken to the office and there shook hands +with Hugh Benson with cordiality, having known him at college as a man +who commanded respect for high scholarship and modest but assured +manners, though of a quite different class of comradeship from his own. +He talked pleasantly with Alfred Carson, and listened with evident +interest to a business discussion between Richard and his associates, in +the course of which he discovered that however much or little Richard +had learned, he could speak intelligently concerning the matters then in +hand. He went to lunch with Richard and Hugh Benson at a hotel, and +listened again, for a decision was to be made which called for haste, +and no time could be lost in the consideration of it. + +He spent the afternoon driving Richard's car on up the state, returning +in time to pick up his friend at the appointed hour, late in the +afternoon, at which they were to start back to the city. Up to the last +moment of their departure business still had the upper hand, and it was +not until Benson and Kendrick parted at the curb that it ended for the +day, as far as Richard's part in it was concerned. + +"Six hours you've been at it," remarked Lorimer, as the car swung away +under Richard's hand. "It makes me fatigued all over to contemplate such +zeal." + +"Tell that to the men who really work. I'm getting off easy, to cut and +run at the end of six hours." + +"Rich--" began his friend, then he paused. "By the Lord Harry, I'd like +to know what's got you. I can't make you and the old Rich fit together +at all. You and your books--you and your music--and your pictures--your +polo--your 'wine, women, and song'--" + +"Take that last back," commanded Richard Kendrick, with sudden heat. +"You know I've never gone in for that sort of thing, except as all our +old crowd went in together. Personally, I haven't cared for it, and you +know it. It's travel and adventure I've cared for--" + +"And that you're throwing over now for a country shop." + +"That I'm throwing over now to learn the ABC in the training school of +responsibility for the big load that's to come on my shoulders. I've +been asleep all these years. Thank Heaven I've waked up in time. It's no +merit of mine--" + +"Mind telling me whose it is, then?" + +"I should mind, very much--if you'll excuse me." + +"Oh--beg pardon," drawled Lorimer. + +Silence followed for a brief space, broken by Richard's voice, in its +old, genial tone. + +"Tell me more about the cruise. It's great that you can have your +father's yacht. I thought he always used it through the summer." + +"He's gone daffy on monoplanes--absolutely daffy. Can't see anything +else." + +"I don't blame him. I might have gone in for aviation myself, if I +hadn't got this bigger game on my hands." + +"Bigger--there you go again! Well, every man to his taste. The +governor's lost interest in the _Ariel_--let me have her without a +reservation as to time limit. Don't care for flying myself. Necessary +to sit up. Like to lie on my back too well for that." + +"You do yourself injustice." + +"Now, now--don't preach. I've been expecting it." + +"You needn't. I'm too busy with my own case to attend to yours." + +"Lucky for me. I feel you'd be a zealous preacher if you ever got +started." + +"What route do you expect to take?" pursued Richard, steering away from +dangerous ground. + +Lorimer outlined it, in his most languid manner. One would have thought +he had little real interest in his plan, after all. + +"It's great! You'll have the time of your life!" + +"I might have had." + +"You will have--you can't help it." + +"Not without the man I want in the bunk next mine," said Belden Lorimer, +gazing through half-shut eyes at nothing in particular. + +Richard experienced the severest pang of regret he had yet known. + +"If that's true, old Lorry," said he slowly, "I'm sorrier than I can +tell you." + +"Then--_come along_!" Lorimer looked waked up at last. He laid a +persuasive hand on Richard's arm. + +There was a moment of tensity. Then: + +"If I should do it," said Richard, regarding steadily a dog in the road +some hundred yards ahead, "would you feel any respect whatever for me?" + +"Dead loads of it, I assure you." + +"Sure of that?" + +"Why not?" + +"Be honest. Would you?" + +"You promised me first," said Lorimer. + +"I know I did. Such idle promises to play don't count when real life +asks for work--it's no good reminding me of that promise. Answer me +straight, now, Lorry--on your honour. If I should give in and go with +you, you'd rejoice for a little, perhaps. Then, some day, when you and +I were lying on deck, you'd look at me and think of me--against your +will--I don't say it wouldn't be against your will--you'd think of me as +a quitter. And you wouldn't like me quite as well as you do now. Eh? Be +honest." + +Lorimer was silent for a minute. Then, to Richard's surprise, he gave an +assenting grunt, and followed it up with a reluctant, "Hang it all, I +suppose you're right. But I'm badly disappointed, just the same. We'll +let that go." + +And let it go they did, parting, when they reached town, with the +friendliest of grips, and a new, if not wholly comprehended, interest +between them. As for Richard, he felt, somehow, as if he had nailed his +flag to the mast! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN THE MORNING + + +"By George, Carson, what do you think's happened now?" + +Richard Kendrick had come into the store's little office like a +thunderbolt. + +"Well, Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Benson's down with typhoid. Came back with it from the trip to Chicago. +What do you think of that?" + +"I thought he was looking a little seedy before he went. Well, well, +that's too bad. Right in the May trade, too. Is he pretty sick?" + +"So the doctor says. He's been keeping up on that trip when he ought to +have been in bed. He's in bed now, all right. I took him in with a nurse +to the City Hospital on the 10:40 Limited; stretcher in the +baggage-car." + +"Don't see where he got typhoid around here at this time of year," mused +Carson. + +"Nobody sees, but that doesn't matter. He has it, and it's up to us to +pull him through--and to get along without him." + +They sat down to talk it over. While they were at it the telephone came +into the discussion with a summons of Richard to a long-distance +connection. To his amazement, when communication was established between +himself and his distant interlocutor, clear and vibrant came to him over +the wire a voice he had dreamed of but had not heard for four months: + +"Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Yes. Is it--it isn't--" + +"This is Miss Gray. Mr. Kendrick, your grandfather wants you very much, +at our home. He has had an accident." + +"An accident? What sort of an accident? Is he much hurt, Miss Gray?" + +"We can't tell yet. He fell down the porch steps; he had been calling on +Uncle Calvin. He--is quite helpless, but the doctor thinks there are no +bones broken. Doctor Thomas wouldn't allow Mr. Kendrick to be moved, so +we have him here with a nurse. He is very anxious to see you." + +"I'll be there as soon as I can get there in the car. I think I can make +it quicker than by train at this hour. Thank you for calling me, Miss +Gray. Please--give my love to grandfather and tell him I'm coming." + +"I will, Mr. Kendrick. I--we are all--so sorry. Good-bye." + +Richard turned back to Carson with an anxious face. The manager was on +his feet, concern in his manner. + +"Something happened to old Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Richard?" + +"A fall--can't move--wants me right away. It never rains but it pours, +Carson--even in May. I thought Benson's illness was the worst thing that +could happen to us, but this is worse yet. I'll have to leave everything +to you to settle while I run down to the old gentleman. A fall, +Carson--isn't that likely to be pretty serious at his age?" + +"Depends on what caused it, I should say," Carson answered cautiously. +"If it was any kind of shock--" + +"Oh--it can't be that!" Richard Kendrick's voice showed his alarm at the +thought. "Grandfather's been such an active old chap--no superfluous +fat--he's not at all a high liver--takes his cold plunge just as he +always has. It can't be that! But I'm off to see. Good-bye, Carson. I'll +'phone you when I know the situation. Meanwhile--wish grandfather safely +out of it, will you?" + +"Of course I will; I think a great deal of Mr. Kendrick. Good-bye--and +don't worry about things here." Carson wrung his employer's hand, then +went out with him to the curb, where the car stood, and saw him off. "He +really cares," he was thinking. "Nobody could fake that anxiety. He +doesn't want the old man to die--and he's his heir--to millions. Well, +I like him better than ever for it. I believe if I got typhoid he'd +personally carry me to the hospital or do any other thing that came into +his head. Well, now it's for me to find a competent salesman for this +May sale that's on with such a rush. It's going to be hard to manage +without Benson." + +The long, low car had never made faster time to the city, and it was in +the early dusk that it came to a standstill before the porch of the Gray +home. Doors and windows were wide open, lights gleamed everywhere, but +the house was very quiet. The car had stolen up as silently as a car of +fine workmanship may in these days of motor perfection, but it had been +heard, and Mrs. Robert Gray came out to meet Richard before he could +ring. + +"My dear Mr. Richard," she said, pressing his hand, her face very grave +and sweet, "you have come quickly. I am glad, for we are anxious. Your +grandfather has dropped into a strange, drowsy state, from which it +seems impossible to rouse him. But I hope you may be able to do so. He +has wanted you from the first moment." + +"Tell me which way to go," cried Richard, under his breath. "Is he +upstairs?" + +She kept her hold upon his hand, and he gripped it tight as she led him +up the stairs. It was as if he felt a mother's clasp for the first time +since his babyhood and could not let it go. + +"In here," she indicated softly, and the young man went in, his head +bent, his lips set. + + * * * * * + +Two hours afterward he came out. She was waiting for him, though it was +midnight. Louis and Stephen were waiting, too, and they in turn grasped +his hand, their faces pitiful for the keen grief they saw in his. Then +Mrs. Gray took him down to the porch, where the warm May night folded +them softly about. She sat down beside him on a wide settle. + +"He is all I have in the world!" cried Richard Kendrick. "If he goes--" +He could not say more, and, turning, put his arms down upon the back of +the seat and his head upon them. Great, tearless sobs shook him. Mrs. +Gray laid her kind hand upon his shoulder, and spoke gentle, motherly +words--a few words, not many--and kept her hand there until he had +himself under control again. + +By and by Mrs. Stephen Gray came out with a little tray upon which was +set forth a simple lunch, daintily served. The young man tried to eat, +to show her how much this touched him, but succeeded in swallowing only +a portion of the delicate food. Then he got up. "You are all so good," +said he gratefully. "You have helped me more than I can tell you. I will +go back now. I want to stay with him to-night, if you will allow me." + +They gave him a room across the hall from that in which his grandfather +lay, but he did not occupy it. All night he sat, a silent figure on the +opposite side of the bed from that where the nurse was on guard. His +grandfather's regular physician was in attendance the greater part of +the night at his request, though there seemed nothing to do but await +the issue. Another distinguished member of the profession had seen the +case in consultation early in the evening, and the two had found +themselves unable between them to discover a remote possibility of hope. + +In the early morning the watcher stole downstairs, feeling as if he must +for at least a few moments get into the outer world. His eyes were heavy +with his vigil, yet there was no sleep behind them, and he could not +bear to be long away lest a change come suddenly. The old man had not +roused when he had first spoken to him, and the nurse had said that his +last conscious words had been a call for his grandson. Goaded by this +thought, Richard turned back before he had so much as reached the foot +of the garden, where he had thought he should spend at least a quarter +of an hour. + +As he came in at the door he was met by Roberta, cool and fresh in blue. +It was but five in the morning; surely she did not commonly rise at this +hour, even in May. The thought made his heart leap. She came straight to +him and put both hands in his, saying in her friendly, low voice: "Mr. +Kendrick, I'm sorry--sorry!" + +He looked long and hungrily into her face, holding her hands with such a +fierce grasp that he hurt her cruelly, though she made no sign. He did +not even thank her--only held her until every detail of her face had +been studied. She let him do it, and only dropped her eyes and stood +colouring warmly under the inquisition. It was as if she understood that +the sight of her was a moment's sedative for an aching heart, and she +must yield it or be more unkind than it was in the heart of woman to be. +When he released her it was with a sigh that came up from the depths, +and as she left him he stood and watched her until she was out of sight. + + * * * * * + +When Matthew Kendrick opened his eyes at ten o'clock on the morning +after his fall the first thing they rested upon was the face he loved +best in the world. It came instantly nearer, the eyes meeting his +imploringly, as if begging him to speak. So with some little effort he +did speak. "Well, Dick," he said slowly, "I'm glad you came, boy. I +wanted you; I didn't know but I was about getting through. But--I +believe I'm still here, after all." + +Then he saw a strange sight. Great tears leaped into the eyes he was +looking at, tears that rolled unheeded down the fresh-coloured cheeks of +his boy. Richard tried to speak, but could not. He could only gently +grasp his grandfather's hand and press it tightly in both his own. + +"I feel pretty well battered up," the old man continued, his voice +growing stronger, "but I think I can move a little." He stirred slightly +under his blanket, a fact the nurse noted with joyful intentness. "So I +think I'm all here. Are you so glad, Dick, that you can cry about it?" + +The smile came then upon his grandson's lighting face. "Glad, +grandfather?" said he, with some difficulty. "Why, you're all I have in +the world! I shouldn't know how to face it without you." + +The old man dropped off to sleep again, his hand contentedly resting in +his grandson's. Presently the doctor looked in, studied the situation in +silence, held a minute's whispered colloquy with the nurse, then moved +to Richard's side. The young man looked up at him and he nodded. He bent +to Richard's ear. + +"Things look different," he whispered succinctly. At the slight +sibilance of the whisper the old man opened his eyes again. His glance +travelled up the distinguished physician's body to his face. He smiled +in quite his own whimsical way. + +"Fooled even a noted person like you, did I, Winston?" he chuckled +feebly. "Just because I chose to go to sleep and didn't fidget round +much you thought I'd got my quietus, did you?" + +"I think you're a pretty vigorous personality," responded the physician, +"and I'm quite willing to be fooled by you. Now I want you to take a +little nourishment and go to sleep again. If you think so much of this +young man of yours you can have him again in an hour, but I'm going to +send him away now. You see, he's been sitting right there all night." + +Matthew Kendrick's eyes rested fondly again upon Richard's smiling face. +"You rascal!" he sighed. "You always did give me trouble about being up +o' nights!" + + * * * * * + +Richard Kendrick ran downstairs three steps at a bound. At the bottom he +met Judge Calvin Gray. He seized the hand of his grandfather's old-time +friend and wrung it. The expression of heavy sadness on the Judge's face +changed to one of bewilderment, and as he scanned the radiant +countenance of Matthew Kendrick's grandson he turned suddenly pale with +joy. + +"You don't mean--" + +Then he comprehended that Richard was finding it as hard to speak good +news as if it had been bad. But in an instant the young man was in +command of himself again. + +"It wasn't apoplexy--it wasn't paralysis--it was only the shock of the +fall and the bruises. He's been talking to me; he's been twitting the +doctor on having been fooled. Oh, he's as alive as possible, and +I--Judge Gray, I never was so happy in my life!" + +With congratulations in his heart for his old friend on the possession +of this young love which was as genuine as it was strong, the Judge +said: "Well, my dear fellow, let us thank God and breathe again. This +has been the darkest night I've spent in many a year--and this is the +brightest morning." + +Everybody in the house was presently rejoicing in the news. But if +Richard expected Roberta to be as generous with him in his joy as she +had been in his grief he found himself disappointed. She did not fail +to express to him her sympathy with his relief, but she did it with +reinforcements of her family at hand, and with Ruth's arm about her +waist. She had trusted him when torn with anxiety; clearly she did not +trust him now in the reaction from that anxiety. He was in wild spirits, +no doubt of that; she could see it in his brilliant eyes. + +It still lacked six weeks of Midsummer. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SIDE LIGHTS + + +Louis Gray sat in a capacious willow easy-chair beside the high white +iron hospital bed upon which lay Hugh Benson, convalescing from his +attack of fever. "Pretty comfortable they make you here," Louis +observed, glancing about. "I didn't know their private rooms were as big +and airy as this one." + +Benson smiled. "I don't imagine they all are. I didn't realize what sort +of quarters I was in till I began to get better and mother told me. +According to her I have the best in the place. That's Rich. Whatever he +looks after is sure to be gilt-edged. I wonder if you know what a prince +of good fellows he is, anyway." + +"I always knew he was a good fellow," Louis agreed. "He has that +reputation, you know--kind-hearted and open-handed. I should know he +would be a substantial friend to his college classmate and business +partner." + +"He's much more than that." Benson's slow and languid speech took on a +more earnest tone. "Do you know, I think if any young man in this city +has been misjudged and underrated it's Rich. I know the reputation you +speak of; it's another way of calling a man a spendthrift, to say he's +free with his money among his friends. But I don't believe anybody knows +how free Rich Kendrick is with it among people who have no claim on him. +I never should have known if I hadn't come here. One of my nurses has +told me a lot of things she wasn't supposed ever to tell; but once she +had let a word drop I got it out of her. Why, Louis, for three years +Rich has paid the expenses of every sick child that came into this +hospital, where the family was too poor to pay. He's paid for several +big operations, too, on children that he wanted to see have the best. +There are four special private rooms he keeps for those they call his +patients, and he sees that whoever occupies them has everything they +need--and plenty of things they may not just need, but are bound to +enjoy--including flowers like those." + +He pointed to a splendid bowlful of blossoms on a stand behind Louis, +such blossoms as even in June grow only in the choicest of gardens. + +"All this is news to me," declared Louis; "mighty good news, too. But +how has he been able to keep it so quiet?" + +"Hospital people all pledged not to tell; so of course you and I mustn't +be responsible for letting it out, since he doesn't want it known. I'm +glad I know it, though, and I felt somehow that you ought to know. I +used to think a lot of Rich at college, but now that he's my partner I +think so much more I can't be happy unless other people appreciate him. +And in the business--I can't tell you what he is. He's more like a +brother than a partner." + +His thin cheeks flushed, and Louis suddenly bethought himself. +"I'm letting you talk too much, Hugh," he said self-accusingly. +"Convalescents mustn't overexert themselves. Suppose you lie still +and let me read the morning paper to you." + +"Thank you, my nurse has done it. Talking is really a great luxury and +it does me good, a little of it. I want to tell you this about Rich--" + +The door opened quietly as he spoke and Richard Kendrick himself came +in. Quite as usual, he looked as if he had that moment left the hands of +a most scrupulous valet. No wonder Louis's first thought was, as he +looked at him, that people gave him credit for caring only for +externals. One would not have said at first glance that he had ever +soiled his hands with any labour more tiring than that of putting on +his gloves. And yet, studying him more closely in the light of the +revelations his friend had made, was there not in his attractive face +more strength and force than Louis had ever observed before? + +"How goes it this morning, Hugh?" was the new-comer's greeting. He +grasped the thin hand of the convalescent, smiling down at him. Then he +shook hands with Louis, saying, "It's good of such a busy man to come in +and cheer up this idle one," and sat down as if he had come to stay. But +he had no proprietary air, and when a nurse looked in he only bowed +gravely, as if he had not often seen her before. If Louis had not known +he would not have imagined that Richard's hand in the affair of Benson's +illness had been other than that of a casual caller. + +Louis Gray went away presently, thinking it over. He was thinking of it +again that evening as he sat upon the big rear porch of the Gray home, +which looked out upon the lawn and tennis court where he and Roberta had +just been having a bout lasting into the twilight. + +"I heard something to-day that surprised me more than anything for a +long time," he began, and when his sister inquired what the strange news +might be he repeated to her as he could remember it Hugh Benson's +outline of the extraordinary story about Richard Kendrick. When she had +heard it she observed: + +"I suppose there is much more of that sort of thing done by the very +rich than we dream of." + +"By old men, yes--and widows, and a few other classes of people. But I +don't imagine it's so common as to be noticeable among the young men of +his class, do you?" + +"Perhaps not. Though you do hear of wonderful things the bachelors do at +Christmas for the poor children." + +"At Christmas--that's another story. Hearts get warmed up at Christmas, +that, like old Scrooge's, are cold and careless the rest of the year. +But for a fellow like Rich Kendrick to keep it up all the year +round--you'll find that's not so commonplace a tale." + +"I don't know much about rich young men." + +"You've certainly kept this one at a distance," Louis observed, eying +his sister curiously in the twilight. She was sitting in a boyish +attitude, racket on lap, elbows on knees, chin on clasped hands, eyes on +the shadowy garden. "He's been coming here evening after evening until +now that his grandfather has gone home, and never once has anybody seen +you so much as standing on the porch with him, to say nothing of +strolling into the garden. What's the matter with you, Rob? Any other +girl would be following him round and getting into his path. Not that +you would need to, judging by the way I've seen him look at you once or +twice. Have you drawn an imaginary circle around yourself and pointed +out to him the danger of crossing it? I should take him for a fellow who +would cross it then anyhow!" + +"Imaginary circles are sometimes bigger barriers than stone walls," she +admitted, smiling to herself, "Besides, Lou, I thought somebody else was +the person you wanted to see walking in the garden with me." + +"Forbes? The person I expected to see, you mean. Well, I don't know +about Forbes Westcott. He's a mighty clever chap, but I sometimes think +his blood is a little thin--like his body. I can't imagine his bothering +about a sick child at a hospital, can you? I've never seen him take a +minute's notice of Steve's pair; and they're little trumps, if ever +children were. Corporations are more in his line than children." + + * * * * * + +One thing leads to another in this interesting world. It was not two +days after this talk that Roberta herself had a private view of a little +affair which proved more illuminating to her understanding of a certain +fellow mortal than might have been all the evidence of other witnesses +than her own eyes. + +Returning from school on one of the last days of the term, weary of +walls and longing for the soothing stillness and refreshment of +outdoors, Roberta turned aside some distance from her regular course to +pass through a large botanical park, originally part of a great estate, +and newly thrown open to the public. It was, as yet, less frequented +than any other of the city parks. Much of it, according to the decree of +its donor, a nature lover of discrimination, had been left in a state +not far removed from wildness, and it was toward this portion that +Roberta took her way; experiencing, with each step along a winding, +secluded path she had recently discovered, that sense of escape into +luxurious freedom which comes only after enforced confinement when the +world outside is at its most alluring. + +At a point where the path swept high above a long, descending slope, at +the foot of which lay a tiny pool surrounded by thick and beautifully +kept turf, Roberta paused, and after looking about her for a minute to +make sure that there was no one near, turned aside from the path and +threw herself down beside a great clump of ferns, breathing a deep sigh +of restful relief. She sat gazing dreamily down at the pool, in which +was mirrored an exquisite reflection of tree and sky, the scene as +silent and still as though drawn upon canvas. She had many things to +think of, in these days, and a place like this was an ideal one in which +to think. + +Was it? Far below her she heard the low hum of a motor. None could come +near her, but the road beneath wound near the pool, though out of sight +except at one point. In spite of this, the girl drew back further into +the shelter of the tall ferns, thinking as she did so that it was the +first time she had seen this remoter part of the park invaded by either +motorist or pedestrian. Watching the point at which the car must appear +she saw it come slowly into sight and stop. There were two occupants, a +man and a boy, but at the distance she could not discern their faces. +The man stepped out, and coming around to the other side of the car put +out his arms and lifted the boy. He did not set him down, but carried +him, seeming to hold him with peculiar care, and brought him through the +surrounding trees and shrubbery to the pool itself, coming, as he did +so, into full view of the unseen eyes above. + +Roberta experienced a sudden strange leap of the heart as she saw that +the supple figure of the man was Richard Kendrick's own, and that the +slight frame he bore was that of a crippled child. She could see now the +iron braces on the legs, like pipe stems, which stuck straight out from +the embrace of the strong young arm which held them. She could discern +clearly the pallor and emaciation of the small face, in pitiful contrast +to the ruggedly healthy one of the child's bearer. Fascinatedly she +watched as Richard set his burden carefully down upon the grass, close +to the edge of the pool, the boy's back against a big white birch trunk. +The two were not so far below her but that she could see the expression +on their faces, though she could not hear their words. + +Richard ran back to the car, returning with a rug and something in a +long and slender case. He arranged a cushion behind the little back. +Roberta judged the boy to be about eight or nine years old, though small +for his age, as such children are. Richard undid the case and produced a +small fishing-rod, which he fell to preparing for use, talking gayly as +he did so, watched eagerly by his youthful companion. Evidently the boy +was to have a great and unaccustomed pleasure. + +Well, it was certainly in line with that which Roberta had heard of this +young man, but somehow to see something of it with her own eyes was +singularly more convincing. She could not bring herself to get up and go +away--surely there could be no need to feel that she was spying if she +stayed to watch the interesting scene. If Richard had chosen a spot +which he fancied entirely secluded from observation, it was undoubtedly +wholly on the boy's own account. She could easily imagine how such a +child as this one would shrink from observation in a public place, +particularly when he was to try the dearly imagined but wholly unknown +delight of fishing. It was plain that he was very shy, even with this +kind friend, for it was only now and then that he replied in words to +Richard's talk, though the response in the white face and big black eyes +was eloquent enough. + +It seemed in every way remarkable that a young man of Richard Kendrick's +sort should devote himself to a poor and crippled child as he was doing +now. Not a gesture or act of his was lost upon the girl who watched. +Clearly he was taking all possible pains to please and interest his +little protégé, and he was doing it in a way which showed much skill, +suggesting previous practice in the art. This was no such interest as he +had shown in Gordon and Dorothy Gray, whose beauty had been so powerful +an appeal to his fancy. There was nothing about this child to take hold +upon any one except his helplessness and need. But Richard was as gentle +with him, as patient with his awkward attempts at holding the light rod +in the proper position for fishing, and as full of resources for +entertaining him when the fish--if there were any--failed to bite, as he +could have been with a small brother of his own. + +There was another thing which it was impossible not to note: Never had +Roberta seen this young man in circumstances so calculated to impress +upon her the potency of his personality. Unconscious of the scrutiny of +any other human being, wholly absorbed in the task of making a small boy +happy, he was naturally showing her himself precisely as he was. In +place of his usual careful manners when in her presence was entire +freedom from restraint and therefore an effect uncoloured by +conventional environment. The tones of his voice, the frank smile upon +his lips, the touch of his hand upon the little lad's--all these +combined to set him before Roberta in a light so different from any she +had seen him in before that she must needs admit she had been far from +knowing him. + +She stole away at length, feeling suddenly that she had seen enough, and +that her defences against the siege being made upon her heart and +judgment were weakening perilously. If she were to hold out before it +she must hear of no more affairs to Richard Kendrick's credit, +especially such affairs as these. Not all his efforts at establishing a +successful career in the world of achievement could touch her +imagination as did the knowledge of his brotherly kindness toward the +unfortunate. That was what meant most to Roberta, in a world which she +had early discovered to be a hard place for the greater part of its +inhabitants. Forgetfulness of self, devotion to the need of +others--these were the qualities she most strove to cultivate in +herself, and most rejoiced at seeing developed in those for whom she +cared. + +Unluckily for his cause, if there had been a possible chance for its +success, Forbes Westcott chose the evening of this same day to come +again to Roberta Gray with his question burning on his lips. He arrived +at a moment when, to his temporary satisfaction, Roberta was said to be +playing a set of singles in the court with Ruth by the light of a +fast-fading afterglow; and he took his way thither without delay. It was +a simple matter, of course, to a man of his resource, to dispose of the +young sister, in spite of the elder's attempt to foil him at his own +game. So presently he had Roberta to himself, with every advantage of +time and place and summer beauty all about. + +Louis Gray, looking down the lawn from the rear porch, upon whose steps +he sat with Rosamond and Stephen, descried the tall figure strolling by +their sister's side along a stretch of closely shaven turf between rows +of slim young birches. + +"Forbes is persistent, eh?" he observed. "Think he has a fighting +chance?" + +"Oh, I hope not!" cried Rosamond impulsively. + +Stephen's grave eyes followed the others, to dwell upon the distant +pair. "Forbes stands to win a big place among men," was his comment. + +"Oh, really big?" Rosamond's tender eyes came to meet her husband's. +"Stephen, do you think he is quite--scrupulous?--wholly honourable?" + +"I have no reason to think otherwise, Rosy." + +She shook her head. "Somehow I--could never quite trust him. He would +live strictly by the letter of the law--but the spirit--" + +"Expect people to live by the spirit--these days, little girl?" inquired +Louis, with an affectionate glance at her. + +She gazed straight back. "Yes. You do it--and so does Stephen--and +Father Gray--and Uncle Calvin." + +The eyes of the brothers met above her fair head, and they smiled. + +"That's high distinction, from you, dear," said her husband. "But you +must not do Westcott injustice. He has the reputation of being sharp as +a knife blade, and of outwitting men in fair contest in court and out of +it, but no shadow has ever touched his character." + +Still she shook her head. "I can't help it. I don't want Rob to marry +him." + +The young men laughed together, and Rosamond smiled with them. + +"There you have it," said Louis. "There's no going behind those returns. +The county votes no, and the candidate is defeated. Let him console +himself with the vote from other counties--if he can." + +The three were still upon the porch half an hour later, with others of +the family, when the two figures came again up the stretch of lawn +between the slim white birches, showing ghostlike now in the June +moonlight. They came in silence, as far as any sound of their voices +reached the porch, and they disappeared like two shades toward the front +of the house. + +"He's not coming even to speak to us," whispered Rosamond to Stephen. +"That's very unlike him. Do you suppose--" + +"It may be a case of the voice sticking in the throat," returned her +husband, under his breath. "I fancy he'll take it hard when Rob disposes +of him--as she certainly ought to do by this time, if she's not going to +take him. But she'd better think twice. He's a brilliant fellow, and he +has no rivals within hailing distance, in his line." + +But Rosamond shook her head again. "He would never make her happy," she +breathed, with conviction. "Oh, I hope--I hope!" + +Her hopes grew with Roberta's absence. Westcott had gone, for Ruth, +appearing at Rosamond's side, announced that Roberta was in her own +room, and would not be down again to-night. + +"I think she has a headache," said the little sister. "Queer, for I +never knew Rob to have a headache before." + +"The headache," murmured Louis, in Rosamond's ear, "is the feminine +defence against the world. A timely headache, now and then, is suffered +by the best of men--and women. Well--let her rest, Rufus. She'll be all +right in the morning." + +Above them, by her open window, sat Roberta, for a little while, elbows +on sill, chin in hands. Then, presently, she stole downstairs again, out +by a side entrance, and away among the shrubbery, to the furthest point +of the grounds--not far, in point of actual distance, but quite removed +by its environment from contact with the world around. Here, stretched +upon the warm turf, her arms outflung, her eyes gazing up at the +star-set heavens above her, the girl rested from her encounter with a +desperate besieging force. + +For a time, the last words she had heard that evening were ringing in +her ears--sombre words, uttered in a deep tone of melancholy, by a voice +which commanded cadences that had often reached the minds and hearts of +men and swayed them. "Is that all--_all_, Roberta? Must I go away with +_that_?" + +She had sent him away, and her heart ached for him, for she could not +doubt the depth and sincerity of his feeling for her. Being a woman, +with a warm and kindly nature, she was sad with the disquieting thought +that anywhere under that starry sky was one whose spirit was heavy +to-night because of her. But--there had been no help for it. She knew +now, beyond a doubt, that there had been no help. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +PORTRAITS + + +Revelations were in order in these days. Another of a quite different +sort came to Roberta within the week. On a morning when she knew Richard +Kendrick to be in Eastman she consented to drive with Mrs. Stephen to +make a call upon Mr. Matthew Kendrick, now at home and recovering +satisfactorily from his fall, but still confined to his room. With a +basketful of splendid garden roses upon her arm she followed Rosamond +into the great stone pile. + +They seemed to have left the sunlight and the summer day itself outside +as they sat waiting in the stiff and formal reception-room, which looked +as if no woman's hand or foot had touched it for a decade. As they were +conducted to Mr. Kendrick's room upon the floor above they noted with +observant eyes the cheerless character of every foot of the way--lofty +hall, sombre staircase, gloomy corridor. Even Mr. Kendrick's own room, +filled though it was with costly furniture, its walls hung with +portraits and heavy oil paintings, after the fashion of the rich man who +wants his home comfortable and attractive but does not know how to make +it so, was by no means homelike. + +"This is good of you--this is good of you," the old man said happily, as +they approached his couch. He held out his hands to them, and when +Roberta presented her roses, exclaimed over them like a pleased child, +and sent his man hurrying about to find receptacles for them. He lay +looking from the flowers to the faces while he talked, as if he did not +know which were the more refreshing to his eyes, weary of the +surroundings to which they had been so long accustomed. + +"These will be the first thing Dick will spy when he comes to-morrow," +he prophesied. "I never saw a fellow so fond of roses. The last time he +was down he found time to tell me about somebody's old garden up there +in Eastman, where they have some kind of wonderful, old-fashioned rose +with the sweetest fragrance he ever knew. He had one in his coat; the +sight of it took me back to my boyhood. But he wasn't all roses and +gardens, not a bit of it! I never thought to see him so absorbed in such +a subject as the management of a business. But he's full of it--he's +full of it! You can't imagine how it delights me." + +He was full of it himself. Though he more than once apologized for +talking of his grandson and his pleasure in the way "the boy" was +throwing himself into the real merits of the problems presented to the +new firm in Eastman, he kept returning to this fascinating subject. It +was not of interest to himself alone, and though Roberta only listened, +Mrs. Stephen led him on, asking questions which he answered with eager +readiness. But all at once he pulled himself up short. + +"Dick would be the first person to hush my garrulous old tongue," said +he. "But I feel like father and mother and grandfather all combined, in +the matter of his success. I wouldn't have you think his making good--as +they say in these days--in the world I am used to is my only idea of +success. No, no, he has a world of his own besides. I should like you to +see--there are several things I should like you to see. Last winter Dick +begged from me a portrait of his mother which I had done when he was a +year old; she lived only six months after that. He has it now over his +desk. His father's portrait is on the opposite wall. Should you care to +step across the hall into my grandson's rooms? The portraits I speak of +are in the second room of the suite. Stop and examine anything else that +interests you; I am sure he would be proud; and he has brought back many +interesting things, principally pictures, from his travels. I should +like to go with you, but if you will be so kind--" + +There was no refusing the enthusiastic old man. He sent his housekeeper +to see that the rooms were open of window and ready for inspection, then +waved his guests away. Mrs. Stephen went with alacrity; Roberta followed +more slowly, as if she somehow feared to go. Of all the odd +happenings!--that she should be walking into Richard Kendrick's own +habitation, with all the intimate revelations it was bound to make to +her. She wondered what he would say if he knew. + +The first room was precisely what she might have expected, quite +obviously the apartment of a modern young man whose wishes lacked no +opportunity to satisfy themselves. The room was not in bad taste; on the +contrary, its somewhat heavy furnishings had an air of dignity in +harmony with an earlier day than that more ostentatious period in which +the rest of the house had been fitted. Upon its walls was a choice +collection of pictures of various styles and schools of art, some of +them unquestionably of much value. At one end of the room stood a closed +grand piano. But, like the grandfather's room, the place could not by +any stretch of the imagination be called homelike, and to this fact +Rosamond called her companion's attention. + +"It's really very interesting," said she, "and quite impressive, but I +don't wonder in the least at his saying that he had no home. This might +be a room in a fine hotel; there's nothing to make you feel as if +anybody really lives here, in spite of the beautiful paintings. But Mr. +Kendrick said the portraits were in the second room." + +On her way into the second room, however, Rosamond's attention was +attracted by a picture beside the door opening thereto, and with an +exclamation, "Oh, this looks like Gordon! Where did he get it?" she +paused. Roberta glanced that way, but a quite different object in the +inner room had caught her eye, and leaving Rosamond to her wonder over a +rather remarkable resemblance to her own little son in the rarely +exquisite colour-drawing of a child of similar age, she went on, to +stand still in the doorway, surprised out of all restraint as to the use +of her interested eyes. + +For this, contrary to all possible expectations, was either the room of +a man of literary tastes, and of one who also preferred simplicity and +utility to display of any sort, or it was an extremely clever imitation +of such a room. And there were certain rather trustworthy evidences of +the former. + +The room, although smaller than the outer one, was a place of good size, +with several large windows. Its walls to a height of several feet were +lined with bookshelves filled to overflowing, the whole representing no +less than three or four thousand books; Roberta could hardly guess at +their number. Several comfortable easy-chairs and a massive desk were +almost the only other furnishings, unless one included a few framed +foreign photographs and the two portraits which hung on opposite walls. +These presently called for study. + +Rosamond came in and stood beside her sister, regarding the portraits +with curiosity. "The father has a remarkably fine face, hasn't he?" she +observed, turning from one to the other. "Unusually fine; and I think +his son resembles him. But he is more like his mother. Isn't she +beautiful? And he never knew her; she died when he was such a little +fellow. Isn't it touching to see how he has her there above his desk as +if he wanted to know her? How many books! I didn't know he cared for +books, did you? Perhaps they were his father's; though his father was a +business man. Yet I don't know why we never credit business men with any +interest in books. Perhaps they study them more than we imagine; they +must study something. Rob, did you see the picture in the other room +that looks so like Gordon? It seems almost as if it must have been +painted from him." + +She flitted back into the outer room. Roberta stood still before the +desk, above which hung the portrait of the lovely young woman who had +been Richard's mother. Younger than Roberta herself she looked; such a +girl to pass away and leave her baby, her first-born! And he had her +here in the place of honour above his desk, where he sat to write and +read. For he did read, she grew sure of it as she looked about her. +Though the room was obviously looked after by a servant, it was probable +that there were orders not to touch the contents of the desk-top itself, +for this was as if it had been lately used. Books, a foreign review or +two, a pile of letters, various desk furnishings in a curious design of +wrought copper, and--what was this?--a little photograph in a frame! +Horses, three of them, saddled and tied to a fence; at one side, in an +attitude of arrested attention, a girl's figure in riding dress. + +A wave of colour surged over Roberta's face as she picked up the picture +to examine it. She had never thought again of the shot he had snapped; +he had never brought it to her. Instead he had put it into this +frame--she noted the frame, of carved ivory and choice beyond +question--and had placed it upon his desk. There were no other +photograph's of people in the room, not one. If she had found herself +one among many she might have had more--or less--reason for displeasure; +it was hard to say which. But to be the only one! Yet doubtless--in his +bedroom, the most intimate place of all, which she was not to see, would +be found his real treasures--photographs of beauties he had known, +married women, girls, actresses--She caught herself up! + +Rosamond, eager over the colour-drawing, had taken it from its place on +the wall and gone with it across the hall to discuss its extraordinary +likeness with the old man, who had sent for little Gordon several times +during his stay at the Gray home and would be sure to appreciate the +resemblance. Roberta, again engaged with the portrait above the desk, +had not noticed her sister's departure. There was something peculiarly +fascinating about this pictured face of Richard Kendrick's mother. +Whether it was the illusive likeness to the son, showing first in the +eyes, then in the mouth, which was one of extraordinary sweetness, it +was hard to tell. But the attempt to _analyze_ it was absorbing. + +The sound of a quick step in the outer room, as it struck a bit of bare +floor between the costly rugs which lay thickly upon it, arrested her +attention. That was not Rosy's step! Roberta turned, a sudden fear upon +her, and saw the owner of the room standing, as if surprised out of +power to proceed, in the doorway. + +Now, it was manifestly impossible for Roberta to know just how she +looked, standing there, as he had seen her for the instant before she +turned. From her head to her feet she was dressed in white, therefore +against the dull background of books and heavy, plain panelling above, +her figure stood out with the effect of a cameo. Her dusky hair under +her white hat-brim was the only shadowing in a picture which was to his +gaze all light and radiance. He stood staring at it, his own face +glowing. Then: + +"Oh--_Roberta_!" he exclaimed, under his breath. Then he came forward, +both hands outstretched. She let him have one of hers for an instant, +but drew it away again--with some difficulty. + +"You must be surprised to find me here." Roberta strove for her usual +cool control. "Rosy and I came to see your grandfather. He sent us in +here to look at these portraits. Rosy has gone back to him with a +picture she thought looked like Gordon. I--was staying a minute to see +this; it is very beautiful." + +He laughed happily. "You have explained it all away. I wish you had let +me go on thinking I was dreaming. To find you--_here_!" He smothered an +exultant breath and went on hastily:--"I'm glad you find my mother +beautiful. I never knew how beautiful she was till I brought her up here +and put her where I could look at her. Such a little, girlish mother for +such a strapping son! But she has the look--somehow she has the look! +Don't you think she has? I was a year old when that was painted--just in +time, for she died six months afterward. But she had had time to get the +look, hadn't she?" + +"Indeed she had. I can imagine her holding her little son. Is there no +picture of her with you?" + +"None at all that I can find. I don't know why. There's one of me on my +father's knee, four years old--just before he went, too. I am lucky to +have it. I can just remember him, but not my mother at all. Do you mind +my telling you that it was after I saw your mother I brought this +portrait of mine up from the drawing-room and put it here? It seemed to +me I must have one somehow, if only the picture of one." His voice +lowered. "I can't tell you what it has done for me, the having her +here." + +"I can guess," said Roberta softly, studying the young, gently smiling, +picture face. Somehow her former manner with this young man had +temporarily deserted her. The appeal of the portrait seemed to have +extended to its owner. "You--don't want to disappoint her," she added +thoughtfully. + +"That's it--that's just it," he agreed eagerly. "How did you know?" + +"Because that's the way I feel about mine. They care so much, you know." +She moved slowly toward the door. "I must go back to your grandfather." + +"Why? He has Mrs. Stephen, you say. And I--like to see you here. There +are a lot of things I want to show you." His eager gaze dropped to the +desk-top and fell upon the ivory-framed photograph. He looked quickly at +her. Her cheeks were of a rich rose hue, her eyes--he could not tell +what her eyes were like. But she moved on toward the door. He followed +her into the other room. + +"Won't you stay a minute here, then? I don't care for it as I do the +other, but--it's a place to talk in. And I haven't talked to you +for--four months. It's the middle of June.... Let me show you this +picture over here." + +He succeeded in detaining her for a few minutes, which raced by on wings +for him. He did it only by keeping his speech strictly upon the subject +of art, and presently, in spite of his endeavours, she was off across +the room and out of the door, through the hall and in the company of +Mrs. Stephen and Mr. Matthew Kendrick. The pair, the old man and the +girlish young mother, looked up from a collection of miniatures, brought +out in continuance of the discussion over child faces begun by +Rosamond's interest in the colour-drawing found upon Richard's walls. +They saw a flushed and heart-disturbing face under a drooping white +hat-brim, and eyes which looked anywhere but at them, though Roberta's +voice said quite steadily: "Rosy, do you know how long we are staying?" + +In explanation of this sudden haste another face appeared, seen over +Roberta's shoulder. This face was also of a somewhat warm colouring, but +these eyes did not hide; they looked as if they were seeing visions and +noted nothing earthly. + +"Why, Dick!" exclaimed Mr. Kendrick. "I didn't expect you till +to-morrow." Gladness was in his voice. He held out welcoming hands, and +his grandson came to him and took the hands and held them while he +explained the errand which had brought him and upon which he must +immediately depart. But he would come again upon the morrow, he +promised. It was clear that the closest relations existed between the +two; it was a pleasant thing to see. And when Richard turned out again +toward the visitors he had his face in order. + +Some imperceptible signalling had been exchanged between Roberta and +Rosamond, and the call came shortly to an end, in spite of the old man's +urgent invitation to them to remain. + +"Do you see the roses they brought me, Dick?" He indicated the bowls and +vases which stood about the room. "I told them you would notice them +directly you came in. Where are your eyes, boy?" + +"Do you really blame me for not seeing them, grandfather?" retorted his +grandson audaciously. "But I recognize them now; they are wonderful. I +suppose they have thorns?" His eyes met Roberta's for one daring +instant. + +"You wouldn't like them if they didn't," said she. + +"Shouldn't I? I'd like to find one with the thorns off; I'd wear it--if +I might. May I have one, grandfather?" + +"Of course, Dick. They're mine now to give away, Miss Roberta? Perhaps +you'll put it on for him." + +Since the suggestion was made by an old man, who might or might not have +been wholly innocent of taking sides in a game in which his boy was +playing for high stakes, Roberta could do no less than hurriedly to +select a splendid crimson bud without regard to thorns--she was aware of +more than one as she handled it--and fasten it upon a gray coat, +intensely conscious of the momentary nearness of a personality whose +influence upon her was the strangest, most perturbing thing she had ever +experienced. + +The flower in place, she could not get away too fast. Rosamond, +understanding now that the air was electric and that her sister wanted +nothing so much as to escape to a safer atmosphere, aided her by taking +the lead and engaging Richard Kendrick in conversation all the way +downstairs to the door and out to the waiting carriage. As they drove +away Rosamond looked back at the figure leaping up the steps, with the +crimson rose showing brilliantly in the June sunshine. + +"Rob, he's splendid, simply splendid," she whispered, so that the old +family coachman in front, driving the old family horses, could not hear. +"I don't wonder his grandfather is so proud of him. One can see that +he's going to go right on now and make himself a man worth anybody's +while. He's that now, but he's going to be more." + +"I don't see how you can tell so much from hearing him make a few +foolish remarks about some roses!" Roberta's face was carefully averted. + +"Oh, it wasn't what he said, it's what he is! It shows in his face. I +never saw purpose come out so in a face as it has in his in the time +that we've known him. Besides, we began by taking him for nothing but a +society man, and we were mistaken in that from the beginning. Stephen +has been telling me some things Louis told him." + +"I know. About the hospital and the children." + +"Yes. Isn't it interesting? And that's been going on for years; it's not +a new pose for our benefit. I've no doubt there are lots of other +things, if we knew them. But--oh, Rob, his grandfather says he bought +the little head in colour because he thought it looked like Gordon. I'm +going to send him the last photograph right away. Rob, there's Forbes +Westcott!" + +"Where?" + +"Right ahead. Shall we stop and take him in? Of course he's on his way +to see you, as usual. How he does anything in his own office--" + +"James!" Roberta leaned forward and spoke to the coachman. "Turn down +this street--quickly, please. Don't look, Rosy--don't! Let's not go +straight home; let's drive a while. It--it's such a lovely day!" + +"Why, Rob! I thought--" + +"Please don't think anything. I'm trying not to." + +Rosamond impulsively put her white-gloved hand on Roberta's. "I don't +believe you are succeeding," she whispered daringly. "Particularly +since--this morning!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ROBERTA WAKES EARLY + + +Midsummer Day! Roberta woke with the thought in her mind, as it had been +the last in her mind when she had gone to sleep. She had lain awake for +a long time the night before, watching a strip of moonlight which lay +like flickering silver across her wall. Who would have found it easy to +sleep, with the consciousness beating at her brain that on the morrow +something momentous was as surely going to happen as that the sun would +rise? Did she want it to happen? Would she rather not run away and +prevent its happening? There was no doubt that, being a woman, she +wanted to run away. At the same time--being a woman--she knew that she +would not run. Something would stay her feet. + +With wide-open eyes on this Midsummer morning she lay, as she had lain +the night before, regarding without attention the early sunlight +flooding the room where moonlight had lain a few hours ago. Her bare, +round arms, from which picturesque apologies for sleeves fell back, were +thrown wide upon her pillows, her white throat and shoulders gleamed +below the loose masses of her hair, her heart was beating a trifle more +rapidly than was natural after a night of repose. + +It was very early, as a little clock upon a desk announced--half after +five. Yet some one in the house was up, for Roberta heard a light +footfall outside her door. There followed a soft sound which drew her +eyes that way; she saw something white appear beneath the door--in the +old house the sills were not tight. The white rectangle was obviously a +letter. + +Her curiosity alive, she lay looking at this apparition for some time, +unwilling to be heard to move even by a maidservant. But at length she +arose, stole across the floor, picked up the missive, and went back to +her bed. She examined the envelope--it was of a heavy plain paper; the +address--it was in a hand she had seen but once, on the day when she had +copied many pages of material upon the typewriter for her Uncle +Calvin--a rather compact, very regular and positive hand, unmistakably +that of a person of education and character. + +She opened the letter with fingers that hesitated. Midsummer Day was at +hand; it had begun early! Two closely written sheets appeared. Sitting +among her pillows, her curly, dusky locks tumbling all about her face, +her pulses beating now so fast they shook the paper in her fingers, she +read his letter: + + * * * * * + +My Roberta: I can't begin any other way, for, even though you should +never let me use the words again, you have become such a part of me, both +of the man I am and of the man I want and mean to become, that in some +degree you will always belong to me in spite of yourself. + +Why do I write to you to-day? Because there are things I want to say to +you which I could never wait to say when I see you, but which I want you +to know before you answer me. I don't want to tell you "the story of my +life," but I do feel that you must understand a few of my thoughts, for +only so can I be sure that you know me at all. + +Before I came to your home, one night last October, I had unconsciously +settled into a way of living which as a rule seemed to me all-sufficient. +My friends, my clubs, my books--yes, I care for my books more than you +have ever discovered--my plans for travel, made up a life which satisfied +me--a part of the time. Deep down somewhere was a sense of unrest, a +knowledge that I was neither getting nor giving all that I was meant +to. But this I was accustomed to stifle--except at unhappy hours when +stifling would not work, and then I was frankly miserable. Mostly, +however, my time was so filled with diversion of one sort or another +that I managed to keep such hours from over-whelming me; I worried +through them somehow and forgot them as soon as I could. + +From the first day that I came through your door my point of view was +gradually and strangely altered. I saw for the first time in my life what +a home might be. It attracted me; more, it showed me how empty my own +life was, that I had thought so full. The sight of your mother, of your +brothers, of your sisters, of your brother's little children--each of +these had its effect on me. As for yourself--Roberta, I don't know how to +tell you that; at least I don't know how to tell you on paper. I can +imagine finding words to tell you, if--you were very much nearer to me +than you are now. I hardly dare think of that! + +Yet I must try, for it's part of the story; it's all of it. With my first +sight of you, I realized that here was what I had dreamed of but never +hoped to find: beauty and charm and--character. I had seen many women who +possessed two of these attributes; it seemed impossible to discover one +who had all three. Many women I had admired--and despised; many I had +respected--and disliked. I am not good at analysis, but perhaps you can +guess at what I mean. I may have been unfortunate; I don't know. There +may be many women who are both beautiful and good. No, that is not what I +mean! The combination I am trying to describe as impossibly desirable is +that not only of beauty and goodness--I suppose there are really many who +have those; but--goodness and fascination! That's what a man wants. Can +you possibly understand? + +I wonder if I had better stop writing? I am showing myself up as +hopelessly awkward at expression; probably because my heart is pounding +so as I write that it is taking the blood from my brain. But--I'll make +one more try at it. + +I had no special purpose in life last October. I meant to do a little +good in the world if I could--without too much trouble. Some time or +other I supposed I should marry--intended to put it off as long as I +could. I saw no reason why I shouldn't travel all I wanted to; it was the +one thing I really cared for with enthusiasm. I didn't appreciate much +what a selfish life I was leading, how I was neglecting the one person in +the world who loved me and was anxious about me. Your little sister, +Ruth, opened my eyes to that, by the way. I shall always thank her for +it. I hadn't known what I was missing. + +I don't know how the change came about. You charmed me, yet you made me +realize every time I was with you that I was not the sort of man you +either admired or respected. I felt it whenever I looked at any of the +people in your home. Every one of them was busy and happy; every one of +them was leading a life worth while. Slowly I waked up. I believe I'm +wide awake now. What's more, nothing could ever tempt me to go to sleep +again. I've learned to _like_ being awake! + +You decreed that I should keep away from you all these months. I agreed, +and I have kept my word. All the while has been the fear bothering me +beyond endurance that you did it to be rid of me. I said some bold words +to you--to make you remember me. Roberta, I am humbler to-day than I was +then. I shouldn't dare say them to you now. I was madly in love with you +then; I dared say anything. I am not less in love now--great heavens! not +less--but I have grown to worship you so that I have become afraid. When +I saw you in my room before my mother's portrait I could have knelt at +your feet. From the beginning I have felt that I was not worthy of you, +but I feel it so much more deeply now that I don't know how to offer +myself to you. I have written as if I wanted to persuade you that I am +more of a man than when you knew me first, and therefore more worthy of +you. I _am_ more of a man, but by just so much more do I realize my own +unworthiness. + +And yet--it is Midsummer Day; this is the twenty-fourth of June--and I am +on fire with love and longing for you, and I must know whether you care. +If I were strong enough I would offer to wait longer before asking you to +tell me--but I'm not strong enough for that. + +I have a plan which I am hoping you will let me carry out, whatever +answer you are going to give me. If you will allow it I will ask Mr. and +Mrs. Stephen Gray to go with us on a long horseback ride this afternoon, +to have supper at a place I know. I could take you all in my car if you +prefer, but I hope you will not prefer it. You have never seemed like a +motoring girl to me every other one I know is--and ever since I saw you +on Colonel last November I've been hoping to have a ride with you. If I +can have it to-day--Midsummer--it will be a dream fulfilled. If only I +dared hope my other--and dearer--dream were to come true! Roberta, are we +really so different? I have thought a thousand times of your "_stout +little cabin on the hilltop_," where you would like to spend "_the worst +night of the winter_." All alone? "_Well, with a fire for company, +and--perhaps--a dog_." But not with a good comrade? "_There are so +few good comrades--who can be tolerant of one's every mood_." You were +right; there are few. And--this one might not be so clever as to +understand every mood of yours, but--Roberta, Roberta--he would love you +so much that you wouldn't mind if he didn't always understand. That +is--you wouldn't mind if, in return, you--But I dare not say it--I can +only hope--hope! + +Unless you send me word to the contrary by ten o'clock, I will then ask +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen, and arrange to come for you at four this afternoon. +You are committed to nothing by agreeing to this arrangement. But I--am +committed to everything for as long as I live. RICHARD. + + * * * * * + +It was well that it was not yet six o'clock in the morning and that +Roberta had two long hours to herself before she need come forth from +her room. She needed them, every minute of them, to get herself in hand. + +It was a good letter, no doubt of that. It was neither clever nor +eloquent, but it was better: it was manly and sincere. It showed +self-respect; it showed also humility, a proud humility which rejoiced +that it could feel its own unworthiness and know thereby that it would +strive to be more fit. And it showed--oh, unquestionably it showed!--the +depth of his feeling. Quite clearly he had restrained a pen that longed +to pour forth his heart, yet there were phrases in which his tenderness +had been more than he could hold back, and it was those phrases which +made the recipient hold her breath a little as she read them, wondering +how, if the written words were almost more than she could bear, she +could face the spoken ones. + +And now she really wanted to run away! If she could have had a week, a +month, between the reading of this letter and the meeting of its writer, +it seemed to her that it would have been the happiest month of her life. +To take the letter with her into exile, to read it every day, but to +wait--wait--for the real crisis till she could quiet her racing +emotions. One sweet at a time--not an armful of them. But the man--true +to his nature--the man wanted the armful, and at once. And she had made +him wait all these months; she could not, knowing her own heart, put him +off longer now. The cool composure with which, last winter, she had +answered his first declaration that he loved her was all gone; the +months, of waiting had done more than show him whether his love was +real: they had shown her that she wanted it to be real. + +The day was a hard one to get through. The hours lagged--yet they flew. +At eight o'clock she went down, feeling as if it were all in her face; +but apparently nobody saw anything beyond the undoubted fact that in her +white frock she looked as fresh and as vivid as a flower. At half after +ten Rosamond came to her to know if she had received an invitation from +Richard Kendrick to go for a horseback ride, adding that she herself was +delighted at the thought and had telephoned Stephen, to find that he +also was pleased and would be up in time. + +"I wonder where he's going to take us," speculated Rosamond, in a +flutter of anticipation. "Without doubt it will be somewhere that's +perfectly charming; he knows how to do such things. Of course it's all +for you, but I shall love to play chaperon, and Stevie and I shall have +a lovely time out of it. I haven't been on a horse since Dorothy came; I +hope I haven't grown too stout for my habit. What are you going to wear, +Rob? The blue cloth? You are perfectly irresistible in that! Do wear +that rakish-looking soft hat with the scarf; it's wonderfully becoming, +if it isn't quite so correct; and I'm sure Richard Kendrick won't take +us to any stupid fashionable hotel. He'll arrange an outdoor affair, I'm +confident, with the Kendrick chef to prepare it and the Kendrick +servants to see that it is served. Oh, it's such a glorious June day! +Aren't you happy, Rob?" + +"If I weren't it would make me happy to look at you, you dear married +child," and Roberta kissed her pretty sister-in-law, who could be as +womanly as she was girlish, and whose companionship, with that of +Stephen's, she felt to be the most discriminating choice of chaperonage +Richard could have made. Stephen and Rosamond, off upon a holiday like +this, would be celebrating a little honeymoon anniversary of their own, +she knew, for they had been married in June and could never get over +congratulating themselves on their own happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +RICHARD HAS WAKED EARLIER + + +Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock. Roberta wondered afterward +what she had done with the hours! At three she had her bath; at half +after she put up her hair, hardly venturing to look at her own face in +her mirror, so flushed and shy was it. Roberta shy?--she who, according +to Ted, "wasn't afraid of anything in the world!" But she _had_ been +afraid of one thing, even as Richard Kendrick had averred. Was she not +afraid of it now? She could not tell. But she knew that her hands shook +as she put up her hair, and that it tumbled down twice and had to be +done over again. Afraid! She was afraid, as every girl worth winning is, +of the sight of her lover! + +Yet when she heard hoofbeats on the driveway nothing could have kept +her from peeping out. The rear porch, from which the riding party would +start, was just below her window, the great pillars rising past her. +She had closed one of her blinds an hour before; she now made use of +its sheltering interstices. She saw Richard on a splendid black horse +coming up the drive, looking, as she had foreseen he would look, at +home in the saddle and at his best. She saw the colour in his cheeks, +the brightness in his eyes, caught his one quick glance upward--did +he know her window? He could not possibly see her, but she drew back, +happiness and fear fighting within her for the ascendency. Could she +ever go down and face him out there in the strong June light, where he +could see every curving hair of eyelash? note the slightest ebb and +flow of blood in cheek? + +Rosamond was calling: "Come, Rob! Mr. Kendrick is here and Joe is +bringing round the horses. Can I help you?" + +Roberta opened her door. "I couldn't do my hair at all; does it look a +fright under this hat?" + +Rosamond surveyed her. "Of course it doesn't. You're the most bewitching +thing I ever saw in that blue habit, and your hair is lovely, as it +always is. Rob, I have grown stout; I had to let out two bands before I +could get this on; it was made before I was married. Steve's been +laughing at me. Here he is; now do let's hurry. I want every bit of this +good time, don't you?" + +There was no delaying longer. Rosamond, all eagerness, was leading the +way downstairs, her little riding-boots tapping her departure. Stephen +was waiting for Roberta; she had to precede him. The next she knew she +was down and out upon the porch, and Richard Kendrick, hat and crop in +hand, was meeting her halfway, his expectant eyes upon her face. One +glance at him was all she was giving him, and he was mercifully making +no sign that any one looking on could have recognized beyond his eager +scrutiny as his hand clasped hers. And then in two minutes they were +off, and Roberta, feeling the saddle beneath her and Colonel's familiar +tug on the bit at the start-off--he was always impatient to get +away--was realizing that the worst, at least for the present, was over. + +"Which way?" called Stephen, who was leading with Rosamond. + +"Out the road past the West Wood marshes, please--straight out. Take it +moderately; we're going about twelve miles and it's pretty warm yet." + +There was not much talking while they were within the city limits--nor +after they were past, for that matter. Rosamond, ahead with her husband, +kept up a more or less fitful conversation with him, but the pair behind +said little. Richard made no allusion to his letter of the morning +beyond a declaration of his gratitude to the whole party for falling in +with his plans. But the silence was somehow more suggestive of the great +subject waiting for expression than any exchange of words could have +been, out here in the open. Only once did the man's impatience to begin +overcome his resolution to await the fitting hour. + +Turning in his saddle as Colonel fell momentarily behind, passing the +West Wood marshes, Richard allowed his eyes to rest upon horse and rider +with full intent to take in the picture they made. + +"I haven't ventured to let myself find out just how you look," he said. +"The atmosphere seems to swim around you; I see you through a sort of +haze. Do you suppose there can be anything the matter with my eyesight?" + +"I should think there must be," she replied demurely. "It seems a +serious symptom. Hadn't you better turn back?" + +"While you go on? Not if I fall off my horse. I have a suspicion that +it's made up of a curious compound of feelings which I don't dare to +describe. But--may I tell you?--I _must_ tell you--I never saw anything +so beautiful in my life as--yourself, to-day. I--" He broke off +abruptly. "Do you see that old rosebush there by those burnt ruins of a +house? Amber-white roses, and sweet as--I saw them there yesterday when +I went by. Let me get them for you." + +He rode away into the deserted yard and up to a tangle of neglected +shrubbery. He had some difficulty in getting Thunderbolt--who was as +restless a beast as his name implied--to stand still long enough to +allow him to pick a bunch of the buds; he would have nothing but buds +just breaking into bloom. These he presently brought back to Roberta. +She fancied that he had planned to stop here for this very purpose. +Clearly he had the artist's eye for finishing touches. He watched her +fasten the roses upon the breast of the blue-cloth habit, then he turned +determinedly away. + +"If I don't look at you again," said he, his eyes straight before him, +"it's because I can't do it--and keep my head. You accused me once of +losing it under a winter moon; this is a summer sun--more dangerous +yet.... Shall we talk about the crops? This is fine weather for growing +things, isn't it?" + +"Wonderful. I haven't been out this road this season--as far as this. +I'm beginning to wonder where you are taking us." + +"To the hill where you and Miss Ruth and Ted and I toasted sandwiches +last November. Could there be a better place for the end--of our ride? +You haven't been out here this season--are you sure?" + +"No, indeed. I've been too busy with the close of school to ride +anywhere--much less away out here." + +"You like my choice, then? I hoped you would." + +"Very much." + +It was a queer, breathless sort of talking; Roberta hardly knew what she +was saying. She much preferred to ride along in silence. The hour was at +hand--so close at hand! And there was now no getting away. She knew +perfectly that her agreeing to come at all had told him his answer; none +but the most cruel of women would allow a man to bring her upon such a +ride, in the company of other interested people, only to refuse him at +the end of it. But she had to admit to herself that if he were now +exulting in the sure hope of possessing her he was keeping it well out +of sight. There was now none of the arrogant self-confidence in his +manner toward her which there had been on the February night when he had +made a certain prophecy concerning Midsummer. Instead there was that in +his every word and look which indicated a fine humility--almost a boyish +sort of shyness, as if even while he knew the treasure to be within his +grasp he could neither quite believe it nor feel himself fit to take it. +From a young man of the world such as he had been it was the most +exquisite tribute to her power to rouse the best in him that he could +have given and she felt it to the inmost soul of her. + +"Here are the forks," said Richard suddenly, and Roberta recognized with +a start that they were nearly at the end of their journey. + +"Which way?" Stephen was shouting back, and Richard was waving toward +the road at the left, which led up the steep hill. + +"Here is where you dropped the bunch of rose haws," said he, with a +quick glance as they began the ascent. "I have them yet--brown and dry. +Did you know you dropped them?" + +"I remember. But I didn't suppose anybody--" + +"Found them? By the greatest luck--and stopped my car in a hurry. They +were bright on my desk for a month after that; I cared more for them +than for anything I owned. I had the greatest difficulty in keeping my +man from throwing them away, though. You see, he hadn't my point of +view! Roberta--here we are! Will you forgive what will seem like a piece +of the most unwarrantable audacity?" He was speaking fast as they came +up over the crown of the hill: "I didn't do it because I was sure of +anything at all, but because--it was something to make myself think I +could carry out a wish of yours. Do you remember the '_stout little +cabin on the hilltop_', Roberta? Could you--_could_ you care for it, as +I do?" + +The last words were almost a whisper, but she heard them. Her eyes were +riveted on the outlines, two hundred feet away through the trees, of a +small brown building at the very crest of the hill over-looking the +valley. Very small, very rough, with its unhewn logs--the "stout little +cabin" stood there waiting. + +Well! What was she to think? He _had_ been sure, to build this and bring +her to it! And yet--it was no house for a home; no expensive bungalow; +not even a summer cottage. Only a "stout little cabin," such as might +house a hunter on a winter's night; the only thing about it which looked +like luxury the chimney of cobblestones taken from the hillside below, +which meant the possibility of the fire inside without which one could +hardly spend an hour in the small shelter on any but a summer day. +Suddenly she understood. It was the sheer romance of the thing which had +appealed to him; there was no audacity about it. + +He was watching her anxiously as she stared at the cabin; she came +suddenly to the realization of that. Then he threw himself off his horse +as they neared the rail fence, fastened him, and came back to Roberta. +Near-by, Stephen was taking Rosamond down and she was exclaiming over +the charm of the place. + +Richard came close, looking straight up into Roberta's face, which was +like a wild-rose for colouring, but very sober. Her eyes would not meet +his. His own face had paled a little, in spite of all its healthy, +outdoor hues. + +"Oh, don't misunderstand me," he whispered. "Wait--till I can tell you +all about it. I was wild to do something--anything--that would make you +seem nearer. Don't misunderstand--_dear_!" + +Stephen's voice, calling a question about the horses, brought him back +to a realization of the fact that his time was not yet, and that he must +continue to act the part of the sane and responsible host. He turned, +summoning all his social training, and replied to the question in his +usual quiet tone. But, as he took her from her horse, Roberta recognized +the surge of his feeling, though he controlled his very touch of her, +and said not another word in her ear. She had all she could do, herself, +to maintain an appearance of coolness under the shock of this +extraordinary surprise. She had no doubt that Rosamond and Stephen +comprehended the situation, more or less. Let them not be able to guess +just how far things had developed, as yet. + +Rosamond came to her aid with her own freely manifested pleasure in the +place. Clever Rosy! her sister-in-law was grateful to her for expressing +that which Roberta could not trust herself to speak. + +"What a dear little house, a real log cabin!" cried Rosamond as the four +drew near. "It's evidently just finished; see the chips. It opens the +other way, doesn't it? Isn't that delightful! Not even a window on this +side toward the road, though it's back so far. I suppose it looks toward +the valley. A window on this end; see the solid shutters; it looks as if +one could fortify one's self in it. Oh, and here's a porch! What a +view--oh, what a view!" + +They came around the end of the cabin together and stood at the front, +surveying the wide porch, its thick pillars of untrimmed logs, its +balustrade solid and sheltering, its roof low and overhanging. From the +road everything was concealed; from this aspect it was open to the +skies; its door and two front windows wide, yet showing, door as well as +windows, the heavy shutters which would make the place a stronghold +through what winter blasts might assault it. From the porch one could +see for miles in every direction; at the sides, only the woods. + +"It's an ideal spot for a camp," declared Stephen with enthusiasm. "Is +it yours, Kendrick? I congratulate you. Invite me up here in the hunting +season, will you? I can't imagine anything snugger. May we look inside?" + +"By all means! It's barely finished--it's entirely rough inside--but I +thought it would do for our supper to-night." + +"Do!" Rosamond gave a little cry of delight as she looked in at the open +door. "Rough! You don't want it smoother. Does he, Rob? Look at the +rustic table and benches! And will you behold that splendid fireplace? +Oh, all you want here is the right company!" + +"And that I surely have." Richard made her a little bow, his face +emphasizing his words. He went over to a cupboard in the wall, of which +there were two, one on either side of the fireplace. He threw it open, +disclosing hampers. "Here is our supper, I expect. Are you hungry? It's +up to us to serve it. I didn't have the man stay; I thought it would be +more fun to see to things ourselves." + +"A thousand times more," Rosamond assured him, looking to Roberta for +confirmation, who nodded, smiling. + +They fell to work. Hats were removed, riding skirts were fastened out of +the way, hampers were opened and the contents set forth. Everything that +could possibly be needed was found in the hampers, even to coffee, +steaming hot in the vacuum bottles as it had been poured into them. + +"Some other time we'll come up and rough it," Richard explained, when +Stephen told him he was no true camper to have everything prepared for +him in detail like this; "but to-night I thought we'd spend as little +time in preparations as possible and have the more of the evening. It +will be a Midsummer Night's Dream on this hill to-night," said he, with +a glance at Roberta which she would not see. + +Presently they sat down, Roberta finding herself opposite their host, +with the necessity upon her of eating and drinking like a common mortal, +though she was dwelling in a world where it seemed as if she did not +know how to do the everyday things and do them properly. It was a +delicious meal, no doubt of that, and at least Stephen and Rosamond did +justice to it. + +"But you're not eating anything yourself, man," remonstrated Stephen, +as Richard pressed upon him more cold fowl and delicate sandwiches +supplemented by a salad such as connoisseurs partake of with sighs of +appreciation, and with fruit which one must marvel to look upon. + +"You haven't been watching me, that's evident," returned Richard, +demonstrating his ability to consume food with relish by seizing upon a +sandwich and making away with it in short order. + +Roberta rose. "I can eat no more," she said, "with that wonderful sky +before me out there." She escaped to the porch. + +They all turned to exclaim at a gorgeous colouring beginning in the +west, heralding the sunset which was coming. Rosamond ran out also, +Stephen following. Richard produced cigars. + +"Have a smoke out here, Gray," said he, "while I put away the stuff. No, +no help, thank you. James will be here, by and by, to pack it properly." + +"Stephen"--Rosamond stood at the edge of the hill below the +porch--"bring your cigar down here; it's simply perfect. You can lie on +your side here among the pine needles and watch the sky." + +They went around a clump of trees to a spot where the pine needles were +thick, just out of sight of the cabin door. No doubt but Rosamond and +Stephen liked to have things to themselves; there was no pretence about +that. It was almost the anniversary of their marriage--their most happy +marriage. + +Roberta stood still upon the porch, looking, or appearing to look, off +at the sunset. Once again she would have liked to run away. But--where +to go? Rosamond and Stephen did not want her; it would have been absurd +to insist on following them. If she herself should stroll away among the +pine trees, she would, of course, be instantly pursued. The porch was +undoubtedly the most open and therefore the safest spot she could be in. +So she leaned against the pillar and waited, her heart behaving +disturbingly meanwhile. She could hear Richard, within the cabin +hurriedly clearing the table and stuffing everything away into the +cupboards on either side of the fireplace--he was making short work of +it. Before she could have much time to think, his step was upon the +porch behind her; he was standing by her shoulder. + +"It's a wonderful effect, isn't it? Must we talk about it?" he inquired +softly. + +"Don't you think it deserves to be talked about?" she answered, trying +to speak naturally. + +"No. There's only one thing in the world I want to talk about. I can't +even see that sky, for looking at--you. I've stood at the top of this +slope more times than I can tell you, wondering if I should dare to +build this little cabin. The idea possessed me, I couldn't get away from +it. I bought the land--and still I was afraid. I gave the order to the +builder--and all but took it back. I knew I ran every kind of risk that +you wouldn't understand me--that you would think I still had that +abominable confidence that I was fool enough to express to you +last--February. Does it look so?" + +She nodded slowly without turning her head. + +His voice grew even more solicitous; she could hear a little tremble in +it, such as surely had not been there last February, such as she had +never heard there before. "But it isn't so! With every log that's gone +in, a fresh fear has gone in with it. Even on the way here to-day I had +all I could do not to turn off some other way. The only thing that kept +me coming on to meet my fate here, and nowhere else, was the hope that +you loved the spot itself so well that you--that your heart would be a +bit softer here than--somewhere else. O Roberta--I'm not half good +enough for you, but--I love you--love you--" + +His voice broke on the words. It surely was a very far from confident +suitor who pleaded his case in such phrases as these. He did not so much +as take her hand, only waited there, a little behind her, his head bent +so that he might see as much as he could of the face turned away from +him. + +She did not answer; something seemed to hold her from speech. One of her +arms was twined about the rough, untrimmed pillar of the porch; her +clasp tightened until she held it as if it were a bulwark against the +human approach ready to take her from it at a word from her lips. + +"I told you in my letter all I knew I couldn't say now. You know what +you mean to me. I'm going to make all I can out of what there is in me +whether you help me or not. But--if I could do it for you--" + +Still she could not speak. She clung to the pillar, her breath +quickening. He was silent until he could withstand no longer, then he +spoke so urgently in her ear that he broke in upon that queer, choking +reserve of hers which had kept her from yielding to him: + +"Roberta--I _must_ know--I can't bear it." + +She turned, then, and put out her hand. He grasped it in both his own. + +"What does that mean, dear? May I--may I have the rest of you?" + +It was only a tiny nod she gave, this strange girl, Roberta, who had +been so afraid of love, and was so afraid of it yet. And as if he +understood and appreciated her fear, he was very gentle with her. His +arms came about her as they might have come about a frightened child, +and drew her away from the pillar with a tender insistence which all at +once produced an extraordinary effect. When she found that she was not +to be seized with that devastating grasp of possession which she had +dreaded, she was suddenly moved to desire it. His humbleness touched and +melted her--his humbleness, in him who had been at first so +arrogant--and with the first exquisite rush of response she was taken +out of herself. She gave herself to his embrace as one who welcomes it, +and let him have his way--all his way--a way in which he quite forgot to +be gentle at all. + +When this had happened, Roberta remembered, entirely too late, that it +was this which, whatever else she gave him, she had meant to refuse +him--at least until to-morrow. Because to-day was undeniably the +twenty-fourth of June--Midsummer's Day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE PILLARS OF HOME + + +"Listen, grandfather--they're playing! We'll catch them at it. Here's an +open window." + +Matthew Kendrick followed his grandson across the wide porch to a French +window opening into the living-room of the Gray home, at the opposite +end from that where stood the piano, and from which the strains of +'cello and harp were proceeding. The two advanced cautiously to take up +their position just within that far window, gazing down the room at the +pair at the other end. + +Roberta, in hot-weather white, with a bunch of blue corn-flowers thrust +into her girdle, sat with her 'cello at her knee, her dark head bent as +she played. Ruth, a gay little figure in pink, was fingering her harp, +and the poignantly rich harmonies of Saint-Säens' _Mon coeur s'ouvre a +ta voix_ were filling the room. Upon the great piano stood an enormous +bowl of summer bloom; the air was fragrant with the breath of it. The +room was as cool and fresh with its summer draperies and shaded windows +as if it were not fervid July weather outside. + +Richard flung one exulting glance at his grandfather, for the sight was +one to please the eyes of any man even if he had no such interest in the +performers as these two had. The elder man smiled, for he was very happy +in these days, happier than he had been for a quarter of a century. + +The music ceased with the last slow harp-tones, the 'cello's earlier +upflung bow waving in a gesture of triumph. + +"Splendid, Rufus!" she commended. "You never did it half so well." + +"She never did," agreed a familiar voice from the other end of the room, +and the sisters turned with a start. Richard advanced down the room, Mr. +Kendrick following more slowly. + +"You look as cool as a pond-lily, love," said Richard, "in spite of this +July weather." His approving eyes regarded Roberta's cheek at close +range. "Is it as cool as it looks?" he inquired, and placed his own +cheek against it for an instant, regardless of the others present. + +Roberta laid her hand in Mr. Kendrick's, and the old man raised it to +his lips, in a stately fashion he sometimes used. + +"That was very beautiful music you were making," he said. "It seems a +pity to bring it to an end. Richard and I want you for a little drive, +to show you something which interests us very much. Will you go--and +will Ruth go, too?" + +"Oh, do you really want me?" cried Ruth eagerly. + +"Of course we want you, little sister," Richard told her. + +"I'll get our hats," offered Ruth, and was off. + +So presently the four had taken their places in Mr. Kendrick's car, its +windows open, its luxurious winter cushioning covered with dust-proof, +cool-feeling materials. Richard sat opposite Roberta, and it was easy +for her to see by the peculiar light in his eyes that there was +something afoot which was giving him more than ordinary joy in her +companionship. His lips could hardly keep themselves in order, the tones +of his voice were vibrant, his glance would have met hers every other +minute if she would have allowed it. + +The car rolled along a certain aristocratic boulevard leading out of the +city, past one stately residence after another. As the distance became +greater from the centre of affairs, the places took on a more and more +comfortable aspect, with less majesty of outline, and more home-likeness. +Surrounding grounds grew more extensive, the houses themselves lower +spreading and more picturesque. It was a favourite drive, but there were +comparatively few abroad on this July morning. Nearly every residence +was closed, and the inhabitants away, though the beauty of the +environment was as carefully preserved as if the owners were there to +observe and enjoy. + +"We're the only people in the city this summer," observed Richard, +"except ninety-nine-hundredths of the population, which fails to count, +of course, in the eyes of these residents. Curious custom, isn't it? to +close such homes as these, just when they're at their most attractive, +and go off to a country house. They'd be twice as comfortable at home, +in this weather--just as we are. And this is the first summer I ever +tried it! Robin, that's a pleasant place, isn't it?" + +He indicated one of the houses they were passing, an unusually +interesting combination of wood and stone, half hidden beneath spreading +vines. + +"Yes, that's charming," she agreed. "And I like the next even better, +don't you?" + +The next was of a different style entirely, less ambitious and more +friendly of appearance, with long reaches of porch and pergola, and more +than usually well-arranged masses of shrubbery enhancing the whole +effect of withdrawal from the public gaze. + +"I do, I think, for some reasons. You choose the least pretentious +houses, every time, don't you? Don't care a bit for show places?" + +"Not a bit," owned the girl. + +"Here's one, now," Richard pointed it out. "The owner spent a lot of +money on that. Would you live in it?" + +"Not--willingly." + +Richard glanced at his grandfather. "I wonder just how much she would +suffer," he suggested, with sparkling eyes. "Suppose we should drive in +there and tell her we'd bought it!" + +Mr. Kendrick turned to the figure in white at his side. The eyes of the +old man and the young woman met with understanding, and the two smiled +affectionately before the meeting was over. Richard looked on +approvingly. But he complained. + +"I'd like one like that, myself," said he. "Robin has looked at me only +three times this morning, and once was when we met, for purposes of +identification!" + +He had a glance of his own, then, and apparently it went to his head, +for he became more animated than ever in calling the party's attention +to each piece, of property passed by. + +"These are all modern," he commented presently. "There's something about +your really old house that can't be copied. Your own home, Robin--that's +the type of antique beauty that's come to seem to me more desirable than +any other. Isn't there one along here somewhere that reminds one of it?" + +"There's the General Armitage place," Roberta said. "That must be close +by, now. It used to be far out in the country. It was built by the same +architect who built ours. General Armitage and my great-grandfather were +intimate friends--they were in the Civil War together." + +"Here it is." Ruth pointed it out eagerly. "I always like to go by it, +because it looks quite a little like ours, only the grounds are much +larger, and it has a wonderful old garden behind it. Mother has often +said she wished she could transplant the Armitage garden bodily, now +that the house has been closed so long. She says the old gardener is +still here, and looks after the garden--or his grandsons do." + +"Shall we drive in and see it?" proposed Richard. "A garden like that +ought to have some one to admire it now and then." + +He gave the order, and the car rolled in through the old stone gateway. +The place, though of a noble old type, was far from a pretentious one, +and there was no lodge at the gate, as with most of its neighbours. The +house was no larger than the comfortable home of the Gray family, but +its closed blinds and empty white-pillared portico gave it a deserted +air. The grounds about it were not indicative of present day, fastidious +landscape gardening, but suggested an old-time country gentleman's +estate, sufficiently kept up to prevent wild and alien growth, though +needing the supervision of an interested owner to suggest beneficial +changes here and there. + +"It's a beautiful old place, isn't it?" Richard looked to Roberta for +confirmation, and saw it in her kindling eyes. + +"It has always been our whole family's ideal of a home," she said. "Ours +is so much nearer the centre of things, we haven't the acres we should +like, and whenever we have driven past this place we have looked +longingly at it. Since General and Mrs. Armitage died, and their family +became scattered, father has often said that he was watching anxiously +to see it come on the market, for there was no place he more coveted the +right ownership for, even though he couldn't think of living here +himself. It seems such a pity when homes like this go to people who +don't appreciate them, and alter and spoil them." + +"So it does," agreed Richard, and now he had much ado to keep his +soaring spirits from betraying the happy secret which he saw his +betrothed did not remotely suspect. He knew she expected to dwell +hereafter in the "stone pile" which had been the home of the Kendricks +for many years, and she had never by a word or look made him feel that +such a prospect tried her spirit. That it was not to her a wholly happy +prospect he had divined, as he might have divined that a wild bird would +not be happy in a cage, nor a deer in a close corral. + +"Oh, the garden!" breathed Roberta, and clasped her hands with an +unconscious gesture of pleasure, as the car swept round the house and +past the tall box borders of what was, indeed, such an old-time +memorial, tended by faithful and loving hands, as must stir the interest +of any admirer of the stately conceptions of an earlier day. A bowed +figure, at work in a great bed of rosy phlox, straightened painfully as +the car stopped, and the visitors looked into the seamed, tanned face of +the presiding spirit of the place, the old gardener who had served +General Armitage all his life. + +All four alighted, and walked through the winding paths, talked with old +Symonds, and studied the charming spot with growing delight. Richard, +managing to get Roberta to himself for a brief space, eagerly questioned +her. + +"You find this prettier than any picture in any gallery, don't you?" + +"Oh, it has great charm for me. I can hardly express the curious content +it gives me, to wander about such an old garden. The fragrance of the +box is particularly pleasant to me, and I love the old-fashioned flowers +better than any of the wonders the modern gardeners show. Just look at +that mass of larkspur--did you ever see such a satisfying blue?" + +"I have. The first time I came to your house to dinner you wore blue, +the softest, richest blue imaginable, and you sat where the shaded light +made a picture of you I shall never forget. I've never seen that +peculiar blue since without thinking of you. It's one of the shades of +that larkspur, isn't it?" + +"I made fun of you, afterward, for telling Rosy you noticed the colours +we wore," confessed Roberta, with a mischievous glance. + +"You did--you rascal! Look up at me a minute--please. The blue of your +eyes, with those black lashes, is another larkspur shade, in this light. +I've called it sea-blue. Rob--dearest--the nights I've dreamed about +those eyes of yours!" + +He got no further chance to observe them just then, as he might have +expected, for Roberta immediately turned their light on the garden and +away from his worshipful regard. She engaged the old gardener in +conversation, and made his dull gaze brighten with her praise. Meanwhile +Richard went off to the house, and presently returning, drew his party +into a group and put a question, striving to maintain an appearance of +indifference. + +"It occurred to me you might care to look into the house itself. It's +rather interesting inside, I believe. There seems to be a caretaker +there, and she says we may come in. She'll meet us at the front. Shall +we take a minute to do it?" + +"I should like it very much," agreed Roberta promptly. "I've heard +mother speak of the fine old hall with its staircase--a different type +from ours, and very interesting." + +"There certainly is a remarkable attraction to me in this place," said +Matthew Kendrick, walking beside Roberta with hands clasped behind his +back and head well up. "It has a homelike look, in spite of its deserted +state, which appeals to me. I wonder that the remnant of the family does +not care to retain it." + +"I hear the remnant is all but gone," his grandson informed him, with +sober lips but dancing eyes. He was delighted with his grandfather for +his assistance in playing the part of the casual observer. He led the +way up the steps of the white-pillared portico, and wheeled to see the +others ascending. He watched Roberta as she preceded him over the +threshold of the opened door. + +"Shall I see you coming in that door, you beautiful thing, years and +years from now?" he asked her in his heart, and smiled happily to +himself. + +And now, indeed, old Matthew Kendrick played his part nobly and with +skill. When the party had admired the distinction of the hall, and the +stately sweep of its staircase, he led Ruth into a room on the left at +the same moment that Richard summoned Roberta to look at something he +had described in the room on the right. A question drew the caretaker +after Mr. Kendrick, senior, and the younger man had the moment he was +playing for. + +"This fireplace, Robin--isn't it the very counter-part of the one in +your own living-room?" He asked it with his hand on the chimney-piece, +and his glowing eyes studying hers. + +Roberta looked, and nodded delightedly. "It certainly is, only still +wider and higher. What a splendid one! And what a room! Oh, how could +they leave it? Imagine it furnished, and lived in." + +"Imagine it! And a great fire on this hearth. It would take in an +immense log, wouldn't it?" + +"Poor hearth!" She turned again to it, and her glance sobered. "So cold +now, even on a July day, after having been warmed with so many fires." + +"Shall we warm it?" He took an eager step toward her. "Shall we build +our own home fires upon it?" + +Startled, she stared at him, the blue of her eyes growing deep. He +smiled into them, his own gleaming with satisfaction. + +"Richard! What do you--mean?" + +"What I say, darling. Could you be happy here? Should you like it better +than the Kendrick house?--gloomy old place that that is!" + +"But--your grandfather! We--we couldn't possibly leave him lonely!" + +"Bless your kind heart, dear--we couldn't. Shall we make a home for him +here?" + +"Would he be content?" + +"So content that he's only waiting to know that you like it, and he'll +tell you so. The plan is this, Robin--if you approve it. Three months of +the year grandfather will stay in the old home, the hard, winter months, +and if you are willing, we'll stay with him. The rest of the year--here, +in our own home. Eh? Do you like it?" + +She stood a moment, staring into the empty fireplace, her eyes shining +with a sudden hint of most unwonted tears. Then she turned to him. + +"Oh, you dear!" she whispered, and was swept into his arms. + +"Then you do like it?" he insisted, presently. + +"Like it! Oh, I can't tell you. To have such a home as this, so like the +old one, yet so wonderful of itself. To make it ours--to put our own +individuality into it, yet never hurt it. And that garden! What will +mother say? Oh, Richard--I was never so happy in my life!" + +He knew that was true of himself, for his heart was full to bursting, +with the success of his scheming. They walked the length of the long +room, looked out of each window, returned to the fireplace. He held her +fast and whispered in her ear: + +"Robin, I can see all sorts of things in this room. I saw them the +minute I came into it first, a month ago. I've stood here, dreaming, +more than once since then. I see ourselves, living here, and--I +see--Robin--I see--little figures!" + +She nodded, with her face against his breast. He lifted her face, and +his lips met hers in such a meeting as they had not yet known. Richard's +heart beat hard with the sure knowledge of that which he had only dared +before to believe would be true--that his wife would rejoice to be the +mother of his children. Not in vain had this young man looked into child +faces and brought joy to their eyes; he had learned that life would +never be complete without children of his own. And now he knew, +certainly, that this woman whom he loved would gladly join her superb +young life with his in the bringing of other lives into the world, with +their full heritage, and not a drop withheld. It was a wondrous moment. + +They went out together, in search of Mr. Kendrick and Ruth, and then the +party proceeded over the house. With a word and a fee Richard dismissed +the caretaker, and the four were free to talk of their affairs. Ruth was +wild with delight at the news; Mr. Kendrick quietly happy at Roberta's +words to him, and her clasp of his hand. + +"Richard was sure you would be pleased, my dear," he said, "and I myself +could not doubt that, brought up in the atmosphere you have been, you +must prefer such a home as this, so like your own. And if you would +really care to have me here with you, a part of the year, I could but be +gratified and contented." + +They assured him of their joy at this: they mounted the stairs with him +and searched for the apartments which should be his. In spite of his +protests they insisted on his occupying those which were obviously the +choicest of the house, declaring that nothing could be too good for him. +He was deeply touched at their devotion, and they were as glad as he. +The time passed rapidly in these momentous affairs. + +"I suppose we must be off," admitted Richard reluctantly, discovering +the hour. "Robin, how can you bear to leave it so long untenanted? From +July to Christmas--what an interminable stretch of time!" + +"Not with all you have planned to do," Roberta reminded him. "Think what +it will mean to get it all in order." + +"I do think what it will mean. Don't I, though! It will mean--shopping +with my love, choosing rugs and furniture--and plates and cups, +Robin--plates and cups to eat and drink from. The fun of that! Will you +help us, Rufus?" He turned, laughing, to the young girl beside him. +"Will you come and eat and drink from our plates and cups? Ah, but this +is a great old world--yes? you three dear people! And I'm the happiest +fellow in it!" + +There seemed small doubt that there could be few happier, just then, as +standing at the top of his own staircase and gazing down into the wide +and empty hall toward the open door which led out upon the +white-pillared portico of his home-that-was-to-be, Richard Kendrick +flung up one arm, lifting an imaginary cup high in the air, and calling +joyously: + +_"Here's hoping!"_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A STOUT LITTLE CABIN + +Christmas morning! and the bells in St. Luke's pealing the great old +hymn, dear for scores of years to those who had heard it chiming from +the ivy-grown towers--"_Adeste, Fideles_." + +_"Oh, come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!"_ + +Joyful and triumphant, indeed, though yet subdued and humble, since this +paradox may be at times in human hearts, was Richard Kendrick, as he +stood waiting in the vestibule of St. Luke's, on Christmas morning, for +a tryst he had made. Not with Roberta, for it was not possible for her +to be present to-day, but with Ruth Gray, that young sister who had +become so like a sister by blood to Richard that, at her suggestion, it +had seemed to him the happiest thing in the world to go to church with +her on Christmas morning--the morning of the day which was to see his +marriage. + +The Gray homestead was full of wedding guests, the usual family guests +of the Christmas house-party. On the evening before had occurred the +Christmas dance, and Richard had led the festivities, with his +bride-elect at his side. It had been a glorious merry-making and his +pulses had thrilled wildly to the rapture of it. But to-day--to-day was +another story. + +A slender young figure, in brown velvet with a tiny twig of holly +perched among furry trimmings, hurried up the steps and into the +vestibule. Richard met Ruth halfway, his face alight, his hand clasping +hers eagerly. + +"I'm so sorry I am late," she whispered. "Oh, it's so fine of you to +come. Isn't it a lovely, lovely way to begin this Day--your and Rob's +day, too?" + +He nodded, smiling down at her with eyes full of brotherly affection for +a most lovable girl. He followed her into the church and took his place +beside her, feeling that he would rather be here, just now, than +anywhere in the world. + +It must be admitted that he hardly heard the service, except for the +music, which was of a sort to make its own way into the most abstracted +consciousness. But the quiet spirit of the place had its effect upon +him, and when he knelt beside Ruth it seemed the most natural thing in +the world to form a prayer in his heart that he might be a fit husband +for the wife he was so soon to take to himself. Once, during a long +period of kneeling, Ruth's hand slipped shyly into his, and he held it +fast, with a quickening perception of what it meant to have a pure young +spirit like hers beside him in this sacred hour. His soul was full of +high resolve to be a son and brother to this rare family into which he +was entering such as might do them honour. For it was a very significant +fact that to him the people who stood nearest to Roberta were of great +consequence; and that a source of extraordinary satisfaction to him, +from the first, had been his connection with a family which seemed to +him ideal, and association with which made up to him for much of which +his life had been empty. + +A proof of this had been his invitation, through his grandfather, who +had warmly seconded his wish, to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, to come and +stay with the Kendricks throughout this Christmas party, precisely as +they had done the year before. To have Aunt Ruth preside at breakfast on +this auspicious morning had given Richard the greatest pleasure, and the +kiss he had bestowed upon her had been one which she recognized as very +like the tribute of a son. From her side he had gone to St. Luke's. + +"Good-bye, dear, for a few hours," he whispered to Ruth, as he put her +into the brougham, driven by the old family coachman, in which she had +come alone to church. "When I see you next I'll be almost your brother. +And in just a few minutes after that--" + +"Oh, Richard--are you happy?" she whispered back, scanning his face with +brimming eyes. + +"So happy I can't tell even you. Give my love, my dearest love, to--" + +"I will--" as he paused on the name, as if he could not speak it just +then. "She was so glad to have us go to church together. She wanted to +come herself--so much." + +He pressed the small gloved hand held out to him. He knew that Ruth +idealized him far beyond his worth--he could read it in her gaze, which +was all but reverential. He said to himself, as he turned away, that a +man never had so many motives to be true to the girl he was to marry. To +bring the first shade of distrust into this little sister's tender eyes +would be punishment enough for any disloyalty, no matter what the cause +might be. + +The wedding was to be at six o'clock. There was nothing about the whole +affair, as it had been planned by Roberta, with his full assent, to make +it resemble any event of the sort in which he had ever taken part. Not +one consideration of custom or of vogue had had weight with her, if it +differed from her carefully wrought-out views of what should be. Her +ruling idea had been to make it all as simple and sincere as possible, +to invite no guests outside her large family and his small one except +such personal friends as were peculiarly dear to both. When Richard had +been asked to submit his list of these, he had been taken aback to find +how pitifully few people he could put upon it. Half a dozen college +classmates, a small number of fellow clubmen--these painstakingly +considered from more than one standpoint--the Cartwrights, his cousins, +whom he really knew but indifferently well; two score easily covered the +number of those whom by any stretch of the imagination he could call +friends. The long roll of his fashionable acquaintance he dismissed as +out of the question. If he had been married in church there would have +been several hundreds of these who must unquestionably have been bidden; +but since Roberta wanted as she put it, "only those who truly care for +us," he could but choose those who seemed to come somewhere near that +ideal. To be quite honest, he was aware that his real friends were among +those who could not be bidden to his marriage. The crippled children in +the hospitals; the suffering poor who would send him their blessing when +they read in to-morrow's paper that he was married; the shop-people in +Eastman who knew him for the kindest employer they had ever had:--these +were they who "truly cared"; and the knowledge was warm at his heart, as +with a ruthless hand he scored off names of the mighty in the world of +society and finance. + +"Dick, my boy, you've grown--you've grown!" was his grandfather's +comment, when Richard, with a rueful laugh, had shown the old man the +finished list, upon which, well toward the top, had been the names of +Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Carson. Of Hugh Benson, as best man, Matthew +Kendrick heartily approved. "You've chosen the nugget of pure gold, +Dick," he said, "where you might have been expected to take one with +considerable alloy. He's worth all the others put together." + +Richard had never realized this more thoroughly than when, on Christmas +afternoon, he invited Benson to drive with him for a last inspection of +a certain spot which had been prepared for the reception of the bridal +pair at the first stage of their journey. He could not, as Hugh took his +place beside him and the two whirled away down the frost-covered avenue, +imagine asking any other man in the world to go with him on such a +visit. There was no other man he knew who would not have made it the +occasion for more or less distasteful raillery; but Hugh Benson was of +the rarely few, he felt, who would understand what that "stout little +cabin" meant to him. + +They came upon it presently, standing bleak and bare as to exterior upon +its hilltop, with only a streaming pillar of smoke from its big chimney +to suggest that it might be habitable within. But when the heavy door +was thrown open, an interior of warmth and comfort presented itself such +as brought an exclamation of wonder from the guest, and made Richard's +eyes shine with satisfaction. + +The long, low room had been furnished simply but fittingly with such +hangings, rugs, and few articles of furniture as should suggest +home-likeness and service. Before the wide hearth stood two big winged +chairs, and a set of bookshelves was filled with a carefully chosen +collection of favourite books. The colourings were warm but harmonious, +and upon a heavy table, now covered with a rich, dull red cloth, stood a +lamp of generous proportions and beauty of design. + +"I've tried to steer a line between luxury and austerity," Richard +explained, as Hugh looked about him with pleased observation. "We shall +not be equipped for real roughing it--not this time, though sometimes we +may like to come here dressed as hunters and try living on bare boards. +I just wanted it to seem like a bit of home, when she comes in to-night. +There'll be some flowers here then, of course--lots of them, and that +ought to give it the last touch. There are always flowers in her home, +bowls of them, everywhere--it was one of the first things I noticed. Do +you think she will like it here?" he ended, with a hint of almost boyish +diffidence in his tone. + +"Like it? It's wonderful. I never heard of anything so--so--all it +should be for--a girl like her," Hugh exclaimed, lamely enough, yet with +a certain eloquence of inflection which meant more than his choice of +words. He turned to Richard. "I can't tell you," he went on, flushing +with the effort to convey to his friend his deep feeling, "how fortunate +I think you are, and how I hope--oh, I hope you and she will be--the +happiest people in the world!" + +"I'm sure you hope that, old fellow," Richard answered, more touched by +this difficult voicing of what he knew to be Hugh's genuine devotion +than he should have been by the most felicitous phrasing of another's +congratulations. "And I can tell you this. There's nobody else I know +whom I would have brought here to see my preparations--nobody else who +would have understood how I feel about--what I'm doing to-day. I never +should have believed it would have seemed so--well, so sacred a thing to +take a girl away from all the people who love her, and bring her to a +place like this. I wish--wish I were a thousand times more fit for her." + +"Rich Kendrick--" Benson was taken out of himself now. His voice was +slightly tremulous, but he spoke with less difficulty than before. "You +are fitter than you know. You've developed as I never thought any man +could in so short a time. I've been watching you and I've seen it. There +was always more in you than people gave you credit for--it was your +inheritance from a father and grandfather who have meant a great deal in +their world. You've found out what you were meant for, and you're coming +up to new and finer standards every day. You _are_ fit to take this +girl--and that means much, because I know a little of what a--" Now _he_ +was floundering again, and his fine, then face flamed more hotly than +before--"of what she is!" he ended, with a complete breakdown in the +style of his phraseology, but with none at all in the conveyance of his +meaning. + +Richard flung out his hand, catching Hugh's, and gripping it. "Bless you +for a friend and a brother!" he cried, his eyes bright with sudden +moisture. "You're another whom I mustn't disappoint. Disappoint? I ought +to be flayed alive if I ever forget the people who believe in me--who +are trusting me with--Roberta!" + +It was a pity she could not have heard him speak her name, have seen the +way he looked at his friend as he spoke it, and have seen the way his +friend looked back at him. There was a quality in their mentioning of +her, here in this place where she was soon to be, which was its own +tribute to the young womanhood she so radiantly imaged. + +In spite of all these devices to make the hours pass rapidly, they +seemed to Richard to crawl. That one came, at last, however, which saw +him knocking at the door of his grandfather's suite, dressed for his +marriage, and eager to depart. Bidden by Mr. Kendrick's man to enter, he +presented himself in the old gentleman's dressing-room, where its +occupant, as scrupulously attired as himself, stood ready to descend to +the waiting car. Richard closed the door behind him, and stood looking +at his grandfather with a smile. + +"Well, Dick, boy--ready? Ah, but you look fresh and fine! Clean in body +and mind and heart for her--eh? That's how you look, sir--as a man +should look--and feel--on his wedding day. Well, she's worth it, +Dick--worth the best you can give." + +"Worth far better than I can give, grandfather," Richard responded, the +glow in his smooth cheek deepening. + +"Well, I don't mean to overrate you," said the old man, smiling, "but +you seem to me pretty well worth while any girl's taking. Not that you +can't become more so--and will, I thoroughly believe. It's not so much +what you've done this last year as what you show promise of doing--great +promise. That's all one can ask at your age. Ten years later--but we +won't go into that. To-night's enough--eh, my dear boy? My dear boy!" +he repeated, with a sudden access of tenderness in his voice. Then, as +if afraid of emotion for them both, he pressed his grandson's hand and +abruptly led the way into the outer room, where Thompson stood waiting +with his fur-lined coat and muffler. + +From this point on it seemed to Richard more or less like a rapidly +shifting series of pictures, all wonderfully coloured. The first was +that of the electric light of the big car's interior shining on the +faces of Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth, on Mr. Kendrick and Hugh Benson--the +latter a little pale but quite composed. Hugh had owned that he felt +seriously inadequate for the role which was his to-night, being no +society man and unaccustomed to taking conspicuous parts anywhere but in +business. But Richard had assured him that it was all a very simple +matter, since it was just a question of standing by a friend in the +crisis of his life! And Hugh had responded that it would be a pity +indeed if he were unwilling to do that. + +The next picture was that of the wide hall at the Gray home--as he came +into it a vivid memory flashed over Richard of his first entrance +there--less honoured than to-night! Soft lights shone upon him; the +spicy fragrance of the ropes and banks of Christmas "greens," bright +with holly, saluted his nostrils; and the glimpse of a great fire +burning, quite as usual, on the broad hearth of the living-room--a place +which had long since come to typify his ideal of a home--served to make +him feel that there could be no spot more suitable for the beginning of +a new home, because there could be nothing in the world finer or more +beautiful to model it upon. + +Nothing seemed afterward clear in his memory until the moment when he +came from his room upstairs, with Hugh close behind him, and met the +rector of St. Luke's, who was to marry him. There followed a hazy +impression of a descent of the staircase, of coming from a detour +through the library out into the full lights and of standing +interminably facing a large gathering of people, the only face at which +he could venture to glance that of Judge Calvin. Gray, standing +dignified and stately beside another figure of equal dignity and +stateliness--probably that of Mr. Matthew Kendrick. Then, at last--there +was Roberta, coming toward him down a silken lane, her eyes fixed on +his--such eyes, in such a face! He fixed his own gaze upon it, and held +it--and forgot everything else, as he had hoped he should. Then there +were the grave words of the clergyman, and his own voice responding--and +sounding curiously unlike his own, of course, as the voice of the +bridegroom has sounded in his own ears since time began. Then +Roberta's--how clearly she spoke, bless her! Then, before he knew it, it +was done, and he and she were rising from their knees, and there were +smiles and pleasant murmurings all about them--and little Ruth was +sobbing softly with her cheek against his! + +It was here that he became conscious again of the family--Roberta's +family, and of what it meant to have such people as these welcome him +into their circle. When he looked into the face of Roberta's mother and +felt her tender welcoming kiss upon his lips, his heart beat hard with +joy. When Roberta's father, his voice deep with feeling, said to him, +"Welcome to our hearts, my son," he could only grasp the firm hand with +an answering, passionate pressure which meant that he had at last that +which he had consciously or unconsciously longed for all his life. All +down the line his overcharged spirit responded to the warmth of their +reception of him--Stephen and Rosamond, Louis and Ruth and young Ted, +smiling at him, saying the kindest things to him, making him one of them +as only those can who are blessed with understanding natures. To be +sure, it was all more or less confused in his memory, when he tried to +recall it afterward, but enough of it remained vivid to assure him that +it had been all he could have asked or hoped--and that it was far, far +more than he deserved! + +"The boy bears up pretty well, eh?" observed old Matthew Kendrick to his +lifelong friend, Judge Calvin Gray, as the two stood aside, having gone +through their own part in the greeting of the bridal pair. Mr. +Kendrick's hand was still tingling with the wringing grip of his +grandson's; his heart was warm with the remembrance of the way Richard's +brilliant eyes had looked into his as he had said, low in the old man's +ear--"I'm not less yours, grandfather--and she's yours, too." Roberta +had put both arms about his neck, whispering: "Indeed I am, dear +grandfather--if you'll have me." Well, it had been happiness enough, +and it was good to watch them as they went on with their joyous task, +knowing that he had a large share in their lives, and would continue to +have it. + +"Bears up? I should say he did. He looks as if he could assist in +steadying the world upon the shoulders of old Atlas," answered Judge +Gray happily. "It's a trying position for any man, and some of them only +just escape looking craven." + +"The man who could stand beside that young woman and look craven would +deserve to be hamstrung," was the other's verdict. "Cal, she's enough to +turn an old man's head; we can't wonder that a young one's is swimming. +And the best of it is that it isn't all looks, it's real beauty to the +core. She's rich in the qualities that stand wear in a wearing +world--and her goodness isn't the sort that will ever pall on her +husband. She'll keep him guessing to the end of time, but the answer +will always give him fresh delight in her." + +"You analyze her well," admitted Roberta's uncle. "But that's to be +expected of a man who's been a pastmaster all his life in understanding +and dealing with human nature." + +"When it was not too near me, Cal. When it came to the dearest thing +I had in the world, I made a mistake with it. It was only when the boy +came under this roof that he received the stimulus that has made him +what he is. That was sure to tell in the end." + +"Ah, but he had your blood in him," declared Calvin Gray heartily. + +Thus, all about them, in many quarters, were the young pair +affectionately discussed. Not the least eloquent in their praise were +the youngest members of the company. + +"I say, but I'm proud of my new brother," declared Ted Gray, the picture +of youthful elegance, with every hair in place, and a white rose on the +lapel of his short evening-jacket. He was playing escort to the +prettiest of his girl cousins. "Isn't he a stunner to-night?" + +"He always was--that is, since I've known him," responded Esther, Uncle +Philip's daughter. "I can't help laughing when I think of the Christmas +party last year, and how Rob made us all think he was a poor young man, +and she didn't like him at all. All of us girls thought she was so queer +not to want to dance with him, when he was so handsome and danced so +beautifully. I suppose she was just pretending she didn't care for him." + +"Nobody ever'll know when Rob did change her mind about him," Ted +assured her. "She can make you think black's green when she wants to." + +"Isn't she perfectly wonderful to-night?" sighed the pretty cousin, with +a glance from her own home-made frock--in which, however, she looked +like a freshly picked rose--to Roberta's bridal gown, shimmering through +mistiness, simplicity itself, yet, as the little cousin well knew, the +product of such art as she herself might never hope to command. "I +always thought she was perfectly beautiful, but she's absolutely +fascinating to-night." + +"Tell that to Rich. I'm afraid he doesn't appreciate her," laughed Ted, +indicating his new brother-in-law, who, at the moment being temporarily +unemployed, was to be observed following his bride with his eyes with a +wistful gaze indicating helplessness without her even for a fraction of +time. + +Roberta had been drawn a little away by her husband's best man, who had +something to tell her which he had reserved for this hour. + +"Mrs. Kendrick," he was beginning--at which he was bidden to remember +that he had known the girl Roberta for many years; and so began again, +smiling with gratitude: + +"Roberta, have you any idea what is happening in Eastman to-night?" + +"Indeed I haven't, Hugh. Anything I ought to know of?" + +"I think it's time you did. Every employee in our store is sitting down +to a great dinner, served by a caterer from this city, with a Christmas +favour at every plate. The place cards have a K and G on them in +monogram. There are such flowers for decorations as most of those people +never saw. I don't need to tell you whose doing this is." + +He had the reward he had anticipated for the telling of this +news--Roberta's cheek coloured richly, and her eyes fell for a moment +to hide the surprise and happiness in them. + +"That may seem like enough," he went on gently, "but it wasn't enough +for him. At every children's hospital in this city, and in every +children's ward, there is a Christmas tree to-night, loaded with gifts. +And I want you to know that, busy as he has been until to-day, he picked +out every gift himself, and wrote the name on the card with his own +hand." + +It was too much to tell her all at once, and he knew it when he saw her +eyes fill, though she smiled through the shining tears as she murmured: + +"And he didn't tell me!" + +"No, nor meant to. When I remonstrated with him he said you might think +it a posing to impress you, whereas it simply meant the overflow of his +own happiness. He said if he didn't have some such outlet he should +burst with the pressure of it!" + +Her moved laughter provided some sort of outlet for her own pressure of +feeling about these tidings. When she had recovered control of herself +she turned to glance toward her husband, and Hugh's heart stirred within +him at the starry radiance of that look, which she could not veil +successfully from him, who knew the cause of it. + +It was the Alfred Carsons who came to her last; the young manager +beaming with pleasure in the honour done him by his invitation to this +family wedding, to which the great of the city were mostly intentionally +unbidden; his pretty young wife, in effective modishness of attire by no +means ill-chosen, glowing with pride and rosy with the effort to +comport herself in keeping with the standards of these "democratically +aristocratic" people, as her husband had shrewdly characterized them. As +they stood talking with the bride, two of Richard's friends standing +near by, former close associates in the life of the clubs he was now too +busy to pursue, exchanged a brief colloquy which would mightily have +interested the subject of it if he could have heard it. + +"Who are these?" demanded one of the other, gazing elsewhere as he +spoke. + +"Partner or manager or something, in that business of Rich's up in +Eastman. So Belden Lorimer says." + +"Bright looking chap--might be anybody, except for the wife. A bit too +conscious, she." + +"You might not notice that except in contrast with the new Mrs. +Kendrick. There's the real thing, yes? Rich knew what he was doing when +he picked her out." + +"Undoubtedly he did. The whole family's pretty fine--not the usual sort. +Watch Mrs. Clifford Cartwright. Even she's impressed. Odd, eh?--with all +the country cousins about, too." + +"I know. It's in the air. And of course everybody knows the family blood +is of the bluest. Unostentatious but sure of itself. The Cartwrights +couldn't get that air, not in a thousand years." + +"Rich himself has it, though--and the grandfather." + +"True enough. I'm wondering which class we belong in!" + +The two laughed and moved closer. Neither could afford to miss a chance +of observing their old friend under these new conditions, for he had +been a subject of their speculations ever since the change in him had +begun. And though they had deplored the loss of him from their favourite +haunts, they had been some time since forced to admit that he had never +been so well worth knowing as now that he was virtually lost to them. + +"Oh, Robby, darling--I can never, never let you go!" + +So softly wailed Ruth, her slim young form clinging to her sister's, +regardless of her bridesmaid's crushed finery, daintily cherished till +this moment. Over her head Roberta's eyes looked into her mother's. +There were no tears in the fine eyes which met hers, but somehow Roberta +knew that Ruth's heartache was a tiny pain beside that other's. + +Richard, looking on, standing ready to take his bride away, wondered +once more within himself how he could have the heart to do it. But it +was done, and he and Roberta were off together down the steps; and he +was putting her into Mr. Kendrick's closed car; and she was leaning past +him to wave and wave again at the dear faces on the porch. Under the +lights here and there one stood out more clearly than the rest--Louis's, +flushed and virile; Rosamond's, lovely as a child's; old Mr. Kendrick's, +intent and grave, forgetting to smile. The father and the mother were in +the shadow--but little Gordon, Stephen's boy, made of himself a central +figure by running forward at the last to fling up a sturdy arm and cry: + +"Good-bye, Auntie Wob--come back soon!" + +It had been a white Christmas, and the snow had fallen lightly all day +long. It was coming faster now, and the wind was rising, to Richard's +intense satisfaction. He had been fairly praying for a gale, improbable +though that seemed. There was a considerable semblance of a storm, +however, through which to drive the twelve miles to the waiting cabin on +the hilltop, and when the car stopped and the door was opened, a heavy +gust came swirling in. The absence of lights everywhere made the +darkness seem blacker, out here in the country, and the general effect +of outer desolation was as near this strange young man's desire as could +have been hoped. + +"Good driving, Rogers. It was a quick trip, in spite of the heavy roads +at the last. Thank you--and good-night." + +"Thank you, sir. Good-night, Mr. Kendrick--and Mrs. Kendrick, if I may." + +"Good-night, Rogers," called the voice Rogers had learned greatly to +admire, and he saw her face smiling at him as the lights of the car +streamed out upon it. + +Then the great car was gone, and Richard was throwing open the door of +the cabin, letting all the warmth and glow and fragrance of the snug +interior greet his bride, as he led her in and shut the door with a +resounding force against the winter night and storm. + +It had been a dream of his that he should put her into one of the big, +cushioned, winged chairs, and take his own place on the hearth-rug at +her feet. Together they should sit and look into the fire, and be as +silent or as full of happy speech as might seem to befit the hour. Now, +when he had bereft her of her furry wraps and welcomed her as he saw +fit, he made his dream come true. He told her of it as he put her in her +chair, and saw her lean back against the comfortable cushioning with a +long breath of inevitable weariness after many hours of tension. + +"And you wondered which it would be, speech or silence?" queried +Roberta, as he took that place he had meant to take, at her knee, and +looked up, smiling, into her down-bent face. + +"I did wonder, but I don't wonder now. I know. There aren't any words, +are there?" + +"No," she answered, looking now into the fire, yet seeing, as clearly as +before, his fine and ardent, yet reverent face, "I think there are no +words." + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14491 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40c6b71 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14491 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14491) diff --git a/old/14491-0.txt b/old/14491-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..284d3e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14491-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9976 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14491 *** + + + + +THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE + +Midsummer's Day + +by + +GRACE S RICHMOND + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. The Curtain Rises on a Home + + II. Richard Changes His Plans + + III. While It Rains + + IV. Pictures + + V. Richard Pricks His Fingers + + VI. Unsustained Application + + VII. A Traitorous Proceeding + + VIII. Roses Red + + IX. Mr. Kendrick Entertains + + X. Opinions and Theories + + XI. "The Taming of the Shrew" + + XII. Blankets + + XIII. Lavender Linen + + XIV. Rapid Fire + + XV. Making Men + + XVI. Encounters + + XVII. Intrigue + + XVIII. The Nailing of a Flag + + XIX. In the Morning + + XX. Side Lights + + XXI. Portraits + + XXII. Roberta Wakes Early + + XXIII. Richard Has Waked Earlier + + XXIV. The Pillars of Home + + XXV. A Stout Little Cabin + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE CURTAIN RISES ON A HOME + + +None of it might ever have happened, if Richard Kendrick had gone into +the house of Mr. Robert Gray, on that first night, by the front door. +For, if he had made his first entrance by that front door, if he had +been admitted by the maidservant in proper fashion and conducted into +Judge Calvin Gray's presence in the library, if he had delivered his +message, from old Matthew Kendrick, his grandfather, and had come away +again, ushered out of that same front door, the chances are that he +never would have gone again. In which case there would have been no +story to tell. + +It all came about--or so it seems--from its being a very rainy night in +late October, and from young Kendrick's wearing an all-concealing +motoring rain-coat and cap. He had been for a long drive into the +country, and had just returned, mud-splashed, when his grandfather, +having taken it into his head that a message must be delivered at once, +requested his grandson to act as his messenger. + +So the young man had impatiently bolted out with the message, had sent +his car rushing through the city streets, and had become a still muddier +and wetter figure than before when he stood upon the porch of the old +Gray homestead, well out in the edge of the city, and put thumb to the +bell. + +His hand was stayed by the shrill call of a small boy who dashed up on +the porch out of the dusk. "You can't get in that way," young Ted Gray +cried. "Something's happened to the lock--they've sent for a man to fix +it. Come round to the back with me--I'll show you." + +So this was why Richard Kendrick came to be conducted by way of the +tall-pillared rear porch into the house through the rear door of the +wide, central hall. There was no light at this end of the hall, and the +old-fashioned, high-backed settee which stood there was in shadow. + +With a glance at the caller's muddy condition the young son of the house +decided it the part of prudence to assign him this waiting-place, while +he himself should go in search of his uncle. The lad had seen the big +motor-car at the gate; quite naturally he took its driver for a +chauffeur. + +Ted looked in at the library door; his uncle was not there. He raced off +upstairs, not noting the change which had already taken place in the +visitor's appearance with the removal of the muddy coat and cap. + +Richard Kendrick now looked a particularly personable young man, well +built, well dressed, of the brown-haired, gray-eyed, clear-skinned type. +The eyes were very fine; the nose and mouth had the lines of +distinction; the chin was--positive. Altogether the young man did not +look the part he had that day been playing--that of the rich young idler +who drives a hundred and fifty miles in a powerful car, over the worst +kind of roads, merely for the sake of diversion and a good luncheon. + +While he waited Richard considered the hall, at one end of which he sat +in the shadow. There was something very homelike about this hall. The +quaint landscape paper on the walls, the perceptibly worn and faded +crimson Turkey carpeting on the floors, the wide, spindle-balustrade +staircase with the old clock on its landing; more than all, perhaps, on +an October night like this, the warm glow from a lamp with crystal +pendants which stood on the table of polished mahogany near the front +door--all these things combined to give the place a quite distinctive +look of home. + +There were one or two other touches in the picture worth mentioning, the +touches which spoke of human life. An old-fashioned hat-tree just +opposite the rear door was hung full with hats. A heavy ulster lay over +a chair close by, and two umbrellas stood in the corner. And over +hat-rack, hats, ulster, and chair, with one end of silken fringe caught +upon one of the umbrella ribs, had been flung by some careless hand, +presumably feminine, a long silken scarf of the most intense +rose-colour, a hue so vivid, as the light caught it from the landing +above, that it seemed almost to be alive. + +From various parts of the house came sounds--of voices and of footsteps, +more than once of distant laughter. Far above somewhere a child's high +call rang out. Nearer at hand some one touched the keys of a piano, +playing snatches of Schumann--_Der Nussbaum, Mondnacht, Die Lotosblume_. +Richard recognized the airs which thus reached his ears, and was sorry +when they ceased. + +Now there might be nothing in all this worth describing if the effect +upon the observer had not been one to him so unaccustomed. Though he had +lived to the age of twenty-eight years, he had never set foot in a place +which seemed so curiously like a vague dream he had somewhere at the +back of his head. For the last two years he had lived with his +grandfather in the great pile of stone which they called home. If this +were no real home, the young man had never had one. He had spent periods +of his life in various sorts of dwelling-places; in private rooms at +schools and college--always the finest of their kind--in clubs, on +ships, in railway trains; but no time at all in any place remotely +resembling the house in which he now waited, a stranger in every sense +of the word, more strange to the everyday, fine type of home known to +the American of good birth and breeding than may seem credible as it is +set down. + +"Hold on there!" suddenly shouted a determined male voice from somewhere +above Richard. A door banged, there was a rush of light-running feet +along the upper hall, closely followed by the tread of heavier ones. A +burst of the gayest laughter was succeeded by certain deep grunts, +punctuated by little noises as of panting breath and half-stifled +merriment. It was easy to determine that a playful scuffle of some sort +was going on overhead, which seemed to end only after considerable +inarticulate but easily translatable protest on the part of the weaker +person involved. + +Then came an instant's silence, a man's ringing laugh of triumph; next, +in a girl's voice, a little breathless but of a quality to make the +listener prick up ears already alert, these most unexpected words: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +"Is it, indeed, Miss Arrogance?" mocked the deeper voice. "Well, if you +had given it back at once, as all laws of justice, not to mention +propriety, demanded, I should not have had to force it away from you. +Oh, I say, did I really hurt that wrist, or are you shamming?" + +"Shamming! You big boys have no idea how brutally violent you are when +you want some little thing you ought not to have. It aches like +anything," retorted the other voice, its very complaints uttered in such +melodious tones of contralto music that the listener found himself +wishing with all his might to know if the face of its owner could by any +possibility match the loveliness of her voice. Dark, he fancied she must +be, and young, and strong--of education, of a gay wit, yet of a +temper--all this the listener thought he could read in the voice. + +"Poor little wilful girl! Did she get hurt, then, trying to have her own +way? Come in here, jade, and I'll fix it up for you," the deeper tones +declared. + +Footsteps again; a door closed. Silence succeeded for a minute; then the +Schumann music began again, a violin accompanying. And suddenly, +directly opposite the settee, a door swung slowly open, the hand upon +the knob invisible. A picture was presented to the stranger's eyes as if +somebody had meant to show it to him. He could but look. Anybody, seeing +the picture, would have looked and found it hard to turn his eyes away. + +For it was the heart of the house, right here, so close at hand that +even a stranger could catch a glimpse of it by chance. A great, +wide-throated fireplace held a splendid fire of burning logs, the light +from it illumining the whole room, otherwise dark in the October +twilight. Before it on the hearth-rug were silhouetted, in distinct +lines against its rich background, two figures. One was that of a woman +in warm middle life, sitting in a big chair, her face full of both +brightness and peace; at her feet knelt a young girl, her arm upon her +mother's knees, her face uplifted. The two faces were smiling into each +other. + +Somebody--it looked to be a tall young man against the fire-glow--came +and abruptly closed the door from within, and the picture was gone. The +fitful music ceased again; the house was quiet. + +Thereupon Richard Kendrick grew impatient. Fully ten minutes must have +elapsed since his youthful conductor had disappeared. He looked about +him for some means of summoning attention, but discovered none. + +Suddenly a latchkey rattled uselessly in the lock of the front door; +then came lusty knocks upon its stout panels, accompanied by the +whirring of a bell somewhere in the distance. + +A maidservant came hurriedly into the hall through a door near Richard, +and at the same moment a boy of ten or eleven came tearing down the +front stairs. As the lad shouted through the door, Richard recognized +his late conductor. + +"You can't get in, Daddy; the lock's gone queer. Come around to the +back. I'll see to him, Mary," the boy called to the maid, who, nodding, +disappeared. + +At this moment the door opposite Richard opened again, and the mother of +the household came out, her comely waist closely clasped by the arm of +the young girl. The two were followed by the tall young man. + +Richard stood up, and was, of course, instantly upon the road to the +delivery of his message. + +Ted, ushering in his father, and spying the waiting messenger, cried +repentantly, "Oh, I forgot!" and the tall young man responded gravely, +"You usually do, don't you, Cub?" This elder son of the house, waving +the small boy aside, attended to taking Richard to the library, and to +summoning Judge Calvin Gray. + +In five minutes the business had been dispatched, Judge Gray had made +friendly inquiry into the condition of his old friend's health, and +Richard was ready to take his departure. Curiously enough he did not now +want to go. As he stood for a moment near the open library door, while +Judge Gray returned to his desk for a newspaper clipping, the caller was +listening to the eager greetings taking place in the hall just out of +his sight. The father of the family appeared to have returned from an +absence of some length, and the entire household had come rushing to +meet and welcome him. Richard listened for the contralto notes he had +heard above, and presently detected them declaring with vivid emphasis: +"Mother has been a dear, splendid martyr. Nobody would have guessed she +was lonely, but--we knew!" + +"She couldn't possibly have been more lonely than I. Next time I'll take +her with me!" was the emphatic response. + +Then the whole group swept by the library door, down the hall, and into +the room of the great fireplace. Nobody looked his way, and Richard +Kendrick had one swift view of them all. Vigorous young men, graceful +young women, a child or two, the mother of them all on the arm of her +husband--there were plenty to choose from, but he could not find the one +he looked for. Then, quite by itself, another figure flashed past him. +He had a glimpse of a dusky mass of hair, of a piquant profile, of a +round arm bared to the elbow. As the figure passed the hat-tree he saw +the arm reach out and catch the rose-coloured scarf, flinging it over +one shoulder. Then the whole vision had vanished, and he stood alone in +the library doorway, with Judge Gray saying behind him: "I cannot find +the clipping. I will mail it to your grandfather when I come upon it." + +"I knew that scarf was hers," Richard was thinking as he went out into +the night by way of the rear door, Judge Gray having accompanied him to +the threshold and given him a cordial hand of farewell. What a voice! +She could make a fortune with it on the stage, if she couldn't sing a +note. The stage! What had the stage to do with people who lived together +in a place like that? + +He looked curiously back at the house as he went down the box-bordered +path which led, curving, from it to the street. It was obviously one of +the old-time mansions of the big city, preserved in the midst of its +grounds in a neighbourhood now rampant with new growth. It was outside, +on this chill October night, as hospitable in appearance as it was +inside; there was hardly a window which did not glow with a mellow +light. As Richard drove down the street, he was recalling vividly the +picture of the friendly-looking hall with its faded Turkey carpet worn +with the tread of many rushing feet, its atmosphere of welcoming +warmth--and the rose-hued scarf flung over the dull masculine belongings +as if typifying the fashion in which the women of the household cast +their bright influence over the men. + +It suddenly occurred to Richard Kendrick that if he had lived in such a +home even until he went away to school, if he had come back to such a +home from college and from the wanderings over the face of the earth +with which he had filled in his idle days since college was over, he +should be perhaps a better, surely a different, man than he was now. + + * * * * * + +Louis Gray, coming into the hall precisely as Richard Kendrick, again +enveloped in his muddy motoring coat, was releasing Judge Gray's hand +and disappearing into the night, looked curiously after the departing +figure. His sister Roberta, following him into the hall a moment after, +rose-coloured scarf still drifting across white-clad shoulder, was in +time to receive his comment: + +"Seems rather odd to see that chap departing humbly by any door but the +front one." + +"You knew him, then. Who was he?" inquired his sister. + +"Didn't you? He's a familiar figure enough about town. Why, he's Rich +Kendrick. Grandson of Matthew Kendrick, of Kendrick & Company, you know. +Only Rich doesn't take much interest in the business. You'll find his +doings carefully noticed in certain columns in certain society +journals." + +"I don't read them, thank you. Do you?" + +"Don't need to. Kendrick's a familiar figure wherever the gay and +youthful rich disport themselves--when he's in the country at all. He's +doing his best to get away with the money his father left him. +Fortunately the bulk of the family fortune is still in the hands of his +grandfather, who seems an uncommonly healthy and vigorous old man." +Louis laughed. "Can't think what Rich Kendrick can be doing here with +Uncle Cal. I believe, though, he and old Matthew Kendrick are good +friends. Probably grandson Richard came on an errand. It certainly +behooves him to do grandfather's errands with as good a grace as he can +muster." + +"He was sitting in the hall quite a while before Uncle Cal saw him," +volunteered Ted, who had tagged at Roberta's heels, and was listening +with interest. + +"Sitting in the hall, eh--like any district messenger?" Louis was +clearly delighted with this news. "How did it happen, Cub? Mary take him +for an everyday, common person?" + +"I let him in. I thought he was a chauffeur," admitted Ted. "He was +awfully wet and muddy. Steve took him in to Uncle Cal." + +An explosion of laughter from his interested elder brother interrupted +him. "I wish I'd come along and seen him. So he had the bad manners to +sit in our hall in a wet and muddy motoring coat, and go in to see Uncle +Cal--" + +"The young man had on no muddy coat when Stephen brought him in to see +me," declared Judge Calvin Gray, coming out and catching the last +sentence. "He put it on in the hall before going out. What are you +saying? That was the grandson of my good friend, Matthew Kendrick, and +so had claim upon my good will from the start, though I haven't laid +eyes upon the boy since his schooldays. He was rather a restless and +obstreperous youngster then, I'll admit. What he is now seems pleasing +enough to the eye, certainly, though of course that may not be +sufficient. A fine, mannerly young fellow he appeared to me, and I was +glad to see that he seemed willing enough to run upon his grandfather's +errands, though they took him out upon a raw night like this." + +But Louis Gray, though he did not pursue the subject further, was still +smiling to himself as he obeyed a summons to dinner. + +At opposite ends of the long table sat Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray. The +head of the house looked his part: fine of face, crisp of speech, +authoritative yet kindly of manner. His wife may be described best by +saying that one had but to look upon her to know that here sat the Queen +of the little realm, the one whose gentle rule covered them all as with +the brooding wing of wise motherhood. Down the sides of the board sat +the three sons: Stephen, tall and slender, grave-faced, quiet but +observant; Louis, of a somewhat lesser height but broad of shoulder and +deep of chest, his bright face alert, every motion suggesting vigour of +body and mind; Ted--Edgar--the youngest, a slim, long-limbed lad with +eyes eager as a collie's for all that might concern him--this was the +tale of the sons of the house. There were the two daughters: Roberta, +she of the rose-coloured scarf--it was still about her shoulders, +seeming to draw all the light in the room to its vivid hue, reflecting +itself in her cheeks--Roberta, the elder daughter, dusky of hair, +adorable of face, her round white throat that of a strong and healthy +girl, her laugh a song to listen to; the other daughter, Ruth, a +fair-haired, sober-eyed creature of growing sixteen, as different as if +of other blood. One would not have said the two were sisters. There was +one more girl at the table; no, not a girl, yet she looked younger than +Roberta--a little person with a wild-rose, charming face, and the +sweetest smile of them all--Rosamond, Stephen's wife, quite incredibly +mother of two children of nursery age, at this moment already properly +asleep upstairs. + +Last but far from least, loved and honoured of them all above the lot of +average man to command such tribute, was the elder brother of the master +of the house, his handsome white head and genial face drawing toward him +all eyes whenever he might choose to speak--Judge Calvin Gray. All in +all they were a goodly family, just such a family as is to be found +beneath many a fortunate roof; yet a family with an individuality all +its own and a richness of life such as is less common than it ought to +be. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RICHARD CHANGES HIS PLANS + + +The next time Richard Kendrick went to the Gray home was a fortnight +later, when old Matthew Kendrick was sending some material for which +Judge Gray had written to ask him--books and pamphlets, and a set of +maps. This time he would have sent a servant, but his grandson Richard +heard him giving directions and came into the affair with a careless +suggestion that he was driving that way and might as well take the stuff +if Mr. Kendrick wished it. The old man glanced curiously at him across +the table where the two sat at luncheon. + +"Glad to have you, of course," he commented, "but you made so many +objections when I asked you before I thought I wouldn't interfere with +your time again. Did you meet any of the family when you went?" + +"Only Judge Gray and two of his nephews," responded Richard, truthfully +enough. + +So he went with the big package. This time, it being a fine, sunny, +summerlike day almost as warm as September, he went clad in careful +dress with only a light motoring coat on over all to preserve the +integrity of his attire. He left this in the car when he leaped out of +it, and appeared upon the doorstep looking not at all like his own +chauffeur, but quite his comely self. + +The door-lock was in full working order now, and he was admitted by the +same little maid whom he remembered seeing before. Upon his inquiry for +Judge Gray he was told that that gentleman was receiving another caller +and had asked to be undisturbed for a short time, but if he could wait-- + +Now there was no reason in the world for his waiting, since the package +of books, pamphlets, and maps was under his arm and he had only to +bestow it upon the maid and give her the accompanying directions. But, +at this precise moment, Richard caught sight of a figure running down +the staircase; concluded in one glance, as he had concluded in one +glance before, that if a personality could be expressed by a speaking +voice, a laugh, and a rose-hued scarf, this must be the one they +expressed; and decided in the twinkling of an eye to wait. The maid +conducted him toward the room on the right of the hall and he followed +her, passing as he did so the person who had reached the foot of the +stairs and who went by him in such haste that he had only time to give +her one short but--it must be described as--concentrated look straight +in the eyes. She in turn bestowed upon him the one glance necessary to +inform her whether she knew him and so must stay long enough in her +rapid progress to greet him. Their eyes therefore met at rather close +range, lingered for the space of two running seconds, and parted. + +Richard Kendrick accepted the chair offered him and sat upon it for the +space of some eighteen-odd minutes; they might have been hours or +seconds, he could not have told which. He could hardly have described +the room to which he had been shown, unless to say that it was a square, +old-fashioned reception room, a little formal, decidedly quaint, and +dignified, and clearly not used by the family as other rooms were used. +Certainly the piano, from which he had heard the Schumann music on his +former visit, was not here, and certainly there were no rose-hued scarfs +flung carelessly about. It was undoubtedly a place kept for the use of +strange callers like himself, and had small part in the life of the +household. + +At length he was summoned to Judge Gray's library. He was met with the +same pleasant courtesy as before, delivered his parcel, and lingered as +long as might be, listening politely to his host's remarks, and looking, +looking--for a chance to make a reason to come again. Quite unexpectedly +it was offered him by the Judge himself. + +"I wonder if you could recommend to me," said Judge Gray as Richard was +about to take his leave, "a capable young man--college-bred, of +course--to come here daily or weekly as I might need him, to assist me +in the work of preparing my book. My eyes, as you see, will not allow me +to use them for much more than the reading of a paragraph, and while my +family are very ready to help whenever they have the time, mine is so +serious a task, likely to continue for so long a period, that I shall +need continuous and prolonged assistance. Do you happen to know--?" + +Well, it can hardly be explained. This was a rich man's heir and the +grandson of millions more, in need--according to his own point of +view--of no further education along the lines of work, and he had a +voyage to the Far East in prospect. Certainly, a fortnight earlier the +thing furthest from his thoughts would have been the engaging of himself +as amanuensis and general literary assistant to an ex-judge upon so +prosaic a task as the history of the Supreme Court of the State. To say +that a rose-hued scarf, a laugh, and an alluring speaking voice explain +it seems absurd, even when you add to these that which the young man saw +during that moment of time when he looked into the face of their owner. +Rather would I declare that it was the subtle atmosphere of that which +in all his travels he had never really seen before--a home. At all +events a new force of some sort had taken hold upon him, and was leading +him whither he had never thought to go. + +If Judge Gray was surprised that the grandson of his old friend Matthew +Kendrick should thus offer himself for the obscure and comparatively +unremunerative post of secretary, he gave no evidence of it. Possibly it +did not seem strange to him that this young man should show interest in +the work the Judge himself had laid out with an absorbing enthusiasm. +Therefore a trial arrangement was soon made, and Richard Kendrick agreed +to present himself in Judge Gray's library on the following morning at +ten o'clock. The only stipulation he made was that if, for any reason, +he should decide suddenly to go upon a journey he had had some time in +contemplation, he should be allowed to provide a substitute. He had not +yet so completely surrendered to his impulse that he was not careful to +leave himself a loophole of escape. + +The young man laughed to himself all the way down the avenue. What would +his grandfather say? What would his friends say? His friends should not +know--confound them!--it was none of their business. He would have his +evenings; he would appear at his clubs as usual. If comments were made +upon his absence at other hours he would quietly inform the observing +ones that he had gone to work, but would refuse to say where. It +certainly was a joke, his going to work; not that his grandfather had +not often and strenuously recommended it, saying that the boy would +never know happiness until he shook hands with labour; not that he +himself had not fully intended some day to go into the training +necessary to the assuming of the cares incident to the handling of a +great fortune. But thus far--well, he had never been ready to begin. One +journey more, one more long voyage-- + +Her eyes--had they been blue or black? Blue, he was quite sure, although +the masses of her hair had been like night for dusky splendour, and her +cheeks of that rich bloom which denotes young vigour and radiant health. +He could hear her voice now, quoting a serious poet to fit a madcap +mood--and quoting him in such a voice! What were the words? He +remembered her mockingly exaggerated inflection: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +Well, from his flash-fire observation of her he should say that a man +might need a giant's strength to overcome her, if she chose to oppose +him, in any situation whatever. What a glorious task--to overcome +her--to teach that lovely, teasing voice gentler words-- + +He laughed again. Since he had left college he had not been so +interested in what was coming next--not even on the day he met Amelie +Penstoff in St. Petersburg--nor on the day, in Japan, when his friend +Rogers made an appointment with him to meet that little slant-eyed girl, +half Japanese, half French, and whole minx--the beauty!--he could not +even recall her name at this moment--with whom he had had an absorbing +experience he should be quite unwilling to repeat. And now, here was a +girl--a very different sort of girl--who interested him more than any of +them. He wondered what was her name. Whatever it was, he would know it +soon--call her by it--soon. + +He went home. He did not tell his grandfather that night. There was not +much use in putting it off, but--somehow--he preferred to wait till +morning. Business sounds more like business--in the morning. + + * * * * * + +The first result of his telling his grandfather in the morning was a +note from old Matthew Kendrick to old Judge Gray. The note, which almost +chuckled aloud, was as follows: + +MY DEAR CALVIN GRAY: Work him--work the rascal hard! He's a lazy chap +with a way with him which plays the deuce with my foolish old heart. I +could make my own son work, and did; but this son of his--that seems to +be another matter. Yet I know well enough the dangers of idleness--know +them so well that I'm tickled to death at the mere thought of his +putting in his time at any useful task. He did well enough in college; +there are brains there unquestionably. I didn't object seriously to his +travelling--for a time--after his graduation; but that sort of life has +gone on long enough, and when I talk to him of settling down at some +steady job it's always "after one more voyage." I don't yet understand +what has given him the impulse--whim--caprice--I don't venture to give +it any stronger name--to accept this literary task from you. He vows +he's not met the women of your household, or I should think that might +explain it. I hope he will meet them--all of them; they'll be good for +him--and so will you, Cal. Do your best by the boy for my sake, and +believe me, now as always, + +Gratefully your old friend, + +MATTHEW. + +"Eleanor, have you five minutes to spare for me?" Judge Gray, his old +friend's note in hand, hailed his brother's wife as she passed the open +door of his library. She came in at once, and, though she was in the +midst of household affairs, sat down with that delightful air of having +all the time in the world to spare for one who needed her, which was one +of her endearing characteristics. + +When she had heard the note she nodded her head thoughtfully. "I think +the grandfather may well congratulate himself that the grandson has +fallen into your hands, Calvin," said she. "The work you give him may +not be to him the interesting task it would be to some men, but it will +undoubtedly do him good to be harnessed to any labour which means a bit +of drudgery. By all means do as Mr. Kendrick bids you--'work him hard.'" +She smiled. "I wonder what the boy would think of Louis's work." + +"He would take to his heels, probably, if it were offered him. It's +plain that Matthew's pleased enough at having him tackle a gentleman's +task like this, and hopes to make it a stepping-stone to something more +muscular. I shall do my best by Richard, as he asks. You note that he +wants the young man to meet us all. Are you willing to invite him to +dinner some time--perhaps next week--as a special favour to me?" + +"Certainly, Calvin, if you consider young Mr. Kendrick in every way fit +to know our young people." + +Her fine eyes met his penetratingly, and he smiled in his turn. "That's +like you, Eleanor," said he, "to think first of the boy's character and +last of his wealth." + +"A fig for his wealth!" she retorted with spirit. "I have two +daughters." + +"I have made inquiries," said he with dignity, "of Louis, who knows +young Kendrick as one young man knows another, which is to the full. He +considers him to be more or less of an idler, and as much of a +spendthrift as a fellow in possession of a large income is likely to be +in spite of the cautions of a prudent grandfather. He has a passion for +travel and is correspondingly restless at home. But Louis thinks him to +be a young man of sufficiently worthy tastes and standards to have +escaped the worst contaminations, and he says he has never heard +anything to his discredit. That is considerable to say of a young man in +his position, Eleanor, and I hope it may constitute enough of a passport +to your favour to permit of your at least inviting him to dinner. +Besides--let me remind you--your daughters have standards of their own +which you have given them. Ruth is a girl yet, of course, but a mighty +discerning one for sixteen. As for Roberta, I'll wager no young +millionaire is any more likely to get past her defences than any young +mechanic--unless he proves himself fit." + +"I am confident of that," she agreed, and with her charming gray head +held high went on about her household affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHILE IT RAINS + + +The advanced age of the Honourable Calvin Gray, and the precarious state +of his eyesight, made it possible for him to work at his beloved +self-appointed task for only a scant number of hours daily. His new +assistant, therefore, found his own working hours not only limited but +variable. Beginning at ten in the morning, by four in the afternoon +Judge Gray was usually too weary to proceed farther; sometimes by the +luncheon hour he was ready to lay aside his papers and dismiss his +assistant. On other days he would waken with a severe headache, the +result of the overstrain he was constantly tempted to give his eyes, in +spite of all the aid that was offered him. On such days Richard could +not always find enough to do to occupy his time, and would be obliged to +leave the house so early that many hours were on his hands. When this +happened, he would take the opportunity to drop in at one or two of his +clubs, and so convey the impression that only caprice kept him away on +other days. Curiously enough, this still seemed to him an object; he +might have found it difficult to explain just why, for he assuredly was +not ashamed of his new occupation. + +Rather unexplainably to Richard, nearly the first fortnight of his new +experience went by without his meeting any members of the family except +the heads thereof and the younger son, Edgar, familiarly called by every +one "Ted." With this youthful scion of the house he was destined to form +the first real acquaintance. It came about upon a particularly rainy +November day. Richard had found Judge Gray suffering from one of his +frequent headaches, as a result of the overwork he had not been able +wholly to avoid. Therefore a long day's work of research in various +ancient volumes had been turned over to his assistant by an employer who +left him to return to a seclusion he should not have forsaken. + +Richard was accustomed to run down to an excellent hotel for his +luncheon, and was preparing to leave the house for this purpose when Ted +leaped at him from the stairs, tumbling down them in great haste. + +"Mr. Kendrick, won't you stay and have lunch with me? It's pouring +'great horn spoons' and I'm all alone." + +"Alone, Ted? Nobody here at all?" + +"Not a soul. Uncle Cal's going to have his upstairs and he says I may +ask you. Please stay. I don't go to school in the afternoon and maybe I +can help you, if you'll show me how." + +Richard smiled at the notion, but accepted the eager invitation, +and presently found himself sitting alone with the lad at a big, +old-fashioned mahogany table, being served with a particularly tempting +meal. + +"You see," Ted explained, spooning out grapefruit with an energetic +hand, "father and mother and Steve and Rosy have gone to the country to +a funeral--a cousin of ours. Louis and Rob aren't home till night except +Saturdays and Sundays, and Ruth is at school till Friday nights. It +makes it sort of lonesome for me. Wednesdays, though, every other week, +Rob's home all day. When she's here I don't mind who else is away." + +"I was just going to ask if you had three brothers," observed Richard. +"Do I understand 'Rob' is a girl?" + +"Sure, Rob's a girl all right, and I'm mighty glad of it. I wouldn't be +a girl myself, not much; but I wouldn't have Rob anything else--I should +say not. Name's Roberta, you know, after father. She's a peach of a +sister, I tell you. Ruth's all right, too, of course, but she's +different. She's a girl all through. But Rob's half boy, or--I should +say there's just enough boy about her to make her exactly right, if you +know what I mean." + +He looked inquiringly at Richard, who nodded gravely. "I think I get +something of your idea," he agreed. "It makes a fine combination, does +it?" + +"I should say it did. You know a girl that's all girl is too much girl. +But one that likes some of the things boys like--well, it helps out a +lot. Through with the grapefruit, Mary," he added, over his shoulder, to +the maid. "Have you any brothers or sisters, Mr. Kendrick?" he inquired +interestedly, when he had assured himself that the clam broth with which +he was now served was unquestionably good to eat. + +"Not one--living. I had a brother, but he died when I was a little +chap." + +"That was too bad," said Ted with ready sympathy. He looked straight +across the table at Richard out of sea-blue eyes shaded by very heavy +black lashes, which, it struck Richard quite suddenly, were much like +another pair which he had had one very limited opportunity of observing. +The boy also possessed a heavy thatch of coal-black hair, a lock of +which was continually falling over his forehead and having to be thrust +back. "Because father says," Ted went, on, "it's a whole lot better for +children to be brought up together, so they will learn to be polite to +each other. I'm the youngest, so I'm most like an only child. But, you +see," he added hurriedly, "the older ones weren't allowed to give up to +me, and I had to be polite to them, so perhaps"--he looked so in earnest +about it that Richard could not possibly laugh at him--"I won't turn out +as badly as some youngest ones do." + +There was really nothing priggish about this statement, however it may +sound. And the next minute the boy had turned to a subject less +suggestive of parental counsels. He launched into an account of his +elder brother Louis's prowess on the football fields of past years, +where, it seemed, that young man had been a remarkable right tackle. He +gave rather a vivid account of a game he had witnessed last year, +talking, as Richard recognized, less because he was eager to talk than +from a sense of responsibility as to the entertainment of his guest. + +"But he won't play any more," he added mournfully. "He took his degree +last year and he's in father's office now, learning everything from the +beginning. He's just a common clerk, but he won't be long," he asserted +confidently. + +"No, not long," agreed Richard. "The son of the chief won't be a common +clerk long, of course." + +"I mean," explained Ted, buttering a hot roll with hurried fingers, +"he'll work his way up. He won't be promoted until he earns it; he +doesn't want to be." + +Richard smiled. The boy's ideals had evidently been given a start by +some person or persons of high moral character. He was considering the +subject in some further detail with the lad when the dining-room door +suddenly opened and the owner of the black-lashed blue eyes, which in a +way matched Ted's, came most unexpectedly in upon them. She was in +street dress of dark blue, and her eyes looked out at them from under +the wide gray brim of a sombrero-shaped hat with a long quill in it, the +whole effect of which was to give her the breezy look of having +literally blown in on the November wind which was shaking the trees +outside. Her cheeks had been stung into a brilliant rose colour. Two +books were tucked under her arm. + +"Why, Rob!" cried her younger brother. "What luck! What brought you +home?" + +Rising from his chair Richard observed that Ted had risen also, and he +now heard Ted's voice presenting him to his sister with the ease of the +well-bred youngster. + +From this moment Richard owed the boy a debt of gratitude. He had been +waiting impatiently for a fortnight for this presentation and had begun +to think it would never come. + +Roberta Gray came forward to give the guest her hand with a ready +courtesy which Richard met with the explanation of his presence. + +"I was asked to keep your brother company in the absence of the family. +I can't help being glad that you didn't come in time to forestall me." + +"I'm sure Ted's hospitality might have covered us both," she said, +pulling off her gloves. He recognized the voice. At close range it was +even more delightful than he had remembered. + +"I doubt it, since he tells me that when you're here he doesn't mind who +else is away." + +"Did you say that, Teddy?" she asked, smiling at the boy. "Then you'll +surely give me lunch, though it isn't my day at home. I'm so hungry, +walking in this wind. But the air is glorious." + +She went away to remove her hat and coat, and came back quickly, her +masses of black hair suggesting but not confirming the impression that +the wind had lately had its way with them. Her eyes scanned the table +eagerly like those of a hungry boy. + +"Some of your scholars sick?" inquired Ted. + +"Two--and one away. So I'm to have a whole beautiful afternoon, though I +may have to see them Wednesday to make up. I am a teacher in Miss +Copeland's private school," she explained to Richard as simply as one of +the young women he knew would have explained. "I have singing lessons of +Servensky." + +This gave the young man food for thought, in which he indulged while +Miss Roberta Gray told Ted of an encounter she had had that morning with +a special friend of his own. This daughter of a distinguished man--of a +family not so rich as his own, but still of considerable wealth and +unquestionably high social position--was a teacher in a school for +girls; a most exclusive school, of course--he knew the one very +well--but still in a school and for a salary. To Richard the thing was +strange enough. She must surely do it from choice, not from necessity; +but why from choice? With her face and her charm--he felt the charm +already; it radiated from her--why should she want to tie herself down +to a dull round of duty like that instead of giving her thoughts to the +things girls of her position usually cared for? Taking into +consideration the statement Ted had lately made about his elder brother, +it struck Richard Kendrick that this must be a family of rather +eccentric notions. Somewhat to his surprise he discovered that the idea +interested him. He had found people of his own acquaintance tiresomely +alike; he congratulated himself on having met somebody who seemed likely +to prove different. + +"So you rejoice in your half-holiday, Miss Gray," Richard observed when +he had the chance. "I suppose you know exactly what you are going to do +with it?" + +"Why do you think I do?" she asked with an odd little twist of the lip. +"Do you always plan even unexpected holidays so carefully?" + +It occurred to Richard that up to the last fortnight his days since he +left college had been all holidays, and there had been plenty of them +throughout college life itself. But he answered seriously: "I don't +believe I do. But I had the idea that teachers were so in the habit of +living on schedules scientifically made out that even their holidays +were conscientiously lived up to, with the purpose of getting the full +value out of them." + +Even as he said it he could have laughed aloud at the thought of these +straitlaced principles being applicable to the young person who sat at +the table with himself and Ted. She a teacher? Never! He had known no +women teachers since his first governess had been exchanged for a tutor, +the sturdy youngster having rebelled, at an extraordinarily early age, +against petticoat government. His acquaintance included but one woman of +that profession--and she was a college president. He and she had not got +on well together, either, during the brief period in which they had been +thrown together--on an ocean voyage. But he had seen plenty of teachers, +crossing the Atlantic in large parties, surveying cathedrals, taking +coach drives, inspecting art galleries--all with that conscientious air +of making the most of it. Miss Roberta Gray one of that serious company? +It was incredible! + +"Dear me," laughed Roberta, "what a keen observer you are! I am almost +afraid to admit that I have no conscientiously thought-out plan--but +one. I am going to put myself in Ted's hands and let him personally +conduct my afternoon." + +Blue eyes met blue eyes at that and flashed happy fire. Lucky Ted! + +"Oh, jolly!" exclaimed that delighted youth. "Will you play basket-ball +in the attic?" + +"Of course I will. Just the thing for a rainy day." + +"Bowls?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Take a cross-country tramp?" His eyes were sparkling. + +Roberta glanced out of the window. The rain was dashing hard against the +pane. "If you won't go through the West Wood marshes," she stipulated. + +"Sure I won't. They'd be pretty wet even for me on a day like this. Is +there anything you'd specially like to do yourself?" he bethought +himself at this stage to inquire. + +Roberta shrugged her shoulders. "Of course it seems tame to propose +settling down by the living-room fire and popping corn, after we get +back and have got into our dry clothes," said she, "but--" + +Ted grinned. "That's the stuff," he acknowledged. "I knew you'd think of +the right thing to end up the lark with." He looked across at Richard +with a proud and happy face. "Didn't I tell you she was a peach of a +sister?" he challenged his guest. + +Richard nodded. "You certainly did," he said. "And I see no occasion to +question the statement." + +His eyes met Roberta's. Never in his life had the thought of a +cross-country walk in the rain so appealed to him. At the moment he +would have given his eagerly planned trip to the Far East for the chance +to march by her side to-day, even though the course should lie through +the marshes of West Wood, unquestionably the wettest place in the +country on that particular wet afternoon. But nobody would think of +inviting him to go--of course not. And while Roberta and Ted were +dashing along country lanes--he could imagine how her cheeks would look, +stung with rain, drops clinging to those bewildering lashes of hers--he +himself would be looking up references in dry and dusty State Supreme +Court records, and making notes with a fountain pen--a fountain +pen--symbol of the student. What abominable luck! + +Roberta was laughing as his eyes met hers. The gay curve of her lips +recalled to him one of the things Ted had said about her, concerning a +certain boyish quality in her makeup, and he was strongly tempted to +tell her of it. But he resisted. + +"I can see you two are great chums," said he. "I envy you both your +afternoon, clear through to the corn-popping." + +"If you are still at work when we reach that stage we will--send you in +some of it," she promised, and laughed again at the way his face fell. + +"I thought perhaps you were going to invite me in to help pop," he +suggested boldly. + +"I understand you are engaged in the serious labour of collecting +material for a book on a most serious subject," she replied. "We +shouldn't dare to divert your mind; and besides I am told that Uncle +Calvin intends to introduce you formally to the family by inviting you +to dinner some evening next week. Do you think you ought to steal in by +coming to a corn-popping beforehand? You see now I can quite truthfully +say to Uncle Calvin that I don't yet know you, but after I had popped +corn with you--" + +She paused, and he eagerly filled out the sentence: "You would know me? +I hope you would! Because, to tell the honest truth, literary research +is a bit new and difficult to me as yet, and any diversion--" + +But she would not ask him to the corn-popping. And he was obliged to +finish his luncheon in short order because Roberta and Ted, plainly +anxious to begin the afternoon's program, made such short work of it +themselves. They bade him farewell at the door of the dining-room like a +pair of lads who could hardly wait to be ceremonious in their eagerness +to be off, and the last he saw of them they were running up the +staircase hand in hand like the comrades they were. + +During his intensely stupid researches Richard Kendrick could hear +faintly in the distance the thud of the basket-ball and the rumble of +the bowls. But within the hour these tantalizing sounds ceased, and, in +the midst of the fiercest dash of rain against the library window-panes +that had yet occurred that day, he suddenly heard the bang of the +back-hall entrance-door. He jumped to his feet and ran to reconnoitre, +for the library looked out through big French windows upon the lawn +behind the house, and he knew that the pair of holiday makers would +pass. + +There they were! What could the rain matter to them? Clad in high +hunting boots and gleaming yellow oilskin coats, and with hunters' caps +on their heads, they defied the weather. Anything prettier than +Roberta's face under that cap, with the rich yellow beneath her chin, +her face alight with laughter and good fellowship, Richard vowed to +himself he had never seen. He wanted to wave a farewell to them, but +they did not look up at his window, and he would not knock upon the +pane--like a sick schoolboy shut up in the nursery enviously watching +his playmates go forth to valiant games. + +When they had disappeared at a fast walk down the gravelled path to the +gate at the back of the grounds, taking by this route a straight course +toward the open country which lay in that direction not more than a mile +away, the grandson of old Matthew Kendrick went reluctantly back to his +work. He hated it, yet--he was tremendously glad he had taken the job. +If only there might be many oases in the dull desert such as this had +been! + + * * * * * + +"How do you like him, Rob?" inquired the young brother, splashing along +at his sister's side down the country road. + +"Like whom?" Roberta answered absently, clearing her eyes of raindrops +by the application of a moist handkerchief. + +"Mr. Kendrick." + +"I think Uncle Cal might have looked a long way and not picked out a +less suitable secretary," said she with spirit. + +"Is that what he is? What is a seccertary anyway?" demanded Ted. + +"Several things Mr. Kendrick is not." + +"Oh, I say, Rob! I can't understand--" + +"It is a person who has learned how to be eyes, ears, hands, and brain +for another," defined Roberta. + +"Gee! Hasn't Uncle Cal got all those things himself--except eyes?" + +"Yes, but anybody who serves him needs them all, too. I don't believe +Mr. Kendrick ever helped anybody before in his life." + +"Maybe he has. He's got loads of money, Louis says." + +"Oh, money! Anybody can give away money." + +"They don't all, I guess," declared Ted, with boyish shrewdness. "Say, +Rob, why wouldn't you ask him to the corn-pop frolic?" + +Roberta looked round at him. Drenched violets would have been dull and +colourless beside the living tint of her eyes, the raindrops clinging to +her lashes. "Because he was too busy," she replied, and looked away +again. + +"I didn't think he seemed so very much in a hurry to get back to the +library," observed Ted. "When I went down to the kitchen after the corn +I looked in the door and he was sitting at the desk looking out of the +window. But then I look out of the window myself at school," he +admitted. + +"Ted, shall we take this path or the other?" asked his sister, halting +where three trails across the meadow diverged. + +"This one will be the wettest," said he promptly. "But I like it best." + +"Then we'll take it." And she plunged ahead. + +"I say, Rob, but you're a true sport!" acknowledged her young brother +with admiration. "Any girl I know would have wanted the dry path." + +"Dry?" Roberta showed him a laughing profile over her shoulder. "Where +all paths are soaking, why be fastidious? The wetter we are the more +credit for keeping jolly, as Mark Tapley would say. Lead on, MacDuff!" + +"You seem to be leading yourself," shouted Ted, as she unexpectedly +broke into a run. + +"It's only seeming, Ted," she called back. "Whenever a woman seems to be +leading, you may take my word for it she's only following the course +pointed out by some man. But--when she seems to be following, look out +for her!" + +But of this oracular statement Ted could make nothing and wisely did not +try. He was quite content to splash along in Rob's wake, thinking +complacently how hot and buttery the popped corn would be an hour hence. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PICTURES + + +Richard Kendrick had been guest at a good many dinners in the course of +his experience, dinners of all sorts and of varying degrees of +formality. Club dinners, college-class dinners, "stag" dinners at +imposing hotels and cafés, impromptu dinners hurriedly arranged by three +or four fellows in for a good time, dinners at which women were present, +more at which they were not--these were everyday affairs with him. But, +strange to say, the one sort of dinner with which he was not familiar +was that of the family type--the quiet gathering in the home of the +members of the household, plus one or two fortunate guests. He had never +sat at such a table under his own roof, and when he was entertained in +the homes of his friends the occasion was invariably made one for +summoning many other guests, and for elaborate feasting and diversion of +all kinds. + +It will be seen, therefore, that Richard looked forward to a totally new +experience, without in the least realizing that he did so. His principal +thought concerning the invitation to the Grays' was that he should at +last have the chance to meet again the niece of his employer, in a way +that would show him considerably more of her as a woman than he had been +able to observe on the occasion when they had so hurriedly finished a +luncheon together, and she had escaped from him as fast as possible in +order to set forth on a madcap adventure with her small brother. + +On the day of which he expected to spend the evening with the Grays he +found it not a little difficult to keep his mind upon his work with the +Judge, and that gentleman seemed to him extraordinarily particular, even +fussy, about having every fact brought to him painstakingly verified +down to the smallest detail. When at last he was released, and he rushed +home in his car to dress, he discovered that his spirits were dancing as +he could not remember having felt them dance for a year. And all over a +simple invitation to a family dinner! + +As he dressed it might have been said of him that he also could be +particular, even fussy. When, at length, he was ready, he was as +carefully attired as ever he had been in his life--and this not only in +body but in mind. It was curious, to his own observation of himself, how +differently he felt, in what different mood he was, than had ever been +the case when he had left his room for the scene of some accustomed +pleasure-making. He could not just define this difference to himself, +though he was conscious of it; but there was in it a sense of wishing +the people he was to meet to think well of him, according to their own +standards, and he was somehow rather acutely aware that their standards +were not likely to be those with which he was most intimate. + +When he entered the now familiar door of the Gray homestead he was +surprised to hear sounds which seemed to indicate that the affair was, +after all, much larger and more formal than he had been led to suppose. +Strains of music fell upon his ears--music from a number of stringed +instruments remarkably well played--and this continued as he made his +entrance into the long drawing-room at the left of the hall, of whose +interior he had as yet caught only tempting glimpses. + +As he greeted his hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray, Judge Calvin Gray, +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Gray, wondering a little where the rest of the +family could be, his eye fell upon the musicians, and the problem was +solved. Ruth, the sixteen-year-old, sat before a harp; Louis, the elder +son, cherished a violin under his chin; Roberta--ah, there she was! +wearing a dull-blue evening frock above which gleamed her white neck, +her half-uncovered arms showing exquisite curves as she handled the bow +which was drawing long, rich notes from the violoncello at her knee. + +Not one of the trio looked up until the nocturne they were playing was +done. Then they rose together, laying aside their instruments, and made +the guest welcome. He had a vivid impression of being done peculiar +honour by their recognition of him as a new friend, for so they received +him. As he looked from one to another of their faces he experienced +another of those curious sensations which had from time to time assailed +him ever since he had first put his head inside the door of this house, +the sensation of looking in upon a new world of which he had known +nothing, and of being strangely drawn by all he saw there. It was not +alone the effect of meeting a more than ordinarily alluring girl, for +each member of the family had for him something of this drawing quality. +As he studied them it was clear to him that they belonged together, that +they loved each other, that the very walls of this old home were +eloquent of the life lived here. + +He had of course seen and noted families before, noted them carelessly +enough: rich families, poor families, big families, little, newly begun +families; but of a certain sort of family of which this was the +interesting and inviting type he knew as little as the foreigner, newly +landed on American shores, knows of the depths of the great country's +interior. And as he studied these people the desire grew and grew within +him to know as much of them as they would let him know. The very +grouping of them, against the effective background of the fine old +drawing-room, made, it seemed to him, a remarkable picture, full of a +certain richness of colour and harmony such as he had never observed +anywhere. + +The evening did not contain as much of gay encounter with Roberta as +he had anticipated--but, somehow, as he afterwards looked back upon it, +he could not feel that there had been any lack. He had fancied himself, +in prospect, sitting beside her at the table, exchanging that pleasant, +half-foolish badinage with which young men are wont to entertain +girls who are their companions at dinners, both nearly oblivious of +the rest of the company. But it turned out that his seat was between +his hostess and her younger daughter, Ruth, and though Roberta was +nearly opposite him at the table and he could look at her to his full +content--conservatively speaking--he was obliged to give himself to +playing the part of the deferential younger man where older and more +distinguished men are present. + +Yet--to his surprise, it must be admitted--he found himself not bored by +that table-talk. It was such table-talk, by the way, as is not to be had +under ordinary roofs. He now recognized that he had only partially +appreciated the qualities of mind possessed by Judge Gray--certainly not +his capacity for brilliant conversation. Mr. Robert Gray was quite his +elder brother's match, however, and more than once Kendrick caught Louis +Gray's eye meeting his own with the glance which means delighted pride +in the contest of wits which is taking place. All three young men +enjoyed it to the full, and even Ted listened with eyes full of eager +desire to comprehend that which he understood to be worth trying hard +for. + +"They enjoy these encounters keenly," said Mrs. Gray, beside Richard, as +a telling story by Mr. Robert Gray, in illustration of a point he had +made, came to a conclusion amid a burst of appreciative laughter. "They +relish them quite as much, we think, as if they often succeeded in +convincing each other, which they seldom do." + +"Are they always in such form?" asked Richard, looking into the fresh, +attractive face of the lady who was the mistress of this home, and +continuing to watch her with eyes as deferential as they were admiring. +She, too, represented a type of woman and mother with which he was +unfamiliar. Grace and charm in women who presided at dinner-tables he +had often met, but he could not remember when before he had sat at the +right hand of a woman who had made him begin, for almost the first time +in his life, to wonder what his own mother had been like. + +"Nearly always, at night, I think," said she, her eyes resting upon her +husband's face. Richard, observing, saw her smile, and guessed, without +looking, that there had been an exchange of glances. He knew, because he +had twice before noted the exchange, as if there existed a peculiarly +strong sympathy between husband and wife. This inference, too, possessed +a curious new interest for the young man--he had not been accustomed to +see anything of that sort between married people of long standing--not +in the world he knew so well. He seemed to be learning strange new +possibilities of existence at every step, since he had discovered the +Grays--he who at twenty-eight had not thought there was very much left +in human experience to be discovered. + +"Is it different in the morning?" Richard inquired. + +"Quite different. They are rather apt to take things more seriously in +the morning. The day's work is just before them and they are inclined to +discuss grave questions and dispose of them. But at night, when the +lights are burning and every one comes home with a sense of duty done, +it is natural to throw off the weights and be merry over the same +matters which, perhaps, it seemed must be argued over in the morning. We +all look forward to the dinner-table." + +"I should think you might," agreed Richard, looking about him once more +at the faces which surrounded him. He caught Roberta's eye, as he did +so--much to his satisfaction--and she gave him a straightforward, steady +look, as if she were taking his measure for the first time. Then, quite +suddenly, she smiled at him and turned away to speak to Ted, who sat by +her side. + +Richard continued to watch, and saw that immediately Ted looked his way +and also smiled. He wanted so much to know what this meant, that, as +soon as dinner was over and they were all leaving the room, he fell in +with the boy and, putting his hand through Ted's arm, whispered with +artful intent: "Was my tie under my left ear?" + +Ted stared up at him. "Your tie's all right, Mr. Kendrick." + +"Then it wasn't that. Perhaps my coat collar was turned up?" + +"Why, no," the boy laughed. "You look as right as anything. What made +you think--" + +"I saw you and your sister laughing at me and it worried me. I thought I +must be looking the guy some way." + +Ted considered. "Oh, no!" he said. "She asked me if I thought you were +enjoying the dinner as well as you would have liked the corn-popping." + +"And what did you decide?" + +"I said I couldn't tell, because I never saw you at a corn-popping. I +asked her that day we went to walk why she wouldn't ask you to it, but +she just said you were too busy to come. I didn't think you acted too +busy to come," he said naïvely, glancing up into Richard's down-bent +face. + +"Didn't I? Haven't I looked very busy whenever you have seen me in your +uncle's library?" + +Ted shook his head. "I don't think you have--not the way Louis looks +busy in father's office, nor the way father does." + +Richard laughed, but somehow the frank comment stung him a little, as he +would not have imagined the comment of an eleven-year-old boy could have +done. "See here, Ted," he urged, "tell me why you say that. I think +myself I've done a lot of work since I've been here, and I can't see why +I haven't looked it." + +But Ted shook his head. "I don't think it would be polite to tell you," +he said, which naturally did not help matters much. + +Still holding the lad's arm, Richard walked over to Roberta, who had +gone to the piano and was arranging some sheets of music there. + +"Miss Gray," he said, "have you accomplished a great deal to-day?" + +She looked up, puzzled. "A great deal of what?" she asked. + +"Work--endeavour--strenuous endeavour." + +"The usual amount. Lessons--and lessons--and one more lesson. I have +really more pupils than I can do justice to, but I am promised an +assistant if the work grows too heavy," she answered. "Why, please?" + +"I've been wondering if the motto of the Gray family might be 'Let us, +then, be up and doing.' Ted gives me that notion." + +Roberta glanced at Ted, whose face had grown quite grave. "Can you tell +him what the motto is, Ted?" + +"Of course I can," responded Ted proudly. "It's _Hoc age_." + +Richard hastily summoned his Latin, but the verb bothered him for a +minute. "_This do_," he presently evolved. "Well, I should say I came +pretty near it." + +"What's yours?" the boy now inquired. + +"My family motto? I believe it is _Crux mihi ancora_; but that doesn't +just suit me, so I've adopted one of my own"--he looked straight at +Roberta--"_Dum vivimus, vivamus_. Isn't that a pleasanter one in this +workaday world?" + +Ted was struggling hard, but his two months' experience with the +rudiments of Latin would not serve him. "What do they mean?" he asked +eagerly. + +"The second one means," said Roberta, with her arm about the slim young +shoulders, "'While we live, let us live--well.'" Her eyes met Richard's +with a shade of defiance in them. + +"Thank you," said he. "Do you expect me to adopt the amendment?" + +"Why not?" + +"Even you--take cross-country runs." + +She nodded. "And am all the better teacher for them next day." + +He laughed. "I should like to take one with you some time," said he. He +saw Judge Gray coming toward them. "I wonder if I'm likely ever to have +the chance," he added hurriedly. + +"_You_ take a cross-country run when you could have a sixty-mile spin in +that motor-car of yours instead?" + +"I couldn't go cross-country in that. You see I've been by the beaten +track so much I should like to try exploring something new." + +He was eager to say more, but Judge Gray, coming up to them, laid an +affectionate hand on his niece's shoulder. + +"She doesn't look the part she plays by day, does she?" he said to +Richard. "Curious, how times have changed. In my day a teacher looked a +teacher every minute of her time. One stood in awe of her--or +him--particularly of her. A prim, stuff gown, hair parted in the middle +and drawn smoothly away"--his glance wandered from Roberta's ivory neck +to the dusky masses of her hair--"spectacles, more than likely--with +steel bows. And a manner--ye gods--the manner! How we were impressed by +it! Well, well! Fine women they were and true to their profession. These +modern girls who look younger than their pupils--" He shook his head +with an air of being quite in despair about them. + +"Uncle Calvin," said Roberta, demurely, with her hand upon his arm, "do +tell Mr. Kendrick about your teaching school 'across the river' when you +were only sixteen years old." + +And, of course, that settled the chance of Richard's hearing anything +about Roberta's teaching, for, though Judge Gray was called out of the +room in the midst of his story, Stephen and Louis came up and joined the +group and switched the talk a thousand miles away from schools and +school-teaching. + +Presently there was music again, and this time Richard found himself +sitting beside young Mrs. Stephen Gray. Between numbers he found +questions to ask, which she answered with evident pleasure. + +"These three must have been playing together a good many years?" + +"Dear me, yes--ever since they were born, I think. They do make real +harmony, don't they?" + +"They do--in more ways than one. Is that colour scheme intentional, do +you think?" + +Mrs. Stephen's glance followed his as it dwelt upon the group. "I hadn't +noticed," she admitted, "but I see it now; it's perfect. And I've no +doubt Ruth thought it out. She's quite a wonderful eye for colour, and +she worships Rob and likes to dress so as to offset her--always giving +Rob the advantage--though of course she would have that, anyway, by +virtue of her own colouring." + +"Blue and corn-colour--should you call it?--and gold. Dull tints in the +background, and the candle-light on Miss Ruth's hair and her sister's +cheek. It makes the prettiest picture yet in my new collection of family +groups." + +Mrs. Stephen looked at him curiously. "Are you making a collection of +family groups?" she inquired. "Beginning away back with your first +memories?" + +"My first memories are not of family groups--only of nurses and tutors, +with occasional portraits of my grandfather making inquiries as to how I +was getting on. And my later memories are all of school and +college--then of travel. Not a home scene among them." + +"You poor boy!" There was something maternal in Mrs. Stephen's tone, +though she looked considerably younger than the object of her pity. "But +you must have looked at plenty of other family groups, if you had none +of your own." + +"That's exactly what I haven't done." + +"But you've lived--in the world," she cried under her breath, puzzled. + +A curious expression came into the young man's face. "That's exactly +what I have done," he said quietly. "In the world, not in the home. I've +not even _seen_ homes--like this one. The sight of brother and sisters +playing violin and harp and 'cello together, with the father and mother +and brother and uncle looking on, is absolutely so new to me that it has +a fascination I can't explain. I find myself continually watching you +all--if you'll forgive me--in your relations to each other. It's a new +interest," he admitted, smiling, "and I can't tell you what it means to +me." + +She shook her head. "It sounds like a strange tale to me," said she, +"but I suppose it must be true. How much you have missed!" + +"I'm just beginning to realize it. I never knew it till I began to come +here. I thought I was well enough off--it seems I'm pretty poor." + +It was rather a strange speech for a young man of his class to make. +Possibly it indicated the existence of those "brains" with which his +grandfather had credited him. + +"Well, Rob, do you think he had as dull a time as you said he would +have?" + +The inquirer was Ruth. She stood, still in the corn-coloured frock, in +the doorway of her sister's room, from which her own opened. "Please +unhook me," she requested, approaching Roberta and turning her back +invitingly. + +Roberta, already out of the blue-silk gown, released her young sister +from the imprisonment of her hooks and eyes. + +"His manners are naturally too good to make it clear whether he had a +dull time or not," was Roberta's non-committal reply. + +"I don't believe his manners are too good to cover up his being bored, +if he was bored," Ruth went on. "He certainly wasn't bored _all_ the +time, anybody could tell that. He's very good-looking, isn't he?" + +"If you care for that sort of good looks--yes." + +"What sort?" + +"The kind that doesn't express anything--except having had a good time +every minute of one's life." + +"Why, Rob, what's the matter with you? Anybody would think you had +something against poor Mr. Kendrick." + +"If he were 'poor Mr. Kendrick' there might be a chance of liking him, +for he would have had to _do_ something." + +Roberta was pulling out hairpins with energy, and now let the whole dark +mass tumble about her shoulders. The half-curling locks were very thick +and soft, and as she shook them away from her face she reminded Ruth of +a certain wild little Arabian pony of her own. + +"You throw back your head just like Sheik when he's going to bolt," Ruth +cried, laughing. "I wish my hair were like that. It looks perfectly dear +whatever you do with it, and mine's only pretty when it's been put just +right." + +"It certainly was put just right to-night then," said a third voice, and +Rosamond, Stephen's wife, appeared in Roberta's half-open door. "May I +come in? Steve hasn't come up yet, and I'm so comfortable in this loose +thing I want to sit up a while and enjoy it." + +Rosamond looked hardly older than Roberta; there were times when she +looked younger, being small and fair. Ruth considered her quite as much +of a girl as either herself or Roberta, and welcomed her eagerly to the +discussion in which she herself was so much interested. + +"Rosy," was her first question, "did _you_ think our guest was bored +to-night?" + +"Bored?" exclaimed Mrs. Stephen in surprise. "Why should he be? He +didn't look it whenever I observed him. And if you had seen him when the +trio was playing you wouldn't have thought so. By the way, he has an eye +for colour. He noticed how your frock and Rob's went together in the +candle-light, with the harp to give a touch of gold." + +"Did he say so?" cried Ruth in delight. + +"He asked if the colour scheme was intentional. I said I thought it +probably was--on your part. Rob never thinks of colour schemes." + +"Neither does any _man_," murmured Roberta from the depths of the hair +she was brushing with an energetic arm. "Unless it happens to be his +business," she amended. + +"Rob doesn't like him," declared Ruth, "just because he has money and +good looks and doesn't work for his living, and likes pretty colour +schemes. He probably gets that from having seen so much wonderful art in +his travels. Aren't painters just as good as bridge-builders? Rob +doesn't think so. She wants every man to get his hands grubby." + +Roberta turned about, laughing. "This one isn't even a painter. Go to +bed, you foolish, analytical child. And don't dream of the beautiful +guest who admired your corn-coloured frock." + +"He only liked it because it set off your blue one," Ruth shot back. + +"He said nothing whatever about my lovely new white gown," Rosamond +called after her. + +Roberta came up to her sister-in-law from behind and put both arms about +her. "Stephen came and whispered in my ear to-night," said she, "and +wanted to know if I had ever seen Rosy look sweeter. I said I had--an +hour before. He asked what you had on, and I said, 'A gray kimono--and +the baby on her arm.' He smiled and nodded--and I saw the look in his +eyes." + +"Rob, you're the dearest sister a girl ever had given to her," Rosamond +answered, returning the embrace. + +"And yet you two say I don't care for colour schemes," Roberta reminded +her as she returned to her hair-brushing. "I care enough for them to +want them made up of colours that will wash--warranted not to fade--that +will stand sun and rain and only grow the more beautiful!" + +"What _are_ you talking about now, dear?" laughed Rosamond happily, +still thinking of what Stephen had said to Roberta. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RICHARD PRICKS HIS FINGERS + + +Hoofbeats on the driveway outside the window! Beside the window stood +the desk at which Richard was accustomed to work at Judge Gray's +dictation. And at the desk on this most alluring of all alluring +Indian-summer days in middle November sat a young man with every drop of +blood in his vigorous body shouting to him to drop his work and rush +out, demanding: "Take me with you!" + +For there, walking their horses along the driveway from the distant +stables, were three figures on horseback. There was one with sunny +hair--Ruth--her brown habit the colour of the pretty mare she rode; one +with russet-gaitered legs astride of the little Arabian pony called +Sheik--Ted; one, all in dark, beautifully tailored green, with a soft +gray hat pulled over masses of dusky hair, her face--Richard could see +her face now as the horses drew nearer--all gay and eager for the +ride--Roberta. + +Judge Gray, his glance following his companion's, looked out also. He +rose and came and stood behind Richard at the window and tapped upon the +pane, waving his hand as the riders looked up. Instantly all three faces +lighted with happy recognition and acknowledgment. Ruth waved and +nodded. Ted pulled off his cap and swung it. Roberta gave a quick +military salute, her gray-gauntleted hand at her hat brim. + +Richard smiled with the Judge at the charming sight, and sighed with the +next breath. What a fool he had been to tie himself down to this desk +when other people were riding into the country! Yet--if he hadn't been +tied to that desk he would neither have known nor cared who rode out +from the old Gray stables, or where they went. + +The Judge caught the slight escaping breath and smiled again as the +riders passed out of sight. "It makes you wish for the open country, +doesn't it?" said he. "I don't blame you. I should have gone with the +young folks myself if I had been ten years younger. It _is_ a fine day, +isn't it? I've been so absorbed I hadn't observed. Suppose we stop work +at three and let ourselves out into God's outdoors? Not a bad idea, eh?" + +"Not bad," agreed Richard with a leap of spirits, "if it pleases you, +sir. I'm ready to work till the usual time if you prefer." + +"Well spoken. But I don't prefer. I shall enjoy a stroll down the avenue +myself in this sunshine. What sunshine--for November!" + +It was barely three when the Judge released his assistant, two hours +after the riding party had left. As he opened the front door and ran to +his waiting car, Richard was wondering how many miles away they were and +in what direction they had gone. He wanted nothing so much as to meet +them somewhere on the road--better yet, to overtake and come upon them +unawares. + +A powerful car driven by a determined and quick-witted young man may +scour considerable country while three horses, trotting in company, are +covering but a few short miles. Richard was sure of one thing: whichever +road appealed to the young Grays as most picturesque and secluded on +this wonderful Indian-summer afternoon would be their choice. Not the +main highways of travel, but some enticing by-way. Where would that be? +He decided on a certain course, with a curious feeling that he could +follow wherever Roberta led, by the invisible trail of her radiant +personality. He would see! Mile after mile--he took them swiftly, +speeding out past the West Wood marshes with assurance of the fact that +this was certainly one of the favourite ways. + +Twelve miles out he came to a fork in the road. Which trail? One led up +a steep hill, the other down into the river valley, soft-veiled in the +late sunshine. Which trail? He could seem to see Roberta choosing the +hill and putting her horse up it, while Ruth called out that the valley +road was better. With a sense of exhilaration he sent the car up the +hill, remembering that from the top was a broad view sure to be worth +while on a day like this. Besides, up here he might be able to see far +ahead and discern the party somewhere in the distance. + +Just over the brow he came upon them where they had camped by the +roadside. It was a road quite off the line of travel and they were a +hundred feet back among a clump of pine trees, their horses tied to the +fence-rail. A bonfire sent up a pungent smoke half veiling the figures. +But the car had come roaring up the hill, and they were all looking his +way. Two of the horses had plunged a little at the sudden noise, and Ted +ran forward. Richard stopped his engine, triumphant, his pulses +quickening with a bound. + +"Oh, hullo!" cried Ted in joyful excitement. "Where'd you come from, Mr. +Kendrick? Isn't this luck!" + +"This is certainly luck," responded Richard, doffing his hat as the +figures by the fire moved his way, the one in brown coming quickly, the +one in green rather more slowly. "Your uncle released me at three and I +rushed for the open. What a day!" + +"Isn't it wonderful?" Ruth came up to the brown mare, which was eying +the big car with some resentment. She patted the velvet nose as she +spoke. "Don't you mind, Bess," she reproached the mare. "It's nothing +but a puffing, noisy car. It's not half so nice as you." + +She smiled up at Richard and he smiled back. "I rather think you're +right," he admitted. "I used to think myself there was nothing like a +good horse. I'd like to exchange the car for one just now; I'm sure of +that." + +"It wouldn't buy any one of ours." Roberta, coming up, glanced from the +big machine to the trio of interested animals, all of which were keeping +watchful eyes on the intruder. "Nonsense, Colonel,--stand still!" + +"I don't want to buy one of yours; I want one of my own, to ride back +with you--if you'd let me." + +"Anyhow, you can stop and have a bite with us," said Ted, with a sudden +thought. "Can't he, Rob?" + +Roberta smiled. "If he is as hungry as he looks." + +"Do I look hungry?" + +"Starving. So do we, no doubt. Come and have some sandwiches." + +"We're going to toast them," explained Ruth, walking back to the fire +with Richard when he had leaped with alacrity over the fence, his hat +left behind, his brown head shining in the sun, his face happier than +any of his fellow-clubmen had seen it in a year, as they would have been +quick to notice if any of them had come upon him now. "We have ginger +ale, too; do you like ginger ale?" + +"Immensely!" Richard eyed the preparations with interest. "How do you +toast your sandwiches?" + +"On forks of wood; Ted's going to cut them." + +"Please let me." And the guest fell to work. He found a keen enjoyment +in preparing these implements, and afterward in the process of toasting, +which was done every-one-for-himself, with varying degrees of success. +The sandwiches were filled with a rich cheese mixture, and the result of +toasting them was a toothsome morsel most gratifying to the hungry +palate. + +"One more?" urged Ruth, offering Richard the nearly empty box which had +contained a good supply. + +"Thank you--no; I've had seven," he refused, laughing. "Nothing ever +tasted quite so good. And I'm an interloper." + +"Here's to the interloper!" Ruth raised her glass and drank the last of +her ginger ale. "We always provide for one. Usually it's a small boy." + +"More often a pair of them. And always there are Bess, Colonel, and +Sheik." Roberta rose to her feet, the last three sandwiches in hand, and +walked away to the horses tied to the fence-rail. + +Richard's eyes followed her. In the austere lines of her riding-habit he +could see more clearly than he had yet done what a superb young image of +health and energy she was. + +"Rob adores horses," Ruth remarked, looking after her sister also. "You +ought to see her ride cross-country. My Bess can't jump, but her Colonel +can. I don't believe there's anything in sight Rob and Colonel couldn't +jump. But I can never get used to seeing her; I have to shut my eyes +when Colonel rises, and I don't open them till I hear him land. But he's +never fallen with her, and she says he never will." + +"He won't." + +"Why not? Any horse might, you know, if he slipped on wet ground or +something." + +"He never will with her on his back. He's more likely to jump so high +he'll never come down." + +Ruth laughed. "Look at Colonel rub his nose against her, now he's had +the sandwich. Don't you wish you had a picture of them?" + +"Indeed I do!" The tone was fervent. Then a thought struck him and he +jumped to his feet. "By all luck, I believe there's a little camera in +the car. If there is we'll have it." + +He ran to the fence, took a flying leap over, and fell to searching. In +a moment he produced something which he waved at Ruth. She and Ted went +to meet him as he returned. Roberta, busy with the horses, had not seen. + +"There are only two exposures left on the film, but they'll do, if +she'll be good. Will she mind if I snap her, or must I ask her +permission?" + +"I think you'd better ask it," counselled Ruth doubtfully. "If it were +one of us she wouldn't mind--" + +"I see." He set the little instrument with a skilled touch and rapidly, +then walked toward Roberta and the horses. He aimed it with care, then +he called: "You won't mind if I take a picture of the horses, will you?" + +Roberta turned quickly, her hand on Colonel's snuggling nose. "Not at +all," she answered, and took a quick step to one side. But before she +had taken it the sharp-eyed little lens of the camera had caught her, +her attitude at the instant one of action, the expression of her face +that of vivacious response. She flew out of range and before she could +speak the camera clicked again, this time the lens so obviously pointed +at the animals, and not at herself, that the intent of the operator +could not be called in question. + +She looked at him with indignant suspicion, but his glance in return was +innocent, though his eyes sparkled. + +"They'll make the prettiest kind of a picture, won't they?" he observed, +sliding the small black box back into its case. "I wish I had another +film; I'd take a lot of pictures about this place. I mean always to be +loaded, but November isn't usually the time for photographs, and I'd +forgotten all about it." + +"If you find you have a picture of me on one of those shots I can trust +you not to keep it?" + +"I may have caught you on that first shot. I'll bring it to you to see. +If your hat is tilted too much or you don't like your own expression--" + +"I shall not like it, whatever it is. You stole it. That wasn't +fair--and when you had just been treated to sandwiches and ginger ale!" + +He looked into her brilliant face and could not tell what he saw there. +He opened the camera box again and took out the instrument. He removed +the roll of films carefully from its position, sealed it, and held it +out to her. His manner was the perfection of courtesy. + +"There are other pictures on the roll, I suppose?" she said doubtfully, +without accepting it. + +"Certainly. I forget what they are. But it doesn't matter." + +"Of course it matters. Have them developed--and give me back my own." + +"If I develop them I shall be obliged to see yours--if you are on it. If +I once see it I may not have the force of character to give it back. +Your only safe course is to take it now." + +Ted burst into the affair with a derisive shout. "Oh, Rob! What a silly +to care about that little bit of a picture! Let him have it. It was only +the horses he wanted anyway!" + +The two pairs of eyes met. His were full of deference, yet compelling. +Hers brimmed with restrained laughter. With a gesture she waved back the +roll and walked away toward the fire. + +"Thank you," said he behind her. "I'll try to prove myself worthy of the +trust." + +"Rufus! Dare you to run down the hill to that big tree with me!" Ted, no +longer interested in this tame conclusion of what had promised to be an +exciting encounter, challenged his sister. Ruth accepted, and the pair +were off down a long, inviting slope none too smooth, with a stiff +stubble, but not the less attractive for that. + +Richard and Roberta were left standing at the top of the hill near the +place where the fire was smouldering into dulness. Before them stretched +the valley, brown and yellow and dark green in the November sunlight, +with a gray-blue river winding its still length along. In the far +distance a blue-and-purple haze enveloped the hills; above all stretched +a sky upon whose fairness wisps of clouds were beginning to show here +and there, while in the south the outlines of a rising bank of gray gave +warning that those who gazed might look their fill to-day--to-morrow +there would be neither sunlight nor purple haze. The two looked in +silence for a minute, not at the boy and girl shouting below, but at the +beauty in the peaceful landscape. + +"An Indian-summer day," said Roberta gravely, as if her mood had changed +with the moment, "is like the last look at something one is not sure one +shall ever see again." + +At the words Richard's gaze shifted from the hill to the face of the +girl beside him. The sunshine was full upon the rich bloom of her cheek, +upon the exquisite line of her dark eyebrow. What was the beauty of an +Indian-summer landscape compared with the beauty of budding summer in +that face? But he answered her in the same quiet way in which she had +spoken: "Yes, it's hard to have faith that winter can sweep over all +this and not blot it out forever. But it won't." + +"No, it won't. And after all I like the storms. I should like to stand +just here, some day when Nature was simply raging, and watch. I wish I +could build a stout little cabin right on this spot and come up here and +spend the worst night of the winter in it. I'd love it." + +"I believe you would. But not alone? You'd want company?" + +"I don't think I'd even mind being alone--if I had a good fire for +company--and a dog. I should be glad of a dog," she owned. + +"But not one good comrade, one who liked the same sort of thing?" + +"So few people really do. It would have to be somebody who wouldn't talk +when I wanted to listen to the wind, or wouldn't mind my not +talking--and yet who wouldn't mind my talking either, if I took a sudden +notion." She began to laugh at her own fancy, with the low, rich note +which delighted his ear afresh every time he heard it. "Comrades who are +tolerant of one's every mood are not common, are they? Mr. Kendrick, +what do you suppose those dots of bright scarlet are, halfway down the +hill? They must be rose haws, mustn't they? Nothing else could have that +colour in November." + +"I don't know what 'rose haws' are. Do you want them--whatever they are? +I'll go and get them for you." + +"I'll go, too, to see if they're worth picking. They're thorny things; +you won't like them, but I do." + +"You think I don't like thorny things?" he asked her as they went down +the hillside, up which Ted and Ruth were now struggling. It was steep +and he held out his hand to her, but she ignored it and went on with +sure, light feet. + +"No, I think you like them soft and rounded." + +"And you prefer them prickly?" + +"Prickly enough to be interesting." + +They reached the scraggly rosebush, bare except for the bright red haws, +their smooth hard surfaces shining in the sun. Richard got out his +knife, and by dint of scratching his hands in a dozen places, succeeded +in gathering quite a cluster. Then he went to work at getting rid of the +thorns. + +"You may like things prickly, but you'll be willing to spare a few of +these," he observed. + +He succeeded in time in pruning the cluster into subordination, bound +them with a tough bit of dried weed which he found at his feet, and held +out the bunch. "Will you do me the honour of wearing them?" + +She thrust the smooth stems into the breast of her riding-coat, where +they gave the last picturesque touch to her attire. "Thank you," she +acknowledged somewhat tardily. "I can do no less after seeing you +scarify yourself in my service. You might have put on your gloves." + +"I might--and suffered your scarifying mirth, which would have been much +worse. 'He jests at scars that never felt a wound,' but he who jests at +them after he has felt them is the hero. Observe that I still jest." He +put his lips to a bleeding tear on his wrist as he spoke. "My only +regret is that the rose haws were not where they are now when I +photographed the horses. Only, mine is not a colour camera. I must get +one and have it with me when I drive, in case of emergencies like this +one." + +A whimsical expression touching his lips, he gazed off over the +landscape as he spoke, and she glanced at his profile. She was obliged +to admit to herself that she had seldom noted one of better lines. +Curiously enough, to her observation there did not lack a suggestion of +ruggedness about his face, in spite of the soft and easy life she +understood him to have led. + +Ted and Ruth now came panting up to them, and the four climbed together +to the hilltop. + +Roberta turned and scanned the sun. Immediately she decreed that it was +time to be off, reminding her protesting young brother that the November +dusk falls early and that it would be dark before they were at home. + +Richard put both sisters into their saddles with the ease of an old +horseman. "I've often regretted selling a certain black beauty named +Desperado," he remarked as he did so, "but never more than at this +minute. My motor there strikes me as disgustingly overadequate to-day. I +can't keep you company by any speed adjustment in my control, and if I +could your steeds wouldn't stand it. I'll let you start down before me +and stay here for a bit. It's too pleasant a place to leave. And even +then I shall be at home before you--worse luck!" + +"We're sorry, too," said Ruth, and Ted agreed, vociferously. As for +Roberta, she let her eyes meet his for a moment in a way so rare with +her, whose heavy lashes were forever interfering with any man's direct +gaze, that Richard made the most of his opportunity. He saw clearly at +last that those eyes were of the deepest sea blue, darkened almost to +black by the shadowing lashes. If by some hard chance he should never +see them again he knew he could not forget them. + +With beat of impatient hoofs upon the hard road the three were off, +their chorusing farewells coming back to him over their shoulders. When +they were out of sight he went back to the place on the hilltop where he +had stood beside Roberta, and thought it all over. In that way only +could he make shift to prolong the happiness of the hour. + +The happiness of the hour! What had there been about it to make it the +happiest hour he could recall? Such a simple, outdoor encounter! He had +spent many an hour which had lingered in his memory--hours in places +made enchanting to the eye by every device of cunning, in the society of +women chosen for their beauty, their wit, their power to allure, to +fascinate, to intoxicate. He had had his senses appealed to by every +form of attraction a clever woman can fabricate, herself a miracle of +art in dress, in smile, in speech. He had gone from more than one door +with his head swimming, the vivid recollection of the hour just past a +drug more potent than the wine that had touched his lips. + +His head was not swimming now, thank heaven, though his pulses were +unquestionably alive. It was the exhilaration of healthy, powerful +attraction, of which his every capacity for judgment approved. He had +not been drugged by the enchantment which is like wine--he had been +stimulated by the charm which is like the feel of the fresh wind upon +the brow. Here was a girl who did not need the background of +artificiality, one who could stand the sunlight on her clear cheek--and +the sunlight on her soul--he knew that, without knowing how he knew. It +was written in her sweet, strong, spirited face, and it was there for +men to read. No man so blind but he can read a face like that. + +The darkness had almost fallen when he forced himself to leave the spot. +But--reward for going while yet a trace of dusky light remained--he had +not reached the bottom of the hill road, up which his car had roared an +hour before, when he saw something fallen there which made him pull the +motor up upon its throbbing cylinders. He jumped out and ran to rescue +what had fallen. It was the bunch of rose haws he had so carefully +denuded of thorns, and which she had worn upon her breast for at least a +short time before she lost it. She had not thrown it away intentionally, +he was sure of that. If she had she would not have flung it +contemptuously into the middle of the road for him to see. + +He put it into the pocket of his coat, where it made a queer bulge, but +he could not risk losing it by trusting it to the seat beside him. Until +he had won something that had been longer hers, it was a treasure not to +be lost. + +Four miles toward town he passed the riding party and exchanged a fire +of gay salutations with them. When he had left them behind he could not +reach home too soon. He hurried to his rooms, hunted out a receptacle of +silver and crystal and filled it with water, placed the bunch of rose +haws in it and set the whole on his reading-table, under the electric +drop-light, where it made a spot of brilliant colour. + +He had an invitation for the evening; he had cared little to accept it +when it had been given him; he was sorry now that he had not refused it. +As the hour drew near, his distaste grew upon him, but there was no way +in which he could withdraw without giving disappointment and even +offence. He went forth, therefore, with reluctance, to join precisely +such a party as he had many times made one of with pleasure and elation. +To-night, however, he found the greatest difficulty in concealing his +boredom, and he more than once caught himself upon the verge of actual +discourtesy, because of his tendency to become absent-minded and let the +merry-making flow by him without taking part in it. + +Altogether, it was with a strong sense of relief and freedom that he at +last escaped from what had seemed to him an interminable period of +captivity to the uncongenial moods and manners of other people. He +opened the door of his rooms with a sense of having returned to a place +where he could be himself--his new self--that strange new self who +singularly failed to enjoy the companionship of those who had once +seemed the most satisfying of comrades. + +The first thing upon which his eager glance fell was the bunch of +scarlet rose haws under the softly illumining radiance of the +drop-light. His eyes lighted, his lips broke into a smile--the lips +which had found it, all evening, so hard to smile with anything +resembling spontaneity. + +Hat in hand, he addressed his treasure: "I've come back to stay with +you!" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UNSUSTAINED APPLICATION + + +"Mr. Kendrick, do you understand typewriting?" + +Judge Gray's assistant looked up, a slight surprise on his face. "No, +sir, I do not," he said. + +"I am sorry. These sheets I am sending to the Capitol to be looked over +and criticised ought to be typewritten. I could send them downtown, but +I want the typist here at my elbow." + +He sat frowning a little with perplexity, and presently he reached for +the telephone. Then he put it down, his brow clearing. "This is +Saturday," he murmured. "If Roberta is at home--" + +He left the room. In five minutes he was back, his niece beside him. +Richard Kendrick had not set eyes upon her for a fortnight; he rose at +her appearance and stood waiting her recognition. She gave it, stopping +to offer him her hand as she passed him, smiling. But, this little +ceremony over, she became on the instant the business woman. Richard saw +it all, though he did his best to settle down to his work again and +pursue it with an air of absorption. + +Roberta went to a cupboard which opened from under bookshelves, and drew +therefrom a small portable typewriter. This she set upon a table beside +a window at right angles from Richard and all of twenty feet away from +him; she could hardly have put a greater distance between them. The +Judge drew up a chair for her; she removed the cover from the compact +little machine, and nodded at him. He placed his own chair beside her +table and sat down, copy in hand. + +"This is going to be a rather difficult business," said he. "There are +many points where I wish to indicate slight changes as we go along. I +can't attempt to read the copy to you, but should like to have you give +me the opening words of each paragraph as you come to it. I think I can +recall those which contain the points for revision." + +The work began. That is to say, work at the typewriter side of the room +began, and in earnest. From the first stroke of the keys it was evident +that the Judge had called to his aid a skilled worker. The steady, +smooth clicking of the machine was interrupted only at the ends of +paragraphs, when the Judge listened to the key words of the succeeding +lines. Roberta sat before that "typer" as if she were accustomed to do +nothing else for her living, her eyes upon the keys, her profile +silhouetted against the window beside her. + +As far as the mechanical part of the labour was concerned, Richard had +never seen a task get under way more promptly nor proceed with greater +or smoother dispatch. As he sat beside his own window he nearly faced +the pair at the other window. Try as he would he could not keep his mind +upon his work. It was a situation unique in his experience. That he, +Richard Kendrick, should be employed in serious work in the same room +with the niece of a prosperous and distinguished gentleman, a girl who +had not hesitated to learn a trade in which she had become proficient, +and that the three of them should spend the morning in this room +together, taking no notice of each other beyond that made necessary by +the task in hand--it was enough to make him burst out laughing. At the +same time he felt a genuine satisfaction in the situation. If he could +but work in the same room with her every day, though she should +vouchsafe him no word, how far from drudgery would the labour be then +removed! + +He managed to keep up at least the appearance of being closely engaged, +turning the leaves of books, making notes, arising to consult other +books upon the shelves. But he could not resist frequent furtive glances +at the profile outlined against the window. It was a distracting +outline, it must be freely admitted. Even upon the hill, seen against +the blue-and-purple haze, it had hardly been more so. What indeed could +a young man do but steal a look at it as often as he might? There was no +knowing when he should have such another chance. + +Things proceeded in this course without interruption until eleven +o'clock. The Judge, finding it possible to get ahead so satisfactorily +by this new method, decided to send on considerably more material to be +passed upon by his critical coadjutor at the Capitol than he had +originally intended to do at this time. But as the clock struck the hour +a caller's card was sent in to him, and with a word to Roberta he left +the room to see his visitor elsewhere. + +Roberta finished her paragraph, then sat studying the next one. She did +not look up, nor did Richard. The moments passed and the Judge did not +return. Roberta rose and threw open the window beside her, letting in a +great sweep of December air. + +Richard seized his opportunity. "Good for you!" he applauded. "Shall I +open mine?" + +"Please. It will warm up again very quickly. It began to seem stifling." + +"Not much like the place where you want to build a cabin and stay alone +in a storm. Or--not alone. You are willing to have a dog with you. What +sort of a dog?" + +"A Great Dane, I think. I have a friend who owns one. They are +inseparable." + +By the worst of luck the Judge chose this moment to return, and the +windows went down with a rush. + +The Judge shivered, smiling at the pair. "You young things, all warmth +and vitality! You are never so happy as when the wind is lifting your +hair. Now I think I'm pretty vigorous for my years, but I wouldn't sit +and talk in a room with two open windows, in December." + +"Neither can we--hang it!" thought Richard. "Why couldn't that chap have +stayed a few minutes longer--when we'd just got started?" + +At luncheon-time Roberta's part in the work was not completed. Her uncle +asked for two hours more of her time and she cheerfully promised it. So +at two o'clock the stage was again set as a business office, the actors +again engaged in their parts. But at three the situation was abruptly +changed. + +"I believe there are no more revisions to be made," declared Judge Gray +with a sigh of weariness. "I have taxed you heavily, my dear, but if you +are equal to finishing these eleven sheets for me by yourself I shall be +grateful. My eyes have reached the limit of endurance, even with all the +help you have given me. I must go to my room." + +He paused by Richard's desk on his way out. "Have you finished the +abstract of the chapter on Judge Cahill?" he asked. "No? I thought you +would perhaps have covered that this morning. But--I do not mean to +exact too much. It will be quite satisfactory if you can complete it +this afternoon." + +"I am sorry," said his assistant, flushing in a quite unaccustomed +manner. "I have been working more slowly than I realized. I will finish +it as rapidly as I can, sir." + +"Don't apologize, Mr. Kendrick. We all have our slow days. I undoubtedly +underestimated the amount of time the chapter would require. Good +afternoon to you." + +Richard sat down and plunged into the task he now saw he had merely +played with during the morning. By a tremendous effort he kept his eyes +from lifting to the figure at the typewriter, whose steady clicking +never ceased but for a moment at a time, putting him to shame. Yet try +as he would he could not apply himself with any real concentration; and +the task called for concentration, all he could command. + +"You are probably not used to working in the same room with a +typewriter," said his companion, quite unexpectedly, after a full half +hour of silence. She had stopped work to oil a bearing in her machine. +There was an odd note in her voice; it sounded to Richard as if she +meant: "You are not used to doing anything worth while." + +"I don't mind it in the least," he protested. + +"I'm sorry not to take my work to another room," Roberta went on, +tipping up her machine and manipulating levers with skill as she applied +the oil. "But I shall soon be through." + +"Please don't hurry. I ought to be able to work under any conditions. +And I certainly enjoy having you at work in the same room," he ventured +to add. It was odd how he found himself merely venturing to say to this +girl things which he would have said without hesitation--putting them +much more strongly withal--to any other girl he knew. + +"One needs to be able to forget there's anybody in the same room." There +was a little curl of scorn about her lips. + +"That might be easier to do under some conditions than others." He did +not mean to be trampled upon. + +But Roberta finished her oiling in silence and again applied herself to +her typing with redoubled energy. + +He went at his abstract, suddenly furious with himself. He would show +her that he could work as persistently as she. He could not pretend to +himself that she was not absorbed. Only entire absorption could enable +her to reel off those pages without more than an infrequent stop for the +correction of an error. + +Turning a page in the big volume of records of speeches in the State +Legislature, which he was consulting, Richard came upon a sheet of paper +on which was written something in verse. His eye went to the bottom of +the sheet to see there the source of the quotation--Browning--with +reference to title and page. No harm to read a quoted poem, certainly; +his eyes sought it eagerly as a relief from the sonorous phrasing of the +speech he was attempting to read. He had never seen the words before; +the first line--and he must read to the end. What a thing to find in a +dusty volume of forgotten speeches of a date long past! + +Such a starved bank of moss + Till, that May-morn, +Blue ran the flash across: + Violets were born! + +Sky--what a scowl of cloud + Till, near and far, +Ray on ray split the shroud: + Splendid, a star! + +World--how it walled about + Life with disgrace +Till God's own smile came out: + That was thy face! + +Speeches were forgotten; he devoured the words over and over again. They +seemed to him to have been made expressly for him. A starved bank of +moss--that was exactly what he had been, only he had not known it, but +had fancied himself a garden of rich resource. He knew better now, +starved he was, and starved he would remain--unless he could make the +violets his own. No doubt but he had found them! + +He followed an impulse. Rising, the sheet of yellowed paper in his hand, +he walked over to the typewriter. Without apology he laid the sheet upon +the pile of typed ones at her side. + +"See what I've found in an old volume of state speeches." + +Roberta's busy hand stopped. Her eyes scanned the yellow page upon which +the stiff, fine handwriting, clearly that of a man, stood out legibly as +print. Business woman she might be, but she could not so far abstract +herself as not to be touched by the hint of romance involved in finding +such words in such a place. + +"How strange!" she owned. "And they've been there a long time, by the +look of the paper and ink. I never saw the handwriting before. Perhaps +Uncle Calvin lent the book to somebody long ago and the 'somebody' left +this in it." + +"Shall I put it back, or show it to Judge Gray?" + +He remained beside her though she had handed back the paper. + +"Put it back, don't you think? If you wrote out such words and left them +in a book, you would want them to stay there, not to be looked at +curiously by other eyes fifty years after." + +"That's somebody's heart there on that sheet of old paper," said he. +Apparently he was looking at the paper; in reality he was stealing a +glance past it at her down-bent face. + +"Not necessarily. Somebody may merely have been attracted by the music +of the lines. Put it back, Mr. Secretary, and concern yourself with +Judge Cahill. It's to be hoped that you won't find any more distracting +verse between his pages." + +"Why not? Oughtn't one to get all the poetry one can out of life?" + +"Not in business hours." + +He laughed in spite of himself at the failure of his effort to make her +self-conscious by any reading of such lines in his presence. Clearly she +meant to allow no personal relation to arise between them while they +were thrown together by Judge Gray's need of them. She fell to typing +again with even more energy than before, if that were possible, while +he--it must be confessed that before he laid the verses away between the +pages for another fifty years' sleep he had made note of their identity, +that he might look them up again in a seldom opened copy of the English +poet on his shelves at home. They belonged to him now! + +In half an hour more Roberta's machine stopped clicking. Swiftly she +covered it, set it away in the book-cupboard, and put her table in +order. She laid the typewritten sheets together upon Judge Gray's desk +in a straight-edged pile, a paperweight on top. In her simple dress of +dark blue, trim as any office woman's attire, she might have been a +hired stenographer--of a very high class--putting her affairs in order +for the day. + +Richard waited till she approached his desk, which she had to pass on +her way out. Then he rose to his feet. + +"Allow me to congratulate you," said he, "on having accomplished a long +task in the minimum length of time possible. I am lost in wonder that a +hand which can play the 'cello with such art can play the typewriter +with such skill." + +"Thank you." There was a flash of mirth in her eyes. "There's music in +both if you have ears to hear." + +"I have recognized that to-day." + +"You never heard it before? Music in the hammer on the anvil, in the +throb of the engine, in the hum of the dynamo." + +"And in the scratch of the pen, the pounding of the boiler shop, and +the--the--slide and grind of the trolley-car, I suppose?" + +"Indeed, yes--even in those. And there'll surely be melody in the +closing of the door which shuts you in to solitude after this +distracting day. Listen to it! Good-bye." + +He long remembered the peculiar parting look she gave him, satiric, +mischievous, yet charmingly provocative. She was keen of mind, she was +brilliant of wit, but she was all woman--no doubt of that. He was +suddenly sure that she had known well enough all day the effect that she +had had upon him, and that it had amused her. His cheek reddened at the +thought. He wondered why on earth he should care to pursue an attempt at +acquaintance with one whose manner with him was frequently so disturbing +to his self-conceit. Well, at least he must forget her now, and redeem +himself with an hour's solid effort. + +But, strange to say, although he had found it difficult to work in her +presence, in her absence he found it impossible to work at all. He stuck +doggedly to his desk for the appointed hour, then gave over the attempt +and departed. The moral of all this, which he discovered he could not +escape, was that though he had taken his university degree, and had +supplemented the academic education with the broader one of travel and +observation, he had not at his command that first requisite for +efficient labour: the power of sustained application. In a way he had +been dimly suspicious of this since the day he had begun this pretence +of work for his grandfather's old friend. To-day, at sight of a girl's +steady concentration upon a wearisome task in spite of his own +supposably diverting presence, it had been brought home to him with +force that he was unquestionably reaping that inevitable product of +protracted idleness: the loss of the power to work. + +As he drove away it suddenly occurred to him that on the morrow, instead +of coming to the house in his car, he would leave it in the garage and +walk. Between the discovery of his inefficiency and his resolution to +dispense with a hitherto accustomed luxury there may have been a subtler +connection than appears to the eye. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TRAITOROUS PROCEEDING + + +"We shall have to make our work count this week, Mr. Kendrick. Next week +I anticipate that there will be no chance whatever to do a stroke." So +spoke Judge Gray to his assistant on one Monday morning as he shook +hands with him in greeting. + +"Very well, sir," replied the young man, with, however, a sense of its +not being at all well. It was to him a regrettable fact that he seldom +saw much of the various members of the household, and of one particular +member so little that he was tempted to wonder if she ever took the +trouble to evade him. But, of course, there was always the chance of an +encounter, and he never opened the house door without the feeling that +just inside might be a certain figure on its way out. + +"Next week is Christmas week," explained Judge Gray. He stood upon the +hearth-rug, his back to the open fire, warming his hands preparatory to +taking up his pen. His fingers were apt to be a little stiff on these +December mornings. "During Christmas week this house is always given +over to such holiday doings as I don't imagine another house in town +ever knows. Christmas house-parties are plenty, I believe, but not the +sort of house-party we indulge in. I am inclined to think ours beats the +world." + +He chuckled, running his hand through the thick white locks above his +brow with a gesture which Richard had come to know meant special +satisfaction. + +"You have so many and such delightful people?" suggested his assistant. + +The white head nodded. "The house would hardly hold more, nor could they +be more delightful. You see, there are five brothers of us. I am the +eldest, Robert the youngest. Rufus, Henry, and Philip come between. +Henry and Philip live in small towns, Rufus in the country proper. Each +has a good-sized family, with several married sons and daughters who +have children of their own. It has been my brother Robert's custom for +twenty years to ask them all here for Christmas week." He began to +laugh. "If the family keeps on growing much larger I don't know that +there will be room to accommodate them all, but so far my sister has +always managed. Fortunately this is an even more roomy old homestead +than it looks. But you may easily imagine, Mr. Kendrick, that there is +very little chance for solitude and quiet work during that week." + +"I can fully imagine," agreed Richard. "And yet I can't imagine," he +amended. "I never saw such a gathering in my life." + +"Never did, eh? You must come in some time during the week and get a +glimpse of it. We have fine times, I can tell you. My old head sometimes +whirls a bit," the Judge admitted, "before the week is over, but--it's +worth it. Particularly on the night of the party. The children always +have a party on Christmas Eve in the attic. It's a great affair. No +dancing-parties nor balls in other places can be mentioned in the same +breath with it. You should see brother Rufus taking out my niece +Roberta, and brother Henry dancing with Stephen's little wife. The girls +accommodate themselves to the old-fashioned steps in great style." + +"I certainly should like to see it," Richard said, wondering if there +were any possible chance of his being invited. + +But Judge Gray offered no suggestion of the sort, and Richard made up +his mind that the Christmas Eve dance would be a strictly family affair. +"Probably the country relatives are a queer lot," he decided, "and the +Grays don't care to show them off. Still--that's not like them, either. +It's certainly like them to do such an eccentric thing as to get their +cousins all here and try to give them a good time. I should like to see +it. I should!" + +He found his thoughts wandering many times during the morning's work to +the image of Roberta dancing with the old uncle from the country. He had +never met her at any of the society dances which were now and then +honoured by his presence. Unquestionably the Grays moved in a circle +with which he was not familiar--a circle made up of people distinguished +rather for their good birth and the things which they had done than for +their wealth. Nobody in the city stood upon a higher social level than +the Grays, but they lived in a world in which the gay and fashionable +set Richard knew were totally unknown and unhonoured. + +The more he thought about it the more he wished that, if only for a +week, he were at least a sixteenth cousin of the Gray family, that he +might be present at that Christmas party. But during the week chance did +not even throw him in the way of meeting the various members of the +family proper, and when Saturday night came he had discovered no +prospect of attaining his wish. He knew that the guests were to arrive +on the following Monday. Christmas Day was on Saturday; the night of the +party then would be Friday night. And the Judge, in taking leave of him, +did not even mention again his wish that Richard might see the guests +together. + +He was coming out of the library, on his way to the hall door, hope +having died hard and his spirits being correspondingly depressed, when +Fate at last intervened in his behalf. Fate took the form of young Mrs. +Stephen Gray, descending the stairs with a two-year-old child in her +arms, such a rosy, brown-eyed cherub of a child that an older and more +hardened bachelor than Richard Kendrick need not have been suspected of +dissimulation if he had stopped short in his course as Richard did, to +admire and wonder. + +"Is that a real, live boy?" cried the young man softly. "Or have you +stolen him out of a frame somewhere?" + +Mrs. Stephen stood still, smiling, on the bottom stair, and Richard +approached with eager interest. He came close and stood looking into the +small face with eyes which took in every exquisite feature. + +"Jove!" he said, under his breath, and looked up at the young mother. "I +didn't know they made them like that." + +She laughed softly, with a mother's happy pride. "His little sister +really ought to have had his looks," she said. "But we're hoping she'll +develop them, and he'll grow plain in time to save him from being +spoiled." + +"Do you really hope that?" he laughed incredulously. "Don't hope it too +fast. See here, Boy, are you real? Come here and let me see." He held +out his arms. + +"He's very shy," began Mrs. Stephen in explanation of the situation she +now expected to have develop. It did develop in so far that the child +shyly buried his head in her shoulder. But in a moment he peeped out +again. Richard continued to hold out his arms, smiling, and suddenly the +little fellow leaned forward. Richard gently drew him away from his +mother, and, though he looked back at her as if to make sure that she +was there, he presently seemed to surrender himself with confidence into +the stranger's care and gave him back smile for smile. + +Richard sat down with little Gordon Gray on his knee, and then ensued +such a conversation between the two, such a frolic of games and smiles, +as his mother could only regard in wonder. + +"He never makes friends easily," she said. "I can't understand it. You +must have had plenty of experience with little children somehow, in +spite of those statements about your never having seen a family like +ours before." + +"I never held a child like this one before in my life," said Richard +Kendrick. He looked up at her as he spoke. + +"If Roberta could see him now," thought Mrs. Stephen, "she wouldn't be +so hard on him. No man who isn't worth knowing can win a baby's +confidence like that. I think he has one of the nicest faces I ever +saw--even though it isn't lined with care." Aloud she said: "It +surprises me that you should care to begin now." + +"It's one of those new experiences I'm getting from time to time under +this roof; that's the only way I can account for it. I never even +guessed at the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a small chap like +this. But I've no right to keep you while I taste new experiences. Thank +you for this one. I shan't forget it." + +He surrendered the boy with evident reluctance. "I hear you are to have +a houseful of guests next week," he ventured to add. "Do they include +any first cousins of this little man?" + +"Two--of his own age--and any number of older ones. I'll take you up to +the playroom some afternoon next week and show you the babies together, +if you're interested, and if Uncle Calvin will let me interrupt his work +for a few minutes." + +"Thank you; I'll gladly come to the house for that special purpose, if +you'll let me know when. Judge Gray has decided not to try to work at +all next week; he's giving me a holiday I really don't want." + +"Are you so interested in your labours with him?" + +Their eyes met. There was something very sweet and womanly in Mrs. +Stephen's face and in the eyes which scanned his, or he would never have +dared to say what he said next. + +"Not in the work itself," he confessed frankly, "though I don't find it +as hard as I did at first. But--the association with Judge Gray, +the--well, I suppose it's really having something definite to do with my +time. Above all, just being in this house, though I don't belong to it, +is getting to seem so interesting to me that I'm afraid I shall hardly +know what to do with myself all next week." + +She could not doubt the genuineness of his admission, strange as it +sounded. So the young aristocrat was really dreading a week's vacation, +he who had done nothing but idle away his time. She felt a touch of pity +for him; yet how absurd it was! + +"I wish you could meet some of the people who will be here next week," +she said. "I wonder if you would care to?" + +"If they're anything like those of the Gray family, I already know I +should care immensely." He spoke with enthusiasm. + +"I think some of them are the most interesting people I have ever met. +My husband's Uncle Rufus, Judge Gray's brother--why, you must meet Uncle +Rufus. I'll speak to Mrs. Robert Gray about it. I'm sure if she thought +you cared she'd be delighted to have you know him. Then there's the +Christmas Eve dance. I wonder if you would enjoy that? We don't usually +have many people outside of the family, but there are always some of +Rob's and Louis's special friends asked for the dance, and I'm sure I +can arrange it. I'll mention it to Roberta." + +"Must it--er--rest with Miss Roberta? I'm afraid she won't ask me," +declared Richard anxiously. + +"Won't she? Why? She will probably say that she doesn't believe you will +enjoy it, but if I assure her that you want to come I think she will +trust me. She's very exacting as to the qualifications of the guests at +this dance, and will have nobody who isn't ready for a good time in +every unconventional way. I warn you, Mr. Kendrick, who are used to +leading cotillions, you may have to dance the Virginia reel with one of +the dear little country cousins. I wonder if you will have the +discernment to see that some of them are better worth meeting than a +good many of the girls you probably know." + +She gave him a keen, analyzing look. Small and sweet as she was, clearly +she belonged to this singular Gray family as if she had been born in it. +He met her look unflinchingly. Then his glance fell to little Gordon. + +"You trusted me with the boy," said he. "I think you may trust me with +the little country cousin--if she will do me the honour." + +"I will see that you have the chance," she assured him, and he went away +feeling like a boy who has been promised a long-desired and despaired-of +treat. + +But it was not of the Virginia reel he was thinking as he went swinging +away down the wintry street. + + * * * * * + +They were sitting, most of them, before the living-room fire, discussing +the plans for the week of the house-party, when Rosamond broke the news. + +"I've taken a great liberty," said she serenely, "for which I hope +you'll all forgive me. I've--tentatively--promised Mr. Kendrick an +invitation to the Christmas dance." + +There was a shout from Louis and Ted together. Ruth beamed with delight. +Across the fireplace Roberta shot at her sister-in-law one rebellious +glance. + +"I knew I had no right to do it," admitted Rosamond gayly. "But I knew +we always asked a few young people to swell the company to the dancing +size, and I was sure you couldn't ask anybody who would appreciate it +more." + +"Hasn't the poor fellow a chance at any other merry-making?" mocked +Louis. "Poor little millionaire! Won't anybody invite him to lead a +Christmas Eve cotillion? I believe there's to be a most gorgeous affair +of the sort at Mrs. Van Tassel Grieve's that night. Has he been +inadvertently overlooked? Not with Miss Gladys Grieve to oversee the +list of the lucky ones, I'll wager. It's a wonder he hadn't accepted +that invitation before you got in yours." + +"I didn't get mine in," was Rosamond's demure rejoinder. "I laid it in +an humbly beseeching hand." + +"How on earth did he know there was to be a dance here?" Stephen +inquired. + +"I mentioned it." + +"I had already told him of it," put in Judge Gray from the background, +where he was listening with interest. "I'm glad you asked him, Rosamond, +and I'll answer for your forgiveness. While you are inviting I should +like to invite his grandfather also. Christmas Eve is a lonely time for +him, I'll be bound, and it would do him good to meet Rufus and Phil, and +the rest again." + +"I'll tell you what we're going to end by being," murmured Louis to +Roberta:--"a 'Discontented Millionaires' Home.'" + + * * * * * + +On the stairs an hour afterward a brief but significant colloquy took +place between Rosamond Gray and her sister-in-law, Roberta. + +"Why do you mind having him come, Rob? Haven't you any charity for the +poor at Christmas time?" + +"Poor! He's poor enough, but he doesn't know it." + +"Doesn't he? The night he was here at dinner he told me he felt poor." +Rosamond's look was triumphant. "He feels it very much; he's never known +what family life meant." + +"Do you imagine he can adapt himself to the conditions of the Christmas +party? If I catch him laughing--ever so covertly--I'll send him home!" + +"You savage person! You don't expect to catch him laughing! He's a +gentleman. And I believe he's enough of a man to appreciate the aunts +and uncles and cousins, even those of them who don't patronize city +tailors and dressmakers. Why, they're perfectly delightful people, every +one of them, and he will have the discernment to see it." + +"I don't believe it. Where have you seen him that you have so much more +confidence than I have?" + +"I've had one or two little talks with him that have told me a good +deal. And this afternoon he met me as I was coming downstairs with +Gordon. Rob, what do you think? Gordon went to him exactly as he goes to +Stephen; they had the greatest time. Gordon knows better than you do +whom to trust." + +"You and Gordon are very discerning. A handsome face and a wheedling +manner--and you think you have a fine, strong character. Handsome is as +handsome does, Rosy Gray of the soft heart, and a wheedling manner is +dust and ashes compared with the ability to accomplish something worth +effort. But--bring your nice young man to the party if you like; only +take care of him. I shall be busy with the real men!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ROSES RED + + +It was certainly rather a curious coincidence that when Mr. Matthew +Kendrick and his grandson Richard entered upon the scene of the Grays' +Christmas Eve party it should be at the moment when Mr. Rufus Gray and +his niece Roberta were dancing a quadrille together. Richard had just +been received by his hosts and had turned from them to look about him, +when his searching eye caught sight of the pair. This was the precise +moment--he always afterward recalled it--when his heart gave its first +great, disconcerting leap at sight of her, such a leap as he had never +known could shake a man to the foundations. + +He had never seen precisely this Roberta before; he explained it to +himself in that way. It was a good explanation. Any sane man who saw her +for the first time that night must instantly have fallen under her +spell. + +The Christmas party was the event of the year dearest to Roberta's +heart. The planning for it, since she had been old enough to take her +part, had been in her hands; it was she who was responsible for every +detail of decoration. The great attic room, which was a glorious +playroom the rest of the year, was transformed on Christmas into a +fairyland. The results were brought about in much the same way as in +other places of revelry, with lighting and draping and the use of +evergreens and flowers; but somehow one felt that no drawing-room +similarly treated could have been half so charming as the big attic +spaces with their gables. + +And the company! At first Richard saw only the pair who danced together +in the quadrille. If he had glanced about him he might have observed +that the gaze of nearly all who were not dancing was centred upon those +two. + +Uncle Rufus was the plumpest, jolliest, most altogether delightful +specimen of the country gentleman that Richard had ever seen. His ruddy +face was clean-shaven, his heavy gray hair waved a little with a boyish +effect about his ears. He was carefully dressed in a frock coat of a cut +not so ancient as to be at all odd, and it fitted his broad shoulders +with precision. He wore a white waistcoat and a flowing black tie, which +helped to carry out the impression of his being a boy whose hair had +accidentally turned gray. As he danced he put every possible +embellishment of posture and step into his task, and when he bowed to +Roberta his attitude expressed the deepest reverence, offset only by his +laughing face as he advanced to take her hand. + +But as for the girl herself--what was she? A beauty stepping out of a +portrait by one of the masters? She wore her grandmother's ball gown of +rose-coloured brocade, and her hair was arranged in the fashion that +went with it, small curls escaping from the knot at the back of her +head, a style which set off her radiant face with peculiarly piquant +effect. Her cheeks matched her frock, and her eyes--what were her eyes? +Black stars, or wells of darkness into which a man might fall and drown +himself? + +She seemed to draw to herself, as she danced, among the soberer colours +of her elders and the white frocks of the country cousins, all the light +in the room. "I would look at something else if I could," thought +Richard to himself, "but it would be only a blur to me after looking at +her." + +When Roberta returned Uncle Rufus's bow it was with a posturing such as +Richard had seen only in plays; it struck him now that the graceful +droop of her whole figure to the floor was the most perfect thing he had +ever seen; and when her head came up and he saw her laughing face lift +again to meet her partner's, he considered the boyish old gentleman who +took her hand and led her on in the intricate figures of the dance a +person to be envied. + +"Aren't Rob and Uncle Rufus the greatest couple you ever laid eyes on?" +exulted Louis Gray, coming up to greet him. "The next is going to be a +waltz. Will you ask Mrs. Stephen? We'll let you begin easily, but shall +expect you to end by dancing with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife--which +will be no hardship when you really know her, I assure you. We indulge +in no ultra-modern dances on Christmas Eve, you see, and have no +dance-cards; it's always part of the fun to watch the scramble for +partners when the number is announced." + +So presently Richard found himself upon the floor with little Mrs. +Stephen Gray, waltzing with her according to his own discretion, though +all around them were dancers whose steps ranged from present-day methods +to the ancient fashion of turning round and round without ever a +reverse. He saw Roberta herself revolving in slow circles in an endless +spiral, piloted by the proud arm of Mr. Philip Gray. She nodded at him +past her uncle's shoulder, and he wondered seriously if she meant to +dance with elderly uncles all the evening. + +Before he could approach her she was off in the next dance with a young +cousin, a lad of seventeen. Richard himself took out one of the country +cousins to whom Mrs. Stephen had presented him, a very pretty, +fair-haired girl in white muslin and blue ribbons; and he did his best +to give her a good time. He found her pleasant company, as Mrs. Stephen +had prophesied, and at another time--any time--before he came into the +attic room to-night, he might have found no little enjoyment in her +bright society. But in his present condition his one hope and endeavour +was to get the queen of the revels, the rose of the garden, into his +possession. + +With this end in view he faithfully devoted himself to whatever partner +was given him by Louis, who had taken him in charge and was enjoying to +the full the spectacle of "Rich" Kendrick exerting himself, as he had +probably never done before, to give pleasure to those with whom he was +thrown. At last Fate and Roberta were kind to him. It was Louis, +however, who manipulated Fate in his behalf. + +Catching his sister as one of her cousins, a young son of Uncle Henry, +released her, Louis drew her into a corner--as much of a corner as one +could get into with a sister at whom, wherever she turned, half the +company was looking. + +"See here, Rob, you're not playing fair with the guest. Here's the +evening half over and you haven't given him a solitary chance. What's +the matter? You're not afraid of His Highness?" + +"This is a dance for the uncles and cousins," retorted Roberta, "not for +society young men." + +"But he's done his duty like a man and a brother. He's danced with aunts +and cousins, too, and has done it as if it were the joy of his life. But +I know what he wants and I think he deserves a reward. The next waltz +will be a peach, 'Roses Red.' Give it to the poor young millionaire, +Robby; there's a good girl." + +"Bring him here," said she with an air of resignation, and she turned to +a group of young people who had followed her as bees follow their queen. +"Not this time, dears," said she. "I'm engaged for this dance to a poor +young man who has wandered in here and must be made to feel at home." + +"Is that the one?" asked one of the pretty country cousins, indicating +Richard, who, obeying Louis's beckoning hand, was crossing the floor in +their direction. "Oh, you won't mind dancing with him. He's as nice as +he is good-looking, too." + +"I'm delighted to hear it," said Roberta. + +The next minute "the poor young man" was before her. "Am I really to +have it?" he asked her. "Will you give me the whole of it and not cut it +in two, as I saw you do with the last one?" + +"It would be rather a pity to cut 'Roses Red' in two, wouldn't it?" said +she. + +"The greatest pity in the world." He was looking at her cheek in the +last instant before they were off. Talk of roses! Was there ever a rose +like that cheek? + +Then the music sent them away upon its wings and for a space measured by +the strains of "Roses Red" Richard Kendrick knew no more of earth. Not a +word did he speak to her as they circled the great room again and again. +He did not want to mar the beauty of it by speech--ordinary exchange of +comment such as dancers feel that they must make. He wanted to dream +instead. + +"Look at Rob and Mr. Kendrick," said Ruth in Rosamond's ear. "Aren't +they the most wonderful pair you ever saw? They look as if they were +made for each other." + +"Don't tell Rob that," Rosamond warned her enthusiastic sister-in-law. +"She would never dance with him again." + +"I can't think what makes her dislike him so. Look at her face--turned +just as far away as she can get it. And she never speaks to him at all. +I've been watching them." + +"It won't hurt him to be disliked a little," declared Mrs. Stephen +wisely. "It's probably the first time in his life a girl has ever turned +away her head--except to turn it back again instantly to see if he +observed." + +"What would Forbes Westcott say if he could see them? Do you know he's +coming back soon? Then Rob will have her hands full! Do you suppose she +will marry him?" + +"Little matchmaker! I don't know. Nobody ever knows what Rob is going to +do." + +Nobody ever did, least of all her newest acquaintance. If he was to have +a moment with her after the dance he realized that he must be clever +enough to manage it in spite of her. He laid his plans, and when the +last strains of "Roses Red" were hastening to a delirious finish he had +Roberta at the far end of the room, at a point fairly deserted and close +to one of the gable corners where rugs and chairs made a resting-place +half hidden by a screen of holly. + +"Please give me just a fraction of your time," he begged. "You've been +dancing steadily all the evening; surely you're ready for a bit of +quiet." + +"I'm not as tired as I was before that dance," said she, and let him +seat her, though she still looked like some spirited creature poised for +flight. + +"Aren't you really?" His face lighted with pleasure. "I feel as if I had +had a draught of--well, something both soothing and exhilarating, but I +didn't dare to hope you enjoyed it, too." + +"Oh, yes, you did," said she coolly, looking up at him for an instant. +"You know perfectly well that you're one of the best dancers who ever +made a girl feel as if she had wings. Of course I knew you would be. The +leader of cotillions--" + +"That's the second time I've had that accusation flung at me under this +roof," said he, and his face clouded as quickly as it had lighted. "I am +beginning to wonder what kind of a crime you people think it to be a +leader of cotillions. As a matter of fact, I'm not one, for I never +accept the part when I can by any chance get out of it." + +"You have the enviable reputation of being the most accomplished person +in that rôle the town can produce. You should be proud of it." + +He pulled up a chair in front of her and sat down, looking--or trying to +look--straight into her eyes. + +"See here, Miss Gray," said he with sudden earnestness, "if that's the +only thing you think I can do you're certainly rating me pretty low." + +"I'm not rating you at all. I don't know enough about you." + +"That's a harder blow than the other one." He tried to speak lightly, +but chagrin was in his face. "If you'd just added 'and don't want to +know' you'd have finished your work of making me feel about three feet +high." + +"Would you prefer to be made to feel eight feet? Plenty of people will +do that for you. You see I so often find a yardstick measures my own +height, I know the humiliating sensation it is. And I'm never more +convinced of my own smallness than when I see my uncles and their +families at Christmas, especially Uncle Rufus. Do you know which one he +is?" + +"You were dancing with him when I came in." + +"I didn't see you come in." + +"I might have known that," he admitted with a rueful laugh. "Well, did +you dance an old-fashioned square dance with him, and is he a delightful +looking, elderly gentleman with a face like a jolly boy?" + +"Exactly that--and he's a boy in heart, too, but a man in mind. I wonder +if--" + +"He'd care to meet me? I'm sure you weren't going to ask if I'd care to +meet him. But I'd consider it an honour if he'd let me be presented to +him." + +"Now you're talking properly," said she. "It is an honour to be allowed +to know Uncle Rufus, and I think you'll feel it so." She rose. + +He got up reluctantly. "Thank you, I certainly shall," said he quite +soberly. "But--must we go this minute? Surely you can sit out one +number, and I'll promise after that to stand on my head and dance with a +broomstick if it will please your guests." + +"I've a mind to hold you to that offer," said she, with mischief in her +eyes. "But the next number is the old-time 'Lancers,' and I'm needed. +Should you like to dance it?" + +"With you? I--" + +"Of course not. With--well, with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife. You +ought to know her if you're to know him. She's just a bit lame, but we +always get her to dance the 'Lancers' once on Christmas Eve, and if you +want the dearest partner in the room you shall have her." + +"I'll be delighted, if you'll tell me how it goes. If it's like the +thing I saw you dancing I can manage it, I'm sure." + +"It's enough like it so you'll have no trouble. I'll dance opposite you +and keep you straight. See here--" and she gave him a hasty outline of +the figures. + +His eyes were sparkling as he followed her out of the alcove. To be +allowed to dance opposite Roberta and be "kept straight" by her through +the figures of an unfamiliar, old-fashioned affair like the "Lancers" +was a privilege indeed. He laughed to himself to think what certain +people he knew would say to his new idea of privilege. + +He bent before Mrs. Rufus Gray, offered her his arm, and took her out +upon the floor, accommodating his step to the little limp of his +partner. As he stood waiting with her he was observing her as he had +never before observed a woman of her years. Of all, the sweet faces, of +all the bright eyes, of all the pleasant voices--Aunt Ruth captured his +interest and admiration from the moment when she first smiled at him. + +He threw himself into the dance with the greatest heartiness. The music +was played rather slowly, to give Aunt Ruth time to get about, and the +result was almost the stately effect of a minuet. Never had he put more +grace and finish into his steps, and when he bowed to Aunt Ruth it was +as a courtier drops knee before a queen. His unfamiliarity with the +figures gave him excuse to keep his eyes upon Roberta, and she found him +a pupil to whom she had only to nod or make the slightest gesture of the +hand to show his part. + +"Did you ever see anything so fascinating as Aunt Ruth and Mr. +Kendrick?" asked Mrs. Stephen in her husband's ear as they stood looking +on. + +"There's certainly no criticism of his manner toward her," Stephen +replied. "I'll say for him that he's a pastmaster at adaptation. I'll +wager he's enjoying himself, too. It's a new experience for the society +youth." + +"Stevie, why do you all insist on making a 'society youth' of him? It's +his misfortune to have been born to that sort of thing, but I don't +believe he cares half as much for it as he does for--just this sort." + +"This is a novelty to him, that's all. And he's clever enough to see +that to please Rob he must be polite to her family. Rob is the stake +he's playing for--till some other pretty girl takes his fancy." + +Rosamond shook her head. "You all do him injustice, I believe. Of course +he admires Rob; men always do if they've any discrimination whatever. +But--there are other things that appeal to him. Stephen"--her appealing +face flushed with interest--"when you have a chance, slip out with Mr. +Kendrick and take him upstairs to see Gordon and Dorothy asleep. I just +went up; they look too dear!" + +"Why, Rosy, you don't imagine he'd care--" + +"Try him--just to please me. I could take him myself, but I'd rather you +would. I want you to look at his face when he looks at them." + +"He _has_ got round you--" began her husband, but she made him promise. + +When Stephen came upon Richard the guest was with Uncle Rufus and Aunt +Ruth. The young man was entering with great spirit into his conversation +with the pair, and they were evidently enjoying him. + +"I'll have to give him credit for possessing genuine courtesy," thought +Stephen. + +At this moment a group of young people came up and demanded the presence +of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray in another part of the room, and Richard was +set at liberty. Stephen took him by the arm. + +"Before you engage again in the antic whirl I have a special exhibit to +show you outside the ballroom. Spare me five minutes?" + +"Spare you anything," responded the guest, following Stephen out of +the room as if he wanted nothing so much as to do whatever might be +suggested to him. + +In two minutes they were downstairs and at the far end of a long +corridor which led to the rooms in a wing of the big house occupied by +the Stephen Grays. Richard was led through a pleasant living-room where +a maid was reading a book under the drop-light. She rose at their +appearance and Stephen nodded an "All right" to her. He conducted +Richard to the door of an inner room, which, as he opened it, let a rush +of cold air upon the two men entering. + +"Turn up your collar; it's winter in here," said Stephen softly. He +switched on a shaded light which revealed a nursery containing two small +beds side by side. Two large windows at the farther end of the room were +wide open, and all the breezes of the December night were playing about +the sleepers. + +The sleepers! Richard bent over them, one after the other, scanning each +rosy face. The baby girl lay upon her side, a round little cheek, a +fringe of dark eyelashes, and a tangle of fair curls showing against the +pillow. The boy was stretched upon his back, his arms outflung, his head +turned toward the light so that his face was fully visible. If he had +been attractive with his wonderful eyes open, he was even more winsome +with them closed. He looked the picture of the sleeping angel who has +never known contact with earth. + +"I thought he would never be done looking," Stephen acknowledged +afterward when he told his exulting wife about the scene. "I was half +frozen, but he acted like a man hypnotized. Finally he looked up at me. +'Gray, you're a rich man,' said he. 'I suppose you know it or you +wouldn't have brought me up here to show me your wealth.' 'I believe I +know it,' said I. 'What does it feel like,' he asked, 'to look at these +and know they're yours?' I told him that that was a thing I couldn't +express. 'Forgive me for asking,' said he. 'No man would want to try to +express it--to another.' I began to like him after that, Rosy--I really +did. The fellow seems to have a heart that hasn't been altogether +spoiled by the sort of life he's lived. On our way upstairs he said +nothing until we were nearly back to the attic. Then he put his hand on +my arm. 'Thank you for taking me, Gray,' he said. I told him you wanted +me to do it. He only gave me a look in answer to that; but I fancy you +would have liked the look, little susceptible girl." + +It was Ted who got hold of the guest next. "I hope you're having a good +time, Mr. Kendrick," said the young son of the house, politely. "I've +been so busy myself, dancing with all my girl cousins, I haven't had +time to ask you." + +"I've been having the time of my life, Ted. I can't remember when I've +enjoyed anything so much." + +"I saw you once with Rob. You're lucky to get her. She hasn't had time +to dance once with me and I'd rather have her than any girl here, she's +so jolly. She always keeps me laughing. You and she didn't seem to be +laughing at all, though." + +"Did we look so serious? Perhaps she felt like laughing inside, though, +at my awkward steps." + +Ted stared. "Why, you're a bully dancer," he declared. "What girl are +you going to have for the Virginia reel? We always end with that--at +twelve o'clock, you know." + +"I haven't a partner, Ted. I wish you'd get me the one I want." + +"Tell me who it is and I'll try. We're going down to bring up supper +now, we fellows. Want to help?" + +"Of course I do. How is it done?" + +"Everything's in the dining-room and some of the younger ones go down. +But we boys and men go and bring up everything for the older folks. +Maybe I oughtn't to ask you, though," he hesitated. "You're company." + +"Let me be one of the family to-night," urged Richard. "I'll bring up +supper for Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray and pretend they're my aunt and +uncle, too. I wish they were." + +"I don't blame you; they _are_ the jolliest ever, aren't they? Come on, +then. Rosy's looking at us; maybe she'll tell you not to go." + +They hurried away downstairs, racing with each other to the first floor. + +"Hullo! you, too?" Louis greeted the guest from the farther side of the +table filled with all manner of toothsome viands, where he was piling up +a tray to carry aloft. "Glad to see you're game for the whole show. Take +one of those trays and load it with discretion--weight equally +distributed, or you'll get into trouble on the stairs. You're new at +this job, and it takes training." + +"I'll manage it," and the young man fell to work, capably assisted by a +maid, who showed him what to take first and how to insure its safe +delivery. + +On his way up, walking cautiously on account of the cups of smoking +bouillon which he was concerned lest he spill, he encountered a +rose-coloured brocade frock on its way down. + +"Good for you, Mr. Kendrick," hailed Roberta's voice, full and sweet. + +He paused, balancing his tray. "Why are you going down? Won't you let me +bring up yours when I've given this to Unc--to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray?" + +"Are you enjoying your task so well? Look out, keep your eye on the +tray! There's nothing so treacherous to carry as cups so full as those." + +"Stop laughing at me and I'll get through all right. All I need is a +little practice. Next time I come up I'm going to try balancing the +whole thing on my hand and carrying it shoulder-high." + +"Please practice that some time when you're all alone in your own +house." + +"I'll remember. And please remember I'm going to bring up your +supper--and my own. May we have it in the place where we were after the +dance?" + +"Yes, with six others who are waiting there already. That will be +lovely, thank you. I'll be back by the time you have everything up." + +"Of all the hard creatures to corner," thought Richard, going on upward +with his tray. "Anyhow, I can have the satisfaction of waiting on her, +which is better than nothing." + +He found it so. The six people in the gable corner proved to be of the +younger boys and girls, and, though they were all eyes and ears for +himself and Roberta, he had a sufficient sense of being paired off with +the person he wanted to keep him contented. They ate and drank merrily +enough, and the food upon his plate seemed to Richard the best he had +ever tasted at an affair of the kind. + +The evening was gone before he knew it. He could secure no more dances +with Roberta, but he had one with Ruth, during which he made up for his +silence with her sister by exchanging every comment possible during +their exhilarating occupation. He began it himself: + +"It's a real sorrow to me, Miss Ruth, to be warned that this party is +nearly over." + +"Is it, Mr. Kendrick? It would be to me if to-morrow weren't Christmas +Day. It's worth having this stop to get to that. You see, to-night we +hang up our stockings." + +"Good heavens, Miss Ruth--where? Not in front of any one chimney?" + +"No, each in our own room, at the foot of the bed. The things that won't +go into the stockings are on the breakfast-table." + +"I'll think of you when I'm waking to my solitary dressing. I never hung +up my stocking in my life." + +"You haven't!" Ruth's tone was all dismay. "But you must have had heaps +of Christmas presents?" + +"Oh, yes, I've a friend or two who present me with all sorts of +interesting articles I seldom find a use for. And when I was a little +chap I remember they always had a tree for me." + +"I don't care much for trees," Ruth confided. "I like them better in +shop windows than I do at home. But to hang up your stocking and then +find it all stuffed and knobby in the morning, with always something +perfectly delightful in the toe for the very last! Oh, I love it!" + +"I wish I were a cousin of yours, so I could look after that toe present +myself," said Richard daringly. + +"You do miss a lot of fun, not having a jolly family Christmas like +ours." + +"I'm convinced of it. See here, Miss Ruth, there's something I want you +to do for me if you will. When you waken to-morrow morning send me--a +Christmas thought. Will you? I'll be looking for it." + +Ruth drew back her head in order to look up into his face for an +instant. "A Christmas thought?" she repeated, surprised. + +He nodded. "As if I were a brother, you know, far away at the other side +of the world--and lonely. I'll really be as far away from all your +merry-making as if I were at the other side of the world, you see--and +I'm not sure but I'll be as lonely." + +"Why, Mr. Kendrick! You--lonely! I can't believe it!" Ruth almost forgot +to keep step in her surprise. "But--of course, just you and your +grandfather! Only--I've heard how popular--" + +She paused, not venturing to tell him all she had heard of his gay and +fashionable friends and how they were always inviting and pursuing him. +"Are you always lonely at Christmas?" she ended. + +"Always; though I've never realized what was the matter with me till +this year. Do you care about finishing this dance? Let's stop in this +nice corner and talk about it a minute." + +It was the same corner, deserted now, where he had twice tried to keep +her elusive sister. Ruth was easier to manage, for she was genuinely +interested. + +"Just this year," he explained, "I've found out why I've never cared for +Christmas. It's a beastly day to me. I spend it as I should Sunday--get +through with it somehow. At last I go out to dinner somewhere in the +evening, and so end the day." + +"We all go to church on Christmas morning," Ruth told him. "That's a +lovely way to spend part of the morning, I think. It gives you the real +Christmas feeling. Don't you ever do it?" + +He shook his head. "Never have; but I will to-morrow if you'll tell me +where you go." + +"To St. Luke's. The service is so beautiful, and we all have been there +since we were old enough to go. I'm sure you'll like it. Wouldn't your +grandfather like to go with you?" + +Richard stared at her. "Why, I shouldn't have thought of it. Possibly he +would. We never go anywhere together, to tell the truth." + +"That's queer, when you're both so lonely. He must be lonely, too, +mustn't he?" + +"I never thought about it," said the young man. "I suppose he is. He +never says so." + +"You never say so either, do you?" suggested the girl naïvely. + +The two looked at each other for a minute without speaking. + +"Miss Ruth," said her companion at length, lowering his eyes to the +floor and speaking thoughtfully, "I believe, to tell the truth, I'm a +selfish beast. You've put a totally new idea into my head--more shame to +me that it should be new. It strikes me that I'll try a new way of +spending Christmas; I'll see to it that whoever is lonely grandfather +isn't--if I can keep him from it." + +"You can!" cried Ruth, beaming at him. "He thinks the world of you; +anybody can see that. And you won't be lonely yourself!" + +"Won't I? I'm not so sure of that--after to-night. But I admit it's +worth trying. May I report to you how it works?" he asked, smiling. + +Ruth agreed delightedly, and, when they separated, watched with interest +to see that the new idea had already begun to work, as indicated by the +way the younger Kendrick approached the elder, who was making his +farewells. + +"Going now, grandfather?" said he, with his hand on old Matthew +Kendrick's arm. "We'll go together. I'll call James." + +"You going too, Dick?" inquired his grandfather, evidently surprised. +"That's good." + +As he took leave of Roberta, Richard found opportunity to exchange with +her ever so brief a conversation. "This has been quite a wonderful +experience to me, Miss Gray," said he. "I shall not forget it." + +Her eyes searched his for an instant, but found there only sincerity. +"You have done your part better than could have been expected," she +admitted. + +"What grudging commendation! What should you have expected? That I +should sulk in a corner because I couldn't have things all my own way?" + +She coloured richly, and he rejoiced at having put her in confusion for +an instant. "Of course not. But every one wouldn't have eyes to see the +beauties of a family party where all the fun wasn't for the young +people." + +"There was only one dance I enjoyed better than the one with Mrs. Rufus +Gray." He lowered his tone so that she could hear. "Since you have +commended me for doing as your brother bade me--be all things to all +partners--will you give me my reward by letting me tell you that I shall +never hear 'Roses Red' again without thinking of the most perfect dance +I ever had?" + +"That sounds like an appropriate farewell from the cotillion leader," +said Roberta. Then instantly she knew that in her haste to cover a very +girlish sense of pleasure in the thing he had said she herself had said +an unkind one. She knew it as a slow red came into her guest's handsome +face and his eyes darkened. Before he could speak--though, indeed, he +did not seem in haste to speak--she added, putting out her hand +impulsively: + +"Forgive me; I didn't mean it. You have been lovely to every one +to-night, and I have appreciated it. I am wrong; I think you are much +more--and have in you far more--than--as if you were only--the thing I +said." + +He made no immediate reply, though he took the hand she gave him. He +continued to look at her for so long that her own eyes fell. When he did +speak it was in a low, odd tone which she could not quite understand. + +"Miss Gray," said he, "if you want to cut a man to the quick, insist on +thinking him that which he has never had any love for being, and which +he has grown to detest the thought of. But perhaps it's a salutary sort +of surgery, for--by the powers! if I can't make you think differently of +me it won't be for lack of will. So--thank you for being hard on me, +thank you for everything. Good-night!" + +As she looked at him march away with his head up, her hand was aching +with the force of the almost brutally hard grip he had given it with +that last speech. Her final glimpse of him showed him with a tinge of +the angry red still lingering on his cheek, and a peculiar set to his +finely cut mouth which she had never noticed there before. But, in spite +of this, anything more courtly than his leave-taking of her mother and +her Aunt Ruth she had never seen from one of the young men of the day. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MR. KENDRICK ENTERTAINS + + +On their way downstairs, Matthew Kendrick and his grandson, escorted by +Louis Gray, encountered a small company of people apparently just +arrived from a train. Louis stopped for a moment to greet them, turned +them over to his brother Stephen, whom he signalled from a stair-landing +above, and went on down to the entrance-hall with the Kendricks. + +"Too bad they're late for the party," he observed. "They had written +they couldn't come, I believe. Mother will have to do a bit of figuring +to dispose of them. But the more the merrier under this roof, every +time." + +"It's rather late to be putting people up for the night," Richard +observed. "Your mother will be sending some of them to a hotel, I +imagine. Couldn't we"--he glanced at his grandfather--"have the pleasure +of taking them in our car? or of sending it back for them, if there are +too many?" + +"Thank you, but I've no doubt mother can arrange--" Louis Gray began, +when old Matthew Kendrick interrupted him: + +"We can do better than that, Dick," said he. He turned to Louis. "We +will wait," said he, "while you present my compliments to your mother +and say that it will give me great satisfaction if she will allow me to +entertain an overflow party of her guests." + +Hardly able to believe his ears, Richard stared at his grandfather. What +had come over him, who had lived in such seclusion for so many years, +that he should be offering hospitality at midnight to total strangers? +He smiled to himself. But the next moment a thought struck him. + +"Grandfather," he said hurriedly, "why not specially invite that +delightful couple--the one they call 'Uncle Rufus' and his wife?" + +"An excellent idea," Mr. Kendrick agreed, "though they might not be +willing to make the change at so late an hour." + +"People who were dancing with spirit ten minutes ago will be ready to +travel right now," prophesied Richard. He took flying leaps up the +stairs in pursuit of Louis. Catching him on the next floor, he made his +request known. Louis received it without sign of surprise, but inwardly, +as he hurried away, he was speculating upon what agencies could be at +work with the young man, that he should be so eager to do this deed of +extraordinary friendliness. + +Mrs. Gray hesitated over Matthew Kendrick's invitation, although her +hospitable home was already crowded to the roof-tree. But, taking Judge +Calvin Gray into her counsels, she was so strongly advised by him to +accept the offer that she somewhat reluctantly consented to do so. + +"It's great, Eleanor, simply great!" he urged. "It will do my friend +Matthew mere good than anything that has happened to him in a +twelvemonth. As for young Richard--from what I've seen to-night you've +nothing to fear from his part in the affair. Let them have Rufus and +Ruth--they'll enjoy it hugely. And give them as many more as will +relieve the congestion. Matthew could take care of a regiment in that +stone barracks of his." + +"Sending Rufus and Ruth would give me quite space enough," she declared. +"Rufus has the largest room in the house, and I could put this last +party there. It is really very kind of Mr. Kendrick, and I shall be glad +to solve my problem in that way, since you think it best." + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, having the question put to them, acceded to it +with readiness. Both had been warmly drawn toward Richard, and though +his grandfather had seemed to them a figure of somewhat unnecessarily +dignified reserve, the mere fact of his extending the invitation at all +was to them sufficient proof of his cordiality. + +"It's nothing at all to pack up," Mrs. Rufus asserted. "I'll just take +what I need for the night, and we'll be coming over for the tree in the +morning, so I can get my other things then. I shall call it a real treat +to be inside the home of such a wealthy man. How lonely he must be, +living in such a great house, with only his grandson!" + +So Aunt Ruth descended the stairs, wearing her little gray silk bonnet +and a heavy cape of gray cloth, her hand on her husband's arm, her +bright eyes shining with anticipation. Aunt Ruth dearly loved a bit of +excitement and seldom found much in her quiet life upon the farm. As +Matthew Kendrick looked up and saw her coming slowly down, her husband +carefully adjusting himself to the dip and swing of her step as she put +always the same foot foremost, he found himself distinctly glad of his +grandson's suggestion, since it gave him so charming a guest to +entertain as Mrs. Rufus Gray. + +In the interval Richard had retired to a telephone, and had made the +wires between his present position and the stone pile warm with his +orders. In consequence a certain gray-haired housekeeper, lately +returned from some family festivities of her own and about to retire, +found herself galvanized into activity by the sound of a well-known and +slightly imperious voice issuing upsetting instructions to have the best +suite of rooms in the house made ready within half an hour for +occupancy, and the house itself lighted for the reception of the guests. +Other commands to butler and Mr. Richard's own manservant followed in +quick succession, and when the young man turned away from the telephone +he was again smiling to himself at thought of the consternation he was +causing in a household accustomed to be run upon such lines of +conservatism and well defined routine that any deviation therefrom was +likely to prove most unacceptable. He himself was at home there such a +small portion of his time, and during the periods he spent there was so +careful never to bring within its walls any festival-making of his own, +he knew just how astonishing to the middle-aged housekeeper, the +solemn-faced old butler, and the rest of them, would be these midnight +orders. He was enjoying the giving of such orders all the more for that! + +Old Matthew Kendrick assisted Mrs. Rufus Gray into his luxuriously +fitted, electric-lighted town-car as if she had been a royal personage, +wrapping about her soft, thick rugs until she was almost lost to view. + +"Why, I couldn't be cold in this shut-in place," she protested. "Not a +breath could touch any one in here, I should say." + +"I should call it pretty snug," Rufus Gray agreed with his wife, looking +about him at the comfortable appointments of the car. "But there's just +one thing a carriage like this wouldn't be good for, and that's taking a +party of young folks on a sleigh ride, on a snapping winter's night!" +His bright brown eyes regarded those of Matthew Kendrick with some +curiosity. "I reckon you never took that sort of a ride, when you were a +boy?" he queried. + +"Yes, yes, I have--many a time," Mr. Kendrick insisted. "And great times +we had. Boys and girls needed no electricity to keep them comfortable on +the coldest of nights. It's my grandson Richard who feels this sort of +thing a necessity. Until he came home a carriage and pair had been all +the equipage I needed." + +"Grandfather is getting where a little extra warmth on a blustering +winter's day is essential to his comfort," Richard declared, feeling a +curious necessity, somehow, to justify the use of the expensive and +commodious equipage in the eyes of the country gentleman who seemed to +regard it so lightly. + +"It's very nice," Mrs. Gray said quickly. "I should hardly know I was +outdoors at all. And how smoothly it runs along over the streets. The +young man out there in front must be a very good driver, I should think. +He doesn't seem to mind the car-tracks at all." + +"No, Rogers doesn't bother much about car-tracks," Richard agreed +gravely. "His idea is to get home and to bed." + +"It is pretty late--and I'm afraid waiting for us has made you a good +deal later than you would have been," said Mrs. Gray regretfully. + +"Not a bit--no, no." + +"We'll go right to our room as soon as we get there," said she, "and you +mustn't trouble to do a thing extra for us." + +"It's going to be a great pleasure to have you under our roof," the +young man assured her, smiling. + +Arrived at the great stone mansion which was the well-known residence of +Matthew Kendrick, as it had been of his family for several generations, +Richard stared up at it with a sense of strangeness. Except for the +halls and dining-room, his grandfather's quarters and his own, he could +not remember seeing it lighted as other homes were lighted, with rows of +gleaming windows here and there, denoting occupancy by many people. Now, +one whole wing, where lay the special suite of guest-rooms used at long +intervals for particularly distinguished persons, was brilliantly +shining out upon the December night. + +The car drew up beneath a massive covered entrance-porch, and a great +door swung back. A heavy-eyed, elderly butler admitted the party, which +were ushered into an impressive but gloomy and inhospitable looking +reception-room. Matthew Kendrick glanced somewhat uncertainly at his +nephew, who promptly took things in charge. + +"I thought perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Gray would have some sandwiches +and--er--something more--with us, before they go to their rooms," +Richard suggested, nodding at Parks, the heavy-eyed. + +"Yes, yes--" agreed Mr. Kendrick, but Mrs. Rufus broke in upon him. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Kendrick!" she cried softly, much distressed. "Please don't +think of such a thing--at this hour. And we've just had refreshments at +Eleanor's. Don't let us keep you up a minute. I'm sure you must be tired +after this long evening." + +"Not at all, Madam. Nor do you yourself look so," responded Matthew +Kendrick, in his somewhat stately manner. "But you may be feeling like +sleep, none the less. If you prefer you shall go to your rest at once." +He turned to his grandson again. "Dick--" + +"I'll take them up," said that young man, eagerly. He offered his arm to +Aunt Ruth. + +Uncle Rufus looked about him for the hand-bag which his wife had so +hurriedly packed. "We had a little grip--" said he, uncertainly. + +"We'll find it upstairs, I think," Richard assured him, and led the way +with Aunt Ruth. "I'm sorry we have no lift," he said to her, "but the +stairs are rather easy, and we'll take them slowly." + +Aunt Ruth puzzled a little over this speech, but made nothing of it and +wisely let it go. The stairs were easy, extremely easy, and so heavily +padded that she seemed to herself merely to be walking up a slight, +velvet-floored incline. The whole house, it may be explained, was fitted +and furnished after the style of that period in the latter half of the +last century, when heavily carpeted floors, heavily shrouded windows, +heavily decorated walls, and heavily upholstered chairs were considered +the essentials of luxury and comfort. Old Matthew Kendrick had never +cared to make any changes, and his grandson had had too little interest +in the place to recommend them. The younger man's own private rooms he +had altered sufficiently to express his personal tastes, but the rest of +the house was to him outside the range of his concern. The whole place, +including his own quarters, was to him merely a sort of temporary +habitation. He had no plans in relation to it, no sense of +responsibility in regard to it. When he had ordered the finest suite of +rooms in the house to be put in readiness for the guests, it was +precisely as he would have requested the management of a great hotel to +place at his disposal the best they had to offer. To tell the truth, he +had no recollection at all of how the rooms looked or what their +dimensions were. + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, entering the first room of the series, a large +and elaborately furnished apartment with the effect of a drawing-room, +much gilt and brocade and many mirrors in evidence, looked at Richard in +some surprise, as he seated them. He himself went to the door of a +second room, glanced in, nodded, and returned to his guests. + +"I hope you will find everything you want in there," he said. "If you +don't, please ring. You will see your dressing-room on the left, Mr. +Gray. I will send you my man in the morning to see if he can do anything +for you." + +"I shan't need any man, thank you," protested Mr. Gray. + +When, after lingering a minute or two, their young host had bade them +good-night and left them, the elderly pair looked at each other. Uncle +Rufus's eyes were twinkling, but in his wife's showed a touch of soft +indignation. + +"It seems like making a joke of us," said she, "to put us in such a +place as this, when he can guess what we're used to." + +"He doesn't mean it as a joke," her husband protested good-humouredly. +"He wants to give us the best he's got. I don't mind a mite. To be sure, +I could get along with one looking-glass to shave myself in, but it's +kind of interesting to know how many some folks think necessary when +they aren't limited. Let's go look in our sleeping-room. Maybe that's a +little less princely." + +Aunt Ruth limped slowly across the Persian carpet, and stood still in +the doorway of the room Richard had designated as hers. Uncle Rufus +stared in over her small shoulder. + +"Well, well," he chuckled. "I reckon Napoleon Bonaparte wouldn't have +thought this any too fine for him, but it sort of dazzles me. I'm glad +somebody's got that bed ready to sleep in. I shouldn't have been sure +'twas meant for that, if they hadn't. There seems to be another room on +behind this one--what's that?" + +He marched across and looked in. "Now, if I was rich, I wouldn't mind +having one of these opening right out of my room. What there isn't in +here for keeping yourself clean can't be thought of." + +"Rufus," said his wife solemnly, following him into the white-tiled +bathroom, "I want you should look at these bath-towels. I never in my +life set eyes on anything like them. They must have cost--I don't know +what they cost--I didn't know there were such bath-towels made!" + +"I don't want to wrap myself in a blanket," asserted her husband. "I +want to know I've got a towel in my hand, that I can whisk round me and +slap myself with. Look here, let's get to bed. We could sit up all night +examining round into our accommodations. For my part, Eleanor's style of +living suits me a good deal better than this kind of elegance. Her house +is fine and comfortable, but no foolishness. There's one thing I do +like, though. This carpet feels mighty good to your bare feet, I'll make +sure!" + +He presently made sure, walking back and forth barefooted across the +soft floor, chuckling like a boy, and making his toes sink into the +heavy pile of the great rug. He surveyed his small wife, in her +dressing-gown, sitting before the wide mirror of an elaborate +dressing-table, putting her white locks into crimping pins. + +"Ruth," said he, with sudden solemnity, "I forgot to undress in my +dressing-room. Had I better put my clothes on and go take 'em off again +in there?" + +He pointed across to an adjoining room, brilliant with lights and +equipped with all manner of furnishings adapted to masculine uses. + +His wife turned about, laughing like a girl. "Maybe in there," she +suggested, "you could find a chair small enough to hang your coat across +the back of. I'm afraid it'll get all wrinkled, folded like that." + +Uncle Rufus explored. After a minute he came back. "There's a queer sort +of bureau-thing in there all filled with coat-and-pants hangers," he +announced. "I'm going to put my things in it. It'll keep 'em from +getting wrinkled, as you say." + +When he returned: "There's another bed in there," he said. "I don't know +what it's for. It's got the covers all turned back, too, just like this +one. Maybe we've made a mistake. Maybe there's somebody that has that +room, and he hasn't come in yet. Do you suppose I'd better shut the door +between?" + +"Maybe you had," agreed his wife anxiously. "It would be dreadful if he +should come in after a while. Still--young Mr. Kendrick called it your +dressing-room." + +"And my clothes are in there," added Uncle Rufus. "It's all right. +Probably the girl made a mistake when she fixed that bed--thought there +was a child with us, maybe." + +"You might just shut the door," Aunt Ruth suggested. "Then if anybody +did come in--" + +Uncle Rufus shook his head. "It's meant for us," he asserted with +conviction as he climbed into bed. "He said 'dressing-room' and pointed. +The girl's made a mistake, that's all. It's a good place for my clothes, +and I'm going to leave 'em there. Will you put out the lights?" + +Aunt Ruth looked around the wall. "I can never get used to electric +lights at Eleanor's," said she. "And I don't see the place here, at +all." + +She searched for the switches some time in vain, but at length +discovered them and succeeded in extinguishing the lights of the room +the pair were in. But the lights of the adjoining rooms still burned +with brilliancy. + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed softly. Then she appealed to her husband. + +Uncle Rufus, who had nearly fallen asleep while his wife had been +searching, spoke without opening his eyes. "Shut all the doors and leave +'em going," he advised, + +"Oh, no, I can't do that! Think of the cost, running all night so." + +"I reckon they can afford it," he commented drowsily. + +But Aunt Ruth continued to hunt, first in the large outer room which +looked like a drawing-room, and possessed an elaborate central +electrolier whose control, even after she discovered the switch, caused +the little lady considerable perplexity. When she had at length +succeeded in extinguishing the illumination she returned, guided by the +lights in the other rooms. The bathroom keys were soon found, and then +she applied herself to discovering those in the dressing-room. These +eluded her for some minutes, but at length, all lights being turned off, +Aunt Ruth found herself in total darkness. She groped about in it for +some time without success, for the heavy curtains had been closely +drawn, and not a ray of light penetrated the spacious rooms from any +quarter. After having followed the wall for what seemed an interminable +distance without reaching a recognizable position, she was forced to +call to her husband. He was asleep, and responded only after being many +times addressed. Then he sat up in bed. + +"Hey? What? What's the matter?" he inquired anxiously, peering into the +darkness. + +"Nothing, dear--only I couldn't find the bed after I turned the lights +out. Keep on talking, and I'll work my way to you," answered his wife's +voice from some distance. + +Guided by his voice--he found plenty to say on the subject of putting +people to bed in the midst of large, unfamiliar spaces--she groped her +way to his side. He put out a gentle hand to welcome her, and as she +took her place the two fell to laughing softly over the whole situation. + +"Why," said Uncle Rufus, "for all I've slept for forty years in the same +room--and a pretty sizable room I've always thought it--I've never got +so I could plough a straight furrow through it in the dark. I reckon a +lifetime would be too short to get to know my way round this +plantation." + +He could with difficulty be restrained from telling Richard about the +incident next morning, when that young man came to their rooms to escort +them down to breakfast. + +"I'm glad to have somebody pilot me," Uncle Rufus declared, his eyes +twinkling as he followed after his wife, who leaned on Richard's arm. "A +man must have a pretty good sense of direction to keep his bearings in a +house as big as this." + +Richard laughed. "It's rather a straight road to the dining-room. I +think I must have worn a path there since I came. Here we are--and +here's grandfather down before us. He's the first one in the house to be +up, always." + +Matthew Kendrick advanced to meet his guests, shaking hands with great +cordiality. + +"It seems very wonderful, Madam Gray," said he, "to have a lady in the +house on Christmas morning. Will you do me the honour to take this +seat?" He put her in a chair before a massive silver urn, under which +burned a spirit lamp. "And will you pour our coffee? It's many a year +since we've had coffee served from the table, poured by a woman's hand." + +"Why, I should be greatly pleased to pour the coffee," cried Aunt Ruth +happily. Her bright glance was fastened upon a mass of scarlet flowers +in the centre of the table, for which Richard had sent between dark and +daylight. He smiled across the table at her. + +"Are they real?" she breathed. + +"Absolutely! Splendid colour, aren't they? I can't remember the name, +but they look like Christmas." + +Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Rufus Gray had ever in their lives eaten such a +breakfast as was now served to them. Such extraordinary fruits, such +perfectly cooked game, such delicious food of various sorts--they could +only taste and wonder. Richard, with a young man's healthy appetite, +kept them company, but his grandfather made a frugal meal of toast, +coffee, and a single egg, quite as if he were more accustomed to such +simple fare than to any other. + +The breakfast over, Mr. Kendrick took them to his own private rooms, to +show them a painting of which he had been telling them. Richard +accompanied them, having constituted himself chief assistant to Mrs. +Gray, to whom he had taken a boyish liking which was steadily growing. +Establishing her in a comfortable armchair, he sat down beside her. + +"Now, Mr. Richard," said she, presently, while Mr. Matthew Kendrick and +her husband were discussing an interesting question over their cigars in +an adjoining room--Mr. Kendrick's adherence to the code of an earlier +day making it impossible for him to think of smoking in the presence of +a lady--"I wonder if there isn't something you would let me do for you. +You and your grandfather living alone, so, you must have things that +need a woman's hand. While I sit here I'd enjoy mending some socks or +gloves for you." + +Richard looked at her. The sincerity of her offer was so evident that he +could not turn it aside with an evasion or a refusal. But he had not an +article in the world that needed mending. When things of his reached +that stage they were invariably turned over to his man, Bliss. He +considered. + +"That's certainly awfully kind of you, Mrs. Gray," said he. "But--have +you--" + +She put her hand into a capacious pocket and produced therefrom a tiny +"housewife," stocked with thimble, needles, and all necessary +implements. + +"I never go without it," said she. "There's always somebody to be mended +up when you least expect it. My niece Roberta tripped on one of her +flounces last night, dancing--and not being used to dancing in such +full, old-fashioned skirts. Rosy was starting to pin it up, but I +whipped out my kit--and how they laughed, to see a pocket in a best +dress!" She laughed herself, at the recollection. "But I had Robby sewed +up in less time than it takes to tell it--much better than pinning!" + +"How beautifully she danced those old-fashioned dances," Richard +observed eagerly. "It was a great pleasure to see her." + +"Yes, it's generally a pleasure to see Robby do things," Roberta's aunt +agreed. "She goes into them with so much vim. When she comes out to +visit us on the farm it's the same way. She must have a hand in the +churning, or the sweeping, or something that'll keep her busy. Aren't +you going to get me the things, Mr. Richard?" + +The young man hastened away. Arrived before certain drawers and +receptacles, he turned over piles of hosiery with a thoughtful air. +Presently selecting a pair of black silk socks of particularly fine +texture, he deliberately forced his thumb through either heel, taking +care to make the edges rough as possible. Laughing to himself, he then +selected a pair of gray street gloves, eyed them speculatively for a +moment, then, taking out a penknife, cut the stitches in several places, +making one particularly long rent down the side of the left thumb. He +regarded these damages doubtfully, wondering if they looked entirely +natural and accidental; then, shaking his head, he gathered up the socks +and gloves and returned with them to Aunt Ruth. + +She looked them over. "For pity's sake," said she, "you wear out your +things in queer ways! How did you ever manage to get holes in your heels +right on the bottom, like that? All the folks I ever knew wear out their +heels on the back or side." + +Richard examined a sock. "That is rather odd," he admitted. "I must have +done it dancing." + +"I shall have to split my silk to darn these places," commented Aunt +Ruth. "These must be summer socks, so thin as this." She glanced at the +trimly shod foot of her companion and shook her head. "You young folks! +In my day we never thought silk cobwebs' warm enough for winter." + +"Tell me about your day, won't you, please?" the young man urged. "Those +must have been great days, to have produced such results." + +The little lady found it impossible to resist such interest, and was +presently talking away, as she mended, while her listener watched her +flying fingers and enjoyed every word of her entertaining discourse. He +artfully led her from the past to the present, brought out a tale or two +of Roberta's visits at the farm, and learned with outward gravity but +inward exultation that that young person had actually gone to the +lengths of begging to be allowed to learn to milk a cow, but had failed +to achieve success. + +"I can't imagine Miss Roberta's failing in anything she chose to +attempt," was his joyous comment. + +"She certainly failed in that." Aunt Ruth seemed rather pleased herself +at the thought. "But then she didn't really go into it seriously--it was +because Louis put her up to it--told her she couldn't do it. She only +really tried it once--and then spent the rest of the morning washing her +hair. Such a task--it's so heavy and curly--" Aunt Ruth suddenly stopped +talking about Roberta, as if it had occurred to her that this young man +looked altogether too interested in such trifles as the dressing of +certain thick, dark locks. + +Presently, the mending over, the Grays were taken, according to promise, +back to the Christmas celebrations in the other house, and Richard, +returning to his grandfather, proposed, with some unwonted diffidence of +manner, that the two attend service together at St. Luke's. + +The old man looked up at his grandson, astonishment in his face. + +"Church, Dick--with you?" he repeated. "Why, I--" He hesitated. "Did the +little lady we entertained last night put that into your head?" + +"She put several things into my head," Richard admitted, "but not that. +Will you go, sir? It's fully time now, I believe." + +Matthew Kendrick's keen eyes continued to search his grandson's face, to +Richard's inner confusion. Outwardly, the younger man maintained an +attitude of dignified questioning. + +"I am willing to go," said Mr. Kendrick, after a moment. + +At St. Luke's, that morning, from her place in the family pew, Ruth +Gray, remembering a certain promise, looked about her as searchingly as +was possible. Nowhere within her line of vision could she discern the +figure of Richard Kendrick, but she was none the less confident that +somewhere within the stately walls of the old church he was taking part +in the impressive Christmas service. When it ended and she turned to +make her way up the aisle, leading a bevy of young cousins, her eyes, +beneath a sheltering hat-brim, darted here and there until, unexpectedly +near-by, they encountered the half-amused but wholly respectful +recognition of those they sought. As Ruth made her slow progress toward +the door she was aware that the Kendricks, elder and younger, were close +behind her, and just before the open air was reached she was able to +exchange with Richard a low-spoken question and answer. + +"Wasn't it beautiful? Aren't you glad you came?" + +"It _was_ beautiful, Miss Ruth--and I'm more than glad I came." + + * * * * * + +Several hours earlier, on that same Christmas morning, Ruth had rushed +into Roberta's room, crying out happily: + +"Flowers--flowers--flowers! For you and Rosy and mother and me! They +just came. Mr. Richard Loring Kendrick's card is in ours; of course it's +in yours. Here are yours; do open the box and let me see! Mother's are +orchids, perfectly wonderful ones. Rosy's are mignonette, great +clusters, a whole armful--I didn't know florists grew such +richness--they smell like the summer kind. She's so pleased. Mine are +violets and lilies-of-the-valley. I'm perfectly crazy over them. +Yours--" + +Roberta had the cover off. Roses! Somehow she had known they would be +roses--after last night. But such roses! + +Ruth cried out in ecstasy, bending to bury her face in the glorious +mass. "They're exactly the colour of the old brocade frock, Robby," she +exulted. She picked up the card in its envelope. "May I look at it?" she +asked, with her fingers already in the flap. "Ours all have some +Christmas wish on, and Rosy's adds something about Gordon and Dorothy." + +"You might just let me see first," said Roberta carelessly, stretching +out her hand for the card. Ruth handed it over. Roberta turned her head. +"Who's calling?" she murmured, and ran to the door, card in hand. + +"I didn't hear any one," Ruth called after her. + +But Roberta disappeared. Around the turn of the hall she scanned her +card. + +"_Thorns to the thorny_," she read, and stood staring at the unexpected +words written in a firm, masculine hand. That was all. Did it sting? +Yet, curiously enough, Roberta rather liked that odd message. + +When she came back, Ruth, in the excitement of examining many other +Christmas offerings, had rushed on, leaving the box of roses on +Roberta's bed. The recipient took out a single rose and examined its +stem. Thorns! She had never seen sharper ones--and not one had been +removed. But the rose itself was perfection. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OPINIONS AND THEORIES + + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray were the last to leave the city, after the +house-party. They returned to their brother Robert's home for a day, +when the other guests had gone, and it was on the evening before their +departure that they related their experiences while at the house of +Matthew Kendrick. With most of the members of the Gray household, they +were sitting before the fire in the living-room when Aunt Ruth suddenly +spoke her mind. + +"I don't know when I've felt so sorry for the too rich as I felt in that +house," said she. She was knitting a gray silk mitten, and her needles +were flying. + +"Why, Aunt Ruth?" inquired her nephew Louis, who sat next her, revelling +in the comfort of home after a particularly harassing day at the office. +"Did they seem to lack anything in particular?" + +"I should say they did," she replied. "Nothing that money can buy, of +course, but about everything that it can't." + +"For instance?" he pursued, turning affectionate eyes upon his aunt's +small figure in its gray gown, as the firelight played upon it, touching +her abundant silvering locks and making her eyes seem to sparkle almost +as brilliantly as her swiftly moving needles. + +Aunt Ruth put down her knitting for an instant, looking at her nephew. +"Why, you know," said she. "You're sitting in the very middle of it this +minute!" + +Louis looked about him, smiling. He was, indeed, in the midst of an +accustomed scene of both home-likeness and beauty. The living-room was +of such generous proportions that even when the entire family were +gathered there they could not crowd it. On a wide couch, at one side of +the fireplace, sat his father and mother, talking in low tones +concerning some matter of evident interest, to judge by their intent +faces. Rosamond, like the girl she resembled, sat, girl fashion, on a +pile of cushions close by the fire; and Stephen, her husband, not far +away, by a table with a drop-light, was absorbed in a book. Uncle Rufus +was examining a pile of photographs on the other side of the table. Ted +sprawled on a couch at the far end of the room, deep in a boy's +magazine, a reading light at his elbow. At the opposite end of the room, +where the piano stood, Roberta, music rack before her, was drawing her +bow across nearly noiseless strings, while Ruth picked softly at her +harp: indications of intention to burst forth into musical strains when +a hush should chance to fall upon the company. + +Judge Calvin Gray alone was absent from the gathering, and even as +Louis's eyes wandered about the pleasant room, his uncle's figure +appeared in the doorway. As if he were answering his sister Ruth, Judge +Gray spoke his thought. + +"I wonder," said he, advancing toward the fireside, "if anywhere in this +wide world there is a happier family life than this!" + +Louis sprang up to offer Judge Gray the chair he had been occupying--a +favourite, luxuriously cushioned armchair, with a reading light beside +it ready to be switched on at will, which was Uncle Calvin's special +treasure, of an evening. Louis himself took up his position on the +hearth-rug, opposite Rosamond. + +Aunt Ruth answered her brother energetically: "None happier, Calvin, +I'll warrant, and few half as happy. I can't help wishing those two +people Rufus and I've been visiting could look in here just now." + +"Why make them envious?" suggested Louis, who loved to hear his Aunt +Ruth's crisp speeches. + +"The question is--would they be envious?" This came from Stephen, whose +absorption in his book evidently admitted of penetration from the +outside. + +"Why, of course they would!" declared Aunt Ruth. "You should have seen +the way they had me pour the coffee and tea, all the while I was there. +That young man Richard was always getting me to pour something--said he +liked to see me do it. And he was always sending a servant off and doing +things for me himself. If I'd been a young girl he couldn't have hovered +round any more devotedly." + +A general laugh greeted this, for Aunt Ruth's expression of face as she +told it was provocative. + +"We can readily believe that, Ruth," declared Judge Gray, and his +brother Robert nodded. The low-voiced talk between Mr. Robert Gray and +his wife had ceased; Stephen had laid down his book; Ruth had stopped +plucking at her harp strings; and only Roberta still seemed interested +in anything but Aunt Ruth and her experiences and opinions. + +"I mended his socks and gloves for him," announced Aunt Ruth +contentedly. "You needn't tell me they don't miss a woman's hand about +the house, over there." + +"She mended Rich Kendrick's socks and gloves!" murmured Louis, with a +laughing, incredulous glance at Rosamond, who lifted delighted eyes to +him. "I can't believe it. He must have made holes in them on purpose." + +"Why, not even a spendthrift would do that!" Aunt Ruth promptly denied +the possibility of such folly. "I don't say but they are lavish with +things there. Rufus and I were a good deal bothered by all their lights. +We couldn't seem to get them all put out. And every time we put them +out, anywhere, somebody'd turn them on again for us." + +Uncle Rufus broke in here, narrating their experience with the various +switch-buttons in the suite of rooms, and the company laughed until they +wept over his comments. + +"But all that's neither here nor there," said he, finally. "Of course we +weren't up to such elaborate arrangements, and it made us feel sort of +rustic. But I can tell you they didn't spare any pains to make us +comfortable and at home--if, as Ruth says, you can make anybody feel at +home in a great place like that. I feel, as she does, sorry for 'em +both. They're pretty fine gentlemen, if I'm any judge, and I don't know +which I like better, the older or the younger." + +"There can be no question about the older," said his brother, Robert +Gray, joining in the talk with evident interest. "Mr. Matthew Kendrick +made his place long ago in the business world as one of the great and +just. He has taught that world many fine lessons of truth and honour, as +well as of success." + +Judge Gray nodded. "I'm glad to hear that you appreciate him, Robert," +said he. "Few know better than I how deserved that is. And still fewer +recognize the fine and sensitive nature behind the impression of power +he has always given. He is the type of man, as sister Ruth here is quick +to discern, who must be lonely in the midst of his great wealth, for the +lack of just such a privilege as this we have here to-night, the close +association with people whom we love, and with whom we sympathize in all +that matters most. Matthew Kendrick was a devoted husband and father. In +spite of his grandson's presence, of late, he must sorely long for +companionship." + +"His grandson's going to give him more of that than he has," declared +Aunt Ruth, smiling over her knitting as if recalling a pleasant memory. +"He and I had quite a bit of talk while I was there, and he's beginning +to realize that he owes his grandfather more than he's given him. I had +a good chance to see what was in that boy's heart, and I know there's +plenty of warmth there. And there's real character in him, too. I've had +enough sons of my own to know the signs, and the fact that they were +poor in this world's goods, and he is rich--too rich--doesn't make a +mite of difference in the signs!" + +Mrs. Robert Gray, who had been listening with an intent expression in +eyes whose beauty was not more appealing than their power of observation +was keen, now spoke, and all turned to her. She was a woman whose +opinion on any subject of common interest was always waited for and +attended upon. Her voice was rich and low--her family did not fully know +how dear to their ears was the sound of that voice. + +"Young Mr. Kendrick," said she, "couldn't wish, Ruth, for a more +powerful advocate than you. To have you approve him, after seeing him +under more intimate circumstances than we are likely to do, must commend +him to our good will. To tell the frank truth, I have been rather afraid +to admit him to my good graces, lest there be really no great force of +character, or even promise of it, behind that handsome face and winning +manner. But if you see the signs--as you say--we must look more +hopefully upon him." + +"She's not the only one who sees signs," asserted Judge Gray. "He's +coming on--he's coming on well, in his work with me. He's learning +really to work. I admit he didn't know how when he came to me. Something +has waked him up. I'm inclined to think," he went on, with a mischievous +glance toward the end of the room where sat the noiseless musicians, "it +might have been my niece Roberta's shining example of industry when she +spent a day with us in my library, typing work for me back in October. +Never was such a sight to serve as an inspiration for a laggardly young +man!" + +There was a general laugh, and all eyes were turned toward that end of +the room devoted to the users of the musical instruments. In response +came a deep, resonant note from Roberta's 'cello, over which the silent +bow had been for some time suspended. There followed a minor scale, +descending well into the depths and vibrating dismally as it went. +Louis, a mocking light in his eye, strolled down the room to his +sisters. + +"That's the way you feel about it, eh?" he queried, regarding Roberta +with brotherly interest. "Consigning the poor, innocent chap to the +bottom of the ladder, when he's doing his best to climb up to the +sunshine of your smile. Have you no respect for the opinion of your +betters?" + +"Get out your fiddle and play the Grieg _Danse Caprice_, with us," was +her reply, and Louis obeyed, though not without a word or two more in +her ear which made her lift her bow threateningly. Presently the trio +were off, playing with a spirit and dash which drew all ears, and at the +close of the _Danse_ hearty applause called for more. After this +diversion, naturally enough, new subjects came up for discussion. + +Returning to the living-room in search of a dropped letter, after the +family had dispersed for the night, Roberta found her mother lingering +there alone. She had drawn a low chair close to the fire, and, having +extinguished all other lights, was sitting quietly looking into the +still glowing embers. Roberta, forgetting her quest, came close, and +flinging a cushion at her mother's knee dropped down there. This was a +frequent happening, and the most intimate hours the two spent together +were after this fashion. + +There was no speech for a little, though Mrs. Gray's hand wandered +caressingly about her daughter's neck in a way Roberta dearly loved, +drawing the loosened dark locks away from the small ears, or twisting a +curly strand about her fingers. Suddenly the girl burst out: + +"Mother, what are you to do when you find all your theories upset?" + +"_All_ upset?" repeated Mrs. Gray, in her rich and quiet voice. "That +would be a calamity indeed. Surely there must be one or two of yours +remaining stable?" + +"It seems not, just now. One disproved overturns another. They all hinge +on one another--at least mine do." + +"Perhaps not as closely as you think. What is it, dear? Can you tell me +anything about it?" + +"Not much, I'm afraid. Oh, it's nothing very real, I suppose--just a +sort of vague discomfort at feeling that certain ideals I thought were +as fixed as the stars in the heavens seem to be wobbling as if they +might shoot downward any minute, and--and leave only a trail of light +behind!" + +The last words came on a note of rather shaky laughter. Roberta's arm +lay across her mother's knee, her head upon it. She turned her head +downward for an instant, burying her face in the angle of her arm. Mrs. +Gray regarded the mass of dark locks beneath her hand with a look amused +yet sympathetic. + +"That sort of discomfort attacks us all, at times," she said. "Ideals +change and develop with our growth. One would not want the same ones to +serve her all her life." + +"I know. But when it's not a new and better ideal which displaces the +old one, but only--an attraction--" + +"An attraction not ideal?" + +Roberta shook her head. "I'm afraid not. And I don't see why it should +be an attraction at all. It ought not to be, if my ideals have been what +they should have been. And they have. Why, you gave them to me, mother, +many of them--or at least helped me to work them out for myself. And +I--I had confidence in them!" + +"And they're shaken?" + +"Not the ideals--they're all the same. Only--they don't seem to be proof +against--assault. Oh, I'm talking in riddles, I know. I don't want to +put any of it into words, it makes it seem more real. And it's only a +shadowy sort of difficulty. Maybe that's all it will be." + +Mothers are wonderful at divination; why should they not be, when all +their task is a training in understanding young natures which do not +understand themselves. From these halting phrases of mystery Mrs. Gray +gathered much more than her daughter would have imagined. But she did +not let that be seen. + +"If it is only a shadowy difficulty the rising of the sun will put it to +flight," she predicted. + +Roberta was silent for a space. Then suddenly she sat up. + +"I had a long letter from Forbes Westcott to-day," she said, in a tone +which tried to be casual. "He's staying on in London, getting material +for that difficult Letchworth case he's so anxious to win. It's a +wonderfully interesting letter, though he doesn't say much about the +case. He's one of the cleverest letter writers I ever knew--in the +flesh. It's really an art with him. If he hadn't made a lawyer of +himself he would have been a man of letters, his literary tastes are so +fine. It's quite an education in the use of delightfully spirited +English, a correspondence with him. I've appreciated that more with each +letter." + +She produced the letter. "Just listen to this account of an interview he +had with a distinguished Member of Parliament, the one who has just made +that daring speech in the House that set everybody on fire." And she +read aloud from several closely written pages, holding the sheets toward +the still bright embers, and giving the words the benefit of her own +clear and understanding interpretation. Her mother listened with +interest. + +"That is, indeed, a fine description," she agreed. "There is no question +that Forbes has a brilliant mind. The position he already occupies +testifies to that, and the older men all acknowledge that he is rising +more rapidly than could be expected of any ordinary man. He will be one +of the great men of the legal profession, your father and uncle think, I +know." + +"One of the great men," repeated Roberta, her face still bent over her +letter. "I suppose there's no doubt at all of that. And, mother--you may +imagine that when he sets himself to persuade--any one--to--any course, +he knows how to put it as irresistibly as words can." + +"Yes, I should imagine that, dear," said her mother, her eyes on the +down-bent profile, whose outlines, against the background of the +firelight, would have held a gaze less loving than her own. + +"His age makes him interesting, you know," pursued Roberta. "He's just +enough older--and maturer--than any of the men I know, to make him seem +immensely more worth while. His very looks--that thin, keen face of +his--it's plain, yet attractive, and his eyes look as if they could +see through stone walls. It flatters you to have him seem to find +the things you say worth listening to. I can't just explain his +peculiar--fascination--I really think it is that, except that it's his +splendid mind that grips yours, somehow. Oh, I sound like a, +schoolgirl," she burst out, "in spite of my twenty-four years. I wonder +if you see what I mean." + +"I think I do," said her mother, smiling a little. "You mean that your +judgment approves him, but that your heart lags a little behind?" + +"How did you know?" Roberta folded her arms upon her mother's lap, and +looked up eagerly into her face. "I didn't say anything about my heart." + +"But you did, dear. The very fact that you can discuss him so coolly +tells me that your heart isn't seriously involved as yet. Is it?" + +"That's what I don't know," said the girl. "When he writes like +this--the last two pages I can't read to you--I don't know what I think. +And I'm not used to not knowing what I think! It's disconcerting. It's +like being taken off your feet and--not set down again. Yet, when I'm +with him--I'm not at all sure I should ever want him nearer than--well, +than three feet away. And he's so insistent--persistent. He wants an +answer--now, by mail." + +"Are you ready to give it?" + +"No. I'm afraid to give it--at long distance." + +"Then do not. You are under no obligation to do that. The test of actual +presence is the only one to apply. Let him wait till he comes home. It +will not hurt him." + +She spoke with spirit, and her daughter responded to the tone. + +"I know that's the best advice," Roberta said, getting to her feet. +"Mother, you like him?" + +"Yes, I have always liked Forbes," said Mrs. Gray, with cordiality. +"Your father likes him, and trusts him, as a man of honour, in his +profession. That is much to say. Whether he is a man who would make you +happy--that is a different question. No one can answer that but +yourself." + +"I haven't wanted any one to make me happy." Roberta stood upon the +hearth-rug, a figure of charm among the lights and shadows. "I've been +absorbed in my work--and my play. I enjoy my men friends--and am glad +when they go away and leave me. Life is so full--and rich--just of +itself. There are so many wonderful people, of all sorts. The world is +so interesting--and home is so dear!" She lifted her arms, her head up. +"Mother, let's play the Bach _Air_," she said. "That always takes the +fever out of me, and makes me feel calm and rational. Is it very +late?--are you too tired? Nobody will be disturbed at this distance." + +"I should love to play it," said Mrs. Gray, and together the two went +down the room to the great piano which stood there in the darkness. +Roberta switched on one hooded light, produced the music for her mother, +and tuned her 'cello, sitting at one side away from the light, with no +notes before her. Presently the slow, deep, and majestic notes of the +"Air for the G String" were vibrating through the quiet room, the 'cello +player drawing her bow across and across the one string with affection +for each rich note in her very touch. The other string tones followed +her with exquisite sympathy, for Mrs. Gray was a musician from whom +three of her four children had inherited an intense love for harmonic +values. + +But a few bars had sounded when a tall figure came noiselessly into the +room, and Mr. Robert Gray dropped into the seat before the fire which +his wife had lately occupied. With head thrown back he listened, and +when silence fell at the close of the performance, his deep voice was +the first to break it. + +"To me," he said, "that is the slow flowing and receding of waves upon a +smooth and rocky shore. The sky is gray, but the atmosphere is warm and +friendly. It is all very restful, after a day of perturbation." + +"Oh, is it like that to you?" queried Roberta softly, out of the +darkness. "To me it's as if I were walking down the nave of a great +cathedral--Westminster, perhaps--big and bare and wonderful, with the +organ playing ever so far away. The sun is shining outside and so it's +not gloomy, only very peaceful, and one can't imagine the world at the +doors." She looked over at her mother, whose face was just visible in +the shaded light. "What is it to you, lovely lady?" + +"It is a prayer," said her mother slowly, "a prayer for peace and purity +in a restless world, yet a prayer for service, too. The one who prays +lies very low, with his face concealed, and his spirit is full of +worship." + +The light was put out; the three, father, mother, and daughter, came +together in the fading fire-glow. Roberta laid a warm young hand upon the +shoulder of each. "You dears," she said, "what fortunate and happy +children your four are, to be the children of you!" + +Her father placed his firm fingers under her chin, lifting her face. +"Your mother and I," said he, "consider ourselves fairly fortunate and +happy to be the parents of you. You are an interesting quartette. 'Age +cannot wither nor custom stale' your 'infinite variety.' But age will +wither you if you often sit up to play Bach at midnight, when you must +teach school next day. Therefore, good-night, Namesake!" + +Yet when she had gone, her father and mother lingered by the last embers +of the fire. + +"God give her wisdom!" said Roberta's mother. + +"He will--with you to ask Him," replied Roberta's father, with his arms +about his wife. "I think He never refuses you anything! I don't see how +He could!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"THE TAMING OF THE SHREW" + + +"School again, Rob! Don't you hate it?" + +"No, of course I don't hate it. I'm much, much happier when I'm teaching +Ethel Revell to forget her important young self and remember the part +she is supposed to play, than I am when I am merely dusting my room or +driving downtown on errands." + +As she spoke Roberta pushed into place the last hairpin in the close and +trim arrangement of her dark hair, briefly surveyed the result with a +hand-glass, and rose from her dressing-table. Ruth, at a considerably +earlier stage of her dressing, regarded her sister's head with interest. + +"I can always tell the difference between a school day and another day, +just by looking at your hair," she observed, sagely. + +"How, Miss Big Eyes, if you please?" + +"You never leave a curl sticking out, on school days. They sometimes +work out before night, but that's not your fault. You look like one of +Jane Austen's heroines, now." + +Roberta laughed a laugh of derision. "Miss Austen's heroines undoubtedly +had ringlets hanging in profusion on either side of their oval faces." + +"Yes, but I mean every hair of theirs was in order, and so are yours." + +"Thank you. Only so can I command respect when I lecture my girls on +their frenzied coiffures. Oh, but I'm thankful I can live at home and +don't have to spend the nights with them! Some of them are dears, but to +be responsible for them day and night would harrow my soul. Hook me up, +will you, Rufus, please?" + +"You look just like a smooth feathered bluebird in this," commented +Ruth, as she obediently fastened the severely simple school dress of +dark blue, relieved only by its daintily fresh collar and cuffs of +embroidered white lawn. + +"I mean to. Miss Copeland wouldn't have a fluffy, frilly teacher in her +school--and I don't blame her. It's difficult enough to train fluffy, +frilly girls to like simplicity, even if one's self is a model of +plainness and repose." + +"And you're truly glad to go back, after this lovely vacation? Shouldn't +you sort of like to keep on typing for Uncle Calvin, with Mr. Richard +Kendrick sitting close by, looking at you over the top of his book?" + +Roberta wheeled, answering with vehemence: "I should say not, you +romantic infant! When I work I want to work with workers, not with +drones! A person who can only dawdle over his task is of no use at all. +How Uncle Calvin gets on with a mere imitation of a secretary, I can't +possibly see. Why, Ted himself could cover more ground in a morning!" + +"I don't think you do him justice," Ruth objected, with all the dignity +of her sixteen years in evidence. "Of course he couldn't work as well +with you in the room--he isn't used to it. And you are--you certainly +are, awfully nice to look at, Rob." + +"Nonsense! It's lucky you're going back to school yourself, child, to +get these sentimental notions out of your head. Come, vacation's over! +Let's not sigh for more dances; let's go at our work with a will. I've +plenty before me. The school play comes week after next, and I haven't +as good material this year as last. How I'm ever going to get Olivia +Cartwright to put sufficient backbone into her _Petruchio_, I don't +know. I only wish I could play him myself!" + +"Rob! Couldn't you?" + +"It's never done. My part is just to coach and coach, to go over the +lines a thousand times and the stage business ten thousand, and then to +stay behind the scenes and hiss at them: 'More spirit! More life! Throw +yourself into it!' and then to watch them walk it through like puppets! +Well, _The Taming of the Shrew_ is pretty stiff work for amateurs, no +doubt of that--there's that much to be said. Breakfast time, childie! +You must hurry, and I must be off." + +Half an hour later Ruth watched her sister walk away down the street +with Louis, her step as lithe and vigorous as her brother's. Ruth +herself was accustomed to drive with her father to the school which she +attended--a rival school, as it happened, of the fashionable one at +which Roberta taught. She was not so strong as her sister, and a +two-mile walk to school was apt to overtire her. But Roberta chose to +walk every day and all days, and the more stormy the weather the surer +was she to scorn all offers of a place beside Ruth in the brougham. + +Louis's comment on the return of his sister to her work at Miss +Copeland's school was much like that of Ruth. "Sorry vacation's over, +Rob? That's where I have the advantage of you. The office never closes +for more than a day; therefore I'm always in training." + +"That's an advantage, surely enough. But I'm ready to go back. As I was +telling Ruth this morning, I'm anxious to know whether Olivia Cartwright +has forgotten her lines, and whether she's going to be able to infuse a +bit of life into her _Petruchio_. This trying to make a schoolgirl play +a big man's part--" + +"You could do it, yourself," observed Louis, even as Ruth had done. + +"And shouldn't I love to! I'm just longing to stride about the stage in +_Petruchio's_ boots." + +"I'll wager you are. I'd like to see you do it. But the part of +_Katherine_ would be the thing for you--fascinating shrew that you could +be." + +"This--from a brother! Yes, I'd like to play _Katherine_, too. But give +me the boots, if you please. Do you happen to remember Olivia +Cartwright?" + +"Of course I do. And a mighty pretty and interesting girl she is. I +should think she might make a _Petruchio_ for you." + +"I thought she would. But the boots seem to have a devastating effect. +The minute she gets them on--even in imagination, for we haven't had a +dress rehearsal yet--her voice grows softer and her manner more +lady-like. It's the funniest thing I ever knew, to hear her say the +lines-- + +"'What is this? mutton?... +'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat. +What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook? + +"How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser, +And serve it thus to me that love it not? + There, take it to you, trenchers, cups and all, +You heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves!'" + +Passersby along the street beheld a young man consumed with mirth as +Louis Gray heard these stirring words issuing from his sister's pretty +mouth in a clever imitation of the schoolgirl _Petruchio's_ "lady-like" +tones. + +"Now speak those lines as you would if you wore the boots," he urged, +when he had recovered his gravity. + +Roberta waited till they were at a discreet distance from other +pedestrians, then delivered the lines as she had already spoken them for +her pupil twenty times or more, with a spirit and temper which gave them +their character as the assumed bluster they were meant to picture. + +"Good!" cried Louis. "Great! But you see, Sis, you have learned the +absolute control of your voice, and that's a thing few schoolgirls have +mastered. Besides, not every girl has a throat like yours." + +"I mean to be patient," said Roberta soberly. "And Olivia has really a +good speaking voice. It's the curious effect of the imaginary boots that +stirs my wonder. She actually speaks in a higher key with them on than +off. But we shall improve that, in the fortnight before the play. They +are really doing very well, and our _Katherine_--Ethel Revell--is going +to forget herself completely in her part, if I can manage it. In spite +of the hard work I thoroughly enjoy the rehearsing of the yearly +play--it's a relief from the routine work of the class. And the girls +appreciate the best there is, in the great writers and dramatists, as +you wouldn't imagine they could do." + +"On the whole, you would rather be a teacher than an office +stenographer?" suggested Louis, with a touch of mischief in his tone. +"You know, I've always been a bit disappointed that you didn't come into +our office, after working so hard to make an expert of yourself." + +"That training wasn't wasted," defended Roberta. "I'm able to make +friends with my working girls lots better on account of the stenography +and typewriting I know. And I may need that resource yet. I'm not at all +sure that I mean to be a teacher all my days." + +"I'm very sure you'll not," said her brother, with a laughing glance, +which Roberta ignored. It was a matter of considerable amusement to her +brothers the serious way in which she had set about being independent. +They fully approved of her decision to spend her time in a way worth the +while, but when it came to planning for a lifetime--there were plenty of +reasons for skepticism as to her needing to look far ahead. Indeed, it +was well known that Roberta might have abandoned all effort long ago, +and have given any one of several extremely eligible young men the +greatly desired opportunity of taking care of her in his own way. + +The pair separated at a street corner, and, as it happened, Louis heard +little more about the progress of the school rehearsals for _The Taming +of the Shrew_ until the day before its public performance--if a +performance could be called public which was to be given in so private a +place as the ballroom in the home of one of the wealthiest patrons of +the school, the audience composed wholly of invited guests, and +admission to the affair for others extremely difficult to procure on any +ground whatever. + +Appearing at the close of the final rehearsal to escort his sister +home--for the hour, like that of all final rehearsals, was late--Louis +found a flushed and highly wrought Roberta delivering last instructions +even as she put on her wraps. + +"Remember, Olivia," he heard her say to a tall girl wrapped in a long +cloak which evidently concealed male trappings, "I'm not going to tone +down my part one bit to fit yours. If I'm stormy you must be blustering; +if I'm furious you must be fierce. You can do it, I know." + +"I certainly hope so, Miss Gray," answered a none-too-confident voice. +"But I'm simply frightened to death to play opposite you." + +"Nonsense! I'll stick pins into you--metaphorically speaking," declared +Roberta. "I'll keep you up to it. Now go straight to bed--no sitting up +to talk it over with Ethel--poor child! Good-night, dear, and don't you +dare be afraid of me!" + +"Are you going to play the boots, after all?" Louis queried as he and +Roberta started toward home, walking at a rapid pace, as usual after +rehearsals. + +"I wish I were, if I must play some part. No, it's _Katherine_. Ethel +Revell has come down with tonsilitis, just at the last minute. It was to +be expected, of course--somebody always does it. But I did hope it +wouldn't be one of the principals. Of course there's nobody who could +possibly get up the part overnight except the coach, so I'm in for it. +And the worst of it is that unless I'm very careful I shall +over-_Katherine_ my _Petruchio_! If Olivia will only keep her voice +resonant! She can stride and gesture pretty well now, but highly +dramatic moments always cause her to raise her key--and then the boots +only serve to make the effect grotesque." + +"Never mind; unconscious humour is always interesting to the audience. +And we shall all be there to see your _Katherine_. I had thought of +cutting the performance for a rather important address, but nothing +would induce me to miss my sister as the _Shrew_." + +Roberta laughed. "Nobody will question my fitness for the part, I fear. +Well, if I teach expression, in a girls' school, I must take the +consequences, and be willing to express anything that comes along." + +If Roberta had expected any sympathy from her family in the exigency of +the hour, she was disappointed. Instead of condoling with her, the +breakfast-table hearers of the news, next morning, were able only to +congratulate themselves upon the augmented interest the school play +would now have for Roberta's friends, confident that the presence of one +clever actress of maturer powers would compensate for much +amateurishness in the others. Ruth, young devotee of her sister, was +delighted beyond measure with the prospect, and joyfully spent the day +taking necessary stitches in the apparel Roberta was to wear, +considerable alteration being necessary to adapt the garments intended +for the slim and girlish _Katherine_ of Ethel Revell's proportions to +the more perfectly rounded lines of her teacher. + +Late in the afternoon, something was needed to complete Roberta's +preparations which could be procured only in a downtown shop, and Ruth +volunteered to order the brougham--now on runners--and go down for it. +She left the house alone, but she did not complete her journey alone, +for halfway down the two-mile boulevard she passed a figure she knew, +and turned to bestow a girlish bow and smile. + +Richard Kendrick not only took off his hat but waved it with a gesture +of entreaty, as he quickened his steps, and Ruth, much excited by the +encounter, bade Thomas stop the horses. + +"Would you take a passenger?" he asked as he came up; "unless, of +course, you're going to stop for some one else?" + +"Do get in," she urged shyly. "No, I'm all alone--going on an errand." + +"I guessed it--not the errand, but the being alone. You looked so small, +wrapped up in all these furs, I felt you needed company," explained +Richard, smiling down into the animated young face, with its delicate +colour showing fresh and fair in the frosty air. There was something +very attractive to the young man in this girl, who seemed to him the +embodiment of sweetness and purity. He never saw her without feeling +that he would have liked just such a little sister. He would have done +much to please her, quite as he had followed her suggestion about the +church-going on Christmas Day. + +"I'm rushing down to find a scarf of a certain colour for Rob," +explained Ruth, too full of her commission to keep it to herself. "You +see, she's playing _Katherine_ to-night. The girl who was to have played +it--Ethel Revell--is ill. Do you know any of Miss Copeland's girls? +Olivia Cartwright plays _Petruchio_." + +"Olivia Cartwright? Is she to be in some play? She's a distant cousin of +mine." + +"It's a school play--Miss Copeland's school, where Rob teaches, you +know. The play is to be in the Stuart Hendersons' ballroom." And Ruth +made known the situation to a listener who gave her his undivided +attention. + +"Well, well,--seems to me I should have had an invitation for that +play," mused Richard, searching his memory. "I wish I'd had one. I +should like to see your sister act _Katherine_. I suppose it's quite +impossible to get one at this late hour?" + +"I'm afraid so. It's really not at all strange that any one is left out +of the list of invitations," Ruth hastened to make clear. "You see, each +girl is allowed only six, and that usually takes just her family or +nearest friends. And if you are only a distant cousin of Olivia's--" + +"It's not at all strange that she shouldn't ask me, for I'm afraid I've +neglected to avail myself of former invitations of hers," admitted +Richard, ruefully. "Too bad. Punishment for such neglect usually +follows--and I certainly have it now. I know the Stuart Hendersons, +though--I wonder--Never mind, Miss Ruth, don't look so sorry. You'll +tell me about it afterward, some time, won't you?" + +"Indeed I will. Oh, it's been such an exciting day. Rob's been +rehearsing her lines all day--when she wasn't trying on. She says she +could have played _Petruchio_ much better, because she's had to coach +Olivia Cartwright for that part so much more than she's had to coach +Ethel for _Katherine_. But, then, she knows the whole play--she could +take any part. She would have loved to play _Petruchio_, though, on +account of the boots and the slashing round the stage the way he does. +But I think it's just as well, for _Katherine_ certainly slashes, +too--and Rob's not quite tall enough for _Petruchio_." + +"I'm glad she plays _Katherine_," said Richard Kendrick decidedly. "I +can't imagine your sister in boots! I've no doubt, though, she'd make +them different from other boots--if she wore them!" + +"Of course she would," agreed Ruth. Then she began to talk about +something else, for a bit of fear had come into her mind that Rob +wouldn't enjoy all this discussion of herself, if she should know about +it. + +She was such an honest young person, however, that she had a good deal +of difficulty, when she had done her errand and was at home again, in +not telling Roberta of her meeting with Richard Kendrick. She did +venture to ask a question. + +"Is Mr. Kendrick invited for to-night, Rob?" + +"Not by me," Roberta responded promptly. + +"He might be, by one of the girls, I suppose?" + +"The girls invite whom they like. I haven't seen the list. I don't +imagine he would be on it. I hope not, certainly." + +"Why? Don't you think he would enjoy it?" + +"No, I do not. Musical comedies are probably more to his taste than +amateur productions of Shakespeare. But I'm not thinking about the +audience--the players are enough for me." Then, suddenly, an idea which +flashed into her mind caused her to turn and scan Ruth's ingenuous young +face. + +"You haven't been inviting Mr. Kendrick yourself, Rufus?" + +"Why, how could I?" But the girl flushed rosily in a way which betrayed +her interest. "I just--wondered." + +"How did you come to wonder? Have you seen him?" + +Ruth being Ruth, there was nothing to do but to tell Roberta of the +encounter with Richard. "He said he was glad you were to play +_Katherine_, because he couldn't imagine you in boots," she added, +hoping this news might appease her sister. But it did nothing of the +sort. + +"As if it made the slightest difference to him! But if he feels that +way, I wish I were to wear the boots, and I wish he might be there to +see me do it. As it is, I hope Mrs. Stuart Henderson will be deaf to his +audacity, if he dares to ask an invitation. It would be quite like him!" + +"I don't see why--" began Ruth. + +But Roberta interrupted her. "There are lots of things you don't see, +little sister," said she, with a swift and impetuous embrace of the +slender form beside her. Then she turned, frowned, flung out her arm, +and broke into one of _Katherine's_ flaming speeches: + +_"'Why, sir, I trust, I may have leave to speak: +And speak I will: I am no child, no babe: +Your betters have endured me say my mind +And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.'"_ + +"Oh, but you do have such a lovely voice!" cried Ruth. "You can't make +even the _Shrew_ sound shrewish--in her tone, I mean." + +"Can't I, indeed? Wait till to-night! If your friend Mr. Kendrick is to +be there I'll be more shrewish than you ever dreamed--it will be a real +stimulus!" + +Ruth shook her head in dumb wonder that any one could be so impervious +to the charms of the young man who so appealed to her youthful +imagination. Three hours afterward, when she turned in her chair, in the +Stuart Henderson ballroom, at the summons of a low voice in her ear, to +find Richard Kendrick in the row behind her, she wondered afresh what +there could possibly be about him to rouse her sister's antagonism. His +face was such an interesting one, his eyes so clear and their glance so +straightforward, his fresh colour so pleasant to note, his whole +personality so attractive, Ruth could only answer him in the happiest +way at her command with a subdued but eager: "Oh, I'm so glad you came!" + +"That's due to Mrs. Cartwright's wonderful kindness. She's the mother of +_Petruchio_, you know," explained Richard, with a smiling glance at the +gorgeously gowned woman beside him, who leaned forward also to say to +Ruth: + +"What is one to do with a sweetly apologetic young cousin who begs to be +allowed to come, at the last moment, to view his cousin in doublet and +hose? But I really didn't venture to tell Olivia. She would have fled +from the stage if she had guessed that cousin Richard, whom she greatly +admires, was to be here. I can only hope she will not hear of it till +the play is over." + +"If his being here is going to make _Petruchio_ tremble more, and +_Katherine_ act naughtier, I shall feel dreadfully guilty," thought +Ruth. But somehow when the curtain went up she could not help being glad +that he was there, behind her. + +Roberta had said much, in hours of relaxation after long and tense +rehearsals, of the difficulty of making schoolgirls forget themselves in +any part. It had been difficult, indeed, to train her pupils to speak +and act with naturalness in rôles so foreign to their experience. But +she had been much more successful than she had dared to believe, and her +own enthusiasm, her tireless drilling, above all her inspiring example +as she spoke her girls' lines for them and demonstrated to them each +telling detail of stage business, had done the work with astonishing +effect. The hardest task of all had been to find and develop a +satisfactory delineator of the difficult part of the _Tamer of the +Shrew_, but Roberta had persevered, even taking a journey of some hours +with Olivia Cartwright to have her see and study one of the greatest of +_Petruchios_ at two successive performances. She had succeeded in +stimulating Olivia to a real determination to be worthy of her teacher's +expressed belief in her, even to the mastering of her girlish tendency +to let her voice revert to a high-keyed feminine quality just when it +needed to be deepest and most stern. + +The audience, as the play began, was in the customary benevolent mood of +audiences beholding amateur productions, ready to see good if possible, +anxious to show favour to all the young actors and to praise without +discrimination, aware of the proximity of proud fathers and mothers. But +this audience soon found itself genuinely interested and amused, and +with the first advent of the enchanting _Shrew_ herself became absorbed +in her personality and her fortunes quite as it might have been in those +of any talented actress of reputation. + +To Ruth, sitting wide eyed and hot cheeked, her sister seemed the most +spirited and bewitching _Katherine_ ever played. Her shrewishness was +that of the wilful madcap girl who has never been crossed rather than +that of the inherently ill-tempered woman, and her every word and +gesture, her every expression of face and tone of voice, were worth +noting and watching. By no means finished work--as how should it be, in +a young teacher but few years out of school herself--it yet had an +originality and freshness of interpretation all its own, and the +applause which praised it was very spontaneous and genuine. Roberta had +been the joy of her class in college dramatics, and several of her +former classmates, in her audience to-night, gleefully told one another +that she was surpassing anything she had formerly done. + +"It's simply superb, you know, don't you?--your sister's acting," said +Richard Kendrick's voice in Ruth's ear again at the end of the first +act, and she turned her burning cheek his way as she answered happily: + +"It seems so to me--but then I'm prejudiced, you know." + +"We're all prejudiced, when it comes to that--made so by this +performance. I'm pretty proud of my cousin _Petruchio_, too," he went +on, including Mrs. Cartwright at his side. "I'd no idea boots could be +so becoming to any girl--outside of a chorus. Olivia's splendid. Do you +suppose"--he was addressing Ruth again--"you and I might go behind the +scenes and tell them how we feel about it?" + +"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Kendrick," Ruth replied, much shocked. "It's lots +different, a girls' play like this, from the regular theatre. They'd be +so astonished to see you. Rob's told me, heaps of times, how they go +perfectly crazy after every act, and she has all she can do to keep them +cool enough for the next. She'd never forgive us. And besides, Olivia +Cartwright's not to know you're here, you know." + +"That's true. I'd forgotten how disturbing my presence is supposed to +be," and Richard leaned back again to laugh with Mrs. Cartwright. + +But, behind the scenes, the news had penetrated, nobody knew just how. +Roberta learned, to her surprise and distraction, that Richard Kendrick +was somehow a particularly interesting figure in the eyes of her young +players, and she speedily discovered that they were all more or less +excited at the knowledge that he was somewhere below the footlights. +Olivia, indeed, was immediately in a flutter, quite as her mother had +predicted, at the thought of Cousin Richard's eyes upon her in her +masculine attire; and Roberta, in the brief interval she could spare for +the purpose, had to take her sternly in hand. An autocratic _Katherine_ +might, then, have been overheard addressing a flurried _Petruchio_, in a +corner: + +"For pity's sake, child, who is he that you need be afraid of him? He's +no critic, I'll wager, and if he's your cousin he'll be sure to think +you act like a veteran, anyhow. Forget him, and go ahead. You're doing +splendidly. Don't you dare slump just because you're remembering your +audience!" + +"Oh, of course I'll try, Miss Gray," replied an extremely feminine voice +from beneath _Petruchio's_ fierce mustachios. "But Richard Kendrick +really is awfully sort of upsetting, don't you know?" + +"Of course I don't know," denied Roberta promptly. "As long as Miss +Copeland herself is pleased with us, nobody else matters. And Miss +Copeland is delighted--she sent me special word just now. So stiffen +your backbone, _Petruchio_, and make this next dialogue with me as rapid +as you know. Come back at me like flash-fire--don't lag a breath--we'll +stir the house to laughter, or know the reason why. Ready?" + +Her firm hand on Olivia's arm, her bracing words in Olivia's ear, put +courage back into her temporarily stage-struck "leading man," and Olivia +returned to the charge determined to play up to her teacher without +lagging. In truth, Roberta's actual presence on the stage was proving a +distinct advantage to those of the players who had parts with her. She +warmed and held them to their tasks with the flash of her own eyes, not +to mention an occasional almost imperceptible but pregnant gesture, and +they found themselves somehow able to "forget the audience," as she had +so many times advised them to do, the better that she herself seemed so +completely to have forgotten it. + +The work of the young actors grew better with each act, and at the end +of the fourth, when the curtain went down upon a scene which had been +all storm on the part of the players and all laughter on the part of the +audience, the applause was long and hearty. There were calls for the +entire cast, and when they had several times responded there was a +special and persistent demand for _Katherine_ herself, in the character +of the producer of the play. She refused it until she could no longer do +so without discourtesy; then she came before the curtain and said a few +winsome words of gratitude on behalf of her "company." + +Ruth, staring up at her sister's face brilliant with the mingled +exertion and emotion of the hour, and thinking her the prettiest picture +there against the great dull-blue silk curtain of the stage she had ever +seen, had no notion that just behind her somebody was thinking the same +thing with a degree of fervour far beyond her own. Richard Kendrick's +heart was thumping vigorously away in his breast as he looked his fill +at the figure before the curtain, secure in the darkness of the house +from observation at the moment. + +When he had first met this girl he had told himself that he would soon +know her well, would soon call her by her name. He wondered at himself +that he could possibly have fancied conquest of her so easy. He was not +a whit nearer knowing her, he was obliged to acknowledge, than on that +first day, nor did he see any prospect of getting to know her--beyond a +certain point. Her chosen occupation seemed to place her beyond his +reach; she was not to be got at by the ordinary methods of approach. +Twice he had called and asked for her, to be told that she was busy with +school papers and must be excused. Once he had ventured to invite her to +go with Mrs. Stephen and himself to a carefully chosen play and a +supper, but she had declined, gracefully enough--but she had declined, +and Mrs. Stephen also. He could not make these people out, he told +himself. Did they and he live in such different worlds that they could +never meet on common ground? + +_The Taming of the Shrew_ came to a triumphant end; the curtain fell +upon the effective closing scene in which the lovely _Shrew_, become a +richly loving and tender wife, without, somehow, surrendering a particle +of her exquisite individuality, spoke her words of wisdom to other +wives. Richard smiled to himself as he heard the lines fall from +Roberta's lips. And beneath his breath he said: + +"I don't see how you can bring yourself to say them, you modern girl. +You'd never let a real husband feel his power that way, I'll wager. If +you did--well--it would go to his head, I'm sure of that. What an idiot +I am to think I could ever make her look at me the way she looked even +at that schoolgirl _Petruchio_--with a clever imitation of devotion. O +Roberta Gray! But I'd rather worship you across the footlights than take +any other girl in my arms. And somehow--somehow I've got to make you at +least respect me. At least that, Roberta! Then--perhaps--more!" + +At Ruth's side, when the play was ended, Richard hoped to attain at +least the chance to speak to Ruth's sister. The young players all +appeared upon the stage, the curtain being raised for the rest of the +evening, and the audience came up, group by group, to offer +congratulations and pour into gratified ears the praise which was the +reward of labour. Richard succeeded in getting by degrees into the +immediate vicinity of Roberta, who was continuously surrounded by happy +parents bent on presenting their felicitations. But just as he was about +to make his way to her side a diversion occurred which took her +completely away from him. A girl near by, who on account of physical +frailty had had a minor part, grew suddenly faint, and in a trice +Roberta had impressed into her service a strong pair of male arms, +nearer at hand than Richard's, and had had the slim little figure +carried behind the scenes, herself following. + +Ten minutes later he learned from Ruth that Roberta had gone back to +Miss Copeland's school with the girl, recovered but weak. + +"Couldn't anybody else have gone?" he inquired, considerable impatience +in his voice. + +"Of course--lots of people could, and would. Only it's just like Rob to +seize the chance to get away from this, and not come back. You'll +see--she won't. She hates being patted on the back, as she calls it. I +never can see why, when people mean it, as I'm sure they do to-night. +She's the queerest girl. She never wants what you'd think she would, or +wants it the way other people do. But she's awfully dear, just the +same," Ruth hastened to add, fearful lest she seem to criticise the +beloved sister. "And somehow you don't get tired of her, the way you do +of some people. Perhaps that's just because she's different." + +"I suspect it is," Richard agreed with conviction. Certainly, a girl who +would run away from such adulation as she had been receiving must be, he +considered, decidedly and interestingly "different." He only wished he +might hit upon some "different" way to pique her interest. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BLANKETS + + +There was destined to be a still longer break in the work which had been +going on in Judge Calvin Gray's library than was intended. He and his +assistant had barely resumed their labours after the Christmas +house-party when the Judge was called out of town for a period whose +limit when he left he was unable to fix. He could leave little for +Richard to do, so that young man found his time again upon his hands and +himself unable to dispose of it to advantage. + +His mind at this period was in a curious state of dissatisfaction. Ever +since the evening of the Christmas dance, when a girl's careless word +had struck home with such unexpected force he had been as restless and +uneasy as a fish out of water. His condition bore as much resemblance to +that of the gasping fish as this: in the old element of life about town, +as he had been in the habit of living it, he now had the sensation of +not being able to breathe freely. + +It was with the intention of getting into the open, both mentally and +physically, that on the second day following the Judge's departure +Richard started on a long drive in his car. Beyond a certain limit he +knew that the roads were likely to prove none too good, though the +winter had thus far been an open one and there was little chance of his +encountering blocking snowdrifts "up State." He took no one with him. He +could think of no one with whom he cared to go. + +As he drove his mind was busy with all sorts of speculations. In his +hurt pride he had said to a girl: "If I can't make you think differently +of me it won't be for lack of will." That meant--what did it mean? That +he had recognized the fact that she despised idlers--and that young rich +men who spent a few hours, on an average of five days of the week, in +assisting elderly gentlemen bereft of their eyesight in looking up old +records, did not thereby in her estimation remove themselves from the +class of those who do nothing in the world but attend to the spending of +their incomes. + +What should he do--how prove himself fit to deserve her approval? +Unquestionably he must devote himself seriously to some serious +occupation. All sorts of ideas chased one another through his mind in +response to this stimulus. What was he fitted to do? He had a certain +facility in the use of the pen, as he had proved in the service of Judge +Calvin Gray. Should he look for a job as reporter on one of the city +dailies? He certainly could not offer himself for any post higher than +that of the rawest scribe on the force; he had had no experience. The +thought of seeking such a post made his lip curl with the absurdity of +the notion. They would make a society reporter of him; it would be the +first idea that would occur to them. It was the only thing for which +they would think him fit! + +The thing he should like to do would be to travel on some interesting +commission for his grandfather. On what commission, for instance? The +purchasing of rare works of art for the picture-gallery of the great +store? No mean exhibition it was they had there. But he had not the +training for such a commission; he would be cheated out of hand when it +came to buying! They sent skilled buyers on such quests. + +He thought of rushing off to the far West and buying a ranch. That was a +fit and proper thing for a fellow like himself; plenty of rich men's +sons had done it. If she could see him in cowboy garb, rough-clad, +sunburnt, muscular, she would respect him then perhaps. There would be +no more flinging at him that he was a cotillion leader! How he hated the +term! + +The day was fair and cold, the roads rather better than he had expected, +and by luncheon-time he had reached a large town, seventy miles away +from his own city, where he knew of an exceptionally good place to +obtain a refreshing meal. With this end in view, he was making more than +ordinary village speed when disaster befell him in the shape of a break +in his electric connections. Two blocks away from the hotel he sought, +the car suddenly went dead. + +While he was investigating, fingers blue with cold, a voice he knew +hailed him. It came from a young man who advanced from the doorway of a +store, in front of which the car had chanced to stop. "Something wrong, +Rich?" + +Richard stood up. He gripped his friend's hand cordially, glancing up at +the sign above the store as he did so. + +"Mighty glad to see you, Benson," he responded. "I didn't realize I'd +stopped in front of your father's place of business." + +Hugh Benson was a college classmate. In spite of the difference between +their respective estates in the college world, the two had been rather +good friends during the four years of their being thrown together. Since +graduation, however, they had seldom met, and for the last two years +Richard Kendrick had known no more of his former friend than that the +good-sized dry-goods store, standing on a prominent corner in the large +town through which he often motored without stopping, still bore the +name of Hugh Benson's father. + +When the car was running again Benson climbed in and showed Richard the +way to his own home, where he prevailed on his friend to remain for +lunch with himself and his mother. Richard learned for the first time +that Benson's father had died within the last year. + +"And you're going on with the business?" questioned Richard, as the two +lingered alone together in Benson's hall before parting. The talk during +the meal had been mostly of old college days, of former classmates, and +of the recent history of nearly every mutual acquaintance except that of +the speakers themselves. + +"There was nothing else for me to do when father left us," Benson +responded in a low tone. "I'm not as well adapted to it as he was, but +I expect to learn." + +"I remember you thought of doing graduate work along scientific lines. +Did you give that up?" + +"Yes. I found father needed me at home; his health must have been +failing even then, though I didn't realize it. I've been in the store +with him ever since. I'm glad I have--now." + +"It's not been good for you," declared Richard, scrutinizing his +friend's pale and rather worn face critically. It would have seemed to +him still paler and more worn if he could have seen it in contrast with +his own fresh-tinted features, ruddy with his morning's drive. "Better +come with me for an afternoon spin farther up State, and a good dinner +at a place I know. Get you back by bedtime." + +"There's nothing I'd like better, Rich," said Benson longingly; "but--I +can't leave the store. I have rather a short force of clerks--and on a +sunny day--" + +"You'd sell more goods to-morrow," urged Richard, feeling increasingly +anxious to do something which might bring light into a face he had not +remembered as so sombre. + +But Benson shook his head again. Afterward, in front of the store to +which the two had returned in the car, Richard could only give his +friend a warm grip of the hand and an urgent invitation to visit him in +the city. + +"I suppose you come down often to buy goods," he suggested. "Or do you +send buyers? I don't know much about the conduct of business in a town +like this--or much about it at home, for that matter," he owned. "Though +I'm not sure I'm proud of my ignorance." + +"It doesn't matter whether you know anything about it or not, of +course," said Benson, looking up at him with a queer expression of +wistfulness. "No, I'm my own buyer. And I don't buy of a great, +high-grade firm like yours; I go to a different class of fellows for my +stuff." + +Richard drove on, thinking hard about Benson. What a pity for a fellow +of twenty-six or seven to look like that, careworn and weary. He +wondered whether it was the loss of his father and the probably +sorrowful atmosphere at home that accounted for the look in Benson's +eyes, or whether his business was not a particularly successful one. He +recalled that the one careless glance he had given the windows of +Benson's store had brought to his mind the fleeting impression that +village shopkeepers had not much art in the dressing of their windows as +a means of alluring the public. + +As he drove on he felt in his pockets for a cigar and found his case +unexpectedly empty. He turned back to a drugstore, went in and supplied +himself from the best in stock--none too good for his fastidious taste. + +"What's your best dry-goods shop here?" he inquired casually. + +"Artwell & Chatford's the best--now," responded the druggist, glancing +across the street, where a sign bearing those names met the eye. +"Chaffee Brothers has run 'em a close second since Benson's dropped out +of the competition. Benson's used to be the best, but it's fallen way +behind. Look at Artwell's window display over there and see the reason," +he added, pointing across the street with the citizen's pride in a +successful enterprise in no way his own rival. + +"Gorgeous!" responded Richard, eying an undoubtedly eye-catching +arrangement of blankets of every hue and quality piled about a centre +figure consisting of a handsome brass bed made up as if for occupancy, +the carefully folded-back covers revealing immaculate and downy blankets +with pink borders, the whole suggestive of warmth and comfort throughout +the most rigorous winter season. + +"Catchy--on a day like this!" suggested the druggist, with a chuckle. +"I'll admit they gave me the key for my own windows." + +Richard's gaze followed the other's glance and rested on piles of +scarlet flannel chest-protectors, flanked by small brass tea-kettles +with alcohol lamps beneath. + +"We carry a side line of spirit-lamp stuff," explained the dealer. "It +sells well this time of year. Got to keep track of the popular thing. +Afternoon teas are all the go among the women of this town now. The +hardware's the only other place they can get these--and they don't begin +to keep the variety we do." + +Richard congratulated the dealer on his window. Lingering by it, his +hand on the door, he said: + +"I noticed Benson's as I came by, and I see now the force of what you +say about window display. I'm not sure I can tell what was in their +windows." + +"Nor anybody else," declared the druggist, chuckling, "unless he went +with a notebook and made an inventory. Since the old man died last year +the windows have been a hodgepodge of stuff that attracts nobody. It's +merely an index to the way the place is running behind. Young Benson +doesn't know how to buy nor how to sell; he'll never succeed. The store +began to go down when the old man got too feeble to take the whole +responsibility. Hugh began to overstock some departments and understock +others. It's not so much lack of capital that'll be responsible for +Hugh's failure when it comes--and I guess it's not far off--as it is +lack of business experience. Why, he's got so little trade he's turned +off half his salespeople; and you know that talks!" + +It did indeed. It talked louder now in the light of the druggist's +shrewd commentaries than it had when Benson had spoken of his "short +force." Richard wondered just how short it was, that the proprietor +could not venture to leave for even a few hours. + +He drove on thoughtfully. He wanted to go back and look those windows +over again, wanted to go through the whole store, but recognized that +though he could have done this when he first arrived, he could not go +back and do it now without exciting his friend's suspicion that sympathy +was his motive. + +He turned about at a point far short of the one he had intended to +reach, and made record time back to the city, impelled by an odd wish he +could hardly explain, to go by the windows of the great department +stores of Kendrick & Company and examine their window displays. Since he +was ordinarily accustomed to select any other streets than those upon +which these magnificent places of custom were situated, merely because +he not only had no interest in them but a positive distaste for seeing +his own name emblazoned--though ever so chastely--above their princely +portals, it may be understood that an entirely new idea was working in +his brain. + +Speed as he would, however, running the risk as he approached the city +streets of being stopped by some watchful authority for exceeding the +limits, he could not get back to the broad avenue upon which the stores +stood before six o'clock. There was all the better chance on that +account, nevertheless, for examining the windows before which belated +shoppers were still stopping to wonder and admire. + +Well, looking at them with Benson's forlorn windows in his mind as a +foil, he saw them as he never had before. What beauty, what originality, +what art they showed! And at a time of year when, the holiday season +past, it might seem as if there could be no real summons for anybody to +go shopping. They were fairly dazzling, some of them, although many of +them showed only white goods. His car came to a standstill before one +great plate-glass frame behind which was a representation of a +sewing-room with several people busily at work. So perfect were the +figures that it hardly seemed as if they could be of wax. One pretty +girl was sewing at a machine; another, on her knees, was fitting a frock +to a little girl who laughed over her shoulder at a second child who was +looking on. The mother of the family sewed by a drop-light on a +work-table. The whole scene was really charming, combining precisely the +element of domesticity with that of accomplishment which strikes the eye +of the average passer as "looking like home," no matter of what sort the +home might be. + +"By heavens! if poor Ben had something like that people wouldn't pass +him by for the blanket store," he said to himself; and drove on, still +thinking. + +The next day, at an hour before the morning tide of shopping at Kendrick +& Company's had reached the flood, two pretty glove clerks were suddenly +tempted into a furtive exchange of conversation at an unoccupied end of +their counter. + +"Look quick! See the young man coming this way? It's Rich Kendrick." + +"It is? They told me he never came here. Say, but he's the real thing!" + +"I should say. Never saw him so close myself. Wish he'd stop here." + +"Bet you couldn't keep your head if he spoke to you!" + +"Bet I could! Don't you worry; he don't buy his gloves in his own +department store. He--" + +"Sh! Granger's looking!" + +There was really nothing about Richard Kendrick to attract attention +except his wholesome good looks, for he dressed with exceptional +quietness, and his manner matched his clothes. A floorwalker recognized +him and bowed, but the elevator man did not know him, and on his way to +the offices he passed only one clerk who could lay claim to a speaking +acquaintance with the grandson of the owner. + +But at the office of the general manager he was met by an office boy who +knew and worshipped him from afar, and in five minutes he was closeted +with that official, who gave him his whole attention. + +"Mr. Henderson, I wish you could give me"--was the substance of +Richard's remarks--"somebody who would go up to Eastman with me and tell +me what's the matter with a dry-goods store there that's on the verge of +failure." + +The general manager was, to put it mildly, astonished. He was a mighty +man of valour himself, so mighty that his yearly salary would have been +to the average American citizen a small fortune. The office was one to +fill which similar houses had often scoured the country without avail. +Other business owners had been forced to remain at the helm long after +health and happiness demanded retirement. Among these, Henderson was +held to be so competent a man that Matthew Kendrick was considered +incredibly lucky to keep his hold upon him. + +To Matthew Kendrick's grandson Henderson put a number of pertinent +inquiries concerning the store in question which Richard found he could +not intelligently answer. He flushed a little under the fire. + +"I suppose you think I might have investigated a bit for myself," said +he. "But that's just what I don't want to do. I want to send a man up +there whom the owner doesn't know; then we can get at things without +giving ourselves away." + +The general manager inferred from this that philanthropy, not business +interest, was at the bottom of young Kendrick's quest and his surprise +vanished. The young man was known as kind-hearted and generous; he was +undoubtedly merely carrying out a careless impulse, though he certainly +seemed much in earnest in the doing of it. + +"You might take Carson, assistant buyer for the dress-goods department, +with you," suggested Henderson after a little consideration. "He could +probably give you a day just now. Alger, his head, is back from London +this week. Carson's a bright man--in line for promotion. He'll put his +finger on the trouble without hesitation--if it lies in the lack of +business experience, buying and selling, as you say. I'll send for him." + +In two minutes Richard Kendrick and Alfred Carson were face to face, +and an appointment had been made for the following day. Richard took +a liking to the assistant buyer on the spot. He felt as if he were +selecting a competent physician for his friend, and was glad to send +him a man whose personality was both prepossessing and inspiring of +confidence. + +As for Carson, it was an interesting experience for him, too. He +thoroughly enjoyed the seventy-mile drive at the side of the young +millionaire, who sent his powerful car flying over the frozen roads at a +pace which made his passenger's face sting. Carson was more accustomed +to travel in subways and sleeping-cars than by long motor drives, and by +the time Eastman was reached he was glad that the return drive would be +preceded by a hot luncheon. + +"We won't go past the store," Richard explained, making a détour from +the main street of the town, regardless of the fact that he forsook a +good road for a poor one. "I don't want him to see me to-day." + +He pressed upon his guest the best that the hotel afforded, then sent +him to the corner store with instructions to let nothing escape his +attention. "Though I don't need to tell you that," he added with a +laugh. "You'll see more in a minute than I should in a month." + +Then he lighted a cigar--from his own case this time, though he strolled +in to see his friend the druggist when he had finished it, and bought of +him various other sundries. He did not venture to mention Benson to-day, +but the druggist did. Evidently Benson's imminent failure was the talk +of the town, and the regret, as well, of those who were not his rivals. + +"Man can't succeed at a thing he picks up so late, and when he'd rather +do something else," volunteered the druggist. "Now I began in this shop +by sweeping out, mornings, and running errands, delivering goods. Got +interested--came to be a clerk after a while. Always saw myself making +up dope, compounding prescriptions. Went off to a school of +pharmacy--came back--showed the old man I could look after the +prescription business. Finally bought him out. Trained for the trade +from the cradle as you might say." + +"I wonder if I'm going to be useless," thought Richard, "because I'm +not trained from the cradle. Carson says he began as a wrapper at +fifteen. At my age--he looks my age--he's assistant buyer for one of +Kendrick & Company's biggest departments, and 'in line for promotion,' +as Henderson says. Rich Kendrick, do you think you're in line for +promotion--anywhere? I wonder!" + +He had gone back to the hotel and was impatiently awaiting Carson for +some time before the buyer appeared. Carson came in with a look of great +interest and eagerness on his face. The assistant buyer had, Richard +thought, one of the brightest faces he had ever seen. He was sure he had +asked the right man to diagnose the case of the invalid business, even +before Carson began to talk. As the talk progressed he was convinced of +it. + +Yet Carson began at the human, not the business, end of the matter. +Richard Kendrick, himself full of concern for his friend Hugh Benson, +liked that, too. + +"I never felt sorrier for a man in my life," said Carson. "He shows a +lot of pluck; he never once owned that the thing was too much for him. +But I got him to talking--a little. Didn't need to talk much; the whole +place was shouting at me--every counter, every showcase. Thunder!" + +"How did you get him to talking?" Richard asked eagerly. + +"Represented myself as an ex-travelling man--the dry-goods line. It's +true enough, if not just the way he took it. Of course he didn't give me +any facts about his business, but we discussed present conditions of the +trade pretty well, and he owned that a good many things puzzled him just +as much as when he was a little chap and used to listen to his father +giving orders. What's going to be wanted and how much? When to load up +and when to unload? How to catch the public fancy and not get caught +yourself? In short, how to turn over the stock in season and out of +season--turn it over and get out from under! He knows no more than a man +who can't swim how to keep his head above water. Nice fellow, too; I +could see it in every word he said. He'd be a success in, say, a +professorship in a college--and not a business college, either." + +"If the place were yours," Richard, alive with interest, put it to him, +"now, this minute, what would be the first thing you would do?" + +Carson laughed--not derisively, but like a boy who sees a chance at a +game he likes to play. "Have a bonfire, I'd like to say," he vowed. "But +that wouldn't be good business, and I wouldn't do it if I had the +chance--unless there was insurance to cover! And there's money in the +stock. Part of it could be got out. But it ought to be got out before +the moon is old. Then I'd like the fun of stocking up with new lines, +new departments, things the town never heard of. I'd make that blanket +window you told me about look sick. That is," he added modestly, "I +think I could. Any good general buyer could. I'm a dress-goods man +myself, only I've grown up under Kendrick & Company's roof and I've been +watching other lines than my own. It interests me--the possibilities of +that store. Why, the man ought not to fail! He has the best location in +town, the biggest windows, the best fixtures, judging by the outside of +the places I saw as I came along. I looked at the blanket-window place. +That's a dark store when you get back a dozen feet. Benson's, being on +the corner, is fairly light to the back door. That counts more than any +other thing about the building itself. And the fellow has his underwear +in the brightest spot in the shop and the dress goods in the darkest! +His heavy lines by the door and his notions and fancy stuff way back +where you've got to hunt for them! And his windows--oh, blazes! I wanted +to climb up and jump on the mess and then throw it out!" + +Richard drove Carson back to town, his heart afire with longing to do +something, he did not yet know what. He could not consult Carson about +the matter further than to find out from him what was wrong with the +business from the standpoint of the customer; why the place did not +attract the customer. Details of this phase of the question Carson had +given him in plenty, all leading back to the one trouble--Benson had not +understood how to appeal to the class of custom at his doors. He had not +the right goods, nor the right means of display; he had not the right +salespeople; in brief, he had nothing, according to Carson, that he +ought to have, and everything, poor fellow, that he ought not! It was a +hard case. + +As to actual business foundations and resources, neither of the young +men could judge. They had no means of knowing how deeply Benson was in +debt, nor what were his assets beyond the visible stock. Yet his fellow +shopkeepers considered him on the verge of bankruptcy; they must know. + +"I've enjoyed this trip, Mr. Kendrick," Carson said at parting, "in more +ways than I can tell you. If I can be of use to you in any way, call on +me, please. I'm honestly interested in your friend Mr. Benson. I'd like +to see him win out." + +"So should I." Richard shook hands heartily. "I've enjoyed the trip, +too, Mr. Carson. I never had better company. Thank you for going--and +for teaching me a lot of things I wanted to know." + +As he drove away he was thinking, "Carson's a success; I'm not. Odd +thing, that I should find myself envying a chap whose place I couldn't +be hired to take. I envy him--not exactly his knowledge and skill, but +his being a definite factor, his being a man who carries +responsibilities and makes good, so that--well, so that he's 'in line +for promotion.' That phrase takes hold of me somehow; I wonder why? +Well, the next thing is to see grandfather." + + * * * * * + +Old Matthew Kendrick was alone. His grandson had just left him. He was +marching up and down his private library. His hands were clasped tightly +behind his back; above his flushed brow his white hair stood erect from +frequent thrustings of his agitated fingers; even his cravat, slightly +awry, bore witness to his excitement. + +"Gad!" he was saying to himself. "The boy's alive after all! The boy's +waked up! He's taking notice! And the thing that's waked him up is a +country store--by cricky! a country store! I believe I'm dreaming yet!" + +If the citizens of the thriving town of Eastman, almost of a size to +call itself a young city and boast of a mayor, could have heard him they +might not have been flattered. Yet when they remembered that this was +the owner of a business so colossal that its immense buildings and +branches were to be found in three great cities, they might have +understood that to him the corner store of Hugh Benson looked like a toy +concern, indeed. But he liked the look of it, as it had been presented +to his mind's eye that night; no doubt but he liked the look of it! + +"Give him Carson to go up there and manage the business for those two +infants-in-arms? Gad! yes, go myself and make change at the desk for the +new firm," he chuckled, "if that would keep Dick interested. But I guess +he's interested enough or he wouldn't have agreed to my ruling that he +must go into the thing himself, not stand off and throw out a rope to +his drowning friend Benson. If young Benson's the man Dick makes him +out, it's as I told Dick: he wouldn't grasp the rope. But if Dick goes +in after him, that's business. Bless the rascal! I wish his father could +see him now. Sitting on the edge of my table and talking window-dressing +to me as if he'd been born to it, which he was, only he wouldn't accept +his birthright, the proud beggar! Talking about moving one of our +show-windows up there bodily for a white-goods sale in February; date a +trifle late for Kendrick & Company, but advance trade for Eastman, +undoubtedly. Says he knows they can start every mother's daughter of 'em +sewing for dear life, if they can get their eye on that sewing-room +scene. Well"--he paused to chuckle again--"he says Carson says that +window cost us five hundred dollars; but if it did it's cheap at the +price, and I'll make the new firm a present of it. Benson & Company--and +a grandson of Matthew Kendrick the Company!" + +He laughed heartily, then paused to stand staring down into the jewelled +shade of his electric drop-light as if in its softly blending colourings +he saw the outlines of a new future for "the boy." + +"I wonder what Cal will say to losing his literary assistant," he mused, +smiling to himself. "I doubt if Dick's proved himself invaluable, and I +presume the man he speaks of will give Cal much better service; but I +shall be sorry not to have him going to the Grays' every day; it seemed +like a safe harbour. Well, well, I never thought to find myself +interested again in the fortunes of a country store. Gad! I can't get +over that. The fellow's been too proud to walk down the aisles of +Kendrick & Company to buy his silk socks at cost--preferred to pay two +prices at an exclusive haberdasher's instead! And now--he's going to +have a share in the sale of socks that retail for a quarter, five pairs +for a dollar! O Dick, Dick, you rascal, your old grandfather hasn't been +so happy since you were left to him to bring up. If only you'll stick! +But you're your father's son, after all--and my grandson; I can't help +believing you'll stick!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LAVENDER LINEN + + +"I'm going to drive into town. Any of you girls want to go with me?" + +Mr. Rufus Gray addressed his wife and their two guests, his nieces, +Roberta and Ruth Gray. It was the midwinter vacation at the school where +Roberta taught and at the equally desirable establishment where Ruth was +taking a carefully selected course of study. Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth +had invited them to spend the four days of this vacation at their +country home, according to a custom they had of decoying one or another +of the young people of Rufus's brothers' families to come and visit the +aunt and uncle whose own children were all married and gone, sorely +missed by the young-hearted pair. Roberta and Ruth had accepted eagerly, +always delighted to spend a day or a month at the "Gray Farm," a most +attractive place even in winter, and in summer a veritable +pleasure-ground of enjoyment. + +They all wanted to go to town, the three "girls," including the +white-haired one whose face was almost as young as her nieces' as she +looked out from the rear seat of the comfortable double sleigh driven by +her husband and drawn by a pair of the handsomest horses the countryside +could boast. It was only two miles from the fine old country homestead +to the centre of the neighbouring village, and though the air was keen +nobody was cold among the robes and rugs with which the sleigh +overflowed. + +"You folks want to do any shopping?" inquired Uncle Rufus, as he drove +briskly along the lower end of Eastman's principal business street. "I +suppose there's no need of asking that. When doesn't a woman want to go +shopping?" + +"Of course we do," Ruth responded, without so much as consulting the +back seat. + +"I meant to bring some lavender linen with me to work on," said Roberta +to Aunt Ruth. "Where do you suppose I could find any, here?" + +"Why, I don't know, dearie," responded Aunt Ruth doubtfully. "White +linen you ought to get anywhere; but lavender--you might try at Artwell +& Chatford's. We'll go past Benson's, but it's no use looking there any +more. Everybody's expecting poor Hugh to fail any day." + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Roberta warmly. "I always liked Hugh Benson. Mr. +Westcott told me some time ago that he was afraid Hugh wasn't +succeeding." + +"The store's been closed to the public a fortnight now," explained Uncle +Rufus over his shoulder. "Hugh hasn't failed yet, and something's going +on there; nobody seems to know just what. Inventory, maybe, or getting +ready for a bankrupt sale. The Benson sign's still up just as it was +before Hugh's father died. Windows covered with white soap or whitewash. +Some say the store's going to open up under new parties--guess nobody +knows exactly. Hullo! who's that making signs?" + +He indicated a tall figure on the sidewalk coming toward them at a rapid +rate, face alight, hat waving in air. + +"It's Mr. Forbes Westcott," exulted Ruth, twisting around to look at her +sister. "Funny how he always happens to be visiting his father and +mother just as Rob is visiting you, isn't it, Aunt Ruth?" + +Uncle Rufus drew up to the sidewalk, and the whole party shook hands +with a tall man of dark, keen features, who bore an unmistakable air of +having come from a larger world than that of the town of Eastman. + +"Mrs. Gray--Miss Roberta--Miss Ruth--Mr. Gray--why, this is delightful. +When did you come? How long are you going to stay? It seems a thousand +years since I saw you last!" + +He was like an eager boy, though he was clearly no boy in years. He +included them all in this greeting, but his eyes were ardently on +Roberta as he ended. Ruth, screwed around upon the front seat and +watching interestedly, could hardly blame him. Roberta, in her furry +wrappings, was as vivid as a flower. Her eyes looked black beneath their +dusky lashes, and her cheeks were brilliant with the touch of the winter +wind. + +"When did you come? How did you find your father and mother?" inquired +Roberta demurely. + +"Well and hearty as ever, and apparently glad to see their son--as he +was to see them. I've been devoting myself to them for three days now, +and mean to give them the whole week. It's only fair--isn't it?--after +being away so long. How fortunate for me that I should meet you; I might +not have found it out till I had missed much time." + +"You've missed much time already," put in Uncle Rufus. "They came last +night." + +"Put your hat on, Forbes," was Aunt Ruth's admonition as Westcott +continued to stand beside Roberta, exchanging question and answer +concerning the long interval which had intervened since they last met. +"Come over to supper to-night, and then you young people can talk +without danger of catching your death of cold." + +Westcott laughed and accepted, but the hat was not replaced upon his +smooth, dark head until the sleigh had gone on. + +"Subjects always keep uncovered before their queen," whispered Ruth in +Uncle Rufus's ear, and he laughed and nodded. + +"Times have changed since I was a young man," said he. "A fellow would +have looked queer in my day unwinding his comforter and pulling off his +coonskin cap and standing holding those things while he talked on a +February morning. He'd have gone home and taken some pepper-tea to ward +off the effects of the chill!" + +"There's Benson's," Roberta interrupted, "and it's open. Why, look at +the people in front of the windows! Look at the windows themselves. +There must be a new firm. Poor Hugh!" + +"There's a new sign over the old one; a '_Successors to_,' I think; but +Benson's name is on it, '_Benson & Company_,'" announced Ruth, straining +her eyes to make it out. + +"Somebody must have come to the rescue," said Uncle Rufus with joyous +interest. "Well, well; the thing has been kept surprisingly still, and I +can't think who it can be, but I'm certainly glad. I hated to see the +boy fail. I suppose you all want to go in?" + +They unquestionably did, but they wanted first to sit still and look at +the windows from their vantage point above the passers-by on foot, who +were all stopping as they came along. It was small wonder that they +should stop. The town of Eastman had never in its experience seen within +its borders window displays like these. + +Benson's possessed the advantage of having larger fronts of clear +plate-glass than any store in town. As it was a corner store, there were +not only two big windows on the front but one equally large upon the +side. Each of these showed an artful arrangement of fresh and alluring +white goods, and in the centre of each was a special scheme arranged +with figures and furnishings to form a charming tableau. In one was the +sewing-room scene, adapted from that one which had first challenged +Richard's interest in his grandfather's store; in a second a children's +tea-party drew many admiring comments from the crowd; and in the side +window the figure of a pretty bride with veil and orange blossoms +suggested that the surrounding draperies were fit for uses such as hers. +The clever adaptability of Carson's art showed in the fact that the +figure wore no longer the costly French robe with which she had been +draped when she stood in a glass case at _Kendrick & Company's_, but a +delicate frock of simpler materials, such as any village girl might +afford, yet so cunningly fashioned that a princess might have worn it as +well, and not have been ashamed. + +Aunt Ruth and her nieces went enthusiastically in, and Uncle Rufus, +declaring that he must go also and congratulate Hugh on this +extraordinary transformation, tied his horses across the street where +they could not interfere with the view of passing sleighs. + +Entering, the visitors found inside the same atmosphere of successful, +timely display of fresh and attractive goods as had been promised by the +outside. The store did not look like a village store at all; its whole +air was metropolitan. The smallest counter carried out this effect; on +every hand were goods selected with rare skill, and this description +held good of the cheaper articles as well as of those more expensive. + +"Well, Hugh, we don't understand, but we are very glad," said Aunt Ruth +heartily, shaking hands with the young man who advanced to meet them. + +"That's kind of you. It goes without saying that I am very glad, too," +responded the proprietor of the place. His thin face flushed a little as +he greeted the others, and his eyes, like Westcott's, dwelt a trifle +longer on the face of one of the party than on any of the others. + +"Rob, I believe you'll find your lavender linen here," said Ruth in her +sister's ear, as Uncle Rufus came in and Benson began to show them all +about the store. "Look, there are all kinds of white linens; let's stop +and ask." + +With a word of explanation, Roberta delayed at the counter Ruth had +indicated, making inquiry for the goods she sought. It chanced that this +department was next to an inclosure which was partially of glass, the +new office of the firm. The old firm had had no office, only a desk in a +dark corner. In this place two men were talking. One was facing the +store, his glance even as he spoke upon the way things were going +outside; the other's back was turned. But Ruth, gazing interestedly +around as her sister examined linens, discovered something familiar +about the set of one of the heads just beyond the glass partition, +though she could not see the face. When this head was suddenly thrown +back with a peculiar motion she had noted when its owner was +particularly amused over something, Ruth said to herself: "Why, that's +Mr. Richard Kendrick! What in the world is he doing out here at +Eastman?" + +As if she had called him Richard turned about and his look encountered +Ruth's. The next instant he was out of the glass inclosure and at her +side. Roberta, hearing Ruth's low but eager, "Why, Mr. Kendrick, who +ever expected to see you in Eastman!" turned about with an expression of +astonishment, which was reflected in both the faces before her. + +An interested village salesgirl now looked on at a little scene the like +of which had never come within the range of her experience. That three +people, clearly so surprised to meet in this particular spot, should not +proceed voluminously to explain to each other within her hearing the +cause of their surprise, was to her an extraordinary thing. But after +the first moment's expression of wonder the three seemed to accept the +fact as a matter of course, and began to exchange observations +concerning the weather, the roads, and various other matters of +comparatively small importance. It was not until Uncle Rufus, rounding a +high-piled counter with his wife and Hugh Benson, came upon the group, +that anything was said of which the curious young person behind the +counter could make enough to guess at the situation. + +"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Kendrick!" he exclaimed, after one keen +look, and hastened forward, hand outstretched. So the group now became +doubled in size, and Uncle Rufus expressed great pleasure at seeing +again the young man whose hospitality he had enjoyed during the +Christmas house-party. + +"But I didn't suppose we should ever see you up here in our town," said +he, "especially in winter. Come by the morning train?" + +"I've been here for a month, most of the time," Richard told him. + +"You have? And didn't come to see us? Well, now--" + +"I didn't know this was your home, Mr. Gray," admitted the young man +frankly. "I don't remember your mentioning the name of Eastman while you +and Mrs. Gray were with us. Probably you did, and if I had realized you +were here--" + +"You'd have come? Well, you know now, and I hope you'll waste no time in +getting out to the 'Gray Farm.' Only two miles out, and the trolley runs +by within a few rods of our turn of the road--conductor'll tell you. +Better come to-night," he urged genially, "seeing my nieces are here and +can help make you feel at home. They'll be going back in a day or two." + +Richard, smiling, looked at Aunt Ruth, then at Roberta. "Do come," urged +Aunt Ruth as cordially as her husband, and Roberta gave a little nod of +acquiescence. + +"I shall be delighted to come," he agreed. + +"Putting up at the hotel?" inquired Uncle Rufus. + +"I'm staying for the present with my friend Mr. Benson," Richard +explained, with a glance toward Benson himself, who had moved aside to +speak to a clerk. "We were classmates at college. We have--gone into +business together here." + +It was out. As he spoke the words his face changed colour a little, but +his eyes remained steadily fixed on Uncle Rufus. + +"Well, well," exclaimed Mr. Rufus Gray. "So it's you who have come to +the rescue of--" + +But Richard interrupted him quickly. "I beg your pardon, not at all," +said he. "It is my friend who has come to my rescue--given me the +biggest interest I have yet discovered--the game of business. I'm having +the time of my life. With the help of our mutual friend, Mr. Carson, who +is to be the business manager of the new house, we hope to make a +success." + +Roberta was looking curiously at him, and his eyes suddenly met hers. +For an instant the encounter lasted, and it ended by her glance dropping +from his. There was something new to her in his face, something she +could not understand. Instead of its former rather studiedly impassive +expression there was an awakened look, a determined look, as if he had +something on hand he meant to do--and to do as soon as the present +interview should be over. Strangely enough, it was the first time she +had met him when he seemed not wholly occupied with herself, but rather +on his way to some affair of strong interest in which she had no concern +and from which she was detaining him. It was not that he was failing in +the extreme courtesy she had learned to expect from him under all +conditions. But--well, it struck her that he would return to his +companion in the glass-screened office and immediately forget her. This +was a change, indeed! + +"However you choose to put it," declared Uncle Rufus kindly, "it's a +mighty fine thing for Hugh, and we wish you both success." + +"You will have it. I have found my lavender linen," said Roberta, +turning back to the counter. + +Richard came around to her side. "Didn't you expect to find it?" he +inquired with interest. + +"I really didn't at all. We seldom find summer goods shown in a town +like this till spring is well along, least of all coloured dress linens. +But you have several shades, besides a beautiful lot of white." + +"That's Carson's buying," said he, fingering a corner of the +lilac-tinted goods she held up. "I shouldn't know it from gingham. I +didn't know what gingham was till the other day. But I can recognize it +now on sight, and am no end proud of my knowledge." + +"I suppose you are familiar with silk," said she with a quick glance. + +He returned it. "Aren't you?" + +"I'm not specially fond of it." + +"What fabrics do you like best?" + +"Thin, sheer things, fine but durable." + +"Linens?" + +"No, cottons, batistes, voiles--that sort of thing." + +"I'm afraid you've got me now," he owned, looking puzzled. "Perhaps I'd +know them if I saw them. If Benson has any--I mean, if we have any," he +amended quickly, "I'd like to have you see them. Let me go and ask +Carson." + +He was off to consult the man in the office and was back in a minute. +When Roberta had purchased the yard of lavender linen he led her into +another aisle and requested the clerk to show her his finest goods. +Roberta looked on, much amused, while the display was made, and praised +liberally. But suddenly she pounced upon a piece of white material with +a tiny white flower embroidered upon its delicate surface. + +"That's one of the prettiest pieces of Swiss muslin I ever saw," said +she. "And at such a reasonable price. It looks like one of the finest +imported Swisses. I'm going to have that pattern this minute." + +She gave the order without hesitation. + +"I didn't know women ever shopped like that," said Richard in her ear. + +"Like what?" + +"Why, bought the thing right off without asking to see everything in the +store. That's what--I've been told they did." + +"Not if they're wise--when they see a thing like that. There was only +the one pattern. Why, another woman might have walked up and said right +over my shoulder that she would take it." + +"If she had I'd have seen that you got it," declared Richard. + +He accompanied the party to the door when they went; he saw them to the +sleigh and tucked them in. + +"Bareheaded again," observed Uncle Rufus, regarding him with interest. + +"Again?" queried Richard. + +"All the young men we meet this morning insist on standing round +outdoors with their hats off," explained the elder man. "It looks +reckless to me." + +"It would be more reckless not to, I imagine," returned Richard, +laughing with Ruth and Roberta. + +"We'll see you to-night," Uncle Rufus reminded him as he drove off. +"Bring Hugh with you. I asked him in the store, but he seemed to +hesitate. It will do him good to get out." + +When the sleigh was a quarter of a mile up the road Ruth turned to her +uncle. "Do you imagine, Uncle Rufus," said she, "that all those men +you've asked for to-night will be grateful--when they see one another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RAPID FIRE + + +"Well, now, we're glad to see you at our place, Mr. Kendrick," was Mr. +Rufus Gray's hearty greeting. He had heard the sound of the motor-car as +it came to a standstill just outside his window, and was in the doorway +to receive his guests. "As for Hugh, he knows he's always welcome, +though it's a good while since he took advantage of it. Sit down here by +the fire and warm up before we send you out again. You see," he +explained enjoyingly, "we have instructions what to do with you." + +Richard Kendrick noted the pleasant room with its great fireplace +roaring with logs ablaze; he noted also its absence of occupants. Only +Aunt Ruth, coming forward with an expression of warm hospitality on her +face, was to be discovered. "They're all down at the river, skating," +she told the young men. "Forbes Westcott is just home again, and he and +Robby had so much to talk over we asked him out to supper. He and the +girls--and Anna Drummond, one of our neighbours' daughters," she +explained to Kendrick, "were taken with the idea of going skating. They +didn't wait for you, because they wanted to get a fire built. When +you're warmed up you can go down." + +"There'll be a girl apiece for you," observed Uncle Rufus. "Hugh knows +Anna--went to school with her. She's a fine girl, eh, Hugh?" + +"She certainly is," agreed Benson heartily. "But I don't see how either +of us is to skate with her or with anybody without--" + +"Oh, that's all right. Look there," and Uncle Rufus pointed to a long +row of skates lying on the floor in a corner. "All the nieces and +nephews leave their skates here to have 'em handy when they come." + +So presently the two young men were rushing down the winding, snowy road +which led through pasture and meadow for a quarter of a mile toward a +beckoning bonfire. + +"I don't know when I've gone skating," said Hugh Benson. + +"The last time I skated was two years ago on the Neva at St. Petersburg. +Jove! but it was a carnival!" And Richard's thoughts went back for a +minute to the face of the girl he had skated with. He had not cared much +for skating since that night. All other opportunities had seemed tame +after that. + +"You've travelled a great deal--had a lot of experiences," Benson said, +with a suppressed sigh. + +"A few. But they don't prevent my looking forward to a new one to-night. +I never went skating on a river in the country before. How far can you +go?" + +"Ten miles, if you like, down. Two miles up. There they are, coming +round the bend four abreast. Westcott has more than his share of girls." + +"More than he wants, probably. He'll cling to one and joyfully hand over +the others." + +"You'll like Anna Drummond; we're old school friends. Forbes and Miss +Roberta naturally seem to get together wherever they are. And Miss Ruth +is a mighty nice little girl." + +Across the blazing bonfire two men scrutinized each other: Forbes +Westcott, one of the cleverest attorneys of a large city, a man with a +rising reputation, who held himself as a man does who knows that every +day advances his success; Richard Kendrick, well-known young +millionaire, hitherto a travelled idler and spender of his income, now +a newly fledged business man with all his honours yet to be won. They +looked each other steadily in the eye as they grasped hands by the +bonfire, and in his inmost heart each man recognized in the other an +antagonist. + +Richard skated away with Miss Drummond, a wholesomely gay and attractive +girl who could skate as well as she could talk and laugh. He devoted +himself to her for half an hour; then, with a skill of which he was +master from long exercise, he brought about a change of partners. The +next time he rounded the bend into a path which led straight down the +moonlight it was in the company he longed for. + +Richard's heart leaped exultantly as he skated around the river bend in +the moonlight with Roberta. And when his hands gathered hers into his +close grasp it was somehow as if he had taken hold of an electric +battery. He distinctly felt the difference between her hands and those +of the other girl. It was very curious and he could not wholly +understand it. + +"What kind of gloves do you wear?" was his first inquiry. He held up the +hand which was not in Roberta's muff and tried to see it in the dim +light. + +"You _are_ deep in the new business, aren't you?" she mocked. "Whatever +they are, will you put them into your stock?" + +"Don't you dare make fun of my new business. I'm in it for scalps and +have no time for joking. Of course I want to put this make in stock. I +never took hold of so warm a hand on so cold a night. The warmth comes +right through your glove and mine to my hand, runs up my arm, and stirs +up my circulation generally. It was running a little cold with some of +the things Miss Drummond was telling me." + +"What could they be?" + +"About how all the rest of you know each other so well. She described +all sorts of good times you have all had together on this river in the +summer. It seems odd that Benson never told me about any of them while +we were together at college." + +"They have happened mostly in the last two summers, since Mr. Benson +left college. We always spend at least part of our summers here, and we +have had worlds of fun on the river and beside it--and in it." + +"I'm glad I'm a business man in Eastman. I can imagine what this river +is like in summer. It's wonderful to-night, isn't it? Let's skate on +down to the mouth and out to sea. What do you say?" + +"A beautiful plan. We have a good start; we must make time or it will be +moonset before we come to the sea." + +"This is a glorious stroke; let's hit it up a little, swing a little +farther--and make for the mouth of the river. No talking till we come in +sight. We're off!" + +It was ten miles to the mouth of the river, as they both understood, so +this was nonsense of the most obvious sort. But the imagination took +hold of them and they swung away on over the smooth, shining floor with +the long vigorous strokes which are so exhilarating to the accomplished +skater. In silence they flew, only the warm, clasped hands making a link +between them, their faces turned straight toward the great golden disk +in the eastern heavens. Richard was feeling that he could go on +indefinitely, and was exulting in his companion's untiring progress, +when he felt her slowing pull upon his hands. + +"Tired?" he asked, looking down at her. + +"Not much, but we've all the way back to go--and we ought not to be away +so long." + +"Oughtn't we? I'd like to be away forever--with you!" + +She looked straight up at him. His eyes were like black coals in the dim +light. His hands would have tightened on hers, but she drew them away. + +"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Mr. Richard Kendrick," said she, as quietly as +one can whose breath comes with some difficulty after long-sustained +exertion. "By the time we reached--even the mouth of the river, you'd be +tired of my company." + +"Should I? I think not. I've thought of nothing but you since the day I +saw you first." + +"Really? That's--how long? Was it November when you came to help Uncle +Calvin? This is February. And you've never spent so much as a whole hour +alone with me. You see, you don't even know me. What a foolish thing to +say to a girl you barely know!" + +"Foolish, is it?" He felt his heart racing now. What other girl he knew +would have answered him like that? "Then you shall hear something that +backs it up. I've loved you since that day I saw you first. What will +you do with that?" + +She was silent for a moment. Then she turned, striking out toward home. +He was instantly after her, reached for her hands, and took her along +with him. But he forced her to skate slowly. + +"You'll trample on that, too, will you?" said he, growing wrathful under +her silence. + +But she answered, quite gently, now: "No, Mr. Kendrick, I don't trample +on that. No girl would. I simply--know you are mistaken." + +"In what? My own feeling? Do you think I don't know--" + +"I _know_ you don't know. I'm not your kind of a girl, Mr. Kendrick. You +think I am, because--well, perhaps because my eyes are blue and my +eyelashes black; just such things as that do mislead people. I can dance +fairly well--" + +He smothered an angry exclamation. + +"And skate well--and play the 'cello a little--and--that's nearly all +you know about me. You don't even know whether I can teach well--or talk +well--or what is stored away in my mind. And I know just as little about +you." + +"I've learned one thing about you in this last minute," he muttered. +"You can keep your head." + +"Why not?" There was a note of laughter in her voice. "There needs to be +one who keeps her head when the other loses his--all because of a little +winter moonlight. What would the summer moonlight do to you, I wonder?" + +"Roberta Gray"--his voice was rough--"the moonlight does it no more than +the sunlight. Whatever you think, I'm not that kind of fellow. The day +I saw you first you had just come in out of the rain. You went back into +it and I saw you go--and wanted to go with you. I've been wanting it +ever since." + +They moved on in silence which lasted until they were within a +quarter-mile of the bonfire, whose flashing light they could see above +the banks which intervened. Then Roberta spoke: + +"Mr. Kendrick"--and her voice was low and rich with its kindest +inflections--"I don't want you to think me careless or hard because I +have treated what you have said to-night in a way that you don't like. +I'm only trying to be honest with you. I'm quite sure you didn't mean to +say it to me when you came to-night, and--we all do and say things on a +night like this that we should like to take back next day. It's quite +true--what I said--that you hardly know me, and whatever it is that +takes your fancy it can't be the real Roberta Gray, because you don't +know her!" + +"What you say is," he returned, staring straight ahead of him, "that I +can't possibly know what you really are, at all; but you know so well +what I am that you can tell me exactly what my own thoughts and feelings +are." + +"Oh, no, I didn't mean--" + +"That's precisely what you do mean. I'm so plainly labelled 'worthless' +that you don't have to stop to examine me. You--" + +"I didn't--" + +"I beg your pardon. I can tell you exactly what you think of me: A young +fool who runs after the latest sensation, to drop it when he finds a +newer one. His head turned by every pretty girl--to whom he says just +the sort of thing he has said to you to-night. Superficial and ordinary, +incapable of serious thought on any of the subjects that interest you. +As for this business affair in Eastman--that's just a caprice, a game to +be dropped when he tires of it. Everything in life will be like that to +him, including his very friends. Come, now--isn't that what you've been +thinking? There's no use denying it. Nearly every time I've seen you +you've said some little thing that has shown me your opinion of me. I +won't say there haven't been times in my life when I may have deserved +it, but on my honour I don't think I deserve it now." + +"Then I won't think it," said Roberta promptly, looking up. "I truly +don't want to do you an injustice. But you are so different from the +other men I have known--my brothers, my friends--that I can hardly +imagine your seeing things from my point of view--" + +"But you can see things from mine without any difficulty!" + +"It isn't fair, is it?" Her tone was that of the comrade, now. "But you +know women are credited with a sort of instinct--even intuition--that +leads them safely where men's reasoning can't always follow." + +"It never leads them astray, by any chance?" + +"Yes, I think it does sometimes," she owned frankly. "But it's as well +for the woman to be on her guard, isn't it? Because, sometimes, you +know, she loses her head. And when that happens--" + +"All is lost? Or does a man's reasoning, slower and not so infallible, +but sometimes based on greater knowledge, step in and save the day?" + +"It often does. But, in this case--well, it's not just a case of +reasoning, is it?" + +"The case of my falling in love with a girl I've only +known--slightly--for four months? It has seemed to me all along it was +just that. It's been a case of the head sanctioning the heart--and you +probably know it's not always that way with a young man's experiences. +Every ideal I've ever known--and I've had a few, though you might not +think it--every good thought and purpose, have been stimulated by my +contact with the people of your father's house. And since I have met you +some new ideals have been born. They have become very dear to me, those +new ideals, Miss Roberta, though they've had only a short time to grow. +It hurts to have you treat me as if you thought me incapable of them." + +"I'm sorry," she said simply, and her hands gave his a little quick +pressure which meant apology and regret. His heart warmed a very little, +for he had been sure she was capable of great generosity if appealed to +in the right way. But justice and generosity were not all he craved, and +he could see quite clearly that they were all he was likely to get from +her as yet. + +"You think," he said, pursuing his advantage, "we know too little of +each other to be even friends. You are confident my tastes and pleasures +are entirely different from yours; especially that my notions of real +work are so different that we could never measure things with the same +footrule." + +He looked down at her searchingly. + +She nodded. "Something like that," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean +that either tastes or notions in either case are necessarily unworthy, +only that they are different." + +"I wonder if they are? What if we should try to find out? I'm going to +stick pretty closely to Eastman this winter, but of course I shall be in +town more or less. May I come to see you, now and then, if I promise not +to become bothersome?" + +It was her turn to look up searchingly at him. If he had expected the +usual answer to such a request, he began, before she spoke, to realize +that it was by no means a foregone conclusion that he should receive +usual answers from her to any questioning whatsoever. But her reply +surprised him more than he had ever been surprised by any girl in his +life. + +"Mr. Kendrick," said she slowly, "I wish that you need not see me again +till--suppose we say Midsummer Day,[A] the twenty-fourth of June, you +know." + +[Footnote A: Midsummer comes at the time of the summer solstice, about +June 21st, but Midsummer Day, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, is the +24th of June.] + +He stared at her. "If you put it that way," he began stiffly, "you +certainly need not--" + +"But I didn't put it that way. I said I wished that you need not see me. +That is quite different from wishing I need not see you. I don't mind +seeing you in the least--" + +"That's good of you!" + +"Don't be angry. I'm going to be quite frank with you--" + +"I'm prepared for that. I can't remember that you've ever been anything +else." + +"Please listen to me, Mr. Kendrick. When I say that I wish you would not +see me--" + +"You said 'need not.'" + +"I shall have to put it 'would not' to make you understand. When I say I +wish you would not see me until Midsummer I am saying the very kindest +thing I can. Just now you are under the impression--hallucination--that +you want to see much of me. To prove that you are mistaken I'm going to +ask this of you--not to have anything whatever to do with me until at +least Midsummer. If you carry out my wish you will find out for yourself +what I mean--and will thank me for my wisdom." + +"It's a wish, is it? It sounds to me more like a decree." + +"It's not a decree. I'll not refuse to see you if you come. But if you +will do as I ask I shall appreciate it more than I can tell you." + +"It is certainly one of the cleverest schemes of getting rid of a fellow +I ever heard. Hang it all! do you expect me not to understand that you +are simply letting me down easy? It's not in reason to suppose that +you're forbidding all other men the house. I beg your pardon; I know +that's none of my business; but it's not in human nature to keep from +saying it, because of course that's bound to be the thing that cuts. If +you were going into a convent, and all other fellows were cooling their +heels outside with me, I could stand it." + +"My dear Mr. Kendrick, you can stand it in any case. You're going to put +all this out of mind and work at building up this business here in +Eastman with Mr. Benson. You will find it a much more interesting game +than the old one of--" + +"Of what? Running after every pretty girl? For of course that's what you +think I've done." + +She did not answer that. He said something under his breath, and his +hands tightened on hers savagely. They were rounding the last bend but +one in the river, and the bonfire was close at hand. + +"Can't you understand," he ground out, "that every other thought and +feeling and experience I've ever had melts away before this? You can put +me under ban for a year if you like; but if at the end of that time +you're not married to another man you'll find me at your elbow. I told +you I'd make you respect me; I'll do more, I'll make you listen to me. +And--if I promise not to come where you have to look at me till +Midsummer, till the twenty-fourth of June--heaven knows why you pick out +that day--I'll not promise not to make you think of me!" + +"Oh, but that's part of what I mean. You mustn't send me letters and +books and flowers--" + +"Oh--thunder!" + +"Because those things will help to keep this idea before your mind. I +want you to forget me, Mr. Kendrick--do you realize that?--forget me +absolutely all the rest of the winter and spring. By that time--" + +"I'll wonder who you are when we do meet, I suppose?" + +"Exactly. You--" + +"All right. I agree to the terms. No letters, no books, no--ye gods! if +I could only send the flowers now! Who would expect to win a girl +without orchids? You do, you certainly do, rate me with the +light-minded, don't you? Music also is proscribed, of course; that's the +one other offering allowed at the shrine of the fair one. All right--all +right--I'll vanish, like a fairy prince in a child's story. But before I +go I--" + +With a dig of his steel-shod heel he brought himself and Roberta to a +standstill. He bent over her till his face was rather close to hers. She +looked back at him without fear, though she both saw and felt the +tenseness with which he was making his farewell speech. + +"Before I go, I say, I'm going to tell you that if you were any other +girl on the old footstool I'd have one kiss from you before I let go of +you if I knew it meant I'd never have another. I could take it--" + +She did not shrink from him by a hair's breadth, but he felt her +suddenly tremble as if with the cold. + +"--but I want you to know that I'm going to wait for it till--Midsummer +Day. Then"--he bent still closer--"you will give it to me yourself. I'm +saying this foolhardy sort of thing to give you something to remember +all these months--I've got to. You'll have so many other people saying +things to you when I can't that I've got to startle you in order to make +an impression that will stick. That one will, won't it?" + +A reluctant smile touched her lips. "It's quite possible that it may," +she conceded. "It probably would, whoever had the audacity to say it. +But--to know a fate that threatens is to be forewarned. +And--fortunately--a girl can always run away." + +"You can't run so far that I can't follow. Meanwhile, tell me just one +thing--" + +"I'll tell you nothing more. We've been gone for ages now--there come +the others--please start on." + +"Good-bye, dear," said he, under his breath. "Good-bye--till Midsummer. +But then--" + +"No, no, you must _not_ say it--or think it." + +"I'm going to think it, and so are you. I defy you to forget it. You may +see that lawyer Westcott every day, and no matter what you're saying to +him, every once in a while will bob up the thought--Midsummer Day!" + +"Hush! I won't listen! Please skate faster!" + +"You _shall_ listen--to just one thing more. Just halfway between now +and Midsummer may I come to see you--just once?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"Because--I shall not want to see you." + +"That's good," said he steadily. "Then let me tell you that I should not +come even if you would let me. I wanted you to know that." + +A little, half-smothered laugh came from her in spite of herself, in +which he rather grimly joined. Then the others, calling questions and +reproaches, bore down upon them, and the evening for Richard Kendrick +was over. But the fight he meant to win was just begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MAKING MEN + + +"Grandfather, have you a good courage for adventure?" + +Matthew Kendrick looked up from his letters. His grandson Richard stood +before him, his face lighted by that new look of expectancy and +enthusiasm which the older man so often noted now. It was early in the +day, Mr. Kendrick having but just partaken of his frugal breakfast. He +had eaten alone this morning, having learned to his surprise that +Richard was already off. + +"Why, Dick? What do you want of me?" his grandfather asked, laying down +his letters. They were important, but not so important, to his mind, as +the giving ear to his grandson. It was something about the business, he +had no doubt. The boy was always talking about the business these days, +and he found always a ready listener in the old man who was such a +pastmaster in the whole difficult subject. + +"It's the mildest sort of weather--bright sun, good roads most of the +way, and something worth seeing at the other end. Put on your fur-lined +coat, sir, will you? and come with me up to Eastman. I want to show you +the new shop." + +Mr. Kendrick's eye brightened. So the boy wanted him, did he? Wanted to +take him off for the day, the whole day, with himself. It was pleasant +news. But he hesitated a little, looking toward the window, where the +late March sun was, surely enough, streaming in warmly. The bare +branches outside were motionless; moreover, there was no wind, such as +had prevailed of late. + +"I can keep you perfectly warm," Richard added, seeing the hesitation. +"There's an electric foot-warmer in the car, and you shall have a heavy +rug. I'll have you there in a couple of hours, and you'll not be even +chilled. If the weather changes, you can come back by train. Please +come--will you?" + +"I believe I will, Dick, if you'll not drive too fast. I should like to +see this wonderful new store, to be sure." + +"We'll go any pace you like, sir. I've been looking for a day when you +could make the trip safely, and this is it." He glanced at the letters. +"Could you be ready in--half an hour?" + +"As soon as I can dictate four short replies. Ring for Mr. Stanton, +please, and I'll soon be with you." + +Richard went out as his grandfather's private secretary came in. +Although Matthew Kendrick no longer felt it necessary to go to his +office in the great store every day, he was accustomed to attend to a +certain amount of selected correspondence, and ordinarily spent an hour +after breakfast in dictation to a young stenographer who came to him for +the purpose. + +Within a half hour the two were off, Mr. Kendrick being quite as alert +in the matter of dispatching business and getting under way toward fresh +affairs as he had ever been. It was with an expression of interested +anticipation that the old man, wrapped from head to foot, took his place +in the long, low-hung roadster, beneath the broad hood which Richard had +raised, that his passenger might be as snug as possible. + +For many miles the road was of macadam, and they bowled along at a rate +which consumed the distance swiftly, though not too fast for Mr. +Kendrick's comfort. Richard artfully increased his speed by fractional +degrees, so that his grandfather, accustomed to being conveyed at a very +moderate mileage about the city in his closed car, should not be +startled by the sense of flight which he might have had if the young man +had started at his usual break-neck pace. + +They did not talk much, for Matthew Kendrick was habitually cautious +about using his voice in winter air, and Richard was too engaged with +the car and with his own thoughts to attempt to keep up a one-sided +conversation. More than once, however, a brief colloquy took place. One +of the last of these, before approaching their destination, was as +follows: + +"Keeping warm, grandfather?" + +"Perfectly, Dick, thanks to your foot-warmer." + +"Tired, at all?" + +"Not a particle. On the contrary, I find the air very stimulating." + +"I thought you would. Wonderful day for March, isn't it?" + +"Unusually fine." + +"We'll be there before you know it. There's one bad stretch of a couple +of miles, beyond the turn ahead, and another just this side of Eastman, +but Old Faithful here will make light work of 'em. She could plough +through a quicksand if she had to, not to mention spring mud to the +hubs." + +"The car seems powerful," said the old man, smiling behind his upturned +fur collar. "I suppose a young fellow like you wouldn't be content with +anything that couldn't pull at least ten times as heavy a load as it +needed to." + +"I suppose not," laughed Richard. "Though it's not so much a question of +a heavy load as of plenty of power when you want it, and of speed--all +the time. Suppose we were being chased by wild Indians right now, +grandfather. Wouldn't it be a satisfaction to walk away from them +like--this?" + +The car shot ahead with a long, lithe spring, as if she had been using +only a fraction of her power, and had reserves greater than could be +reckoned. Her gait increased as she flew down the long straightaway +ahead until her speedometer on the dash recorded a pace with which the +fastest locomotive on the track which ran parallel with the road would +have had to race with wide-open throttle to keep neck to neck. Richard +had not meant to treat his grandfather to an exhibition of this sort, +being well aware of the older man's distaste for modern high speed, but +the sight of the place where he was in the habit of racing with any +passing train was too much for his young blood and love of swift flight, +and he had covered the full two-mile stretch before he could bring +himself to slow down to a more moderate gait. + +Then he turned to look at as much of his grandfather's face as he could +discern between cap-brim and collar. The eagle eyes beneath their heavy +brows were gazing straight ahead, the firmly moulded lips were +close-set, the whole profile, with its large but well-cut nose, +suggested grim endurance. Matthew Kendrick had made no remonstrance, +nor did he now complain, but Richard understood. + +"You didn't like that, did you, grandfather? I had no business to do it, +when I said I wouldn't. Did I chill you, sir? I'm sorry," was his quick +apology. + +"You didn't chill my body, Dick," was the response. "You did make me +realize the difference between--youth and age." + +"That's not what I ever want to do," declared the young man, with swift +compunction. "Not when your age is worth a million times my youth, in +knowledge and power. And of course I'm showing up a particularly +unfortunate trait of youth--to lose its head! Somehow all the boy in me +comes to the top when I see that track over there, even when there's no +competing train. Did you ever know a boy who didn't want to be an engine +driver?" + +"I was a boy once," said Matthew Kendrick. "Trains in my day were doing +well when they made twenty-five miles an hour. I shouldn't mind your +racing with one of those." + +"I'm racing with one of the fastest engines ever built when I set up a +store in Eastman and try to appropriate some of your methods. I wonder +what you'll think of it?" said Richard gayly. "Well, here's the bad +stretch. Sit tight, grandfather. I'll pick out the best footing there +is, but we may jolt about a good bit. I'm going to try what can be done +to get these fellows to put a bottom under their spring mud!" + +When the town was reached Richard convoyed his companion straight to the +best hotel, saw that he had a comfortable chair and as appetizing a meal +as the house could afford, and let him rest for as long a time afterward +as he himself could brook waiting. When Mr. Kendrick professed himself +in trim for whatever might come next Richard set out with him for the +short walk to the store of Benson & Company. + +The young man's heart was beating with surprising rapidity as the two +approached the front of the brick building which represented his present +venture into the business world. He knew just how keen an eye was to +inspect the place, and what thorough knowledge was to pass judgment upon +it. + +"Here we are," he said abruptly, with an effort to speak lightly. "These +are our front windows. Carson dresses them himself. He seems a wonder to +me--I can't get hold of it at all. Rather a good effect, don't you +think?" + +He was distinctly nervous, and he could not conceal it, as Matthew +Kendrick turned to look at the front of the building, taking it all in, +it seemed, with one sweeping glance which dwelt only for a minute apiece +on the two big windows, and then turned to the entrance, above which +hung the signs, old and new. The visitor made no comment, only nodded, +and made straight for the door. + +As it swung open under Richard's hand, the young man's first glance was +for the general effect. He himself was looking at everything as if for +the first time, intensely alive to the impression it was to make upon +his judge. He found that the general effect was considerably obscured by +the number of people at the counters and in the aisles, more, it seemed +to him, than he had ever seen there before. His second observation was +that the class of shoppers seemed particularly good, and he tried to +recall the special feature of Carson's advertisement of the evening +before. There were several different lines, he remembered, to which +Carson had called special attention, with the assertion that the values +were absolute and the quality guaranteed. + +But his attention was very quickly diverted from any study of the store +itself to the even more interesting and instructive study of the old man +who accompanied him. He had invited an expert to look the situation +over, there could be no possible doubt of that. And the expert was +looking it over--there could be no doubt of that, either. As they passed +down one aisle and up another, Richard could see how the eagle eyes +noted one point after another, yet without any disturbing effect of +searching scrutiny. Here and there Mr. Kendrick's gaze lingered a trifle +longer, and more than once he came close to a counter and brought an +eyeglass to bear on the goods there displayed, nodding pleasantly at the +salespeople as he did so. And everywhere he went glances followed him. + +It seemed to Richard that he had never realized before what a +distinguished looking old man his grandfather was. He was not of more +than average height; he was dressed, though scrupulously, as +unobtrusively as is any quiet gentleman of his years and position; but +none the less was there something about him which spoke of the man of +affairs, of the leader, the organizer, the general. + +Alfred Carson came hurrying out of the little office as the two +Kendricks came in sight. Matthew Kendrick greeted him with distinct +evidence of pleasure. + +"Ah, Mr. Carson," he said, "I am very glad to see you again. I have +missed you from your department. How do you find the new business? More +interesting than the old, eh?" + +"It is always interesting, sir," responded Carson, "to enlarge one's +field of operations." + +Mr. Kendrick laughed heartily at this, turning to Richard as he did so. +"That's a great compliment to you, Dick," he said, "that Mr. Carson +feels he has enlarged his field by coming up here to you, and leaving +me." + +"Don't you think it's true, grandfather?" challenged Richard boldly. + +"To be sure it's true," agreed Mr. Kendrick. "But it sometimes takes a +wise man to see that a swing from the centre of things to the rim is the +way to swing back to the centre finally. Well, I've looked about quite a +bit,--what next, Dick?" + +"Won't you come into the office, sir, and ask us any questions that you +like? We want your criticism and your suggestions," declared Richard. +"Where's Mr. Benson, Mr. Carson? I'd like him to meet my grandfather +right away. I thought we'd find him somewhere about the place before +now." + +"He's just come into the office," said Carson, leading the way. "He'll +be mightily pleased to see Mr. Kendrick." + +This prophecy proved true. Hugh Benson, who had not known of his +partner's intention to bring Mr. Kendrick, Senior, to visit the store, +flushed with pleasure and a little nervousness when he saw him, and gave +evidence of the latter as he cleared a chair for his guest and knocked +down a pile of small pasteboard boxes as he did so. + +"We don't usually keep such things in here," he apologized, and sent +post-haste for a boy to take the offending objects away. Then the party +settled down for a talk, Richard carefully closing the door, after +notifying a clerk outside to prevent interruption for so long as it +should remain closed. + +"Now, grandfather, talk business to us, will you?" he begged. "Tell us +what you think of us, and don't spare us. That's what we want, isn't +it?" And he appealed to his two associates with a look which bade them +speak out. + +"We certainly do, Mr. Kendrick," Hugh Benson assured the visitor +eagerly. "It's our chance to have an expert opinion." + +"It will be even more than that," said Alfred Carson. "It will be the +opinion of the master of all experts in the business world." + +"Fie, Mr. Carson," said the old man, with, however, a kind look at the +young man, who, he knew, did not mean to flatter him but to speak the +undeniable truth, "you must remember the old saying about praise to the +face. Still, I must break that rule myself when I tell you all that I am +greatly pleased with the appearance of the place, and with all that +meets the eye in a brief visit." + +Richard glowed with satisfaction at this, but both Benson and Carson +appeared to be waiting for more. The old man looked at them and nodded. + +"You have both had much more experience than this boy of mine," said he, +"and you know that all has not been said when due acknowledgment has +been made of the appearance of a place of business. What I want to know, +gentlemen, is--does the appearance tell the absolute truth about the +integrity of the business?" + +Richard looked at him quickly, for with the last words his grandfather's +tone had changed from mere suavity to a sudden suggestion of sternness. +Instinctively he straightened in his chair, and his glance at the other +two young men showed that they had quite as involuntarily straightened +in theirs. As the head of the firm, Hugh Benson, after a moment's pause, +answered, in a quietly firm tone which made Richard regard him with +fresh respect: + +"If it didn't, Mr. Kendrick, I shouldn't want to be my father's +successor. He may have been a failure in business, but it was not for +want of absolute integrity." + +The keen eyes softened as they rested on the young man's face, and Mr. +Kendrick bent his head, as if he would do honour to the memory of a +father who, however unsuccessful as the world judges success, could make +a son speak as this son had spoken. "I am sure that is true, Mr. +Benson," he said, and paused for a moment before he went on: + +"It is the foundation principle of business--that a reputation for +trustworthiness can be built only on the rock of real merit. The +appearance of the store must not tell one lie--not one--from front door +to back--not even the shadow of a lie. Nothing must be left to the +customer's discretion. If he pays so much money he must get so much +value, whether he knows it or not." He stopped abruptly, waited for a +little, his eyes searching the faces before him. Then he said, with a +change of tone: + +"Do you want to tell me something about the management of the business, +gentlemen?" + +"We want to do just that, Mr. Kendrick," Benson answered. + +So they set it before him, he and Alfred Carson, as they had worked it +out, Richard remaining silent, even when appealed to, merely saying +quietly: "I'm only the crudest kind of a beginner--you fellows will have +to do the talking," and so leaving it all to the others. They showed Mr. +Kendrick the books of the firm, they explained to him their system of +buying, of analyzing their sales that they might learn how to buy at +best advantage and sell at greatest profit; of getting rid of goods +quickly by attractive advertising; of all manner of details large and +small, such as pertain to the conduct of a business of the character of +theirs. + +They grew eager, enthusiastic, as they talked, for they found their +listener ready of understanding, quick of appreciation, kindly of +criticism, yet so skilful at putting a finger on their weak places that +they could only wonder and take earnest heed of every word he said. As +Richard watched him, he found himself understanding a little Matthew +Kendrick's extraordinary success. If his personality was still one to +make a powerful impression on all who came in contact with him, what +must it have been, Richard speculated, in his prime, in those wonderful +years when he was building the great business, expanding it with a +daring of conception and a rapidity of execution which had fairly taken +away the breath of his contemporaries. He had introduced new methods, +laid down new principles, defied old systems, and created better ones +having no precedent anywhere but in his own productive brain. It might +justly be said that he had virtually revolutionized the mercantile +world, for when the bridges that he built were found to hold, in spite +of all dire prophecy to the contrary, others had crossed them, too, and +profited by his bridge building. + +The three young men did their best to lead Mr. Kendrick to talk of +himself, but of that he would do little. Constantly he spoke of the work +of his associates, and when it became necessary to allude to himself it +was always as if they had been identified with every move of his own. It +was Alfred Carson who best recognized this trait of peculiar modesty in +the old man, and who understood most fully how often the more impersonal +"we" of his speech really stood for the "I" who had been the mainspring +of all action in the growth of the great affairs he spoke of. Carson was +the son of a man who had been one of the early heads of a newly created +department, in the days when departments were just being tried, and he +had heard many a time of the way in which Matthew Kendrick had held to +his course of introducing innovations which had startled the men most +closely associated with him, and had made them wonder if he were not +going too far for safety or success. + +"Well, well, gentlemen," said Mr. Kendrick, rising abruptly at last, +"you have beguiled me into long speech. It takes me back to old days to +sit and discuss a young business like this one with young men like you. +It has been very interesting, and it delights me to find you so ready to +take counsel, while at the same time you show a healthy belief in your +own judgment. You will come along--you will come along. You will make +mistakes, but you will profit by them. And you will remember always, I +hope, a motto I am going to give you." + +He paused and looked searchingly into each face before him: Hugh +Benson's, serious and sincere; Alfred Carson's, energy and purpose +showing in every line; his own boy's, Richard's, keen interest and a +certain proud wonder looking out of his fine eyes as he watched the old +man who seemed to him to-day, somehow, almost a stranger in his +unwontedly aroused speech. + +"The most important thing a business can do," said Matthew Kendrick +slowly, "is to make men of those who make the business." + +He let the words sink in. He saw, after an instant, the response in each +face, and he nodded, satisfied. He held out his hand to each in turn, +including his grandson, and received three hearty grips of gratitude and +understanding. + +As he drove away with Richard his eyes were bright under their heavy +brows. It had done him good, this visit to the place where his thoughts +had often been of late, and he was pleased with the way Richard had +borne himself throughout the interview. He could not have asked better +of the heir to the Kendrick millions than the unassuming and yet quietly +assured manner Richard had shown. It had a certain quality, the old man +proudly considered, which was lacking in that of both Benson and Carson, +fine fellows though they were, and well-mannered in every way. It +reminded Matthew Kendrick of the boy's own father, who had been a man +among men, and a gentleman besides. + +"Grandfather, we shall pass Mr. Rufus Gray's farm in a minute. Don't you +want to stop and see them?" + +"Rufus Gray?" questioned Mr. Kendrick. "The people we entertained at +Christmas? I should like to stop, if it will not delay us too long. It +seems a colder air than it did this morning." + +"There's a bit of wind, and it's usually colder, facing this way. If you +prefer, after the call, I'll take you back to the station and run down +alone." + +"We'll see. Is this the place we're coming to? A pleasant old place +enough, and it looks like the right home for such a pair," commented Mr. +Kendrick, gazing interestedly ahead as the car swung in at a stone +gateway, and followed a winding roadway toward a low-lying, hospitable +looking white house, with long porches beyond masses of bare shrubbery. + +It seemed that the welcoming look of the house was justified in the +attitude of its inmates, for the car had but stopped when the door flew +open, and Rufus Gray, his face beaming, bade them enter. Inside, his +wife came forward with her well-remembered sunny smile, and in a trice +Matthew Kendrick and his grandson found themselves sitting in front of a +blazing fire upon a wide hearth, receiving every evidence that their +presence brought delight. + +Richard looked on with inward amusement and satisfaction at the unwonted +sight of his grandfather partaking of a cup of steaming coffee rich with +country cream, and eating with the appetite of a boy a huge, +sugar-coated doughnut which his hostess assured him could not possibly +hurt him. + +"They're the real old-fashioned kind, Mr. Kendrick," said she. "Raised +like bread, you know, and fried in lard we make ourselves in a way I +have so that not a bit of grease gets inside. My husband thinks they're +the only fit food to go with coffee." + +"They are the most delicious food I ever ate, certainly, Madam Gray, and +I find myself agreeing with him, now that I taste them," declared Mr. +Kendrick, and Richard, disposing with zest of a particularly huge, light +specimen of Mrs. Gray's art, seconded his grandfather's appreciation. + +They made a long call, Mr. Kendrick appearing to enjoy himself as +Richard could not remember seeing him do before. He and Mr. Gray found +many subjects to discuss with mutual interest, and the nodding of the +two heads in assent at frequent intervals proved how well they found +themselves agreeing. + +Richard, as at the time of the Grays' brief visit at his own home, +devoted himself to the lady whom he always thought of as "Aunt Ruth," +secretly dwelling on the hope that he might some day acquire the right +to call her by that pleasant title. He led her, by artful +circumlocutions, always tending toward one object, to speak of her +nieces and nephews, and when he succeeded in drawing from her certain +all too meagre news of Roberta, he exulted in his ardent soul, though he +did his best not to betray himself. + +"Maybe," said she, quite suddenly, "you'd enjoy looking at the family +album. Robby and Ruth always get it out when they come here--they like +to see their father and mother the way they used to look. There's some +of themselves, too, though the photographs folks have now are too big to +go in an old-fashioned album like this, and the ones they've sent me +lately aren't in here." + +Never did a modern young man accept so eagerly the chance to scan the +collection of curious old likenesses such as is found between the covers +of the now despised "album" of the days of their grandfathers. Richard +turned the pages eagerly, scanning them for faces he knew, and +discovered much satisfaction in one charming picture of Roberta's mother +at eighteen, because of its suggestion of the daughter. + +"Eleanor was the beauty of the family, and is yet, I always say," +asserted Aunt Ruth. "Robby's like her, they all think, but she can't +hold a candle to her mother. She's got more spirit in her face, maybe, +but her features aren't equal to Eleanor's." + +Richard did not venture to disagree with this opinion, but he privately +considered that, enchanting as was the face of Mrs. Robert Gray at +eighteen, that of her daughter Roberta, at twenty-four, dangerously +rivalled it. + +"I could tell better about the likeness if I saw a late picture of Miss +Roberta," he observed, his eyes and mouth grave, but his voice +expectant. Aunt Ruth promptly took the suggestion, and limping daintily +away, returned after a minute with a framed photograph of Roberta and +Ruth, taken by one of those masters of the art who understand how to +bring out the values of the human face, yet to leave provocative shadows +which make for mystery and charm. Richard received it with a respectful +hand, and then had much ado to keep from showing how the sight of her +pictured face made his heart throb. + +When the two visitors rose to go Aunt Ruth put in a plea for their +remaining overnight. + +"It's turned colder since you came up this morning, Mr. Kendrick," said +she. "Why not stay with us and go back in the morning? We'd be so +pleased to entertain you, and we've plenty of room--too much room for us +two old folks, now the children are all married and gone." + +To Richard's surprise his grandfather did not immediately decline. He +looked at Aunt Ruth, her rosy, smiling face beaming with hospitality, +then he glanced at Richard. + +"Do stay," urged Uncle Rufus. "Remember how you took us in at midnight, +and what a good time you gave us the two days we stayed? It would make +us mighty happy to have you sleep under our roof, you and your grandson +both, if he'll stay, too." + +"I confess I should like to sleep under this roof," admitted Matthew +Kendrick. "It reminds me of my father's old home. It's very good of you, +Madam Gray, to ask us, and I believe I shall remain. As to Richard--" + +"I'd like nothing better," declared that young man promptly. + +So it was settled. Richard drove back to the store and gathered together +various articles for his own and his grandfather's use, and returned to +the Gray fireside. The long and pleasant evening which followed the +hearty country supper gave him one more new experience in the long list +of them he was acquiring. Somehow he had seldom been happier than when +he followed his hostess into the comfortable room upstairs she assigned +him, opening from that she had given the elder man. Cheerful fires +burned in old-fashioned, open-hearthed Franklin stoves, in both rooms, +and the atmosphere was fragrant with the mingled breath of crackling +apple-wood, and lavender from the fine old linen with which both beds +had been freshly made. + +"Sleep well, my dear friends," said Aunt Ruth, in her quaintly friendly +way, as she bade her guests good-night and shook hands with them, +receiving warm responses. + +"One must find sweet repose under your roof," said Matthew Kendrick, and +Richard, attending his hostess to the door, murmured, "You look as if +you'd put two small boys to bed and tucked them in!" at which Aunt Ruth +laughed with pleasure, nodding at him over her shoulder as she went +away. + +Presently, as Matthew Kendrick lay down in the soft bed, his face toward +the glow of his fire that he might watch it, Richard knocked and came in +from his own room and, crossing to the bed, stood leaning on the +foot-board. + +"Too sleepy to talk, grandfather?" he asked. + +"Not at all, my boy," responded the old man, his heart stirring in his +breast at this unwonted approach at an hour when the two were usually +far apart. Never that he could remember had Richard come into his room +after he had retired. + +"I wanted to tell you," said the young man, speaking very gently, "that +you've been awfully kind, and have done us all a lot of good to-day. And +you've done me most of all." + +"Why, that's pleasant news, Dick," answered old Matthew Kendrick, his +eyes fixed on the shadowy outlines of the face at the foot of the bed. +"Sit down and tell me about it." + +So Richard sat down, and the two had such a talk as they had had never +before in their lives--a long, intimate talk, with the barriers +down--the barriers which both felt now never should have existed. Lying +there in the soft bed of Aunt Ruth's best feathers, with the odour of +her lavender in his nostrils, and the sound of the voice he loved in his +ears, the old man drank in the delight of his grandson's confidence, and +the wonder of something new--the consciousness of Richard's real +affection, and his heart beat with slow, heavy throbs of joy, such as he +had never expected to feel again in this world. + +"Altogether," said Richard, rising reluctantly at last, as the tall old +clock on the landing near-by slowly boomed out the hour of midnight, +"it's been a great day for me. I'd been looking forward with quite a bit +of dread to bringing you up, I knew you'd see so plainly wherever we +were lacking; but you were so splendidly kind about it--" + +"And why shouldn't I be kind, Dick?" spoke his grandfather eagerly. +"What have I in the world to interest me as you and your affairs +interest me? Can any possible stroke of fortune seem so great to me as +your development into a manhood of accomplishment? And when it is in the +very world I know so well and have so near my heart--" + +Richard interrupted him, not realizing that he was doing so, but full of +longing to make all still further clear between them. "Grandfather, I +want to make a confession. This world of yours--I didn't want to enter +it." + +"I know you didn't, Dick. And I know why. But you are getting over that, +aren't you? You are beginning to realize that it isn't what a man does, +but the way he does it, that matters." + +"Yes," said Richard slowly. "Yes, I'm beginning to realize that. And do +you want to know what made me realize it to-day, as never before?" + +The old man waited. + +"It was the sight of you, sir--and--the recognition of the power you +have been all your life;--and the--sudden appreciation of the"--he +stumbled a little, but he brought the words out forcefully at the +end--"of the very great gentleman you are!" + +He could not see the hot tears spring into the old eyes which had not +known such a sign of emotion for many years. But he could feel the throb +in the low voice which answered him after a moment. + +"I may not deserve that, Dick, but--it touches me, coming from you." + +When Richard had gone back to his own room, Matthew Kendrick lay for a +long time, wide awake, too happy to sleep. In the next room his +grandson, before he slept, had formulated one more new idea: + +"There's something in the association with people like these that makes +a fellow feel like being absolutely honest with them, with +everybody--most of all with himself. What is it?" + +And pondering this, he was lost in the world of dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ENCOUNTERS + + +"By the way, Rob, I saw Rich Kendrick to-day." Louis Gray detained his +sister Roberta on the stairs as they stopped to exchange greetings on a +certain evening in March. "It struck me suddenly that I hadn't seen him +for a blue moon, and I asked him why he didn't come round when he was in +town. He said he was sticking tight to that new business of his up in +Eastman, but he admitted he was to be here over Sunday. I invited him +round to-night, but to my surprise he wouldn't come. Said he had another +engagement, of course--thanked me fervently and all that--but there was +no getting him. It made me a bit suspicious of you, Bobby." + +"I can't imagine why." But, in spite of herself, Roberta coloured. "He +came here when he was helping Uncle Calvin. There's no reason for his +coming now." + +Her brother regarded her with the observing eye which sisters find it +difficult to evade. "He would have taken a job as nursemaid for Rosy, if +it would have given him a chance to go in and out of this old house, I +imagine. Rosy stuck to it, it was his infatuation for the home and the +members thereof, particularly Gordon and Dorothy. He undoubtedly was +struck with them--it would have been a hard heart that wasn't touched by +the sight of the boy--but if it was the kiddies he wanted, why didn't he +keep coming? Steve and Rosy would have welcomed him." + +"You had better ask him his reasons, next time you see him," Roberta +suggested, and escaped. + +It was two months since she had seen Richard Kendrick. He seemed never +so much as to pass the house, although it stood directly on his course +when he drove back and forth from Eastman in his car. She wondered if he +really did make a détour each time, to avoid the very chance of meeting +her. It was impossible not to think of him, rather disturbingly often, +and to wonder how he was getting on. + +The month of March in the year of this tale was on the whole an +extraordinarily mild and springlike piece of substitution for the +rigorous, wind-swept season it should by all rights have been. On one +of its most beguiling days Roberta Gray was walking home from Miss +Copeland's school. Usually she came by way of the broad avenue which led +straight home. To-day, out of sheer unwillingness to reach that home and +end the walk, she took a quite different course. This led her up a +somewhat similar street, parallel to her own but several blocks beyond, +a street of more than ordinary attractiveness in that it was less of a +thoroughfare than any other of equal beauty in the residential portion +of the city. + +She was walking slowly, drawing in the balmy air and noting with delight +the beds of crocuses which were beginning to show here and there on +lawns and beside paths, when a peculiar sound far up the avenue caught +her ear. She recognized it instantly, for she had heard it often and she +had never heard another quite like it. It was the warning song of a +coming motor-car and it was of unusual and striking musical quality. So +Roberta knew, even before she caught sight of the long, low, powerful +car which had stood many times before her own door during certain weeks +of the last year, that she was about to meet for the first time in two +months the person upon whom she had put a ban. + +Would he see her? He could hardly help it, for there was not another +pedestrian in sight upon the whole length of the block, and the March +sunshine was full upon her. As the car came on the girl who walked +sedately to meet it found that her pulses had somehow curiously +accelerated. So this was the route he took, not to go by her home. + +Did he see her? Evidently as far away as half a block, for at that +distance his motor-cap was suddenly pulled off, and it was with bared +head that he passed her. At the moment the car was certainly not running +as fast as it had been doing twenty rods back; it went by at a pace +moderate enough to show the pair to each other with distinctness. +Roberta saw clearly Richard Kendrick's intent eyes upon her, saw the +flash of his smile and the grace of his bow, and saw--as if written upon +the blue spring sky--the word he had left with her, "Midsummer." If he +had shouted it at her as he passed, it could not have challenged her +more definitely. + +He was obeying her literally--more literally than she could have +demanded. Not to slow down, come to a standstill beside her, exchange at +least a few words of greeting--this was indeed a strict interpretation +of her edict. Evidently he meant to play the game rigorously. Still, he +had been a compellingly attractive figure as he passed; that instant's +glimpse of him was likely to remain with her quite as long as a more +protracted interview. Did he guess that? + +"I wonder how I looked?" was her first thought as she walked on--a +purely feminine one, it must be admitted. When she reached home she +glanced at herself in the hall mirror on her way upstairs--a thing she +seldom took the trouble to do. + +A figure got hastily to its feet and came out into the hall to meet her +as she passed the door of the reception-room. "Miss Roberta!" said an +eager voice. + +"Why, Mr. Westcott! I didn't know you were in town!" + +"I didn't intend to be until next month, as you knew. But this wonderful +weather was too much for me." + +He held her hand and looked down into her face from his tall height. He +told her what he thought of her appearance--in detail with his eyes, in +modified form with his lips. + +"In my old school clothes?" laughed Roberta. "How draggy winter things +seem the first warm days. This velvet hat weighs like lead on my head +to-day." She took it off. "I'll run up and make myself presentable," +said she. + +"Please don't. You're exactly right as you are. And--I want you to go +for a walk if you're not too tired. The road that leads out by the West +Wood marshes--it will be sheer spring out there to-day. I want to share +it with you." + +So Roberta put on her hat again and went to walk with Forbes Westcott +out the road that led by the West Wood marshes. There was not a more +romantic road to be found in a long way. + +When they were well out into the country he began to press a question +which she had heard before, and to which he had had as yet no answer. + +"Still undecided?" said he, with a very sober face. "You can't make up +your mind as to my qualifications?" + +"Your qualifications are undoubted," said she, with a face as sober as +his. "They are more than any girl could ask. But I--how can I know? I +care so much for you--as a friend. Why can't we keep on being just good +friends and let things develop naturally?" + +"If I thought they would ever develop the way I want them," he said +earnestly, "I would wait patiently a great while longer. But I don't +seem to be making any progress. In fact, I seem to have gone backward a +bit in your good graces. Since I saw that young prince of shopkeepers in +your company over at Eastman, I've been wondering--" + +"Prince of shopkeepers! What an extraordinary characterization! I +thought he was a most amateurish shopkeeper. He didn't even know the +name of his own batiste, much less where it was kept." + +"He knew how to skate and to take you along with him. I beg your pardon! +But ever since that night I've been experiencing a most disconcerting +sense of jealousy whenever I think of that young man. He was such a +magnificent figure there in the firelight; he made me feel as old as the +Pyramids. And when you two were gone so long and came back with such an +odd look, both of you--oh, I beg your pardon again! This is most +unworthy of me, I know. But--set me straight if you can! Have you seen +much of him since that night?" + +"Absolutely nothing," said Roberta quickly, with a sense of great +relief. "To-day he passed me in his car, on my way home from school, +over on Egerton Avenue, and didn't even stop." + +He scanned her face closely. "And you are not even interested in him?" + +"Mr. Forbes Westcott," said Roberta desperately, "I have told you often +and often that I'm not interested in any man except as one or two are my +very good friends. Why can't all girls be allowed to live along in peace +and comfort until they are at least thirty years old? You didn't have +anybody besieging you to marry before you were thirty. If anybody had +you'd have said 'No' quickly enough. You had that much of your life +comfortably to yourself." + +He bit his lip, but he was obliged to laugh. His thin, keen face was +more attractive when he laughed, but there was an odd, tense expression +on it which did not leave it even then. + +"I can see you are still hopeless," he owned. "But so long as you are +hopeless for other men I can endure it, I suppose. I really meant not to +speak again for a long time, as I promised you. But the thought of that +embryo plutocrat making after you, as he has after so many girls--" + +"How many girls, I wonder?" queried Roberta quite carelessly. "Do you +happen to know? Has his fame spread so far?" + +"I know nothing about him, of course, except that he's a gay young +spendthrift. It goes without saying that he's made love to every pretty +face, for that kind invariably do." + +"If it goes without saying, why say it?--particularly as you don't know +it. I dare say he has--what serious harm? I presume it's quite as likely +they've run after him. I'm sure it's a matter of no concern to me, for I +know him very little and am likely to know him much less now that he +doesn't come to work with Uncle Calvin any more. Let's go back, Mr. +Westcott. I came out to look for pussy-willows, not for +Robby-will-you's!" + +With which piece of audacity she dismissed the subject. It certainly was +not a subject which harmonized well with that of Midsummer Day, and the +thought of Midsummer Day, quickened into active life by the unexpected +sight of the person who had made a certain preposterous prophecy +concerning it, was a thought which was refusing to down. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +INTRIGUE + + +"Hi!--Mr. Kendrick!--I say, Mr. Kendrick! Wait a minute!" + +The car, about to leave the curb in front of one of Kendrick & Company's +great city stores, halted. Its driver turned to see young Ted Gray +tearing across the sidewalk in hot pursuit. + +"Well, well--glad to see you, Ted, boy. Jump in and I'll take you +along." + +Ted jumped in. He gave Richard Kendrick's welcoming hand a hard squeeze. +"I haven't seen you for an awful while," said he reproachfully. "Aren't +you ever coming to our house any more?" + +"I hope so, Ted. But, you see," explained Richard carefully, "I'm a man +of business now and I can't have much time for calls. I'm in Eastman +most of the time. How are you, Ted? Tell me all about it. Can you go for +a spin with me? I had to come into town in a hurry, but there's no great +hurry about getting back. I'll take you out into the country and show +you the prettiest lot of apple trees in full bloom you ever saw in May." + +"I'd like to first-rate, but could you take me home first? I have to let +mother know where I am after school." + +"All right." And away they flew. But Richard turned off the avenue three +blocks below the corner upon which stood Ted's home and ran up the +street behind it. "Run in the back way, will you, Ted?" he requested. "I +want to do a bit of work on the car while you're in." + +So while Ted dashed up through the garden to the back of the house +Richard got out and unscrewed a nut or two, which he screwed again into +place without having accomplished anything visible to the eye, and was +replacing his wrench when the boy returned. + +"This is jolly," Ted declared. "I'll bet Rob envies me. This is her +Wednesday off from teaching, and she was just going for a walk. She +wanted me to go with her, but of course she let me go with you instead. +I--I suppose I could ride on the running board and let you take her if +you want to," he proposed with some reluctance. + +"I'd like nothing better, but she wouldn't go." + +"Maybe not. Perhaps Mr. Westcott is coming for her. They walk a lot +together." + +"I thought Mr. Westcott practised law with consuming zeal." + +"With what? Anyhow, he's here a lot this spring. About every Wednesday, +I think. I say, this is a bully car! If I were Rob I'd a lot rather ride +with you than go walking with old Westcott--especially when it's so +warm." + +"I'm afraid," said Richard soberly, "that walking in the woods in May +has its advantages over bowling along the main highway in any kind of a +car." + +Nevertheless he managed to make the drive a fascinating experience to +Ted and a diverting one to himself. And on the way home they stopped at +the West Wood marshes to gather a great bunch of trilliums as big as +Ted's head. + +"I'll take 'em to Rob," said her younger brother. "She likes 'em better +than any spring flower." + +"Take my bunch to Mrs. Stephen Gray then. And be sure you don't get them +mixed." + +"What if I did? They're exactly the same size." Ted held up the two +nosegays side by side as the car sped on toward home. + +"I know, but it's of the greatest importance that you keep them +straight. That left-hand one is yours; be sure and remember that." + +Ted looked piercingly at his friend, but Richard's face was perfectly +grave. + +"Must be you don't like Rob, if you're so afraid your flowers will get +to her," he reflected. "Or else you think so much of Rosy you can't bear +to let anybody else have the flowers you picked for her. I'll have to +tell Steve that." + +"Do, by all means. Mere words could never express my admiration for Mrs. +Stephen." + +"She is pretty nice," agreed Ted. "I like her myself. But she isn't in +it with Rob. Why, Rosy's afraid of lots of things, regularly afraid, you +know, so Steve has to laugh her out of them. But Rob--she isn't afraid +of a thing in the world." + +"Except one." + +"One?" Ted pricked up his ears. "What's that? I'll bet she isn't really +afraid of it--just shamming. She does that sometimes. What is it? Tell +me, and I'll tell you if she's shamming." + +"I'd give a good deal to know, but I'm afraid I can't tell you what it +is." + +"Why not? If she isn't really afraid of it she won't mind my knowing. +And if she is maybe I can laugh her out of it, the way Steve does Rosy." + +"I don't believe you're competent to treat the case, Ted. It's not a +thing to be laughed out of, you see. The thing for you to remember is +which bunch of trilliums you are to give Mrs. Stephen Gray from me." + +"This one." Ted waved his left arm. + +"Not a bit of it. The left one is yours." + +"No, because mine was a little the biggest, and you see this right one +is." + +"You are mistaken," Richard assured him positively. "You give Mrs. +Stephen the right one, and I'll take the consequences." + +"Did yours have a red one in?" + +"Has that right one?" + +"No, the left one has. I remember seeing you pick it." + +"But afterward I threw it out. You picked one and left it in. The right +is mine." + +"You've got me all mixed up," vowed Ted discontentedly, at which his +companion laughed, delight in his eye. The left-hand bunch was +unquestionably his own, but if he could only convince Ted of the +contrary he should at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the +flowers he had plucked had reached his lady, though they would have no +significance to her. When the lad jumped out of the car at his own rear +gate he had agreed that the bunch with the one deep red trillium was to +go to Roberta. + +Ted turned to wave both white clusters at his friend as the car went on, +then he proceeded straight to his sister's room. Finding her absent, he +laid one great white-and-green mass in a heap upon her bed and went his +way with the other to Mrs. Stephen's room. Here he found both Roberta +and Rosamond playing with little Gordon and Dorothy, whom their nurse +had just brought in from an airing. + +"Here's some trilliums for you, Rosy," announced Ted. "Mr. Kendrick sent +'em to you. I left yours on your bed, Rob. I picked yours; at least I +think I did. He was awfully particular that his went to Rosy, but we got +sort of mixed up about which picked which, so I can't be sure. I don't +see any use of making such a fuss about a lot of trilliums, anyhow." + +Roberta and Rosamond looked at each other. "I think you are decidedly +mixed, Ted," said Rosamond. "It was Rob Mr. Kendrick meant to send his +to." + +Ted shook his head positively. "No, it wasn't. He said something about +you that I told him I was going to tell Steve, only--I don't know as I +can remember it. Something about his admiring you a whole lot." + +"Delightful! And he didn't say anything about Rob?" + +"Not very much. Said she was afraid of something. I said she wasn't +afraid of anything, and he said she was--of one thing. I tried to make +him say what it was, because I knew he was all off about that, but he +wouldn't tell." + +"Evidently you and Mr. Kendrick talked a good deal of nonsense," was +Roberta's comment, on her way from the room. + +She found the mass of green and white upon her bed and stood +contemplating it for a moment. The one deep red trillium glowed richly +against its snowy brethren, and she picked it out and examined it +thoughtfully, as if she expected it to tell her whereof Richard Kendrick +thought she was afraid. But as it vouchsafed no information she gathered +up the whole mass and disposed it in a big crystal bowl which she set +upon a small table by an open window. + +"If I thought that really was the bunch he picked," said she to herself, +"I should consider he had broken his promise and I should feel obliged +to throw it away. Perhaps I'd better do it anyhow. Yet--it seems a pity +to throw away such a beautiful bowlful of white and green, and--very +likely they were of Ted's picking after all. But I don't like that one +red one against all the white." + +She laid fingers upon it to draw it out. But she did not draw it out. "I +wonder if that represents the one thing I'm afraid of?" she considered +whimsically. "What does his majesty mean--himself? Or--myself? +Or--of--of--Yes, I suppose that's it! Am I afraid of it?" + +She stood staring down at the one deep red flower, the biggest, finest +bloom of them all. It really did not belong there with the others in +their cool, chaste whiteness. Quite suddenly she drew it out. She made +the motion of throwing it out the window, but it seemed to cling to her +fingers. + +"Poor little flower," said she softly, "why should you have to go? +Perhaps you're sorry because you're not white like the rest. But you +can't help it; you were made that way." + +If Richard Kendrick could have seen her standing there, staring down at +the flower he had picked, he would have found it harder than ever to go +on his appointed course. For this was what she was thinking: + +"I ought--I ought--to like best the white flowers of intellect--and +ability--and training--and every sort of fitness. I try and try to like +them best. But, oh!--they are so white--compared with this red, red one. +I like the white ones; they are pure and cool and beautiful. But--the +red one is warm, warm! Oh, I don't know--I don't know. And how am I +going to know? Tell me that, red flower. Did he pick you? Shall I keep +you--on the doubt? Well--but not where you will show. Yes, I'll keep +you, but away down in the middle, where no one will see you, and where +you won't distract my attention from the beautiful white flowers that +are so different from you." + +She bent over the bowlful of snowy spring blossoms, drew them apart, and +sunk the red flower deep among them, drawing them together again so that +not a hint of their alien brother should show against their whiteness. + +"There," said she, turning away with a little laugh, but speaking over +her shoulder, "you ought to be satisfied with that. That's certainly +much better than being thrown out of the window, to wilt in the sun!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE NAILING OF A FLAG + + +"Well--well--well!" drawled a voice at Richard Kendrick's elbow. "How +are you, old man? Haven't seen you since before the days of Noah! Off to +that country shop of yours? I say, take me along, will you? Time hangs +heavy on my hands just now, and I want to see you anyhow, about a plan +of mine." + +"Hop in, Lorimer. Mighty glad to see you. Want to go all the way to +Eastman? That's fine! This is great weather, eh?" + +Belden Lorimer hopped in, if that word may be used to express his eager +acceptance rather than the alacrity of his movements, for he was +accustomed to act with as much deliberation as he spoke. He was one of +Richard's college friends, also one of his late intimate companions at +clubs and in social affairs. Lorimer possessed as much money in his own +right as Richard himself, though his expectations were hardly as great. + +"To tell the truth," said Lorimer, when the car had left the city and +was bowling along the main travelled highway "up the State," "I wanted +to see you as much as anything to get a good look at you. Fellows say +you've changed. Say you have that 'captain-of-industry' expression now. +Say you've acquired that broad brow--alert eye--stern mouth--dominant +chin--and so forth, that goes with indomitable determination to 'get +there.' To be sure, I'd have thought you'd arrived, or your family +before you, but they say you've started out to arrive some more. It's a +wonderful example for a chap like me--fellows say. Think so myself. Mind +imparting--" + +Richard broke in on Lorimer's drawl. It was rather an engaging drawl, by +the way, and he had always enjoyed hearing it, but it struck upon his +ears now with a certain futility. In a world of pressing affairs why +should a man cultivate a tone like that? But he liked Lorimer too much +to mind how he talked. + +"I'm delighted if I've acquired that expression," said he, letting out +the car another notch, although it was already in swift flight. "It's +been a lot of trouble. I've had to practise before a mirror a good deal. +It was the chin bothered me most. It sticks out pretty well, but not as +far as my grandfather's. Could you advise any method of--" + +"What I want to know is," proceeded Lorimer calmly, "how you came to go +into it. Understand you wanted to help fellow out of the ditch--good old +Benson--most worthy. Couldn't help him out without getting in yourself? +But going to get out soon as possible, of course? Unthinkable for Rich +Kendrick to be a country shopkeeper!" + +"Unthinkable, is it? Wait till you see the shop. It's the most fun I +ever had. Get out? Not by a long shot. I'm in for keeps." + +"Not you. With the Kendrick establishments waiting for you to come into +your own? Which will mean, in your case, becoming the nominal head of a +great system, while it continues to be run for you, as now, by a lot of +trained heads under salary--big salary." + +"Great idea of my future you have, Lorry, haven't you? Well, I can't +wonder. I've been doing my best for all the years of my life to implant +that idea in your mind. But, what about you? What are you at, yourself? +You said you had a plan." + +"He asks what I'm 'at,'" remarked Belden Lorimer to the rural landscape +through which the car was passing. "Ever know me to be 'at' anything? +It's as much as I can do to support life until I can be off on my next +little travel-plan. It's me for a leisurely cruise around the world, in +the governor's little old boat--the _Ariel_--painted up within an inch +of her life, brass all shining, lockers filled, a first-class cook +engaged, and a brand-new skipper and crew--picked men. Sounds pretty +good to me. How about you? Shop keeping in it with that, me lord?" + +His usually languid glance was sharp, as he eyed his friend. + +"Jove!" ejaculated Richard Kendrick, under his breath. + +"I thought so. 'Jove!' it is, too--and also Jupiter! You've always said +you'd be ready when I was. Well, I'm ready." + +Richard was silent for a long minute, while his friend waited +confidently. Then, "Good luck to you, old Lorry," he said. "It's mighty +fine of you to remember our ancient vow to do that trick some day. And +I'd like to go--you know that. But--I've a previous engagement." + +"Not with that fool store up in the backwoods? Can't make me believe +that, you know." + +Richard's face was a study. + +"Believe it or not, it's a fact. That store is the joint property of +Benson & Company. I'm the Company. I can't desert my partner just as +we're getting the ground under our feet." + +"Well--I'll--be--hanged," drawled Lorimer, more heavily than ever, as +was his custom when opposed, "if I see it. You go and help a fellow out +with capital and set him on his feet. You save his pride, I suppose, by +making yourself a partner. Fine, sporty thing to do. But you've done it. +You've contributed the capital. Can't reasonably suppose you +contribute anything else. If you don't mind my saying it, +your--previous--training--" + +"Doesn't make me indispensable to the success of the business? Hardly, +as yet. But for the very reason that I lack training, I've got to stay +and get it." + +"Take lessons in shopkeeping from Hugh Benson?" + +"Exactly. And from Alf Carson. He's our manager." + +"Don't know him. But from the way you allude to him I judge +he has the details at his fingers-ends. That's all right. +Leave--him--on--the--job." + +"I will--and stay myself." + +Richard's eyes were straight ahead, as the eyes of a man must be whose +powerful car is running at high speed along a none too smoothly surfaced +portion of state road. Therefore the glances of the two young men could +not meet. But Lorimer's eyes could silently scan the well-cut profile +presented to his view against the green of the fields beyond. + +"Never observed," said he, with a peculiar inflection, "just +how--rock-like--that chin of yours is, Rich. Reminds me of your +grandfather's, for fair." + +"Glad to hear it." + +"You know," pursued Lorimer presently, "you gave me your promise, once, +that you'd be with me on this cruise, whenever it came off. That's where +the chin ought to come in. Man of your word, you know, and all that." + +"I'm mighty sorry, my dear fellow. Let's not talk about it." + +And clearly he was sorry. It had been a pleasant plan, and he had not +forgotten the circumstances of the laughing yet serious pledge the two +had given each other one evening less than two years ago. + +They kept on their way with a change of conversation, and at the rate of +speed which Richard maintained were running into Eastman before they +were half done with asking each other questions concerning the months +during which they had seldom met. + +"This the busy mart?" queried Lorimer, as the car came to a standstill +before the corner store. "Well, beside Kendrick & Company's massive +edifices of stone and marble--" + +"Luckily, it's not beside them," retorted Richard, maintaining his good +humour. "Will you come in?" + +"Thanks, I will. That's what I came for. Curiosity leads me to want to +view you behind the--No, no, of course it's behind the office glass +partition that I'll view you, my boy. I want to hear Rich Kendrick +talking business--with a big B." + +"I'll talk business to you, if you don't let up," declared his friend. +"You've got to be cured of the idea that this is some kind of a joke, +Lorry. Will you be kind enough to take me seriously?" + +"Find--that--impossible," drawled Lorimer, under his breath, as he +followed Richard into the store. + +But once there, of course, his manner changed to the most courteous of +which he was master. He was taken to the office and there shook hands +with Hugh Benson with cordiality, having known him at college as a man +who commanded respect for high scholarship and modest but assured +manners, though of a quite different class of comradeship from his own. +He talked pleasantly with Alfred Carson, and listened with evident +interest to a business discussion between Richard and his associates, in +the course of which he discovered that however much or little Richard +had learned, he could speak intelligently concerning the matters then in +hand. He went to lunch with Richard and Hugh Benson at a hotel, and +listened again, for a decision was to be made which called for haste, +and no time could be lost in the consideration of it. + +He spent the afternoon driving Richard's car on up the state, returning +in time to pick up his friend at the appointed hour, late in the +afternoon, at which they were to start back to the city. Up to the last +moment of their departure business still had the upper hand, and it was +not until Benson and Kendrick parted at the curb that it ended for the +day, as far as Richard's part in it was concerned. + +"Six hours you've been at it," remarked Lorimer, as the car swung away +under Richard's hand. "It makes me fatigued all over to contemplate such +zeal." + +"Tell that to the men who really work. I'm getting off easy, to cut and +run at the end of six hours." + +"Rich--" began his friend, then he paused. "By the Lord Harry, I'd like +to know what's got you. I can't make you and the old Rich fit together +at all. You and your books--you and your music--and your pictures--your +polo--your 'wine, women, and song'--" + +"Take that last back," commanded Richard Kendrick, with sudden heat. +"You know I've never gone in for that sort of thing, except as all our +old crowd went in together. Personally, I haven't cared for it, and you +know it. It's travel and adventure I've cared for--" + +"And that you're throwing over now for a country shop." + +"That I'm throwing over now to learn the ABC in the training school of +responsibility for the big load that's to come on my shoulders. I've +been asleep all these years. Thank Heaven I've waked up in time. It's no +merit of mine--" + +"Mind telling me whose it is, then?" + +"I should mind, very much--if you'll excuse me." + +"Oh--beg pardon," drawled Lorimer. + +Silence followed for a brief space, broken by Richard's voice, in its +old, genial tone. + +"Tell me more about the cruise. It's great that you can have your +father's yacht. I thought he always used it through the summer." + +"He's gone daffy on monoplanes--absolutely daffy. Can't see anything +else." + +"I don't blame him. I might have gone in for aviation myself, if I +hadn't got this bigger game on my hands." + +"Bigger--there you go again! Well, every man to his taste. The +governor's lost interest in the _Ariel_--let me have her without a +reservation as to time limit. Don't care for flying myself. Necessary +to sit up. Like to lie on my back too well for that." + +"You do yourself injustice." + +"Now, now--don't preach. I've been expecting it." + +"You needn't. I'm too busy with my own case to attend to yours." + +"Lucky for me. I feel you'd be a zealous preacher if you ever got +started." + +"What route do you expect to take?" pursued Richard, steering away from +dangerous ground. + +Lorimer outlined it, in his most languid manner. One would have thought +he had little real interest in his plan, after all. + +"It's great! You'll have the time of your life!" + +"I might have had." + +"You will have--you can't help it." + +"Not without the man I want in the bunk next mine," said Belden Lorimer, +gazing through half-shut eyes at nothing in particular. + +Richard experienced the severest pang of regret he had yet known. + +"If that's true, old Lorry," said he slowly, "I'm sorrier than I can +tell you." + +"Then--_come along_!" Lorimer looked waked up at last. He laid a +persuasive hand on Richard's arm. + +There was a moment of tensity. Then: + +"If I should do it," said Richard, regarding steadily a dog in the road +some hundred yards ahead, "would you feel any respect whatever for me?" + +"Dead loads of it, I assure you." + +"Sure of that?" + +"Why not?" + +"Be honest. Would you?" + +"You promised me first," said Lorimer. + +"I know I did. Such idle promises to play don't count when real life +asks for work--it's no good reminding me of that promise. Answer me +straight, now, Lorry--on your honour. If I should give in and go with +you, you'd rejoice for a little, perhaps. Then, some day, when you and +I were lying on deck, you'd look at me and think of me--against your +will--I don't say it wouldn't be against your will--you'd think of me as +a quitter. And you wouldn't like me quite as well as you do now. Eh? Be +honest." + +Lorimer was silent for a minute. Then, to Richard's surprise, he gave an +assenting grunt, and followed it up with a reluctant, "Hang it all, I +suppose you're right. But I'm badly disappointed, just the same. We'll +let that go." + +And let it go they did, parting, when they reached town, with the +friendliest of grips, and a new, if not wholly comprehended, interest +between them. As for Richard, he felt, somehow, as if he had nailed his +flag to the mast! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN THE MORNING + + +"By George, Carson, what do you think's happened now?" + +Richard Kendrick had come into the store's little office like a +thunderbolt. + +"Well, Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Benson's down with typhoid. Came back with it from the trip to Chicago. +What do you think of that?" + +"I thought he was looking a little seedy before he went. Well, well, +that's too bad. Right in the May trade, too. Is he pretty sick?" + +"So the doctor says. He's been keeping up on that trip when he ought to +have been in bed. He's in bed now, all right. I took him in with a nurse +to the City Hospital on the 10:40 Limited; stretcher in the +baggage-car." + +"Don't see where he got typhoid around here at this time of year," mused +Carson. + +"Nobody sees, but that doesn't matter. He has it, and it's up to us to +pull him through--and to get along without him." + +They sat down to talk it over. While they were at it the telephone came +into the discussion with a summons of Richard to a long-distance +connection. To his amazement, when communication was established between +himself and his distant interlocutor, clear and vibrant came to him over +the wire a voice he had dreamed of but had not heard for four months: + +"Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Yes. Is it--it isn't--" + +"This is Miss Gray. Mr. Kendrick, your grandfather wants you very much, +at our home. He has had an accident." + +"An accident? What sort of an accident? Is he much hurt, Miss Gray?" + +"We can't tell yet. He fell down the porch steps; he had been calling on +Uncle Calvin. He--is quite helpless, but the doctor thinks there are no +bones broken. Doctor Thomas wouldn't allow Mr. Kendrick to be moved, so +we have him here with a nurse. He is very anxious to see you." + +"I'll be there as soon as I can get there in the car. I think I can make +it quicker than by train at this hour. Thank you for calling me, Miss +Gray. Please--give my love to grandfather and tell him I'm coming." + +"I will, Mr. Kendrick. I--we are all--so sorry. Good-bye." + +Richard turned back to Carson with an anxious face. The manager was on +his feet, concern in his manner. + +"Something happened to old Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Richard?" + +"A fall--can't move--wants me right away. It never rains but it pours, +Carson--even in May. I thought Benson's illness was the worst thing that +could happen to us, but this is worse yet. I'll have to leave everything +to you to settle while I run down to the old gentleman. A fall, +Carson--isn't that likely to be pretty serious at his age?" + +"Depends on what caused it, I should say," Carson answered cautiously. +"If it was any kind of shock--" + +"Oh--it can't be that!" Richard Kendrick's voice showed his alarm at the +thought. "Grandfather's been such an active old chap--no superfluous +fat--he's not at all a high liver--takes his cold plunge just as he +always has. It can't be that! But I'm off to see. Good-bye, Carson. I'll +'phone you when I know the situation. Meanwhile--wish grandfather safely +out of it, will you?" + +"Of course I will; I think a great deal of Mr. Kendrick. Good-bye--and +don't worry about things here." Carson wrung his employer's hand, then +went out with him to the curb, where the car stood, and saw him off. "He +really cares," he was thinking. "Nobody could fake that anxiety. He +doesn't want the old man to die--and he's his heir--to millions. Well, +I like him better than ever for it. I believe if I got typhoid he'd +personally carry me to the hospital or do any other thing that came into +his head. Well, now it's for me to find a competent salesman for this +May sale that's on with such a rush. It's going to be hard to manage +without Benson." + +The long, low car had never made faster time to the city, and it was in +the early dusk that it came to a standstill before the porch of the Gray +home. Doors and windows were wide open, lights gleamed everywhere, but +the house was very quiet. The car had stolen up as silently as a car of +fine workmanship may in these days of motor perfection, but it had been +heard, and Mrs. Robert Gray came out to meet Richard before he could +ring. + +"My dear Mr. Richard," she said, pressing his hand, her face very grave +and sweet, "you have come quickly. I am glad, for we are anxious. Your +grandfather has dropped into a strange, drowsy state, from which it +seems impossible to rouse him. But I hope you may be able to do so. He +has wanted you from the first moment." + +"Tell me which way to go," cried Richard, under his breath. "Is he +upstairs?" + +She kept her hold upon his hand, and he gripped it tight as she led him +up the stairs. It was as if he felt a mother's clasp for the first time +since his babyhood and could not let it go. + +"In here," she indicated softly, and the young man went in, his head +bent, his lips set. + + * * * * * + +Two hours afterward he came out. She was waiting for him, though it was +midnight. Louis and Stephen were waiting, too, and they in turn grasped +his hand, their faces pitiful for the keen grief they saw in his. Then +Mrs. Gray took him down to the porch, where the warm May night folded +them softly about. She sat down beside him on a wide settle. + +"He is all I have in the world!" cried Richard Kendrick. "If he goes--" +He could not say more, and, turning, put his arms down upon the back of +the seat and his head upon them. Great, tearless sobs shook him. Mrs. +Gray laid her kind hand upon his shoulder, and spoke gentle, motherly +words--a few words, not many--and kept her hand there until he had +himself under control again. + +By and by Mrs. Stephen Gray came out with a little tray upon which was +set forth a simple lunch, daintily served. The young man tried to eat, +to show her how much this touched him, but succeeded in swallowing only +a portion of the delicate food. Then he got up. "You are all so good," +said he gratefully. "You have helped me more than I can tell you. I will +go back now. I want to stay with him to-night, if you will allow me." + +They gave him a room across the hall from that in which his grandfather +lay, but he did not occupy it. All night he sat, a silent figure on the +opposite side of the bed from that where the nurse was on guard. His +grandfather's regular physician was in attendance the greater part of +the night at his request, though there seemed nothing to do but await +the issue. Another distinguished member of the profession had seen the +case in consultation early in the evening, and the two had found +themselves unable between them to discover a remote possibility of hope. + +In the early morning the watcher stole downstairs, feeling as if he must +for at least a few moments get into the outer world. His eyes were heavy +with his vigil, yet there was no sleep behind them, and he could not +bear to be long away lest a change come suddenly. The old man had not +roused when he had first spoken to him, and the nurse had said that his +last conscious words had been a call for his grandson. Goaded by this +thought, Richard turned back before he had so much as reached the foot +of the garden, where he had thought he should spend at least a quarter +of an hour. + +As he came in at the door he was met by Roberta, cool and fresh in blue. +It was but five in the morning; surely she did not commonly rise at this +hour, even in May. The thought made his heart leap. She came straight to +him and put both hands in his, saying in her friendly, low voice: "Mr. +Kendrick, I'm sorry--sorry!" + +He looked long and hungrily into her face, holding her hands with such a +fierce grasp that he hurt her cruelly, though she made no sign. He did +not even thank her--only held her until every detail of her face had +been studied. She let him do it, and only dropped her eyes and stood +colouring warmly under the inquisition. It was as if she understood that +the sight of her was a moment's sedative for an aching heart, and she +must yield it or be more unkind than it was in the heart of woman to be. +When he released her it was with a sigh that came up from the depths, +and as she left him he stood and watched her until she was out of sight. + + * * * * * + +When Matthew Kendrick opened his eyes at ten o'clock on the morning +after his fall the first thing they rested upon was the face he loved +best in the world. It came instantly nearer, the eyes meeting his +imploringly, as if begging him to speak. So with some little effort he +did speak. "Well, Dick," he said slowly, "I'm glad you came, boy. I +wanted you; I didn't know but I was about getting through. But--I +believe I'm still here, after all." + +Then he saw a strange sight. Great tears leaped into the eyes he was +looking at, tears that rolled unheeded down the fresh-coloured cheeks of +his boy. Richard tried to speak, but could not. He could only gently +grasp his grandfather's hand and press it tightly in both his own. + +"I feel pretty well battered up," the old man continued, his voice +growing stronger, "but I think I can move a little." He stirred slightly +under his blanket, a fact the nurse noted with joyful intentness. "So I +think I'm all here. Are you so glad, Dick, that you can cry about it?" + +The smile came then upon his grandson's lighting face. "Glad, +grandfather?" said he, with some difficulty. "Why, you're all I have in +the world! I shouldn't know how to face it without you." + +The old man dropped off to sleep again, his hand contentedly resting in +his grandson's. Presently the doctor looked in, studied the situation in +silence, held a minute's whispered colloquy with the nurse, then moved +to Richard's side. The young man looked up at him and he nodded. He bent +to Richard's ear. + +"Things look different," he whispered succinctly. At the slight +sibilance of the whisper the old man opened his eyes again. His glance +travelled up the distinguished physician's body to his face. He smiled +in quite his own whimsical way. + +"Fooled even a noted person like you, did I, Winston?" he chuckled +feebly. "Just because I chose to go to sleep and didn't fidget round +much you thought I'd got my quietus, did you?" + +"I think you're a pretty vigorous personality," responded the physician, +"and I'm quite willing to be fooled by you. Now I want you to take a +little nourishment and go to sleep again. If you think so much of this +young man of yours you can have him again in an hour, but I'm going to +send him away now. You see, he's been sitting right there all night." + +Matthew Kendrick's eyes rested fondly again upon Richard's smiling face. +"You rascal!" he sighed. "You always did give me trouble about being up +o' nights!" + + * * * * * + +Richard Kendrick ran downstairs three steps at a bound. At the bottom he +met Judge Calvin Gray. He seized the hand of his grandfather's old-time +friend and wrung it. The expression of heavy sadness on the Judge's face +changed to one of bewilderment, and as he scanned the radiant +countenance of Matthew Kendrick's grandson he turned suddenly pale with +joy. + +"You don't mean--" + +Then he comprehended that Richard was finding it as hard to speak good +news as if it had been bad. But in an instant the young man was in +command of himself again. + +"It wasn't apoplexy--it wasn't paralysis--it was only the shock of the +fall and the bruises. He's been talking to me; he's been twitting the +doctor on having been fooled. Oh, he's as alive as possible, and +I--Judge Gray, I never was so happy in my life!" + +With congratulations in his heart for his old friend on the possession +of this young love which was as genuine as it was strong, the Judge +said: "Well, my dear fellow, let us thank God and breathe again. This +has been the darkest night I've spent in many a year--and this is the +brightest morning." + +Everybody in the house was presently rejoicing in the news. But if +Richard expected Roberta to be as generous with him in his joy as she +had been in his grief he found himself disappointed. She did not fail +to express to him her sympathy with his relief, but she did it with +reinforcements of her family at hand, and with Ruth's arm about her +waist. She had trusted him when torn with anxiety; clearly she did not +trust him now in the reaction from that anxiety. He was in wild spirits, +no doubt of that; she could see it in his brilliant eyes. + +It still lacked six weeks of Midsummer. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SIDE LIGHTS + + +Louis Gray sat in a capacious willow easy-chair beside the high white +iron hospital bed upon which lay Hugh Benson, convalescing from his +attack of fever. "Pretty comfortable they make you here," Louis +observed, glancing about. "I didn't know their private rooms were as big +and airy as this one." + +Benson smiled. "I don't imagine they all are. I didn't realize what sort +of quarters I was in till I began to get better and mother told me. +According to her I have the best in the place. That's Rich. Whatever he +looks after is sure to be gilt-edged. I wonder if you know what a prince +of good fellows he is, anyway." + +"I always knew he was a good fellow," Louis agreed. "He has that +reputation, you know--kind-hearted and open-handed. I should know he +would be a substantial friend to his college classmate and business +partner." + +"He's much more than that." Benson's slow and languid speech took on a +more earnest tone. "Do you know, I think if any young man in this city +has been misjudged and underrated it's Rich. I know the reputation you +speak of; it's another way of calling a man a spendthrift, to say he's +free with his money among his friends. But I don't believe anybody knows +how free Rich Kendrick is with it among people who have no claim on him. +I never should have known if I hadn't come here. One of my nurses has +told me a lot of things she wasn't supposed ever to tell; but once she +had let a word drop I got it out of her. Why, Louis, for three years +Rich has paid the expenses of every sick child that came into this +hospital, where the family was too poor to pay. He's paid for several +big operations, too, on children that he wanted to see have the best. +There are four special private rooms he keeps for those they call his +patients, and he sees that whoever occupies them has everything they +need--and plenty of things they may not just need, but are bound to +enjoy--including flowers like those." + +He pointed to a splendid bowlful of blossoms on a stand behind Louis, +such blossoms as even in June grow only in the choicest of gardens. + +"All this is news to me," declared Louis; "mighty good news, too. But +how has he been able to keep it so quiet?" + +"Hospital people all pledged not to tell; so of course you and I mustn't +be responsible for letting it out, since he doesn't want it known. I'm +glad I know it, though, and I felt somehow that you ought to know. I +used to think a lot of Rich at college, but now that he's my partner I +think so much more I can't be happy unless other people appreciate him. +And in the business--I can't tell you what he is. He's more like a +brother than a partner." + +His thin cheeks flushed, and Louis suddenly bethought himself. +"I'm letting you talk too much, Hugh," he said self-accusingly. +"Convalescents mustn't overexert themselves. Suppose you lie still +and let me read the morning paper to you." + +"Thank you, my nurse has done it. Talking is really a great luxury and +it does me good, a little of it. I want to tell you this about Rich--" + +The door opened quietly as he spoke and Richard Kendrick himself came +in. Quite as usual, he looked as if he had that moment left the hands of +a most scrupulous valet. No wonder Louis's first thought was, as he +looked at him, that people gave him credit for caring only for +externals. One would not have said at first glance that he had ever +soiled his hands with any labour more tiring than that of putting on +his gloves. And yet, studying him more closely in the light of the +revelations his friend had made, was there not in his attractive face +more strength and force than Louis had ever observed before? + +"How goes it this morning, Hugh?" was the new-comer's greeting. He +grasped the thin hand of the convalescent, smiling down at him. Then he +shook hands with Louis, saying, "It's good of such a busy man to come in +and cheer up this idle one," and sat down as if he had come to stay. But +he had no proprietary air, and when a nurse looked in he only bowed +gravely, as if he had not often seen her before. If Louis had not known +he would not have imagined that Richard's hand in the affair of Benson's +illness had been other than that of a casual caller. + +Louis Gray went away presently, thinking it over. He was thinking of it +again that evening as he sat upon the big rear porch of the Gray home, +which looked out upon the lawn and tennis court where he and Roberta had +just been having a bout lasting into the twilight. + +"I heard something to-day that surprised me more than anything for a +long time," he began, and when his sister inquired what the strange news +might be he repeated to her as he could remember it Hugh Benson's +outline of the extraordinary story about Richard Kendrick. When she had +heard it she observed: + +"I suppose there is much more of that sort of thing done by the very +rich than we dream of." + +"By old men, yes--and widows, and a few other classes of people. But I +don't imagine it's so common as to be noticeable among the young men of +his class, do you?" + +"Perhaps not. Though you do hear of wonderful things the bachelors do at +Christmas for the poor children." + +"At Christmas--that's another story. Hearts get warmed up at Christmas, +that, like old Scrooge's, are cold and careless the rest of the year. +But for a fellow like Rich Kendrick to keep it up all the year +round--you'll find that's not so commonplace a tale." + +"I don't know much about rich young men." + +"You've certainly kept this one at a distance," Louis observed, eying +his sister curiously in the twilight. She was sitting in a boyish +attitude, racket on lap, elbows on knees, chin on clasped hands, eyes on +the shadowy garden. "He's been coming here evening after evening until +now that his grandfather has gone home, and never once has anybody seen +you so much as standing on the porch with him, to say nothing of +strolling into the garden. What's the matter with you, Rob? Any other +girl would be following him round and getting into his path. Not that +you would need to, judging by the way I've seen him look at you once or +twice. Have you drawn an imaginary circle around yourself and pointed +out to him the danger of crossing it? I should take him for a fellow who +would cross it then anyhow!" + +"Imaginary circles are sometimes bigger barriers than stone walls," she +admitted, smiling to herself, "Besides, Lou, I thought somebody else was +the person you wanted to see walking in the garden with me." + +"Forbes? The person I expected to see, you mean. Well, I don't know +about Forbes Westcott. He's a mighty clever chap, but I sometimes think +his blood is a little thin--like his body. I can't imagine his bothering +about a sick child at a hospital, can you? I've never seen him take a +minute's notice of Steve's pair; and they're little trumps, if ever +children were. Corporations are more in his line than children." + + * * * * * + +One thing leads to another in this interesting world. It was not two +days after this talk that Roberta herself had a private view of a little +affair which proved more illuminating to her understanding of a certain +fellow mortal than might have been all the evidence of other witnesses +than her own eyes. + +Returning from school on one of the last days of the term, weary of +walls and longing for the soothing stillness and refreshment of +outdoors, Roberta turned aside some distance from her regular course to +pass through a large botanical park, originally part of a great estate, +and newly thrown open to the public. It was, as yet, less frequented +than any other of the city parks. Much of it, according to the decree of +its donor, a nature lover of discrimination, had been left in a state +not far removed from wildness, and it was toward this portion that +Roberta took her way; experiencing, with each step along a winding, +secluded path she had recently discovered, that sense of escape into +luxurious freedom which comes only after enforced confinement when the +world outside is at its most alluring. + +At a point where the path swept high above a long, descending slope, at +the foot of which lay a tiny pool surrounded by thick and beautifully +kept turf, Roberta paused, and after looking about her for a minute to +make sure that there was no one near, turned aside from the path and +threw herself down beside a great clump of ferns, breathing a deep sigh +of restful relief. She sat gazing dreamily down at the pool, in which +was mirrored an exquisite reflection of tree and sky, the scene as +silent and still as though drawn upon canvas. She had many things to +think of, in these days, and a place like this was an ideal one in which +to think. + +Was it? Far below her she heard the low hum of a motor. None could come +near her, but the road beneath wound near the pool, though out of sight +except at one point. In spite of this, the girl drew back further into +the shelter of the tall ferns, thinking as she did so that it was the +first time she had seen this remoter part of the park invaded by either +motorist or pedestrian. Watching the point at which the car must appear +she saw it come slowly into sight and stop. There were two occupants, a +man and a boy, but at the distance she could not discern their faces. +The man stepped out, and coming around to the other side of the car put +out his arms and lifted the boy. He did not set him down, but carried +him, seeming to hold him with peculiar care, and brought him through the +surrounding trees and shrubbery to the pool itself, coming, as he did +so, into full view of the unseen eyes above. + +Roberta experienced a sudden strange leap of the heart as she saw that +the supple figure of the man was Richard Kendrick's own, and that the +slight frame he bore was that of a crippled child. She could see now the +iron braces on the legs, like pipe stems, which stuck straight out from +the embrace of the strong young arm which held them. She could discern +clearly the pallor and emaciation of the small face, in pitiful contrast +to the ruggedly healthy one of the child's bearer. Fascinatedly she +watched as Richard set his burden carefully down upon the grass, close +to the edge of the pool, the boy's back against a big white birch trunk. +The two were not so far below her but that she could see the expression +on their faces, though she could not hear their words. + +Richard ran back to the car, returning with a rug and something in a +long and slender case. He arranged a cushion behind the little back. +Roberta judged the boy to be about eight or nine years old, though small +for his age, as such children are. Richard undid the case and produced a +small fishing-rod, which he fell to preparing for use, talking gayly as +he did so, watched eagerly by his youthful companion. Evidently the boy +was to have a great and unaccustomed pleasure. + +Well, it was certainly in line with that which Roberta had heard of this +young man, but somehow to see something of it with her own eyes was +singularly more convincing. She could not bring herself to get up and go +away--surely there could be no need to feel that she was spying if she +stayed to watch the interesting scene. If Richard had chosen a spot +which he fancied entirely secluded from observation, it was undoubtedly +wholly on the boy's own account. She could easily imagine how such a +child as this one would shrink from observation in a public place, +particularly when he was to try the dearly imagined but wholly unknown +delight of fishing. It was plain that he was very shy, even with this +kind friend, for it was only now and then that he replied in words to +Richard's talk, though the response in the white face and big black eyes +was eloquent enough. + +It seemed in every way remarkable that a young man of Richard Kendrick's +sort should devote himself to a poor and crippled child as he was doing +now. Not a gesture or act of his was lost upon the girl who watched. +Clearly he was taking all possible pains to please and interest his +little protégé, and he was doing it in a way which showed much skill, +suggesting previous practice in the art. This was no such interest as he +had shown in Gordon and Dorothy Gray, whose beauty had been so powerful +an appeal to his fancy. There was nothing about this child to take hold +upon any one except his helplessness and need. But Richard was as gentle +with him, as patient with his awkward attempts at holding the light rod +in the proper position for fishing, and as full of resources for +entertaining him when the fish--if there were any--failed to bite, as he +could have been with a small brother of his own. + +There was another thing which it was impossible not to note: Never had +Roberta seen this young man in circumstances so calculated to impress +upon her the potency of his personality. Unconscious of the scrutiny of +any other human being, wholly absorbed in the task of making a small boy +happy, he was naturally showing her himself precisely as he was. In +place of his usual careful manners when in her presence was entire +freedom from restraint and therefore an effect uncoloured by +conventional environment. The tones of his voice, the frank smile upon +his lips, the touch of his hand upon the little lad's--all these +combined to set him before Roberta in a light so different from any she +had seen him in before that she must needs admit she had been far from +knowing him. + +She stole away at length, feeling suddenly that she had seen enough, and +that her defences against the siege being made upon her heart and +judgment were weakening perilously. If she were to hold out before it +she must hear of no more affairs to Richard Kendrick's credit, +especially such affairs as these. Not all his efforts at establishing a +successful career in the world of achievement could touch her +imagination as did the knowledge of his brotherly kindness toward the +unfortunate. That was what meant most to Roberta, in a world which she +had early discovered to be a hard place for the greater part of its +inhabitants. Forgetfulness of self, devotion to the need of +others--these were the qualities she most strove to cultivate in +herself, and most rejoiced at seeing developed in those for whom she +cared. + +Unluckily for his cause, if there had been a possible chance for its +success, Forbes Westcott chose the evening of this same day to come +again to Roberta Gray with his question burning on his lips. He arrived +at a moment when, to his temporary satisfaction, Roberta was said to be +playing a set of singles in the court with Ruth by the light of a +fast-fading afterglow; and he took his way thither without delay. It was +a simple matter, of course, to a man of his resource, to dispose of the +young sister, in spite of the elder's attempt to foil him at his own +game. So presently he had Roberta to himself, with every advantage of +time and place and summer beauty all about. + +Louis Gray, looking down the lawn from the rear porch, upon whose steps +he sat with Rosamond and Stephen, descried the tall figure strolling by +their sister's side along a stretch of closely shaven turf between rows +of slim young birches. + +"Forbes is persistent, eh?" he observed. "Think he has a fighting +chance?" + +"Oh, I hope not!" cried Rosamond impulsively. + +Stephen's grave eyes followed the others, to dwell upon the distant +pair. "Forbes stands to win a big place among men," was his comment. + +"Oh, really big?" Rosamond's tender eyes came to meet her husband's. +"Stephen, do you think he is quite--scrupulous?--wholly honourable?" + +"I have no reason to think otherwise, Rosy." + +She shook her head. "Somehow I--could never quite trust him. He would +live strictly by the letter of the law--but the spirit--" + +"Expect people to live by the spirit--these days, little girl?" inquired +Louis, with an affectionate glance at her. + +She gazed straight back. "Yes. You do it--and so does Stephen--and +Father Gray--and Uncle Calvin." + +The eyes of the brothers met above her fair head, and they smiled. + +"That's high distinction, from you, dear," said her husband. "But you +must not do Westcott injustice. He has the reputation of being sharp as +a knife blade, and of outwitting men in fair contest in court and out of +it, but no shadow has ever touched his character." + +Still she shook her head. "I can't help it. I don't want Rob to marry +him." + +The young men laughed together, and Rosamond smiled with them. + +"There you have it," said Louis. "There's no going behind those returns. +The county votes no, and the candidate is defeated. Let him console +himself with the vote from other counties--if he can." + +The three were still upon the porch half an hour later, with others of +the family, when the two figures came again up the stretch of lawn +between the slim white birches, showing ghostlike now in the June +moonlight. They came in silence, as far as any sound of their voices +reached the porch, and they disappeared like two shades toward the front +of the house. + +"He's not coming even to speak to us," whispered Rosamond to Stephen. +"That's very unlike him. Do you suppose--" + +"It may be a case of the voice sticking in the throat," returned her +husband, under his breath. "I fancy he'll take it hard when Rob disposes +of him--as she certainly ought to do by this time, if she's not going to +take him. But she'd better think twice. He's a brilliant fellow, and he +has no rivals within hailing distance, in his line." + +But Rosamond shook her head again. "He would never make her happy," she +breathed, with conviction. "Oh, I hope--I hope!" + +Her hopes grew with Roberta's absence. Westcott had gone, for Ruth, +appearing at Rosamond's side, announced that Roberta was in her own +room, and would not be down again to-night. + +"I think she has a headache," said the little sister. "Queer, for I +never knew Rob to have a headache before." + +"The headache," murmured Louis, in Rosamond's ear, "is the feminine +defence against the world. A timely headache, now and then, is suffered +by the best of men--and women. Well--let her rest, Rufus. She'll be all +right in the morning." + +Above them, by her open window, sat Roberta, for a little while, elbows +on sill, chin in hands. Then, presently, she stole downstairs again, out +by a side entrance, and away among the shrubbery, to the furthest point +of the grounds--not far, in point of actual distance, but quite removed +by its environment from contact with the world around. Here, stretched +upon the warm turf, her arms outflung, her eyes gazing up at the +star-set heavens above her, the girl rested from her encounter with a +desperate besieging force. + +For a time, the last words she had heard that evening were ringing in +her ears--sombre words, uttered in a deep tone of melancholy, by a voice +which commanded cadences that had often reached the minds and hearts of +men and swayed them. "Is that all--_all_, Roberta? Must I go away with +_that_?" + +She had sent him away, and her heart ached for him, for she could not +doubt the depth and sincerity of his feeling for her. Being a woman, +with a warm and kindly nature, she was sad with the disquieting thought +that anywhere under that starry sky was one whose spirit was heavy +to-night because of her. But--there had been no help for it. She knew +now, beyond a doubt, that there had been no help. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +PORTRAITS + + +Revelations were in order in these days. Another of a quite different +sort came to Roberta within the week. On a morning when she knew Richard +Kendrick to be in Eastman she consented to drive with Mrs. Stephen to +make a call upon Mr. Matthew Kendrick, now at home and recovering +satisfactorily from his fall, but still confined to his room. With a +basketful of splendid garden roses upon her arm she followed Rosamond +into the great stone pile. + +They seemed to have left the sunlight and the summer day itself outside +as they sat waiting in the stiff and formal reception-room, which looked +as if no woman's hand or foot had touched it for a decade. As they were +conducted to Mr. Kendrick's room upon the floor above they noted with +observant eyes the cheerless character of every foot of the way--lofty +hall, sombre staircase, gloomy corridor. Even Mr. Kendrick's own room, +filled though it was with costly furniture, its walls hung with +portraits and heavy oil paintings, after the fashion of the rich man who +wants his home comfortable and attractive but does not know how to make +it so, was by no means homelike. + +"This is good of you--this is good of you," the old man said happily, as +they approached his couch. He held out his hands to them, and when +Roberta presented her roses, exclaimed over them like a pleased child, +and sent his man hurrying about to find receptacles for them. He lay +looking from the flowers to the faces while he talked, as if he did not +know which were the more refreshing to his eyes, weary of the +surroundings to which they had been so long accustomed. + +"These will be the first thing Dick will spy when he comes to-morrow," +he prophesied. "I never saw a fellow so fond of roses. The last time he +was down he found time to tell me about somebody's old garden up there +in Eastman, where they have some kind of wonderful, old-fashioned rose +with the sweetest fragrance he ever knew. He had one in his coat; the +sight of it took me back to my boyhood. But he wasn't all roses and +gardens, not a bit of it! I never thought to see him so absorbed in such +a subject as the management of a business. But he's full of it--he's +full of it! You can't imagine how it delights me." + +He was full of it himself. Though he more than once apologized for +talking of his grandson and his pleasure in the way "the boy" was +throwing himself into the real merits of the problems presented to the +new firm in Eastman, he kept returning to this fascinating subject. It +was not of interest to himself alone, and though Roberta only listened, +Mrs. Stephen led him on, asking questions which he answered with eager +readiness. But all at once he pulled himself up short. + +"Dick would be the first person to hush my garrulous old tongue," said +he. "But I feel like father and mother and grandfather all combined, in +the matter of his success. I wouldn't have you think his making good--as +they say in these days--in the world I am used to is my only idea of +success. No, no, he has a world of his own besides. I should like you to +see--there are several things I should like you to see. Last winter Dick +begged from me a portrait of his mother which I had done when he was a +year old; she lived only six months after that. He has it now over his +desk. His father's portrait is on the opposite wall. Should you care to +step across the hall into my grandson's rooms? The portraits I speak of +are in the second room of the suite. Stop and examine anything else that +interests you; I am sure he would be proud; and he has brought back many +interesting things, principally pictures, from his travels. I should +like to go with you, but if you will be so kind--" + +There was no refusing the enthusiastic old man. He sent his housekeeper +to see that the rooms were open of window and ready for inspection, then +waved his guests away. Mrs. Stephen went with alacrity; Roberta followed +more slowly, as if she somehow feared to go. Of all the odd +happenings!--that she should be walking into Richard Kendrick's own +habitation, with all the intimate revelations it was bound to make to +her. She wondered what he would say if he knew. + +The first room was precisely what she might have expected, quite +obviously the apartment of a modern young man whose wishes lacked no +opportunity to satisfy themselves. The room was not in bad taste; on the +contrary, its somewhat heavy furnishings had an air of dignity in +harmony with an earlier day than that more ostentatious period in which +the rest of the house had been fitted. Upon its walls was a choice +collection of pictures of various styles and schools of art, some of +them unquestionably of much value. At one end of the room stood a closed +grand piano. But, like the grandfather's room, the place could not by +any stretch of the imagination be called homelike, and to this fact +Rosamond called her companion's attention. + +"It's really very interesting," said she, "and quite impressive, but I +don't wonder in the least at his saying that he had no home. This might +be a room in a fine hotel; there's nothing to make you feel as if +anybody really lives here, in spite of the beautiful paintings. But Mr. +Kendrick said the portraits were in the second room." + +On her way into the second room, however, Rosamond's attention was +attracted by a picture beside the door opening thereto, and with an +exclamation, "Oh, this looks like Gordon! Where did he get it?" she +paused. Roberta glanced that way, but a quite different object in the +inner room had caught her eye, and leaving Rosamond to her wonder over a +rather remarkable resemblance to her own little son in the rarely +exquisite colour-drawing of a child of similar age, she went on, to +stand still in the doorway, surprised out of all restraint as to the use +of her interested eyes. + +For this, contrary to all possible expectations, was either the room of +a man of literary tastes, and of one who also preferred simplicity and +utility to display of any sort, or it was an extremely clever imitation +of such a room. And there were certain rather trustworthy evidences of +the former. + +The room, although smaller than the outer one, was a place of good size, +with several large windows. Its walls to a height of several feet were +lined with bookshelves filled to overflowing, the whole representing no +less than three or four thousand books; Roberta could hardly guess at +their number. Several comfortable easy-chairs and a massive desk were +almost the only other furnishings, unless one included a few framed +foreign photographs and the two portraits which hung on opposite walls. +These presently called for study. + +Rosamond came in and stood beside her sister, regarding the portraits +with curiosity. "The father has a remarkably fine face, hasn't he?" she +observed, turning from one to the other. "Unusually fine; and I think +his son resembles him. But he is more like his mother. Isn't she +beautiful? And he never knew her; she died when he was such a little +fellow. Isn't it touching to see how he has her there above his desk as +if he wanted to know her? How many books! I didn't know he cared for +books, did you? Perhaps they were his father's; though his father was a +business man. Yet I don't know why we never credit business men with any +interest in books. Perhaps they study them more than we imagine; they +must study something. Rob, did you see the picture in the other room +that looks so like Gordon? It seems almost as if it must have been +painted from him." + +She flitted back into the outer room. Roberta stood still before the +desk, above which hung the portrait of the lovely young woman who had +been Richard's mother. Younger than Roberta herself she looked; such a +girl to pass away and leave her baby, her first-born! And he had her +here in the place of honour above his desk, where he sat to write and +read. For he did read, she grew sure of it as she looked about her. +Though the room was obviously looked after by a servant, it was probable +that there were orders not to touch the contents of the desk-top itself, +for this was as if it had been lately used. Books, a foreign review or +two, a pile of letters, various desk furnishings in a curious design of +wrought copper, and--what was this?--a little photograph in a frame! +Horses, three of them, saddled and tied to a fence; at one side, in an +attitude of arrested attention, a girl's figure in riding dress. + +A wave of colour surged over Roberta's face as she picked up the picture +to examine it. She had never thought again of the shot he had snapped; +he had never brought it to her. Instead he had put it into this +frame--she noted the frame, of carved ivory and choice beyond +question--and had placed it upon his desk. There were no other +photograph's of people in the room, not one. If she had found herself +one among many she might have had more--or less--reason for displeasure; +it was hard to say which. But to be the only one! Yet doubtless--in his +bedroom, the most intimate place of all, which she was not to see, would +be found his real treasures--photographs of beauties he had known, +married women, girls, actresses--She caught herself up! + +Rosamond, eager over the colour-drawing, had taken it from its place on +the wall and gone with it across the hall to discuss its extraordinary +likeness with the old man, who had sent for little Gordon several times +during his stay at the Gray home and would be sure to appreciate the +resemblance. Roberta, again engaged with the portrait above the desk, +had not noticed her sister's departure. There was something peculiarly +fascinating about this pictured face of Richard Kendrick's mother. +Whether it was the illusive likeness to the son, showing first in the +eyes, then in the mouth, which was one of extraordinary sweetness, it +was hard to tell. But the attempt to _analyze_ it was absorbing. + +The sound of a quick step in the outer room, as it struck a bit of bare +floor between the costly rugs which lay thickly upon it, arrested her +attention. That was not Rosy's step! Roberta turned, a sudden fear upon +her, and saw the owner of the room standing, as if surprised out of +power to proceed, in the doorway. + +Now, it was manifestly impossible for Roberta to know just how she +looked, standing there, as he had seen her for the instant before she +turned. From her head to her feet she was dressed in white, therefore +against the dull background of books and heavy, plain panelling above, +her figure stood out with the effect of a cameo. Her dusky hair under +her white hat-brim was the only shadowing in a picture which was to his +gaze all light and radiance. He stood staring at it, his own face +glowing. Then: + +"Oh--_Roberta_!" he exclaimed, under his breath. Then he came forward, +both hands outstretched. She let him have one of hers for an instant, +but drew it away again--with some difficulty. + +"You must be surprised to find me here." Roberta strove for her usual +cool control. "Rosy and I came to see your grandfather. He sent us in +here to look at these portraits. Rosy has gone back to him with a +picture she thought looked like Gordon. I--was staying a minute to see +this; it is very beautiful." + +He laughed happily. "You have explained it all away. I wish you had let +me go on thinking I was dreaming. To find you--_here_!" He smothered an +exultant breath and went on hastily:--"I'm glad you find my mother +beautiful. I never knew how beautiful she was till I brought her up here +and put her where I could look at her. Such a little, girlish mother for +such a strapping son! But she has the look--somehow she has the look! +Don't you think she has? I was a year old when that was painted--just in +time, for she died six months afterward. But she had had time to get the +look, hadn't she?" + +"Indeed she had. I can imagine her holding her little son. Is there no +picture of her with you?" + +"None at all that I can find. I don't know why. There's one of me on my +father's knee, four years old--just before he went, too. I am lucky to +have it. I can just remember him, but not my mother at all. Do you mind +my telling you that it was after I saw your mother I brought this +portrait of mine up from the drawing-room and put it here? It seemed to +me I must have one somehow, if only the picture of one." His voice +lowered. "I can't tell you what it has done for me, the having her +here." + +"I can guess," said Roberta softly, studying the young, gently smiling, +picture face. Somehow her former manner with this young man had +temporarily deserted her. The appeal of the portrait seemed to have +extended to its owner. "You--don't want to disappoint her," she added +thoughtfully. + +"That's it--that's just it," he agreed eagerly. "How did you know?" + +"Because that's the way I feel about mine. They care so much, you know." +She moved slowly toward the door. "I must go back to your grandfather." + +"Why? He has Mrs. Stephen, you say. And I--like to see you here. There +are a lot of things I want to show you." His eager gaze dropped to the +desk-top and fell upon the ivory-framed photograph. He looked quickly at +her. Her cheeks were of a rich rose hue, her eyes--he could not tell +what her eyes were like. But she moved on toward the door. He followed +her into the other room. + +"Won't you stay a minute here, then? I don't care for it as I do the +other, but--it's a place to talk in. And I haven't talked to you +for--four months. It's the middle of June.... Let me show you this +picture over here." + +He succeeded in detaining her for a few minutes, which raced by on wings +for him. He did it only by keeping his speech strictly upon the subject +of art, and presently, in spite of his endeavours, she was off across +the room and out of the door, through the hall and in the company of +Mrs. Stephen and Mr. Matthew Kendrick. The pair, the old man and the +girlish young mother, looked up from a collection of miniatures, brought +out in continuance of the discussion over child faces begun by +Rosamond's interest in the colour-drawing found upon Richard's walls. +They saw a flushed and heart-disturbing face under a drooping white +hat-brim, and eyes which looked anywhere but at them, though Roberta's +voice said quite steadily: "Rosy, do you know how long we are staying?" + +In explanation of this sudden haste another face appeared, seen over +Roberta's shoulder. This face was also of a somewhat warm colouring, but +these eyes did not hide; they looked as if they were seeing visions and +noted nothing earthly. + +"Why, Dick!" exclaimed Mr. Kendrick. "I didn't expect you till +to-morrow." Gladness was in his voice. He held out welcoming hands, and +his grandson came to him and took the hands and held them while he +explained the errand which had brought him and upon which he must +immediately depart. But he would come again upon the morrow, he +promised. It was clear that the closest relations existed between the +two; it was a pleasant thing to see. And when Richard turned out again +toward the visitors he had his face in order. + +Some imperceptible signalling had been exchanged between Roberta and +Rosamond, and the call came shortly to an end, in spite of the old man's +urgent invitation to them to remain. + +"Do you see the roses they brought me, Dick?" He indicated the bowls and +vases which stood about the room. "I told them you would notice them +directly you came in. Where are your eyes, boy?" + +"Do you really blame me for not seeing them, grandfather?" retorted his +grandson audaciously. "But I recognize them now; they are wonderful. I +suppose they have thorns?" His eyes met Roberta's for one daring +instant. + +"You wouldn't like them if they didn't," said she. + +"Shouldn't I? I'd like to find one with the thorns off; I'd wear it--if +I might. May I have one, grandfather?" + +"Of course, Dick. They're mine now to give away, Miss Roberta? Perhaps +you'll put it on for him." + +Since the suggestion was made by an old man, who might or might not have +been wholly innocent of taking sides in a game in which his boy was +playing for high stakes, Roberta could do no less than hurriedly to +select a splendid crimson bud without regard to thorns--she was aware of +more than one as she handled it--and fasten it upon a gray coat, +intensely conscious of the momentary nearness of a personality whose +influence upon her was the strangest, most perturbing thing she had ever +experienced. + +The flower in place, she could not get away too fast. Rosamond, +understanding now that the air was electric and that her sister wanted +nothing so much as to escape to a safer atmosphere, aided her by taking +the lead and engaging Richard Kendrick in conversation all the way +downstairs to the door and out to the waiting carriage. As they drove +away Rosamond looked back at the figure leaping up the steps, with the +crimson rose showing brilliantly in the June sunshine. + +"Rob, he's splendid, simply splendid," she whispered, so that the old +family coachman in front, driving the old family horses, could not hear. +"I don't wonder his grandfather is so proud of him. One can see that +he's going to go right on now and make himself a man worth anybody's +while. He's that now, but he's going to be more." + +"I don't see how you can tell so much from hearing him make a few +foolish remarks about some roses!" Roberta's face was carefully averted. + +"Oh, it wasn't what he said, it's what he is! It shows in his face. I +never saw purpose come out so in a face as it has in his in the time +that we've known him. Besides, we began by taking him for nothing but a +society man, and we were mistaken in that from the beginning. Stephen +has been telling me some things Louis told him." + +"I know. About the hospital and the children." + +"Yes. Isn't it interesting? And that's been going on for years; it's not +a new pose for our benefit. I've no doubt there are lots of other +things, if we knew them. But--oh, Rob, his grandfather says he bought +the little head in colour because he thought it looked like Gordon. I'm +going to send him the last photograph right away. Rob, there's Forbes +Westcott!" + +"Where?" + +"Right ahead. Shall we stop and take him in? Of course he's on his way +to see you, as usual. How he does anything in his own office--" + +"James!" Roberta leaned forward and spoke to the coachman. "Turn down +this street--quickly, please. Don't look, Rosy--don't! Let's not go +straight home; let's drive a while. It--it's such a lovely day!" + +"Why, Rob! I thought--" + +"Please don't think anything. I'm trying not to." + +Rosamond impulsively put her white-gloved hand on Roberta's. "I don't +believe you are succeeding," she whispered daringly. "Particularly +since--this morning!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ROBERTA WAKES EARLY + + +Midsummer Day! Roberta woke with the thought in her mind, as it had been +the last in her mind when she had gone to sleep. She had lain awake for +a long time the night before, watching a strip of moonlight which lay +like flickering silver across her wall. Who would have found it easy to +sleep, with the consciousness beating at her brain that on the morrow +something momentous was as surely going to happen as that the sun would +rise? Did she want it to happen? Would she rather not run away and +prevent its happening? There was no doubt that, being a woman, she +wanted to run away. At the same time--being a woman--she knew that she +would not run. Something would stay her feet. + +With wide-open eyes on this Midsummer morning she lay, as she had lain +the night before, regarding without attention the early sunlight +flooding the room where moonlight had lain a few hours ago. Her bare, +round arms, from which picturesque apologies for sleeves fell back, were +thrown wide upon her pillows, her white throat and shoulders gleamed +below the loose masses of her hair, her heart was beating a trifle more +rapidly than was natural after a night of repose. + +It was very early, as a little clock upon a desk announced--half after +five. Yet some one in the house was up, for Roberta heard a light +footfall outside her door. There followed a soft sound which drew her +eyes that way; she saw something white appear beneath the door--in the +old house the sills were not tight. The white rectangle was obviously a +letter. + +Her curiosity alive, she lay looking at this apparition for some time, +unwilling to be heard to move even by a maidservant. But at length she +arose, stole across the floor, picked up the missive, and went back to +her bed. She examined the envelope--it was of a heavy plain paper; the +address--it was in a hand she had seen but once, on the day when she had +copied many pages of material upon the typewriter for her Uncle +Calvin--a rather compact, very regular and positive hand, unmistakably +that of a person of education and character. + +She opened the letter with fingers that hesitated. Midsummer Day was at +hand; it had begun early! Two closely written sheets appeared. Sitting +among her pillows, her curly, dusky locks tumbling all about her face, +her pulses beating now so fast they shook the paper in her fingers, she +read his letter: + + * * * * * + +My Roberta: I can't begin any other way, for, even though you should +never let me use the words again, you have become such a part of me, both +of the man I am and of the man I want and mean to become, that in some +degree you will always belong to me in spite of yourself. + +Why do I write to you to-day? Because there are things I want to say to +you which I could never wait to say when I see you, but which I want you +to know before you answer me. I don't want to tell you "the story of my +life," but I do feel that you must understand a few of my thoughts, for +only so can I be sure that you know me at all. + +Before I came to your home, one night last October, I had unconsciously +settled into a way of living which as a rule seemed to me all-sufficient. +My friends, my clubs, my books--yes, I care for my books more than you +have ever discovered--my plans for travel, made up a life which satisfied +me--a part of the time. Deep down somewhere was a sense of unrest, a +knowledge that I was neither getting nor giving all that I was meant +to. But this I was accustomed to stifle--except at unhappy hours when +stifling would not work, and then I was frankly miserable. Mostly, +however, my time was so filled with diversion of one sort or another +that I managed to keep such hours from over-whelming me; I worried +through them somehow and forgot them as soon as I could. + +From the first day that I came through your door my point of view was +gradually and strangely altered. I saw for the first time in my life what +a home might be. It attracted me; more, it showed me how empty my own +life was, that I had thought so full. The sight of your mother, of your +brothers, of your sisters, of your brother's little children--each of +these had its effect on me. As for yourself--Roberta, I don't know how to +tell you that; at least I don't know how to tell you on paper. I can +imagine finding words to tell you, if--you were very much nearer to me +than you are now. I hardly dare think of that! + +Yet I must try, for it's part of the story; it's all of it. With my first +sight of you, I realized that here was what I had dreamed of but never +hoped to find: beauty and charm and--character. I had seen many women who +possessed two of these attributes; it seemed impossible to discover one +who had all three. Many women I had admired--and despised; many I had +respected--and disliked. I am not good at analysis, but perhaps you can +guess at what I mean. I may have been unfortunate; I don't know. There +may be many women who are both beautiful and good. No, that is not what I +mean! The combination I am trying to describe as impossibly desirable is +that not only of beauty and goodness--I suppose there are really many who +have those; but--goodness and fascination! That's what a man wants. Can +you possibly understand? + +I wonder if I had better stop writing? I am showing myself up as +hopelessly awkward at expression; probably because my heart is pounding +so as I write that it is taking the blood from my brain. But--I'll make +one more try at it. + +I had no special purpose in life last October. I meant to do a little +good in the world if I could--without too much trouble. Some time or +other I supposed I should marry--intended to put it off as long as I +could. I saw no reason why I shouldn't travel all I wanted to; it was the +one thing I really cared for with enthusiasm. I didn't appreciate much +what a selfish life I was leading, how I was neglecting the one person in +the world who loved me and was anxious about me. Your little sister, +Ruth, opened my eyes to that, by the way. I shall always thank her for +it. I hadn't known what I was missing. + +I don't know how the change came about. You charmed me, yet you made me +realize every time I was with you that I was not the sort of man you +either admired or respected. I felt it whenever I looked at any of the +people in your home. Every one of them was busy and happy; every one of +them was leading a life worth while. Slowly I waked up. I believe I'm +wide awake now. What's more, nothing could ever tempt me to go to sleep +again. I've learned to _like_ being awake! + +You decreed that I should keep away from you all these months. I agreed, +and I have kept my word. All the while has been the fear bothering me +beyond endurance that you did it to be rid of me. I said some bold words +to you--to make you remember me. Roberta, I am humbler to-day than I was +then. I shouldn't dare say them to you now. I was madly in love with you +then; I dared say anything. I am not less in love now--great heavens! not +less--but I have grown to worship you so that I have become afraid. When +I saw you in my room before my mother's portrait I could have knelt at +your feet. From the beginning I have felt that I was not worthy of you, +but I feel it so much more deeply now that I don't know how to offer +myself to you. I have written as if I wanted to persuade you that I am +more of a man than when you knew me first, and therefore more worthy of +you. I _am_ more of a man, but by just so much more do I realize my own +unworthiness. + +And yet--it is Midsummer Day; this is the twenty-fourth of June--and I am +on fire with love and longing for you, and I must know whether you care. +If I were strong enough I would offer to wait longer before asking you to +tell me--but I'm not strong enough for that. + +I have a plan which I am hoping you will let me carry out, whatever +answer you are going to give me. If you will allow it I will ask Mr. and +Mrs. Stephen Gray to go with us on a long horseback ride this afternoon, +to have supper at a place I know. I could take you all in my car if you +prefer, but I hope you will not prefer it. You have never seemed like a +motoring girl to me every other one I know is--and ever since I saw you +on Colonel last November I've been hoping to have a ride with you. If I +can have it to-day--Midsummer--it will be a dream fulfilled. If only I +dared hope my other--and dearer--dream were to come true! Roberta, are we +really so different? I have thought a thousand times of your "_stout +little cabin on the hilltop_," where you would like to spend "_the worst +night of the winter_." All alone? "_Well, with a fire for company, +and--perhaps--a dog_." But not with a good comrade? "_There are so +few good comrades--who can be tolerant of one's every mood_." You were +right; there are few. And--this one might not be so clever as to +understand every mood of yours, but--Roberta, Roberta--he would love you +so much that you wouldn't mind if he didn't always understand. That +is--you wouldn't mind if, in return, you--But I dare not say it--I can +only hope--hope! + +Unless you send me word to the contrary by ten o'clock, I will then ask +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen, and arrange to come for you at four this afternoon. +You are committed to nothing by agreeing to this arrangement. But I--am +committed to everything for as long as I live. RICHARD. + + * * * * * + +It was well that it was not yet six o'clock in the morning and that +Roberta had two long hours to herself before she need come forth from +her room. She needed them, every minute of them, to get herself in hand. + +It was a good letter, no doubt of that. It was neither clever nor +eloquent, but it was better: it was manly and sincere. It showed +self-respect; it showed also humility, a proud humility which rejoiced +that it could feel its own unworthiness and know thereby that it would +strive to be more fit. And it showed--oh, unquestionably it showed!--the +depth of his feeling. Quite clearly he had restrained a pen that longed +to pour forth his heart, yet there were phrases in which his tenderness +had been more than he could hold back, and it was those phrases which +made the recipient hold her breath a little as she read them, wondering +how, if the written words were almost more than she could bear, she +could face the spoken ones. + +And now she really wanted to run away! If she could have had a week, a +month, between the reading of this letter and the meeting of its writer, +it seemed to her that it would have been the happiest month of her life. +To take the letter with her into exile, to read it every day, but to +wait--wait--for the real crisis till she could quiet her racing +emotions. One sweet at a time--not an armful of them. But the man--true +to his nature--the man wanted the armful, and at once. And she had made +him wait all these months; she could not, knowing her own heart, put him +off longer now. The cool composure with which, last winter, she had +answered his first declaration that he loved her was all gone; the +months, of waiting had done more than show him whether his love was +real: they had shown her that she wanted it to be real. + +The day was a hard one to get through. The hours lagged--yet they flew. +At eight o'clock she went down, feeling as if it were all in her face; +but apparently nobody saw anything beyond the undoubted fact that in her +white frock she looked as fresh and as vivid as a flower. At half after +ten Rosamond came to her to know if she had received an invitation from +Richard Kendrick to go for a horseback ride, adding that she herself was +delighted at the thought and had telephoned Stephen, to find that he +also was pleased and would be up in time. + +"I wonder where he's going to take us," speculated Rosamond, in a +flutter of anticipation. "Without doubt it will be somewhere that's +perfectly charming; he knows how to do such things. Of course it's all +for you, but I shall love to play chaperon, and Stevie and I shall have +a lovely time out of it. I haven't been on a horse since Dorothy came; I +hope I haven't grown too stout for my habit. What are you going to wear, +Rob? The blue cloth? You are perfectly irresistible in that! Do wear +that rakish-looking soft hat with the scarf; it's wonderfully becoming, +if it isn't quite so correct; and I'm sure Richard Kendrick won't take +us to any stupid fashionable hotel. He'll arrange an outdoor affair, I'm +confident, with the Kendrick chef to prepare it and the Kendrick +servants to see that it is served. Oh, it's such a glorious June day! +Aren't you happy, Rob?" + +"If I weren't it would make me happy to look at you, you dear married +child," and Roberta kissed her pretty sister-in-law, who could be as +womanly as she was girlish, and whose companionship, with that of +Stephen's, she felt to be the most discriminating choice of chaperonage +Richard could have made. Stephen and Rosamond, off upon a holiday like +this, would be celebrating a little honeymoon anniversary of their own, +she knew, for they had been married in June and could never get over +congratulating themselves on their own happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +RICHARD HAS WAKED EARLIER + + +Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock. Roberta wondered afterward +what she had done with the hours! At three she had her bath; at half +after she put up her hair, hardly venturing to look at her own face in +her mirror, so flushed and shy was it. Roberta shy?--she who, according +to Ted, "wasn't afraid of anything in the world!" But she _had_ been +afraid of one thing, even as Richard Kendrick had averred. Was she not +afraid of it now? She could not tell. But she knew that her hands shook +as she put up her hair, and that it tumbled down twice and had to be +done over again. Afraid! She was afraid, as every girl worth winning is, +of the sight of her lover! + +Yet when she heard hoofbeats on the driveway nothing could have kept +her from peeping out. The rear porch, from which the riding party would +start, was just below her window, the great pillars rising past her. +She had closed one of her blinds an hour before; she now made use of +its sheltering interstices. She saw Richard on a splendid black horse +coming up the drive, looking, as she had foreseen he would look, at +home in the saddle and at his best. She saw the colour in his cheeks, +the brightness in his eyes, caught his one quick glance upward--did +he know her window? He could not possibly see her, but she drew back, +happiness and fear fighting within her for the ascendency. Could she +ever go down and face him out there in the strong June light, where he +could see every curving hair of eyelash? note the slightest ebb and +flow of blood in cheek? + +Rosamond was calling: "Come, Rob! Mr. Kendrick is here and Joe is +bringing round the horses. Can I help you?" + +Roberta opened her door. "I couldn't do my hair at all; does it look a +fright under this hat?" + +Rosamond surveyed her. "Of course it doesn't. You're the most bewitching +thing I ever saw in that blue habit, and your hair is lovely, as it +always is. Rob, I have grown stout; I had to let out two bands before I +could get this on; it was made before I was married. Steve's been +laughing at me. Here he is; now do let's hurry. I want every bit of this +good time, don't you?" + +There was no delaying longer. Rosamond, all eagerness, was leading the +way downstairs, her little riding-boots tapping her departure. Stephen +was waiting for Roberta; she had to precede him. The next she knew she +was down and out upon the porch, and Richard Kendrick, hat and crop in +hand, was meeting her halfway, his expectant eyes upon her face. One +glance at him was all she was giving him, and he was mercifully making +no sign that any one looking on could have recognized beyond his eager +scrutiny as his hand clasped hers. And then in two minutes they were +off, and Roberta, feeling the saddle beneath her and Colonel's familiar +tug on the bit at the start-off--he was always impatient to get +away--was realizing that the worst, at least for the present, was over. + +"Which way?" called Stephen, who was leading with Rosamond. + +"Out the road past the West Wood marshes, please--straight out. Take it +moderately; we're going about twelve miles and it's pretty warm yet." + +There was not much talking while they were within the city limits--nor +after they were past, for that matter. Rosamond, ahead with her husband, +kept up a more or less fitful conversation with him, but the pair behind +said little. Richard made no allusion to his letter of the morning +beyond a declaration of his gratitude to the whole party for falling in +with his plans. But the silence was somehow more suggestive of the great +subject waiting for expression than any exchange of words could have +been, out here in the open. Only once did the man's impatience to begin +overcome his resolution to await the fitting hour. + +Turning in his saddle as Colonel fell momentarily behind, passing the +West Wood marshes, Richard allowed his eyes to rest upon horse and rider +with full intent to take in the picture they made. + +"I haven't ventured to let myself find out just how you look," he said. +"The atmosphere seems to swim around you; I see you through a sort of +haze. Do you suppose there can be anything the matter with my eyesight?" + +"I should think there must be," she replied demurely. "It seems a +serious symptom. Hadn't you better turn back?" + +"While you go on? Not if I fall off my horse. I have a suspicion that +it's made up of a curious compound of feelings which I don't dare to +describe. But--may I tell you?--I _must_ tell you--I never saw anything +so beautiful in my life as--yourself, to-day. I--" He broke off +abruptly. "Do you see that old rosebush there by those burnt ruins of a +house? Amber-white roses, and sweet as--I saw them there yesterday when +I went by. Let me get them for you." + +He rode away into the deserted yard and up to a tangle of neglected +shrubbery. He had some difficulty in getting Thunderbolt--who was as +restless a beast as his name implied--to stand still long enough to +allow him to pick a bunch of the buds; he would have nothing but buds +just breaking into bloom. These he presently brought back to Roberta. +She fancied that he had planned to stop here for this very purpose. +Clearly he had the artist's eye for finishing touches. He watched her +fasten the roses upon the breast of the blue-cloth habit, then he turned +determinedly away. + +"If I don't look at you again," said he, his eyes straight before him, +"it's because I can't do it--and keep my head. You accused me once of +losing it under a winter moon; this is a summer sun--more dangerous +yet.... Shall we talk about the crops? This is fine weather for growing +things, isn't it?" + +"Wonderful. I haven't been out this road this season--as far as this. +I'm beginning to wonder where you are taking us." + +"To the hill where you and Miss Ruth and Ted and I toasted sandwiches +last November. Could there be a better place for the end--of our ride? +You haven't been out here this season--are you sure?" + +"No, indeed. I've been too busy with the close of school to ride +anywhere--much less away out here." + +"You like my choice, then? I hoped you would." + +"Very much." + +It was a queer, breathless sort of talking; Roberta hardly knew what she +was saying. She much preferred to ride along in silence. The hour was at +hand--so close at hand! And there was now no getting away. She knew +perfectly that her agreeing to come at all had told him his answer; none +but the most cruel of women would allow a man to bring her upon such a +ride, in the company of other interested people, only to refuse him at +the end of it. But she had to admit to herself that if he were now +exulting in the sure hope of possessing her he was keeping it well out +of sight. There was now none of the arrogant self-confidence in his +manner toward her which there had been on the February night when he had +made a certain prophecy concerning Midsummer. Instead there was that in +his every word and look which indicated a fine humility--almost a boyish +sort of shyness, as if even while he knew the treasure to be within his +grasp he could neither quite believe it nor feel himself fit to take it. +From a young man of the world such as he had been it was the most +exquisite tribute to her power to rouse the best in him that he could +have given and she felt it to the inmost soul of her. + +"Here are the forks," said Richard suddenly, and Roberta recognized with +a start that they were nearly at the end of their journey. + +"Which way?" Stephen was shouting back, and Richard was waving toward +the road at the left, which led up the steep hill. + +"Here is where you dropped the bunch of rose haws," said he, with a +quick glance as they began the ascent. "I have them yet--brown and dry. +Did you know you dropped them?" + +"I remember. But I didn't suppose anybody--" + +"Found them? By the greatest luck--and stopped my car in a hurry. They +were bright on my desk for a month after that; I cared more for them +than for anything I owned. I had the greatest difficulty in keeping my +man from throwing them away, though. You see, he hadn't my point of +view! Roberta--here we are! Will you forgive what will seem like a piece +of the most unwarrantable audacity?" He was speaking fast as they came +up over the crown of the hill: "I didn't do it because I was sure of +anything at all, but because--it was something to make myself think I +could carry out a wish of yours. Do you remember the '_stout little +cabin on the hilltop_', Roberta? Could you--_could_ you care for it, as +I do?" + +The last words were almost a whisper, but she heard them. Her eyes were +riveted on the outlines, two hundred feet away through the trees, of a +small brown building at the very crest of the hill over-looking the +valley. Very small, very rough, with its unhewn logs--the "stout little +cabin" stood there waiting. + +Well! What was she to think? He _had_ been sure, to build this and bring +her to it! And yet--it was no house for a home; no expensive bungalow; +not even a summer cottage. Only a "stout little cabin," such as might +house a hunter on a winter's night; the only thing about it which looked +like luxury the chimney of cobblestones taken from the hillside below, +which meant the possibility of the fire inside without which one could +hardly spend an hour in the small shelter on any but a summer day. +Suddenly she understood. It was the sheer romance of the thing which had +appealed to him; there was no audacity about it. + +He was watching her anxiously as she stared at the cabin; she came +suddenly to the realization of that. Then he threw himself off his horse +as they neared the rail fence, fastened him, and came back to Roberta. +Near-by, Stephen was taking Rosamond down and she was exclaiming over +the charm of the place. + +Richard came close, looking straight up into Roberta's face, which was +like a wild-rose for colouring, but very sober. Her eyes would not meet +his. His own face had paled a little, in spite of all its healthy, +outdoor hues. + +"Oh, don't misunderstand me," he whispered. "Wait--till I can tell you +all about it. I was wild to do something--anything--that would make you +seem nearer. Don't misunderstand--_dear_!" + +Stephen's voice, calling a question about the horses, brought him back +to a realization of the fact that his time was not yet, and that he must +continue to act the part of the sane and responsible host. He turned, +summoning all his social training, and replied to the question in his +usual quiet tone. But, as he took her from her horse, Roberta recognized +the surge of his feeling, though he controlled his very touch of her, +and said not another word in her ear. She had all she could do, herself, +to maintain an appearance of coolness under the shock of this +extraordinary surprise. She had no doubt that Rosamond and Stephen +comprehended the situation, more or less. Let them not be able to guess +just how far things had developed, as yet. + +Rosamond came to her aid with her own freely manifested pleasure in the +place. Clever Rosy! her sister-in-law was grateful to her for expressing +that which Roberta could not trust herself to speak. + +"What a dear little house, a real log cabin!" cried Rosamond as the four +drew near. "It's evidently just finished; see the chips. It opens the +other way, doesn't it? Isn't that delightful! Not even a window on this +side toward the road, though it's back so far. I suppose it looks toward +the valley. A window on this end; see the solid shutters; it looks as if +one could fortify one's self in it. Oh, and here's a porch! What a +view--oh, what a view!" + +They came around the end of the cabin together and stood at the front, +surveying the wide porch, its thick pillars of untrimmed logs, its +balustrade solid and sheltering, its roof low and overhanging. From the +road everything was concealed; from this aspect it was open to the +skies; its door and two front windows wide, yet showing, door as well as +windows, the heavy shutters which would make the place a stronghold +through what winter blasts might assault it. From the porch one could +see for miles in every direction; at the sides, only the woods. + +"It's an ideal spot for a camp," declared Stephen with enthusiasm. "Is +it yours, Kendrick? I congratulate you. Invite me up here in the hunting +season, will you? I can't imagine anything snugger. May we look inside?" + +"By all means! It's barely finished--it's entirely rough inside--but I +thought it would do for our supper to-night." + +"Do!" Rosamond gave a little cry of delight as she looked in at the open +door. "Rough! You don't want it smoother. Does he, Rob? Look at the +rustic table and benches! And will you behold that splendid fireplace? +Oh, all you want here is the right company!" + +"And that I surely have." Richard made her a little bow, his face +emphasizing his words. He went over to a cupboard in the wall, of which +there were two, one on either side of the fireplace. He threw it open, +disclosing hampers. "Here is our supper, I expect. Are you hungry? It's +up to us to serve it. I didn't have the man stay; I thought it would be +more fun to see to things ourselves." + +"A thousand times more," Rosamond assured him, looking to Roberta for +confirmation, who nodded, smiling. + +They fell to work. Hats were removed, riding skirts were fastened out of +the way, hampers were opened and the contents set forth. Everything that +could possibly be needed was found in the hampers, even to coffee, +steaming hot in the vacuum bottles as it had been poured into them. + +"Some other time we'll come up and rough it," Richard explained, when +Stephen told him he was no true camper to have everything prepared for +him in detail like this; "but to-night I thought we'd spend as little +time in preparations as possible and have the more of the evening. It +will be a Midsummer Night's Dream on this hill to-night," said he, with +a glance at Roberta which she would not see. + +Presently they sat down, Roberta finding herself opposite their host, +with the necessity upon her of eating and drinking like a common mortal, +though she was dwelling in a world where it seemed as if she did not +know how to do the everyday things and do them properly. It was a +delicious meal, no doubt of that, and at least Stephen and Rosamond did +justice to it. + +"But you're not eating anything yourself, man," remonstrated Stephen, +as Richard pressed upon him more cold fowl and delicate sandwiches +supplemented by a salad such as connoisseurs partake of with sighs of +appreciation, and with fruit which one must marvel to look upon. + +"You haven't been watching me, that's evident," returned Richard, +demonstrating his ability to consume food with relish by seizing upon a +sandwich and making away with it in short order. + +Roberta rose. "I can eat no more," she said, "with that wonderful sky +before me out there." She escaped to the porch. + +They all turned to exclaim at a gorgeous colouring beginning in the +west, heralding the sunset which was coming. Rosamond ran out also, +Stephen following. Richard produced cigars. + +"Have a smoke out here, Gray," said he, "while I put away the stuff. No, +no help, thank you. James will be here, by and by, to pack it properly." + +"Stephen"--Rosamond stood at the edge of the hill below the +porch--"bring your cigar down here; it's simply perfect. You can lie on +your side here among the pine needles and watch the sky." + +They went around a clump of trees to a spot where the pine needles were +thick, just out of sight of the cabin door. No doubt but Rosamond and +Stephen liked to have things to themselves; there was no pretence about +that. It was almost the anniversary of their marriage--their most happy +marriage. + +Roberta stood still upon the porch, looking, or appearing to look, off +at the sunset. Once again she would have liked to run away. But--where +to go? Rosamond and Stephen did not want her; it would have been absurd +to insist on following them. If she herself should stroll away among the +pine trees, she would, of course, be instantly pursued. The porch was +undoubtedly the most open and therefore the safest spot she could be in. +So she leaned against the pillar and waited, her heart behaving +disturbingly meanwhile. She could hear Richard, within the cabin +hurriedly clearing the table and stuffing everything away into the +cupboards on either side of the fireplace--he was making short work of +it. Before she could have much time to think, his step was upon the +porch behind her; he was standing by her shoulder. + +"It's a wonderful effect, isn't it? Must we talk about it?" he inquired +softly. + +"Don't you think it deserves to be talked about?" she answered, trying +to speak naturally. + +"No. There's only one thing in the world I want to talk about. I can't +even see that sky, for looking at--you. I've stood at the top of this +slope more times than I can tell you, wondering if I should dare to +build this little cabin. The idea possessed me, I couldn't get away from +it. I bought the land--and still I was afraid. I gave the order to the +builder--and all but took it back. I knew I ran every kind of risk that +you wouldn't understand me--that you would think I still had that +abominable confidence that I was fool enough to express to you +last--February. Does it look so?" + +She nodded slowly without turning her head. + +His voice grew even more solicitous; she could hear a little tremble in +it, such as surely had not been there last February, such as she had +never heard there before. "But it isn't so! With every log that's gone +in, a fresh fear has gone in with it. Even on the way here to-day I had +all I could do not to turn off some other way. The only thing that kept +me coming on to meet my fate here, and nowhere else, was the hope that +you loved the spot itself so well that you--that your heart would be a +bit softer here than--somewhere else. O Roberta--I'm not half good +enough for you, but--I love you--love you--" + +His voice broke on the words. It surely was a very far from confident +suitor who pleaded his case in such phrases as these. He did not so much +as take her hand, only waited there, a little behind her, his head bent +so that he might see as much as he could of the face turned away from +him. + +She did not answer; something seemed to hold her from speech. One of her +arms was twined about the rough, untrimmed pillar of the porch; her +clasp tightened until she held it as if it were a bulwark against the +human approach ready to take her from it at a word from her lips. + +"I told you in my letter all I knew I couldn't say now. You know what +you mean to me. I'm going to make all I can out of what there is in me +whether you help me or not. But--if I could do it for you--" + +Still she could not speak. She clung to the pillar, her breath +quickening. He was silent until he could withstand no longer, then he +spoke so urgently in her ear that he broke in upon that queer, choking +reserve of hers which had kept her from yielding to him: + +"Roberta--I _must_ know--I can't bear it." + +She turned, then, and put out her hand. He grasped it in both his own. + +"What does that mean, dear? May I--may I have the rest of you?" + +It was only a tiny nod she gave, this strange girl, Roberta, who had +been so afraid of love, and was so afraid of it yet. And as if he +understood and appreciated her fear, he was very gentle with her. His +arms came about her as they might have come about a frightened child, +and drew her away from the pillar with a tender insistence which all at +once produced an extraordinary effect. When she found that she was not +to be seized with that devastating grasp of possession which she had +dreaded, she was suddenly moved to desire it. His humbleness touched and +melted her--his humbleness, in him who had been at first so +arrogant--and with the first exquisite rush of response she was taken +out of herself. She gave herself to his embrace as one who welcomes it, +and let him have his way--all his way--a way in which he quite forgot to +be gentle at all. + +When this had happened, Roberta remembered, entirely too late, that it +was this which, whatever else she gave him, she had meant to refuse +him--at least until to-morrow. Because to-day was undeniably the +twenty-fourth of June--Midsummer's Day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE PILLARS OF HOME + + +"Listen, grandfather--they're playing! We'll catch them at it. Here's an +open window." + +Matthew Kendrick followed his grandson across the wide porch to a French +window opening into the living-room of the Gray home, at the opposite +end from that where stood the piano, and from which the strains of +'cello and harp were proceeding. The two advanced cautiously to take up +their position just within that far window, gazing down the room at the +pair at the other end. + +Roberta, in hot-weather white, with a bunch of blue corn-flowers thrust +into her girdle, sat with her 'cello at her knee, her dark head bent as +she played. Ruth, a gay little figure in pink, was fingering her harp, +and the poignantly rich harmonies of Saint-Säens' _Mon coeur s'ouvre a +ta voix_ were filling the room. Upon the great piano stood an enormous +bowl of summer bloom; the air was fragrant with the breath of it. The +room was as cool and fresh with its summer draperies and shaded windows +as if it were not fervid July weather outside. + +Richard flung one exulting glance at his grandfather, for the sight was +one to please the eyes of any man even if he had no such interest in the +performers as these two had. The elder man smiled, for he was very happy +in these days, happier than he had been for a quarter of a century. + +The music ceased with the last slow harp-tones, the 'cello's earlier +upflung bow waving in a gesture of triumph. + +"Splendid, Rufus!" she commended. "You never did it half so well." + +"She never did," agreed a familiar voice from the other end of the room, +and the sisters turned with a start. Richard advanced down the room, Mr. +Kendrick following more slowly. + +"You look as cool as a pond-lily, love," said Richard, "in spite of this +July weather." His approving eyes regarded Roberta's cheek at close +range. "Is it as cool as it looks?" he inquired, and placed his own +cheek against it for an instant, regardless of the others present. + +Roberta laid her hand in Mr. Kendrick's, and the old man raised it to +his lips, in a stately fashion he sometimes used. + +"That was very beautiful music you were making," he said. "It seems a +pity to bring it to an end. Richard and I want you for a little drive, +to show you something which interests us very much. Will you go--and +will Ruth go, too?" + +"Oh, do you really want me?" cried Ruth eagerly. + +"Of course we want you, little sister," Richard told her. + +"I'll get our hats," offered Ruth, and was off. + +So presently the four had taken their places in Mr. Kendrick's car, its +windows open, its luxurious winter cushioning covered with dust-proof, +cool-feeling materials. Richard sat opposite Roberta, and it was easy +for her to see by the peculiar light in his eyes that there was +something afoot which was giving him more than ordinary joy in her +companionship. His lips could hardly keep themselves in order, the tones +of his voice were vibrant, his glance would have met hers every other +minute if she would have allowed it. + +The car rolled along a certain aristocratic boulevard leading out of the +city, past one stately residence after another. As the distance became +greater from the centre of affairs, the places took on a more and more +comfortable aspect, with less majesty of outline, and more home-likeness. +Surrounding grounds grew more extensive, the houses themselves lower +spreading and more picturesque. It was a favourite drive, but there were +comparatively few abroad on this July morning. Nearly every residence +was closed, and the inhabitants away, though the beauty of the +environment was as carefully preserved as if the owners were there to +observe and enjoy. + +"We're the only people in the city this summer," observed Richard, +"except ninety-nine-hundredths of the population, which fails to count, +of course, in the eyes of these residents. Curious custom, isn't it? to +close such homes as these, just when they're at their most attractive, +and go off to a country house. They'd be twice as comfortable at home, +in this weather--just as we are. And this is the first summer I ever +tried it! Robin, that's a pleasant place, isn't it?" + +He indicated one of the houses they were passing, an unusually +interesting combination of wood and stone, half hidden beneath spreading +vines. + +"Yes, that's charming," she agreed. "And I like the next even better, +don't you?" + +The next was of a different style entirely, less ambitious and more +friendly of appearance, with long reaches of porch and pergola, and more +than usually well-arranged masses of shrubbery enhancing the whole +effect of withdrawal from the public gaze. + +"I do, I think, for some reasons. You choose the least pretentious +houses, every time, don't you? Don't care a bit for show places?" + +"Not a bit," owned the girl. + +"Here's one, now," Richard pointed it out. "The owner spent a lot of +money on that. Would you live in it?" + +"Not--willingly." + +Richard glanced at his grandfather. "I wonder just how much she would +suffer," he suggested, with sparkling eyes. "Suppose we should drive in +there and tell her we'd bought it!" + +Mr. Kendrick turned to the figure in white at his side. The eyes of the +old man and the young woman met with understanding, and the two smiled +affectionately before the meeting was over. Richard looked on +approvingly. But he complained. + +"I'd like one like that, myself," said he. "Robin has looked at me only +three times this morning, and once was when we met, for purposes of +identification!" + +He had a glance of his own, then, and apparently it went to his head, +for he became more animated than ever in calling the party's attention +to each piece, of property passed by. + +"These are all modern," he commented presently. "There's something about +your really old house that can't be copied. Your own home, Robin--that's +the type of antique beauty that's come to seem to me more desirable than +any other. Isn't there one along here somewhere that reminds one of it?" + +"There's the General Armitage place," Roberta said. "That must be close +by, now. It used to be far out in the country. It was built by the same +architect who built ours. General Armitage and my great-grandfather were +intimate friends--they were in the Civil War together." + +"Here it is." Ruth pointed it out eagerly. "I always like to go by it, +because it looks quite a little like ours, only the grounds are much +larger, and it has a wonderful old garden behind it. Mother has often +said she wished she could transplant the Armitage garden bodily, now +that the house has been closed so long. She says the old gardener is +still here, and looks after the garden--or his grandsons do." + +"Shall we drive in and see it?" proposed Richard. "A garden like that +ought to have some one to admire it now and then." + +He gave the order, and the car rolled in through the old stone gateway. +The place, though of a noble old type, was far from a pretentious one, +and there was no lodge at the gate, as with most of its neighbours. The +house was no larger than the comfortable home of the Gray family, but +its closed blinds and empty white-pillared portico gave it a deserted +air. The grounds about it were not indicative of present day, fastidious +landscape gardening, but suggested an old-time country gentleman's +estate, sufficiently kept up to prevent wild and alien growth, though +needing the supervision of an interested owner to suggest beneficial +changes here and there. + +"It's a beautiful old place, isn't it?" Richard looked to Roberta for +confirmation, and saw it in her kindling eyes. + +"It has always been our whole family's ideal of a home," she said. "Ours +is so much nearer the centre of things, we haven't the acres we should +like, and whenever we have driven past this place we have looked +longingly at it. Since General and Mrs. Armitage died, and their family +became scattered, father has often said that he was watching anxiously +to see it come on the market, for there was no place he more coveted the +right ownership for, even though he couldn't think of living here +himself. It seems such a pity when homes like this go to people who +don't appreciate them, and alter and spoil them." + +"So it does," agreed Richard, and now he had much ado to keep his +soaring spirits from betraying the happy secret which he saw his +betrothed did not remotely suspect. He knew she expected to dwell +hereafter in the "stone pile" which had been the home of the Kendricks +for many years, and she had never by a word or look made him feel that +such a prospect tried her spirit. That it was not to her a wholly happy +prospect he had divined, as he might have divined that a wild bird would +not be happy in a cage, nor a deer in a close corral. + +"Oh, the garden!" breathed Roberta, and clasped her hands with an +unconscious gesture of pleasure, as the car swept round the house and +past the tall box borders of what was, indeed, such an old-time +memorial, tended by faithful and loving hands, as must stir the interest +of any admirer of the stately conceptions of an earlier day. A bowed +figure, at work in a great bed of rosy phlox, straightened painfully as +the car stopped, and the visitors looked into the seamed, tanned face of +the presiding spirit of the place, the old gardener who had served +General Armitage all his life. + +All four alighted, and walked through the winding paths, talked with old +Symonds, and studied the charming spot with growing delight. Richard, +managing to get Roberta to himself for a brief space, eagerly questioned +her. + +"You find this prettier than any picture in any gallery, don't you?" + +"Oh, it has great charm for me. I can hardly express the curious content +it gives me, to wander about such an old garden. The fragrance of the +box is particularly pleasant to me, and I love the old-fashioned flowers +better than any of the wonders the modern gardeners show. Just look at +that mass of larkspur--did you ever see such a satisfying blue?" + +"I have. The first time I came to your house to dinner you wore blue, +the softest, richest blue imaginable, and you sat where the shaded light +made a picture of you I shall never forget. I've never seen that +peculiar blue since without thinking of you. It's one of the shades of +that larkspur, isn't it?" + +"I made fun of you, afterward, for telling Rosy you noticed the colours +we wore," confessed Roberta, with a mischievous glance. + +"You did--you rascal! Look up at me a minute--please. The blue of your +eyes, with those black lashes, is another larkspur shade, in this light. +I've called it sea-blue. Rob--dearest--the nights I've dreamed about +those eyes of yours!" + +He got no further chance to observe them just then, as he might have +expected, for Roberta immediately turned their light on the garden and +away from his worshipful regard. She engaged the old gardener in +conversation, and made his dull gaze brighten with her praise. Meanwhile +Richard went off to the house, and presently returning, drew his party +into a group and put a question, striving to maintain an appearance of +indifference. + +"It occurred to me you might care to look into the house itself. It's +rather interesting inside, I believe. There seems to be a caretaker +there, and she says we may come in. She'll meet us at the front. Shall +we take a minute to do it?" + +"I should like it very much," agreed Roberta promptly. "I've heard +mother speak of the fine old hall with its staircase--a different type +from ours, and very interesting." + +"There certainly is a remarkable attraction to me in this place," said +Matthew Kendrick, walking beside Roberta with hands clasped behind his +back and head well up. "It has a homelike look, in spite of its deserted +state, which appeals to me. I wonder that the remnant of the family does +not care to retain it." + +"I hear the remnant is all but gone," his grandson informed him, with +sober lips but dancing eyes. He was delighted with his grandfather for +his assistance in playing the part of the casual observer. He led the +way up the steps of the white-pillared portico, and wheeled to see the +others ascending. He watched Roberta as she preceded him over the +threshold of the opened door. + +"Shall I see you coming in that door, you beautiful thing, years and +years from now?" he asked her in his heart, and smiled happily to +himself. + +And now, indeed, old Matthew Kendrick played his part nobly and with +skill. When the party had admired the distinction of the hall, and the +stately sweep of its staircase, he led Ruth into a room on the left at +the same moment that Richard summoned Roberta to look at something he +had described in the room on the right. A question drew the caretaker +after Mr. Kendrick, senior, and the younger man had the moment he was +playing for. + +"This fireplace, Robin--isn't it the very counter-part of the one in +your own living-room?" He asked it with his hand on the chimney-piece, +and his glowing eyes studying hers. + +Roberta looked, and nodded delightedly. "It certainly is, only still +wider and higher. What a splendid one! And what a room! Oh, how could +they leave it? Imagine it furnished, and lived in." + +"Imagine it! And a great fire on this hearth. It would take in an +immense log, wouldn't it?" + +"Poor hearth!" She turned again to it, and her glance sobered. "So cold +now, even on a July day, after having been warmed with so many fires." + +"Shall we warm it?" He took an eager step toward her. "Shall we build +our own home fires upon it?" + +Startled, she stared at him, the blue of her eyes growing deep. He +smiled into them, his own gleaming with satisfaction. + +"Richard! What do you--mean?" + +"What I say, darling. Could you be happy here? Should you like it better +than the Kendrick house?--gloomy old place that that is!" + +"But--your grandfather! We--we couldn't possibly leave him lonely!" + +"Bless your kind heart, dear--we couldn't. Shall we make a home for him +here?" + +"Would he be content?" + +"So content that he's only waiting to know that you like it, and he'll +tell you so. The plan is this, Robin--if you approve it. Three months of +the year grandfather will stay in the old home, the hard, winter months, +and if you are willing, we'll stay with him. The rest of the year--here, +in our own home. Eh? Do you like it?" + +She stood a moment, staring into the empty fireplace, her eyes shining +with a sudden hint of most unwonted tears. Then she turned to him. + +"Oh, you dear!" she whispered, and was swept into his arms. + +"Then you do like it?" he insisted, presently. + +"Like it! Oh, I can't tell you. To have such a home as this, so like the +old one, yet so wonderful of itself. To make it ours--to put our own +individuality into it, yet never hurt it. And that garden! What will +mother say? Oh, Richard--I was never so happy in my life!" + +He knew that was true of himself, for his heart was full to bursting, +with the success of his scheming. They walked the length of the long +room, looked out of each window, returned to the fireplace. He held her +fast and whispered in her ear: + +"Robin, I can see all sorts of things in this room. I saw them the +minute I came into it first, a month ago. I've stood here, dreaming, +more than once since then. I see ourselves, living here, and--I +see--Robin--I see--little figures!" + +She nodded, with her face against his breast. He lifted her face, and +his lips met hers in such a meeting as they had not yet known. Richard's +heart beat hard with the sure knowledge of that which he had only dared +before to believe would be true--that his wife would rejoice to be the +mother of his children. Not in vain had this young man looked into child +faces and brought joy to their eyes; he had learned that life would +never be complete without children of his own. And now he knew, +certainly, that this woman whom he loved would gladly join her superb +young life with his in the bringing of other lives into the world, with +their full heritage, and not a drop withheld. It was a wondrous moment. + +They went out together, in search of Mr. Kendrick and Ruth, and then the +party proceeded over the house. With a word and a fee Richard dismissed +the caretaker, and the four were free to talk of their affairs. Ruth was +wild with delight at the news; Mr. Kendrick quietly happy at Roberta's +words to him, and her clasp of his hand. + +"Richard was sure you would be pleased, my dear," he said, "and I myself +could not doubt that, brought up in the atmosphere you have been, you +must prefer such a home as this, so like your own. And if you would +really care to have me here with you, a part of the year, I could but be +gratified and contented." + +They assured him of their joy at this: they mounted the stairs with him +and searched for the apartments which should be his. In spite of his +protests they insisted on his occupying those which were obviously the +choicest of the house, declaring that nothing could be too good for him. +He was deeply touched at their devotion, and they were as glad as he. +The time passed rapidly in these momentous affairs. + +"I suppose we must be off," admitted Richard reluctantly, discovering +the hour. "Robin, how can you bear to leave it so long untenanted? From +July to Christmas--what an interminable stretch of time!" + +"Not with all you have planned to do," Roberta reminded him. "Think what +it will mean to get it all in order." + +"I do think what it will mean. Don't I, though! It will mean--shopping +with my love, choosing rugs and furniture--and plates and cups, +Robin--plates and cups to eat and drink from. The fun of that! Will you +help us, Rufus?" He turned, laughing, to the young girl beside him. +"Will you come and eat and drink from our plates and cups? Ah, but this +is a great old world--yes? you three dear people! And I'm the happiest +fellow in it!" + +There seemed small doubt that there could be few happier, just then, as +standing at the top of his own staircase and gazing down into the wide +and empty hall toward the open door which led out upon the +white-pillared portico of his home-that-was-to-be, Richard Kendrick +flung up one arm, lifting an imaginary cup high in the air, and calling +joyously: + +_"Here's hoping!"_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A STOUT LITTLE CABIN + +Christmas morning! and the bells in St. Luke's pealing the great old +hymn, dear for scores of years to those who had heard it chiming from +the ivy-grown towers--"_Adeste, Fideles_." + +_"Oh, come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!"_ + +Joyful and triumphant, indeed, though yet subdued and humble, since this +paradox may be at times in human hearts, was Richard Kendrick, as he +stood waiting in the vestibule of St. Luke's, on Christmas morning, for +a tryst he had made. Not with Roberta, for it was not possible for her +to be present to-day, but with Ruth Gray, that young sister who had +become so like a sister by blood to Richard that, at her suggestion, it +had seemed to him the happiest thing in the world to go to church with +her on Christmas morning--the morning of the day which was to see his +marriage. + +The Gray homestead was full of wedding guests, the usual family guests +of the Christmas house-party. On the evening before had occurred the +Christmas dance, and Richard had led the festivities, with his +bride-elect at his side. It had been a glorious merry-making and his +pulses had thrilled wildly to the rapture of it. But to-day--to-day was +another story. + +A slender young figure, in brown velvet with a tiny twig of holly +perched among furry trimmings, hurried up the steps and into the +vestibule. Richard met Ruth halfway, his face alight, his hand clasping +hers eagerly. + +"I'm so sorry I am late," she whispered. "Oh, it's so fine of you to +come. Isn't it a lovely, lovely way to begin this Day--your and Rob's +day, too?" + +He nodded, smiling down at her with eyes full of brotherly affection for +a most lovable girl. He followed her into the church and took his place +beside her, feeling that he would rather be here, just now, than +anywhere in the world. + +It must be admitted that he hardly heard the service, except for the +music, which was of a sort to make its own way into the most abstracted +consciousness. But the quiet spirit of the place had its effect upon +him, and when he knelt beside Ruth it seemed the most natural thing in +the world to form a prayer in his heart that he might be a fit husband +for the wife he was so soon to take to himself. Once, during a long +period of kneeling, Ruth's hand slipped shyly into his, and he held it +fast, with a quickening perception of what it meant to have a pure young +spirit like hers beside him in this sacred hour. His soul was full of +high resolve to be a son and brother to this rare family into which he +was entering such as might do them honour. For it was a very significant +fact that to him the people who stood nearest to Roberta were of great +consequence; and that a source of extraordinary satisfaction to him, +from the first, had been his connection with a family which seemed to +him ideal, and association with which made up to him for much of which +his life had been empty. + +A proof of this had been his invitation, through his grandfather, who +had warmly seconded his wish, to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, to come and +stay with the Kendricks throughout this Christmas party, precisely as +they had done the year before. To have Aunt Ruth preside at breakfast on +this auspicious morning had given Richard the greatest pleasure, and the +kiss he had bestowed upon her had been one which she recognized as very +like the tribute of a son. From her side he had gone to St. Luke's. + +"Good-bye, dear, for a few hours," he whispered to Ruth, as he put her +into the brougham, driven by the old family coachman, in which she had +come alone to church. "When I see you next I'll be almost your brother. +And in just a few minutes after that--" + +"Oh, Richard--are you happy?" she whispered back, scanning his face with +brimming eyes. + +"So happy I can't tell even you. Give my love, my dearest love, to--" + +"I will--" as he paused on the name, as if he could not speak it just +then. "She was so glad to have us go to church together. She wanted to +come herself--so much." + +He pressed the small gloved hand held out to him. He knew that Ruth +idealized him far beyond his worth--he could read it in her gaze, which +was all but reverential. He said to himself, as he turned away, that a +man never had so many motives to be true to the girl he was to marry. To +bring the first shade of distrust into this little sister's tender eyes +would be punishment enough for any disloyalty, no matter what the cause +might be. + +The wedding was to be at six o'clock. There was nothing about the whole +affair, as it had been planned by Roberta, with his full assent, to make +it resemble any event of the sort in which he had ever taken part. Not +one consideration of custom or of vogue had had weight with her, if it +differed from her carefully wrought-out views of what should be. Her +ruling idea had been to make it all as simple and sincere as possible, +to invite no guests outside her large family and his small one except +such personal friends as were peculiarly dear to both. When Richard had +been asked to submit his list of these, he had been taken aback to find +how pitifully few people he could put upon it. Half a dozen college +classmates, a small number of fellow clubmen--these painstakingly +considered from more than one standpoint--the Cartwrights, his cousins, +whom he really knew but indifferently well; two score easily covered the +number of those whom by any stretch of the imagination he could call +friends. The long roll of his fashionable acquaintance he dismissed as +out of the question. If he had been married in church there would have +been several hundreds of these who must unquestionably have been bidden; +but since Roberta wanted as she put it, "only those who truly care for +us," he could but choose those who seemed to come somewhere near that +ideal. To be quite honest, he was aware that his real friends were among +those who could not be bidden to his marriage. The crippled children in +the hospitals; the suffering poor who would send him their blessing when +they read in to-morrow's paper that he was married; the shop-people in +Eastman who knew him for the kindest employer they had ever had:--these +were they who "truly cared"; and the knowledge was warm at his heart, as +with a ruthless hand he scored off names of the mighty in the world of +society and finance. + +"Dick, my boy, you've grown--you've grown!" was his grandfather's +comment, when Richard, with a rueful laugh, had shown the old man the +finished list, upon which, well toward the top, had been the names of +Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Carson. Of Hugh Benson, as best man, Matthew +Kendrick heartily approved. "You've chosen the nugget of pure gold, +Dick," he said, "where you might have been expected to take one with +considerable alloy. He's worth all the others put together." + +Richard had never realized this more thoroughly than when, on Christmas +afternoon, he invited Benson to drive with him for a last inspection of +a certain spot which had been prepared for the reception of the bridal +pair at the first stage of their journey. He could not, as Hugh took his +place beside him and the two whirled away down the frost-covered avenue, +imagine asking any other man in the world to go with him on such a +visit. There was no other man he knew who would not have made it the +occasion for more or less distasteful raillery; but Hugh Benson was of +the rarely few, he felt, who would understand what that "stout little +cabin" meant to him. + +They came upon it presently, standing bleak and bare as to exterior upon +its hilltop, with only a streaming pillar of smoke from its big chimney +to suggest that it might be habitable within. But when the heavy door +was thrown open, an interior of warmth and comfort presented itself such +as brought an exclamation of wonder from the guest, and made Richard's +eyes shine with satisfaction. + +The long, low room had been furnished simply but fittingly with such +hangings, rugs, and few articles of furniture as should suggest +home-likeness and service. Before the wide hearth stood two big winged +chairs, and a set of bookshelves was filled with a carefully chosen +collection of favourite books. The colourings were warm but harmonious, +and upon a heavy table, now covered with a rich, dull red cloth, stood a +lamp of generous proportions and beauty of design. + +"I've tried to steer a line between luxury and austerity," Richard +explained, as Hugh looked about him with pleased observation. "We shall +not be equipped for real roughing it--not this time, though sometimes we +may like to come here dressed as hunters and try living on bare boards. +I just wanted it to seem like a bit of home, when she comes in to-night. +There'll be some flowers here then, of course--lots of them, and that +ought to give it the last touch. There are always flowers in her home, +bowls of them, everywhere--it was one of the first things I noticed. Do +you think she will like it here?" he ended, with a hint of almost boyish +diffidence in his tone. + +"Like it? It's wonderful. I never heard of anything so--so--all it +should be for--a girl like her," Hugh exclaimed, lamely enough, yet with +a certain eloquence of inflection which meant more than his choice of +words. He turned to Richard. "I can't tell you," he went on, flushing +with the effort to convey to his friend his deep feeling, "how fortunate +I think you are, and how I hope--oh, I hope you and she will be--the +happiest people in the world!" + +"I'm sure you hope that, old fellow," Richard answered, more touched by +this difficult voicing of what he knew to be Hugh's genuine devotion +than he should have been by the most felicitous phrasing of another's +congratulations. "And I can tell you this. There's nobody else I know +whom I would have brought here to see my preparations--nobody else who +would have understood how I feel about--what I'm doing to-day. I never +should have believed it would have seemed so--well, so sacred a thing to +take a girl away from all the people who love her, and bring her to a +place like this. I wish--wish I were a thousand times more fit for her." + +"Rich Kendrick--" Benson was taken out of himself now. His voice was +slightly tremulous, but he spoke with less difficulty than before. "You +are fitter than you know. You've developed as I never thought any man +could in so short a time. I've been watching you and I've seen it. There +was always more in you than people gave you credit for--it was your +inheritance from a father and grandfather who have meant a great deal in +their world. You've found out what you were meant for, and you're coming +up to new and finer standards every day. You _are_ fit to take this +girl--and that means much, because I know a little of what a--" Now _he_ +was floundering again, and his fine, then face flamed more hotly than +before--"of what she is!" he ended, with a complete breakdown in the +style of his phraseology, but with none at all in the conveyance of his +meaning. + +Richard flung out his hand, catching Hugh's, and gripping it. "Bless you +for a friend and a brother!" he cried, his eyes bright with sudden +moisture. "You're another whom I mustn't disappoint. Disappoint? I ought +to be flayed alive if I ever forget the people who believe in me--who +are trusting me with--Roberta!" + +It was a pity she could not have heard him speak her name, have seen the +way he looked at his friend as he spoke it, and have seen the way his +friend looked back at him. There was a quality in their mentioning of +her, here in this place where she was soon to be, which was its own +tribute to the young womanhood she so radiantly imaged. + +In spite of all these devices to make the hours pass rapidly, they +seemed to Richard to crawl. That one came, at last, however, which saw +him knocking at the door of his grandfather's suite, dressed for his +marriage, and eager to depart. Bidden by Mr. Kendrick's man to enter, he +presented himself in the old gentleman's dressing-room, where its +occupant, as scrupulously attired as himself, stood ready to descend to +the waiting car. Richard closed the door behind him, and stood looking +at his grandfather with a smile. + +"Well, Dick, boy--ready? Ah, but you look fresh and fine! Clean in body +and mind and heart for her--eh? That's how you look, sir--as a man +should look--and feel--on his wedding day. Well, she's worth it, +Dick--worth the best you can give." + +"Worth far better than I can give, grandfather," Richard responded, the +glow in his smooth cheek deepening. + +"Well, I don't mean to overrate you," said the old man, smiling, "but +you seem to me pretty well worth while any girl's taking. Not that you +can't become more so--and will, I thoroughly believe. It's not so much +what you've done this last year as what you show promise of doing--great +promise. That's all one can ask at your age. Ten years later--but we +won't go into that. To-night's enough--eh, my dear boy? My dear boy!" +he repeated, with a sudden access of tenderness in his voice. Then, as +if afraid of emotion for them both, he pressed his grandson's hand and +abruptly led the way into the outer room, where Thompson stood waiting +with his fur-lined coat and muffler. + +From this point on it seemed to Richard more or less like a rapidly +shifting series of pictures, all wonderfully coloured. The first was +that of the electric light of the big car's interior shining on the +faces of Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth, on Mr. Kendrick and Hugh Benson--the +latter a little pale but quite composed. Hugh had owned that he felt +seriously inadequate for the role which was his to-night, being no +society man and unaccustomed to taking conspicuous parts anywhere but in +business. But Richard had assured him that it was all a very simple +matter, since it was just a question of standing by a friend in the +crisis of his life! And Hugh had responded that it would be a pity +indeed if he were unwilling to do that. + +The next picture was that of the wide hall at the Gray home--as he came +into it a vivid memory flashed over Richard of his first entrance +there--less honoured than to-night! Soft lights shone upon him; the +spicy fragrance of the ropes and banks of Christmas "greens," bright +with holly, saluted his nostrils; and the glimpse of a great fire +burning, quite as usual, on the broad hearth of the living-room--a place +which had long since come to typify his ideal of a home--served to make +him feel that there could be no spot more suitable for the beginning of +a new home, because there could be nothing in the world finer or more +beautiful to model it upon. + +Nothing seemed afterward clear in his memory until the moment when he +came from his room upstairs, with Hugh close behind him, and met the +rector of St. Luke's, who was to marry him. There followed a hazy +impression of a descent of the staircase, of coming from a detour +through the library out into the full lights and of standing +interminably facing a large gathering of people, the only face at which +he could venture to glance that of Judge Calvin. Gray, standing +dignified and stately beside another figure of equal dignity and +stateliness--probably that of Mr. Matthew Kendrick. Then, at last--there +was Roberta, coming toward him down a silken lane, her eyes fixed on +his--such eyes, in such a face! He fixed his own gaze upon it, and held +it--and forgot everything else, as he had hoped he should. Then there +were the grave words of the clergyman, and his own voice responding--and +sounding curiously unlike his own, of course, as the voice of the +bridegroom has sounded in his own ears since time began. Then +Roberta's--how clearly she spoke, bless her! Then, before he knew it, it +was done, and he and she were rising from their knees, and there were +smiles and pleasant murmurings all about them--and little Ruth was +sobbing softly with her cheek against his! + +It was here that he became conscious again of the family--Roberta's +family, and of what it meant to have such people as these welcome him +into their circle. When he looked into the face of Roberta's mother and +felt her tender welcoming kiss upon his lips, his heart beat hard with +joy. When Roberta's father, his voice deep with feeling, said to him, +"Welcome to our hearts, my son," he could only grasp the firm hand with +an answering, passionate pressure which meant that he had at last that +which he had consciously or unconsciously longed for all his life. All +down the line his overcharged spirit responded to the warmth of their +reception of him--Stephen and Rosamond, Louis and Ruth and young Ted, +smiling at him, saying the kindest things to him, making him one of them +as only those can who are blessed with understanding natures. To be +sure, it was all more or less confused in his memory, when he tried to +recall it afterward, but enough of it remained vivid to assure him that +it had been all he could have asked or hoped--and that it was far, far +more than he deserved! + +"The boy bears up pretty well, eh?" observed old Matthew Kendrick to his +lifelong friend, Judge Calvin Gray, as the two stood aside, having gone +through their own part in the greeting of the bridal pair. Mr. +Kendrick's hand was still tingling with the wringing grip of his +grandson's; his heart was warm with the remembrance of the way Richard's +brilliant eyes had looked into his as he had said, low in the old man's +ear--"I'm not less yours, grandfather--and she's yours, too." Roberta +had put both arms about his neck, whispering: "Indeed I am, dear +grandfather--if you'll have me." Well, it had been happiness enough, +and it was good to watch them as they went on with their joyous task, +knowing that he had a large share in their lives, and would continue to +have it. + +"Bears up? I should say he did. He looks as if he could assist in +steadying the world upon the shoulders of old Atlas," answered Judge +Gray happily. "It's a trying position for any man, and some of them only +just escape looking craven." + +"The man who could stand beside that young woman and look craven would +deserve to be hamstrung," was the other's verdict. "Cal, she's enough to +turn an old man's head; we can't wonder that a young one's is swimming. +And the best of it is that it isn't all looks, it's real beauty to the +core. She's rich in the qualities that stand wear in a wearing +world--and her goodness isn't the sort that will ever pall on her +husband. She'll keep him guessing to the end of time, but the answer +will always give him fresh delight in her." + +"You analyze her well," admitted Roberta's uncle. "But that's to be +expected of a man who's been a pastmaster all his life in understanding +and dealing with human nature." + +"When it was not too near me, Cal. When it came to the dearest thing +I had in the world, I made a mistake with it. It was only when the boy +came under this roof that he received the stimulus that has made him +what he is. That was sure to tell in the end." + +"Ah, but he had your blood in him," declared Calvin Gray heartily. + +Thus, all about them, in many quarters, were the young pair +affectionately discussed. Not the least eloquent in their praise were +the youngest members of the company. + +"I say, but I'm proud of my new brother," declared Ted Gray, the picture +of youthful elegance, with every hair in place, and a white rose on the +lapel of his short evening-jacket. He was playing escort to the +prettiest of his girl cousins. "Isn't he a stunner to-night?" + +"He always was--that is, since I've known him," responded Esther, Uncle +Philip's daughter. "I can't help laughing when I think of the Christmas +party last year, and how Rob made us all think he was a poor young man, +and she didn't like him at all. All of us girls thought she was so queer +not to want to dance with him, when he was so handsome and danced so +beautifully. I suppose she was just pretending she didn't care for him." + +"Nobody ever'll know when Rob did change her mind about him," Ted +assured her. "She can make you think black's green when she wants to." + +"Isn't she perfectly wonderful to-night?" sighed the pretty cousin, with +a glance from her own home-made frock--in which, however, she looked +like a freshly picked rose--to Roberta's bridal gown, shimmering through +mistiness, simplicity itself, yet, as the little cousin well knew, the +product of such art as she herself might never hope to command. "I +always thought she was perfectly beautiful, but she's absolutely +fascinating to-night." + +"Tell that to Rich. I'm afraid he doesn't appreciate her," laughed Ted, +indicating his new brother-in-law, who, at the moment being temporarily +unemployed, was to be observed following his bride with his eyes with a +wistful gaze indicating helplessness without her even for a fraction of +time. + +Roberta had been drawn a little away by her husband's best man, who had +something to tell her which he had reserved for this hour. + +"Mrs. Kendrick," he was beginning--at which he was bidden to remember +that he had known the girl Roberta for many years; and so began again, +smiling with gratitude: + +"Roberta, have you any idea what is happening in Eastman to-night?" + +"Indeed I haven't, Hugh. Anything I ought to know of?" + +"I think it's time you did. Every employee in our store is sitting down +to a great dinner, served by a caterer from this city, with a Christmas +favour at every plate. The place cards have a K and G on them in +monogram. There are such flowers for decorations as most of those people +never saw. I don't need to tell you whose doing this is." + +He had the reward he had anticipated for the telling of this +news--Roberta's cheek coloured richly, and her eyes fell for a moment +to hide the surprise and happiness in them. + +"That may seem like enough," he went on gently, "but it wasn't enough +for him. At every children's hospital in this city, and in every +children's ward, there is a Christmas tree to-night, loaded with gifts. +And I want you to know that, busy as he has been until to-day, he picked +out every gift himself, and wrote the name on the card with his own +hand." + +It was too much to tell her all at once, and he knew it when he saw her +eyes fill, though she smiled through the shining tears as she murmured: + +"And he didn't tell me!" + +"No, nor meant to. When I remonstrated with him he said you might think +it a posing to impress you, whereas it simply meant the overflow of his +own happiness. He said if he didn't have some such outlet he should +burst with the pressure of it!" + +Her moved laughter provided some sort of outlet for her own pressure of +feeling about these tidings. When she had recovered control of herself +she turned to glance toward her husband, and Hugh's heart stirred within +him at the starry radiance of that look, which she could not veil +successfully from him, who knew the cause of it. + +It was the Alfred Carsons who came to her last; the young manager +beaming with pleasure in the honour done him by his invitation to this +family wedding, to which the great of the city were mostly intentionally +unbidden; his pretty young wife, in effective modishness of attire by no +means ill-chosen, glowing with pride and rosy with the effort to +comport herself in keeping with the standards of these "democratically +aristocratic" people, as her husband had shrewdly characterized them. As +they stood talking with the bride, two of Richard's friends standing +near by, former close associates in the life of the clubs he was now too +busy to pursue, exchanged a brief colloquy which would mightily have +interested the subject of it if he could have heard it. + +"Who are these?" demanded one of the other, gazing elsewhere as he +spoke. + +"Partner or manager or something, in that business of Rich's up in +Eastman. So Belden Lorimer says." + +"Bright looking chap--might be anybody, except for the wife. A bit too +conscious, she." + +"You might not notice that except in contrast with the new Mrs. +Kendrick. There's the real thing, yes? Rich knew what he was doing when +he picked her out." + +"Undoubtedly he did. The whole family's pretty fine--not the usual sort. +Watch Mrs. Clifford Cartwright. Even she's impressed. Odd, eh?--with all +the country cousins about, too." + +"I know. It's in the air. And of course everybody knows the family blood +is of the bluest. Unostentatious but sure of itself. The Cartwrights +couldn't get that air, not in a thousand years." + +"Rich himself has it, though--and the grandfather." + +"True enough. I'm wondering which class we belong in!" + +The two laughed and moved closer. Neither could afford to miss a chance +of observing their old friend under these new conditions, for he had +been a subject of their speculations ever since the change in him had +begun. And though they had deplored the loss of him from their favourite +haunts, they had been some time since forced to admit that he had never +been so well worth knowing as now that he was virtually lost to them. + +"Oh, Robby, darling--I can never, never let you go!" + +So softly wailed Ruth, her slim young form clinging to her sister's, +regardless of her bridesmaid's crushed finery, daintily cherished till +this moment. Over her head Roberta's eyes looked into her mother's. +There were no tears in the fine eyes which met hers, but somehow Roberta +knew that Ruth's heartache was a tiny pain beside that other's. + +Richard, looking on, standing ready to take his bride away, wondered +once more within himself how he could have the heart to do it. But it +was done, and he and Roberta were off together down the steps; and he +was putting her into Mr. Kendrick's closed car; and she was leaning past +him to wave and wave again at the dear faces on the porch. Under the +lights here and there one stood out more clearly than the rest--Louis's, +flushed and virile; Rosamond's, lovely as a child's; old Mr. Kendrick's, +intent and grave, forgetting to smile. The father and the mother were in +the shadow--but little Gordon, Stephen's boy, made of himself a central +figure by running forward at the last to fling up a sturdy arm and cry: + +"Good-bye, Auntie Wob--come back soon!" + +It had been a white Christmas, and the snow had fallen lightly all day +long. It was coming faster now, and the wind was rising, to Richard's +intense satisfaction. He had been fairly praying for a gale, improbable +though that seemed. There was a considerable semblance of a storm, +however, through which to drive the twelve miles to the waiting cabin on +the hilltop, and when the car stopped and the door was opened, a heavy +gust came swirling in. The absence of lights everywhere made the +darkness seem blacker, out here in the country, and the general effect +of outer desolation was as near this strange young man's desire as could +have been hoped. + +"Good driving, Rogers. It was a quick trip, in spite of the heavy roads +at the last. Thank you--and good-night." + +"Thank you, sir. Good-night, Mr. Kendrick--and Mrs. Kendrick, if I may." + +"Good-night, Rogers," called the voice Rogers had learned greatly to +admire, and he saw her face smiling at him as the lights of the car +streamed out upon it. + +Then the great car was gone, and Richard was throwing open the door of +the cabin, letting all the warmth and glow and fragrance of the snug +interior greet his bride, as he led her in and shut the door with a +resounding force against the winter night and storm. + +It had been a dream of his that he should put her into one of the big, +cushioned, winged chairs, and take his own place on the hearth-rug at +her feet. Together they should sit and look into the fire, and be as +silent or as full of happy speech as might seem to befit the hour. Now, +when he had bereft her of her furry wraps and welcomed her as he saw +fit, he made his dream come true. He told her of it as he put her in her +chair, and saw her lean back against the comfortable cushioning with a +long breath of inevitable weariness after many hours of tension. + +"And you wondered which it would be, speech or silence?" queried +Roberta, as he took that place he had meant to take, at her knee, and +looked up, smiling, into her down-bent face. + +"I did wonder, but I don't wonder now. I know. There aren't any words, +are there?" + +"No," she answered, looking now into the fire, yet seeing, as clearly as +before, his fine and ardent, yet reverent face, "I think there are no +words." + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14491 *** diff --git a/old/old/14491-8.txt b/old/old/14491-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03becc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/14491-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10362 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Twenty-Fourth of June, by Grace S. +Richmond + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Twenty-Fourth of June + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: December 28, 2004 [eBook #14491] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE*** + + +E-text prepared by Ted Garvin, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE + +Midsummer's Day + +by + +GRACE S RICHMOND + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. The Curtain Rises on a Home + + II. Richard Changes His Plans + + III. While It Rains + + IV. Pictures + + V. Richard Pricks His Fingers + + VI. Unsustained Application + + VII. A Traitorous Proceeding + + VIII. Roses Red + + IX. Mr. Kendrick Entertains + + X. Opinions and Theories + + XI. "The Taming of the Shrew" + + XII. Blankets + + XIII. Lavender Linen + + XIV. Rapid Fire + + XV. Making Men + + XVI. Encounters + + XVII. Intrigue + + XVIII. The Nailing of a Flag + + XIX. In the Morning + + XX. Side Lights + + XXI. Portraits + + XXII. Roberta Wakes Early + + XXIII. Richard Has Waked Earlier + + XXIV. The Pillars of Home + + XXV. A Stout Little Cabin + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE CURTAIN RISES ON A HOME + + +None of it might ever have happened, if Richard Kendrick had gone into +the house of Mr. Robert Gray, on that first night, by the front door. +For, if he had made his first entrance by that front door, if he had +been admitted by the maidservant in proper fashion and conducted into +Judge Calvin Gray's presence in the library, if he had delivered his +message, from old Matthew Kendrick, his grandfather, and had come away +again, ushered out of that same front door, the chances are that he +never would have gone again. In which case there would have been no +story to tell. + +It all came about--or so it seems--from its being a very rainy night in +late October, and from young Kendrick's wearing an all-concealing +motoring rain-coat and cap. He had been for a long drive into the +country, and had just returned, mud-splashed, when his grandfather, +having taken it into his head that a message must be delivered at once, +requested his grandson to act as his messenger. + +So the young man had impatiently bolted out with the message, had sent +his car rushing through the city streets, and had become a still muddier +and wetter figure than before when he stood upon the porch of the old +Gray homestead, well out in the edge of the city, and put thumb to the +bell. + +His hand was stayed by the shrill call of a small boy who dashed up on +the porch out of the dusk. "You can't get in that way," young Ted Gray +cried. "Something's happened to the lock--they've sent for a man to fix +it. Come round to the back with me--I'll show you." + +So this was why Richard Kendrick came to be conducted by way of the +tall-pillared rear porch into the house through the rear door of the +wide, central hall. There was no light at this end of the hall, and the +old-fashioned, high-backed settee which stood there was in shadow. + +With a glance at the caller's muddy condition the young son of the house +decided it the part of prudence to assign him this waiting-place, while +he himself should go in search of his uncle. The lad had seen the big +motor-car at the gate; quite naturally he took its driver for a +chauffeur. + +Ted looked in at the library door; his uncle was not there. He raced off +upstairs, not noting the change which had already taken place in the +visitor's appearance with the removal of the muddy coat and cap. + +Richard Kendrick now looked a particularly personable young man, well +built, well dressed, of the brown-haired, gray-eyed, clear-skinned type. +The eyes were very fine; the nose and mouth had the lines of +distinction; the chin was--positive. Altogether the young man did not +look the part he had that day been playing--that of the rich young idler +who drives a hundred and fifty miles in a powerful car, over the worst +kind of roads, merely for the sake of diversion and a good luncheon. + +While he waited Richard considered the hall, at one end of which he sat +in the shadow. There was something very homelike about this hall. The +quaint landscape paper on the walls, the perceptibly worn and faded +crimson Turkey carpeting on the floors, the wide, spindle-balustrade +staircase with the old clock on its landing; more than all, perhaps, on +an October night like this, the warm glow from a lamp with crystal +pendants which stood on the table of polished mahogany near the front +door--all these things combined to give the place a quite distinctive +look of home. + +There were one or two other touches in the picture worth mentioning, the +touches which spoke of human life. An old-fashioned hat-tree just +opposite the rear door was hung full with hats. A heavy ulster lay over +a chair close by, and two umbrellas stood in the corner. And over +hat-rack, hats, ulster, and chair, with one end of silken fringe caught +upon one of the umbrella ribs, had been flung by some careless hand, +presumably feminine, a long silken scarf of the most intense +rose-colour, a hue so vivid, as the light caught it from the landing +above, that it seemed almost to be alive. + +From various parts of the house came sounds--of voices and of footsteps, +more than once of distant laughter. Far above somewhere a child's high +call rang out. Nearer at hand some one touched the keys of a piano, +playing snatches of Schumann--_Der Nussbaum, Mondnacht, Die Lotosblume_. +Richard recognized the airs which thus reached his ears, and was sorry +when they ceased. + +Now there might be nothing in all this worth describing if the effect +upon the observer had not been one to him so unaccustomed. Though he had +lived to the age of twenty-eight years, he had never set foot in a place +which seemed so curiously like a vague dream he had somewhere at the +back of his head. For the last two years he had lived with his +grandfather in the great pile of stone which they called home. If this +were no real home, the young man had never had one. He had spent periods +of his life in various sorts of dwelling-places; in private rooms at +schools and college--always the finest of their kind--in clubs, on +ships, in railway trains; but no time at all in any place remotely +resembling the house in which he now waited, a stranger in every sense +of the word, more strange to the everyday, fine type of home known to +the American of good birth and breeding than may seem credible as it is +set down. + +"Hold on there!" suddenly shouted a determined male voice from somewhere +above Richard. A door banged, there was a rush of light-running feet +along the upper hall, closely followed by the tread of heavier ones. A +burst of the gayest laughter was succeeded by certain deep grunts, +punctuated by little noises as of panting breath and half-stifled +merriment. It was easy to determine that a playful scuffle of some sort +was going on overhead, which seemed to end only after considerable +inarticulate but easily translatable protest on the part of the weaker +person involved. + +Then came an instant's silence, a man's ringing laugh of triumph; next, +in a girl's voice, a little breathless but of a quality to make the +listener prick up ears already alert, these most unexpected words: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +"Is it, indeed, Miss Arrogance?" mocked the deeper voice. "Well, if you +had given it back at once, as all laws of justice, not to mention +propriety, demanded, I should not have had to force it away from you. +Oh, I say, did I really hurt that wrist, or are you shamming?" + +"Shamming! You big boys have no idea how brutally violent you are when +you want some little thing you ought not to have. It aches like +anything," retorted the other voice, its very complaints uttered in such +melodious tones of contralto music that the listener found himself +wishing with all his might to know if the face of its owner could by any +possibility match the loveliness of her voice. Dark, he fancied she must +be, and young, and strong--of education, of a gay wit, yet of a +temper--all this the listener thought he could read in the voice. + +"Poor little wilful girl! Did she get hurt, then, trying to have her own +way? Come in here, jade, and I'll fix it up for you," the deeper tones +declared. + +Footsteps again; a door closed. Silence succeeded for a minute; then the +Schumann music began again, a violin accompanying. And suddenly, +directly opposite the settee, a door swung slowly open, the hand upon +the knob invisible. A picture was presented to the stranger's eyes as if +somebody had meant to show it to him. He could but look. Anybody, seeing +the picture, would have looked and found it hard to turn his eyes away. + +For it was the heart of the house, right here, so close at hand that +even a stranger could catch a glimpse of it by chance. A great, +wide-throated fireplace held a splendid fire of burning logs, the light +from it illumining the whole room, otherwise dark in the October +twilight. Before it on the hearth-rug were silhouetted, in distinct +lines against its rich background, two figures. One was that of a woman +in warm middle life, sitting in a big chair, her face full of both +brightness and peace; at her feet knelt a young girl, her arm upon her +mother's knees, her face uplifted. The two faces were smiling into each +other. + +Somebody--it looked to be a tall young man against the fire-glow--came +and abruptly closed the door from within, and the picture was gone. The +fitful music ceased again; the house was quiet. + +Thereupon Richard Kendrick grew impatient. Fully ten minutes must have +elapsed since his youthful conductor had disappeared. He looked about +him for some means of summoning attention, but discovered none. + +Suddenly a latchkey rattled uselessly in the lock of the front door; +then came lusty knocks upon its stout panels, accompanied by the +whirring of a bell somewhere in the distance. + +A maidservant came hurriedly into the hall through a door near Richard, +and at the same moment a boy of ten or eleven came tearing down the +front stairs. As the lad shouted through the door, Richard recognized +his late conductor. + +"You can't get in, Daddy; the lock's gone queer. Come around to the +back. I'll see to him, Mary," the boy called to the maid, who, nodding, +disappeared. + +At this moment the door opposite Richard opened again, and the mother of +the household came out, her comely waist closely clasped by the arm of +the young girl. The two were followed by the tall young man. + +Richard stood up, and was, of course, instantly upon the road to the +delivery of his message. + +Ted, ushering in his father, and spying the waiting messenger, cried +repentantly, "Oh, I forgot!" and the tall young man responded gravely, +"You usually do, don't you, Cub?" This elder son of the house, waving +the small boy aside, attended to taking Richard to the library, and to +summoning Judge Calvin Gray. + +In five minutes the business had been dispatched, Judge Gray had made +friendly inquiry into the condition of his old friend's health, and +Richard was ready to take his departure. Curiously enough he did not now +want to go. As he stood for a moment near the open library door, while +Judge Gray returned to his desk for a newspaper clipping, the caller was +listening to the eager greetings taking place in the hall just out of +his sight. The father of the family appeared to have returned from an +absence of some length, and the entire household had come rushing to +meet and welcome him. Richard listened for the contralto notes he had +heard above, and presently detected them declaring with vivid emphasis: +"Mother has been a dear, splendid martyr. Nobody would have guessed she +was lonely, but--we knew!" + +"She couldn't possibly have been more lonely than I. Next time I'll take +her with me!" was the emphatic response. + +Then the whole group swept by the library door, down the hall, and into +the room of the great fireplace. Nobody looked his way, and Richard +Kendrick had one swift view of them all. Vigorous young men, graceful +young women, a child or two, the mother of them all on the arm of her +husband--there were plenty to choose from, but he could not find the one +he looked for. Then, quite by itself, another figure flashed past him. +He had a glimpse of a dusky mass of hair, of a piquant profile, of a +round arm bared to the elbow. As the figure passed the hat-tree he saw +the arm reach out and catch the rose-coloured scarf, flinging it over +one shoulder. Then the whole vision had vanished, and he stood alone in +the library doorway, with Judge Gray saying behind him: "I cannot find +the clipping. I will mail it to your grandfather when I come upon it." + +"I knew that scarf was hers," Richard was thinking as he went out into +the night by way of the rear door, Judge Gray having accompanied him to +the threshold and given him a cordial hand of farewell. What a voice! +She could make a fortune with it on the stage, if she couldn't sing a +note. The stage! What had the stage to do with people who lived together +in a place like that? + +He looked curiously back at the house as he went down the box-bordered +path which led, curving, from it to the street. It was obviously one of +the old-time mansions of the big city, preserved in the midst of its +grounds in a neighbourhood now rampant with new growth. It was outside, +on this chill October night, as hospitable in appearance as it was +inside; there was hardly a window which did not glow with a mellow +light. As Richard drove down the street, he was recalling vividly the +picture of the friendly-looking hall with its faded Turkey carpet worn +with the tread of many rushing feet, its atmosphere of welcoming +warmth--and the rose-hued scarf flung over the dull masculine belongings +as if typifying the fashion in which the women of the household cast +their bright influence over the men. + +It suddenly occurred to Richard Kendrick that if he had lived in such a +home even until he went away to school, if he had come back to such a +home from college and from the wanderings over the face of the earth +with which he had filled in his idle days since college was over, he +should be perhaps a better, surely a different, man than he was now. + + * * * * * + +Louis Gray, coming into the hall precisely as Richard Kendrick, again +enveloped in his muddy motoring coat, was releasing Judge Gray's hand +and disappearing into the night, looked curiously after the departing +figure. His sister Roberta, following him into the hall a moment after, +rose-coloured scarf still drifting across white-clad shoulder, was in +time to receive his comment: + +"Seems rather odd to see that chap departing humbly by any door but the +front one." + +"You knew him, then. Who was he?" inquired his sister. + +"Didn't you? He's a familiar figure enough about town. Why, he's Rich +Kendrick. Grandson of Matthew Kendrick, of Kendrick & Company, you know. +Only Rich doesn't take much interest in the business. You'll find his +doings carefully noticed in certain columns in certain society +journals." + +"I don't read them, thank you. Do you?" + +"Don't need to. Kendrick's a familiar figure wherever the gay and +youthful rich disport themselves--when he's in the country at all. He's +doing his best to get away with the money his father left him. +Fortunately the bulk of the family fortune is still in the hands of his +grandfather, who seems an uncommonly healthy and vigorous old man." +Louis laughed. "Can't think what Rich Kendrick can be doing here with +Uncle Cal. I believe, though, he and old Matthew Kendrick are good +friends. Probably grandson Richard came on an errand. It certainly +behooves him to do grandfather's errands with as good a grace as he can +muster." + +"He was sitting in the hall quite a while before Uncle Cal saw him," +volunteered Ted, who had tagged at Roberta's heels, and was listening +with interest. + +"Sitting in the hall, eh--like any district messenger?" Louis was +clearly delighted with this news. "How did it happen, Cub? Mary take him +for an everyday, common person?" + +"I let him in. I thought he was a chauffeur," admitted Ted. "He was +awfully wet and muddy. Steve took him in to Uncle Cal." + +An explosion of laughter from his interested elder brother interrupted +him. "I wish I'd come along and seen him. So he had the bad manners to +sit in our hall in a wet and muddy motoring coat, and go in to see Uncle +Cal--" + +"The young man had on no muddy coat when Stephen brought him in to see +me," declared Judge Calvin Gray, coming out and catching the last +sentence. "He put it on in the hall before going out. What are you +saying? That was the grandson of my good friend, Matthew Kendrick, and +so had claim upon my good will from the start, though I haven't laid +eyes upon the boy since his schooldays. He was rather a restless and +obstreperous youngster then, I'll admit. What he is now seems pleasing +enough to the eye, certainly, though of course that may not be +sufficient. A fine, mannerly young fellow he appeared to me, and I was +glad to see that he seemed willing enough to run upon his grandfather's +errands, though they took him out upon a raw night like this." + +But Louis Gray, though he did not pursue the subject further, was still +smiling to himself as he obeyed a summons to dinner. + +At opposite ends of the long table sat Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray. The +head of the house looked his part: fine of face, crisp of speech, +authoritative yet kindly of manner. His wife may be described best by +saying that one had but to look upon her to know that here sat the Queen +of the little realm, the one whose gentle rule covered them all as with +the brooding wing of wise motherhood. Down the sides of the board sat +the three sons: Stephen, tall and slender, grave-faced, quiet but +observant; Louis, of a somewhat lesser height but broad of shoulder and +deep of chest, his bright face alert, every motion suggesting vigour of +body and mind; Ted--Edgar--the youngest, a slim, long-limbed lad with +eyes eager as a collie's for all that might concern him--this was the +tale of the sons of the house. There were the two daughters: Roberta, +she of the rose-coloured scarf--it was still about her shoulders, +seeming to draw all the light in the room to its vivid hue, reflecting +itself in her cheeks--Roberta, the elder daughter, dusky of hair, +adorable of face, her round white throat that of a strong and healthy +girl, her laugh a song to listen to; the other daughter, Ruth, a +fair-haired, sober-eyed creature of growing sixteen, as different as if +of other blood. One would not have said the two were sisters. There was +one more girl at the table; no, not a girl, yet she looked younger than +Roberta--a little person with a wild-rose, charming face, and the +sweetest smile of them all--Rosamond, Stephen's wife, quite incredibly +mother of two children of nursery age, at this moment already properly +asleep upstairs. + +Last but far from least, loved and honoured of them all above the lot of +average man to command such tribute, was the elder brother of the master +of the house, his handsome white head and genial face drawing toward him +all eyes whenever he might choose to speak--Judge Calvin Gray. All in +all they were a goodly family, just such a family as is to be found +beneath many a fortunate roof; yet a family with an individuality all +its own and a richness of life such as is less common than it ought to +be. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RICHARD CHANGES HIS PLANS + + +The next time Richard Kendrick went to the Gray home was a fortnight +later, when old Matthew Kendrick was sending some material for which +Judge Gray had written to ask him--books and pamphlets, and a set of +maps. This time he would have sent a servant, but his grandson Richard +heard him giving directions and came into the affair with a careless +suggestion that he was driving that way and might as well take the stuff +if Mr. Kendrick wished it. The old man glanced curiously at him across +the table where the two sat at luncheon. + +"Glad to have you, of course," he commented, "but you made so many +objections when I asked you before I thought I wouldn't interfere with +your time again. Did you meet any of the family when you went?" + +"Only Judge Gray and two of his nephews," responded Richard, truthfully +enough. + +So he went with the big package. This time, it being a fine, sunny, +summerlike day almost as warm as September, he went clad in careful +dress with only a light motoring coat on over all to preserve the +integrity of his attire. He left this in the car when he leaped out of +it, and appeared upon the doorstep looking not at all like his own +chauffeur, but quite his comely self. + +The door-lock was in full working order now, and he was admitted by the +same little maid whom he remembered seeing before. Upon his inquiry for +Judge Gray he was told that that gentleman was receiving another caller +and had asked to be undisturbed for a short time, but if he could wait-- + +Now there was no reason in the world for his waiting, since the package +of books, pamphlets, and maps was under his arm and he had only to +bestow it upon the maid and give her the accompanying directions. But, +at this precise moment, Richard caught sight of a figure running down +the staircase; concluded in one glance, as he had concluded in one +glance before, that if a personality could be expressed by a speaking +voice, a laugh, and a rose-hued scarf, this must be the one they +expressed; and decided in the twinkling of an eye to wait. The maid +conducted him toward the room on the right of the hall and he followed +her, passing as he did so the person who had reached the foot of the +stairs and who went by him in such haste that he had only time to give +her one short but--it must be described as--concentrated look straight +in the eyes. She in turn bestowed upon him the one glance necessary to +inform her whether she knew him and so must stay long enough in her +rapid progress to greet him. Their eyes therefore met at rather close +range, lingered for the space of two running seconds, and parted. + +Richard Kendrick accepted the chair offered him and sat upon it for the +space of some eighteen-odd minutes; they might have been hours or +seconds, he could not have told which. He could hardly have described +the room to which he had been shown, unless to say that it was a square, +old-fashioned reception room, a little formal, decidedly quaint, and +dignified, and clearly not used by the family as other rooms were used. +Certainly the piano, from which he had heard the Schumann music on his +former visit, was not here, and certainly there were no rose-hued scarfs +flung carelessly about. It was undoubtedly a place kept for the use of +strange callers like himself, and had small part in the life of the +household. + +At length he was summoned to Judge Gray's library. He was met with the +same pleasant courtesy as before, delivered his parcel, and lingered as +long as might be, listening politely to his host's remarks, and looking, +looking--for a chance to make a reason to come again. Quite unexpectedly +it was offered him by the Judge himself. + +"I wonder if you could recommend to me," said Judge Gray as Richard was +about to take his leave, "a capable young man--college-bred, of +course--to come here daily or weekly as I might need him, to assist me +in the work of preparing my book. My eyes, as you see, will not allow me +to use them for much more than the reading of a paragraph, and while my +family are very ready to help whenever they have the time, mine is so +serious a task, likely to continue for so long a period, that I shall +need continuous and prolonged assistance. Do you happen to know--?" + +Well, it can hardly be explained. This was a rich man's heir and the +grandson of millions more, in need--according to his own point of +view--of no further education along the lines of work, and he had a +voyage to the Far East in prospect. Certainly, a fortnight earlier the +thing furthest from his thoughts would have been the engaging of himself +as amanuensis and general literary assistant to an ex-judge upon so +prosaic a task as the history of the Supreme Court of the State. To say +that a rose-hued scarf, a laugh, and an alluring speaking voice explain +it seems absurd, even when you add to these that which the young man saw +during that moment of time when he looked into the face of their owner. +Rather would I declare that it was the subtle atmosphere of that which +in all his travels he had never really seen before--a home. At all +events a new force of some sort had taken hold upon him, and was leading +him whither he had never thought to go. + +If Judge Gray was surprised that the grandson of his old friend Matthew +Kendrick should thus offer himself for the obscure and comparatively +unremunerative post of secretary, he gave no evidence of it. Possibly it +did not seem strange to him that this young man should show interest in +the work the Judge himself had laid out with an absorbing enthusiasm. +Therefore a trial arrangement was soon made, and Richard Kendrick agreed +to present himself in Judge Gray's library on the following morning at +ten o'clock. The only stipulation he made was that if, for any reason, +he should decide suddenly to go upon a journey he had had some time in +contemplation, he should be allowed to provide a substitute. He had not +yet so completely surrendered to his impulse that he was not careful to +leave himself a loophole of escape. + +The young man laughed to himself all the way down the avenue. What would +his grandfather say? What would his friends say? His friends should not +know--confound them!--it was none of their business. He would have his +evenings; he would appear at his clubs as usual. If comments were made +upon his absence at other hours he would quietly inform the observing +ones that he had gone to work, but would refuse to say where. It +certainly was a joke, his going to work; not that his grandfather had +not often and strenuously recommended it, saying that the boy would +never know happiness until he shook hands with labour; not that he +himself had not fully intended some day to go into the training +necessary to the assuming of the cares incident to the handling of a +great fortune. But thus far--well, he had never been ready to begin. One +journey more, one more long voyage-- + +Her eyes--had they been blue or black? Blue, he was quite sure, although +the masses of her hair had been like night for dusky splendour, and her +cheeks of that rich bloom which denotes young vigour and radiant health. +He could hear her voice now, quoting a serious poet to fit a madcap +mood--and quoting him in such a voice! What were the words? He +remembered her mockingly exaggerated inflection: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +Well, from his flash-fire observation of her he should say that a man +might need a giant's strength to overcome her, if she chose to oppose +him, in any situation whatever. What a glorious task--to overcome +her--to teach that lovely, teasing voice gentler words-- + +He laughed again. Since he had left college he had not been so +interested in what was coming next--not even on the day he met Amelie +Penstoff in St. Petersburg--nor on the day, in Japan, when his friend +Rogers made an appointment with him to meet that little slant-eyed girl, +half Japanese, half French, and whole minx--the beauty!--he could not +even recall her name at this moment--with whom he had had an absorbing +experience he should be quite unwilling to repeat. And now, here was a +girl--a very different sort of girl--who interested him more than any of +them. He wondered what was her name. Whatever it was, he would know it +soon--call her by it--soon. + +He went home. He did not tell his grandfather that night. There was not +much use in putting it off, but--somehow--he preferred to wait till +morning. Business sounds more like business--in the morning. + + * * * * * + +The first result of his telling his grandfather in the morning was a +note from old Matthew Kendrick to old Judge Gray. The note, which almost +chuckled aloud, was as follows: + +MY DEAR CALVIN GRAY: Work him--work the rascal hard! He's a lazy chap +with a way with him which plays the deuce with my foolish old heart. I +could make my own son work, and did; but this son of his--that seems to +be another matter. Yet I know well enough the dangers of idleness--know +them so well that I'm tickled to death at the mere thought of his +putting in his time at any useful task. He did well enough in college; +there are brains there unquestionably. I didn't object seriously to his +travelling--for a time--after his graduation; but that sort of life has +gone on long enough, and when I talk to him of settling down at some +steady job it's always "after one more voyage." I don't yet understand +what has given him the impulse--whim--caprice--I don't venture to give +it any stronger name--to accept this literary task from you. He vows +he's not met the women of your household, or I should think that might +explain it. I hope he will meet them--all of them; they'll be good for +him--and so will you, Cal. Do your best by the boy for my sake, and +believe me, now as always, + +Gratefully your old friend, + +MATTHEW. + +"Eleanor, have you five minutes to spare for me?" Judge Gray, his old +friend's note in hand, hailed his brother's wife as she passed the open +door of his library. She came in at once, and, though she was in the +midst of household affairs, sat down with that delightful air of having +all the time in the world to spare for one who needed her, which was one +of her endearing characteristics. + +When she had heard the note she nodded her head thoughtfully. "I think +the grandfather may well congratulate himself that the grandson has +fallen into your hands, Calvin," said she. "The work you give him may +not be to him the interesting task it would be to some men, but it will +undoubtedly do him good to be harnessed to any labour which means a bit +of drudgery. By all means do as Mr. Kendrick bids you--'work him hard.'" +She smiled. "I wonder what the boy would think of Louis's work." + +"He would take to his heels, probably, if it were offered him. It's +plain that Matthew's pleased enough at having him tackle a gentleman's +task like this, and hopes to make it a stepping-stone to something more +muscular. I shall do my best by Richard, as he asks. You note that he +wants the young man to meet us all. Are you willing to invite him to +dinner some time--perhaps next week--as a special favour to me?" + +"Certainly, Calvin, if you consider young Mr. Kendrick in every way fit +to know our young people." + +Her fine eyes met his penetratingly, and he smiled in his turn. "That's +like you, Eleanor," said he, "to think first of the boy's character and +last of his wealth." + +"A fig for his wealth!" she retorted with spirit. "I have two +daughters." + +"I have made inquiries," said he with dignity, "of Louis, who knows +young Kendrick as one young man knows another, which is to the full. He +considers him to be more or less of an idler, and as much of a +spendthrift as a fellow in possession of a large income is likely to be +in spite of the cautions of a prudent grandfather. He has a passion for +travel and is correspondingly restless at home. But Louis thinks him to +be a young man of sufficiently worthy tastes and standards to have +escaped the worst contaminations, and he says he has never heard +anything to his discredit. That is considerable to say of a young man in +his position, Eleanor, and I hope it may constitute enough of a passport +to your favour to permit of your at least inviting him to dinner. +Besides--let me remind you--your daughters have standards of their own +which you have given them. Ruth is a girl yet, of course, but a mighty +discerning one for sixteen. As for Roberta, I'll wager no young +millionaire is any more likely to get past her defences than any young +mechanic--unless he proves himself fit." + +"I am confident of that," she agreed, and with her charming gray head +held high went on about her household affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHILE IT RAINS + + +The advanced age of the Honourable Calvin Gray, and the precarious state +of his eyesight, made it possible for him to work at his beloved +self-appointed task for only a scant number of hours daily. His new +assistant, therefore, found his own working hours not only limited but +variable. Beginning at ten in the morning, by four in the afternoon +Judge Gray was usually too weary to proceed farther; sometimes by the +luncheon hour he was ready to lay aside his papers and dismiss his +assistant. On other days he would waken with a severe headache, the +result of the overstrain he was constantly tempted to give his eyes, in +spite of all the aid that was offered him. On such days Richard could +not always find enough to do to occupy his time, and would be obliged to +leave the house so early that many hours were on his hands. When this +happened, he would take the opportunity to drop in at one or two of his +clubs, and so convey the impression that only caprice kept him away on +other days. Curiously enough, this still seemed to him an object; he +might have found it difficult to explain just why, for he assuredly was +not ashamed of his new occupation. + +Rather unexplainably to Richard, nearly the first fortnight of his new +experience went by without his meeting any members of the family except +the heads thereof and the younger son, Edgar, familiarly called by every +one "Ted." With this youthful scion of the house he was destined to form +the first real acquaintance. It came about upon a particularly rainy +November day. Richard had found Judge Gray suffering from one of his +frequent headaches, as a result of the overwork he had not been able +wholly to avoid. Therefore a long day's work of research in various +ancient volumes had been turned over to his assistant by an employer who +left him to return to a seclusion he should not have forsaken. + +Richard was accustomed to run down to an excellent hotel for his +luncheon, and was preparing to leave the house for this purpose when Ted +leaped at him from the stairs, tumbling down them in great haste. + +"Mr. Kendrick, won't you stay and have lunch with me? It's pouring +'great horn spoons' and I'm all alone." + +"Alone, Ted? Nobody here at all?" + +"Not a soul. Uncle Cal's going to have his upstairs and he says I may +ask you. Please stay. I don't go to school in the afternoon and maybe I +can help you, if you'll show me how." + +Richard smiled at the notion, but accepted the eager invitation, +and presently found himself sitting alone with the lad at a big, +old-fashioned mahogany table, being served with a particularly tempting +meal. + +"You see," Ted explained, spooning out grapefruit with an energetic +hand, "father and mother and Steve and Rosy have gone to the country to +a funeral--a cousin of ours. Louis and Rob aren't home till night except +Saturdays and Sundays, and Ruth is at school till Friday nights. It +makes it sort of lonesome for me. Wednesdays, though, every other week, +Rob's home all day. When she's here I don't mind who else is away." + +"I was just going to ask if you had three brothers," observed Richard. +"Do I understand 'Rob' is a girl?" + +"Sure, Rob's a girl all right, and I'm mighty glad of it. I wouldn't be +a girl myself, not much; but I wouldn't have Rob anything else--I should +say not. Name's Roberta, you know, after father. She's a peach of a +sister, I tell you. Ruth's all right, too, of course, but she's +different. She's a girl all through. But Rob's half boy, or--I should +say there's just enough boy about her to make her exactly right, if you +know what I mean." + +He looked inquiringly at Richard, who nodded gravely. "I think I get +something of your idea," he agreed. "It makes a fine combination, does +it?" + +"I should say it did. You know a girl that's all girl is too much girl. +But one that likes some of the things boys like--well, it helps out a +lot. Through with the grapefruit, Mary," he added, over his shoulder, to +the maid. "Have you any brothers or sisters, Mr. Kendrick?" he inquired +interestedly, when he had assured himself that the clam broth with which +he was now served was unquestionably good to eat. + +"Not one--living. I had a brother, but he died when I was a little +chap." + +"That was too bad," said Ted with ready sympathy. He looked straight +across the table at Richard out of sea-blue eyes shaded by very heavy +black lashes, which, it struck Richard quite suddenly, were much like +another pair which he had had one very limited opportunity of observing. +The boy also possessed a heavy thatch of coal-black hair, a lock of +which was continually falling over his forehead and having to be thrust +back. "Because father says," Ted went, on, "it's a whole lot better for +children to be brought up together, so they will learn to be polite to +each other. I'm the youngest, so I'm most like an only child. But, you +see," he added hurriedly, "the older ones weren't allowed to give up to +me, and I had to be polite to them, so perhaps"--he looked so in earnest +about it that Richard could not possibly laugh at him--"I won't turn out +as badly as some youngest ones do." + +There was really nothing priggish about this statement, however it may +sound. And the next minute the boy had turned to a subject less +suggestive of parental counsels. He launched into an account of his +elder brother Louis's prowess on the football fields of past years, +where, it seemed, that young man had been a remarkable right tackle. He +gave rather a vivid account of a game he had witnessed last year, +talking, as Richard recognized, less because he was eager to talk than +from a sense of responsibility as to the entertainment of his guest. + +"But he won't play any more," he added mournfully. "He took his degree +last year and he's in father's office now, learning everything from the +beginning. He's just a common clerk, but he won't be long," he asserted +confidently. + +"No, not long," agreed Richard. "The son of the chief won't be a common +clerk long, of course." + +"I mean," explained Ted, buttering a hot roll with hurried fingers, +"he'll work his way up. He won't be promoted until he earns it; he +doesn't want to be." + +Richard smiled. The boy's ideals had evidently been given a start by +some person or persons of high moral character. He was considering the +subject in some further detail with the lad when the dining-room door +suddenly opened and the owner of the black-lashed blue eyes, which in a +way matched Ted's, came most unexpectedly in upon them. She was in +street dress of dark blue, and her eyes looked out at them from under +the wide gray brim of a sombrero-shaped hat with a long quill in it, the +whole effect of which was to give her the breezy look of having +literally blown in on the November wind which was shaking the trees +outside. Her cheeks had been stung into a brilliant rose colour. Two +books were tucked under her arm. + +"Why, Rob!" cried her younger brother. "What luck! What brought you +home?" + +Rising from his chair Richard observed that Ted had risen also, and he +now heard Ted's voice presenting him to his sister with the ease of the +well-bred youngster. + +From this moment Richard owed the boy a debt of gratitude. He had been +waiting impatiently for a fortnight for this presentation and had begun +to think it would never come. + +Roberta Gray came forward to give the guest her hand with a ready +courtesy which Richard met with the explanation of his presence. + +"I was asked to keep your brother company in the absence of the family. +I can't help being glad that you didn't come in time to forestall me." + +"I'm sure Ted's hospitality might have covered us both," she said, +pulling off her gloves. He recognized the voice. At close range it was +even more delightful than he had remembered. + +"I doubt it, since he tells me that when you're here he doesn't mind who +else is away." + +"Did you say that, Teddy?" she asked, smiling at the boy. "Then you'll +surely give me lunch, though it isn't my day at home. I'm so hungry, +walking in this wind. But the air is glorious." + +She went away to remove her hat and coat, and came back quickly, her +masses of black hair suggesting but not confirming the impression that +the wind had lately had its way with them. Her eyes scanned the table +eagerly like those of a hungry boy. + +"Some of your scholars sick?" inquired Ted. + +"Two--and one away. So I'm to have a whole beautiful afternoon, though I +may have to see them Wednesday to make up. I am a teacher in Miss +Copeland's private school," she explained to Richard as simply as one of +the young women he knew would have explained. "I have singing lessons of +Servensky." + +This gave the young man food for thought, in which he indulged while +Miss Roberta Gray told Ted of an encounter she had had that morning with +a special friend of his own. This daughter of a distinguished man--of a +family not so rich as his own, but still of considerable wealth and +unquestionably high social position--was a teacher in a school for +girls; a most exclusive school, of course--he knew the one very +well--but still in a school and for a salary. To Richard the thing was +strange enough. She must surely do it from choice, not from necessity; +but why from choice? With her face and her charm--he felt the charm +already; it radiated from her--why should she want to tie herself down +to a dull round of duty like that instead of giving her thoughts to the +things girls of her position usually cared for? Taking into +consideration the statement Ted had lately made about his elder brother, +it struck Richard Kendrick that this must be a family of rather +eccentric notions. Somewhat to his surprise he discovered that the idea +interested him. He had found people of his own acquaintance tiresomely +alike; he congratulated himself on having met somebody who seemed likely +to prove different. + +"So you rejoice in your half-holiday, Miss Gray," Richard observed when +he had the chance. "I suppose you know exactly what you are going to do +with it?" + +"Why do you think I do?" she asked with an odd little twist of the lip. +"Do you always plan even unexpected holidays so carefully?" + +It occurred to Richard that up to the last fortnight his days since he +left college had been all holidays, and there had been plenty of them +throughout college life itself. But he answered seriously: "I don't +believe I do. But I had the idea that teachers were so in the habit of +living on schedules scientifically made out that even their holidays +were conscientiously lived up to, with the purpose of getting the full +value out of them." + +Even as he said it he could have laughed aloud at the thought of these +straitlaced principles being applicable to the young person who sat at +the table with himself and Ted. She a teacher? Never! He had known no +women teachers since his first governess had been exchanged for a tutor, +the sturdy youngster having rebelled, at an extraordinarily early age, +against petticoat government. His acquaintance included but one woman of +that profession--and she was a college president. He and she had not got +on well together, either, during the brief period in which they had been +thrown together--on an ocean voyage. But he had seen plenty of teachers, +crossing the Atlantic in large parties, surveying cathedrals, taking +coach drives, inspecting art galleries--all with that conscientious air +of making the most of it. Miss Roberta Gray one of that serious company? +It was incredible! + +"Dear me," laughed Roberta, "what a keen observer you are! I am almost +afraid to admit that I have no conscientiously thought-out plan--but +one. I am going to put myself in Ted's hands and let him personally +conduct my afternoon." + +Blue eyes met blue eyes at that and flashed happy fire. Lucky Ted! + +"Oh, jolly!" exclaimed that delighted youth. "Will you play basket-ball +in the attic?" + +"Of course I will. Just the thing for a rainy day." + +"Bowls?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Take a cross-country tramp?" His eyes were sparkling. + +Roberta glanced out of the window. The rain was dashing hard against the +pane. "If you won't go through the West Wood marshes," she stipulated. + +"Sure I won't. They'd be pretty wet even for me on a day like this. Is +there anything you'd specially like to do yourself?" he bethought +himself at this stage to inquire. + +Roberta shrugged her shoulders. "Of course it seems tame to propose +settling down by the living-room fire and popping corn, after we get +back and have got into our dry clothes," said she, "but--" + +Ted grinned. "That's the stuff," he acknowledged. "I knew you'd think of +the right thing to end up the lark with." He looked across at Richard +with a proud and happy face. "Didn't I tell you she was a peach of a +sister?" he challenged his guest. + +Richard nodded. "You certainly did," he said. "And I see no occasion to +question the statement." + +His eyes met Roberta's. Never in his life had the thought of a +cross-country walk in the rain so appealed to him. At the moment he +would have given his eagerly planned trip to the Far East for the chance +to march by her side to-day, even though the course should lie through +the marshes of West Wood, unquestionably the wettest place in the +country on that particular wet afternoon. But nobody would think of +inviting him to go--of course not. And while Roberta and Ted were +dashing along country lanes--he could imagine how her cheeks would look, +stung with rain, drops clinging to those bewildering lashes of hers--he +himself would be looking up references in dry and dusty State Supreme +Court records, and making notes with a fountain pen--a fountain +pen--symbol of the student. What abominable luck! + +Roberta was laughing as his eyes met hers. The gay curve of her lips +recalled to him one of the things Ted had said about her, concerning a +certain boyish quality in her makeup, and he was strongly tempted to +tell her of it. But he resisted. + +"I can see you two are great chums," said he. "I envy you both your +afternoon, clear through to the corn-popping." + +"If you are still at work when we reach that stage we will--send you in +some of it," she promised, and laughed again at the way his face fell. + +"I thought perhaps you were going to invite me in to help pop," he +suggested boldly. + +"I understand you are engaged in the serious labour of collecting +material for a book on a most serious subject," she replied. "We +shouldn't dare to divert your mind; and besides I am told that Uncle +Calvin intends to introduce you formally to the family by inviting you +to dinner some evening next week. Do you think you ought to steal in by +coming to a corn-popping beforehand? You see now I can quite truthfully +say to Uncle Calvin that I don't yet know you, but after I had popped +corn with you--" + +She paused, and he eagerly filled out the sentence: "You would know me? +I hope you would! Because, to tell the honest truth, literary research +is a bit new and difficult to me as yet, and any diversion--" + +But she would not ask him to the corn-popping. And he was obliged to +finish his luncheon in short order because Roberta and Ted, plainly +anxious to begin the afternoon's program, made such short work of it +themselves. They bade him farewell at the door of the dining-room like a +pair of lads who could hardly wait to be ceremonious in their eagerness +to be off, and the last he saw of them they were running up the +staircase hand in hand like the comrades they were. + +During his intensely stupid researches Richard Kendrick could hear +faintly in the distance the thud of the basket-ball and the rumble of +the bowls. But within the hour these tantalizing sounds ceased, and, in +the midst of the fiercest dash of rain against the library window-panes +that had yet occurred that day, he suddenly heard the bang of the +back-hall entrance-door. He jumped to his feet and ran to reconnoitre, +for the library looked out through big French windows upon the lawn +behind the house, and he knew that the pair of holiday makers would +pass. + +There they were! What could the rain matter to them? Clad in high +hunting boots and gleaming yellow oilskin coats, and with hunters' caps +on their heads, they defied the weather. Anything prettier than +Roberta's face under that cap, with the rich yellow beneath her chin, +her face alight with laughter and good fellowship, Richard vowed to +himself he had never seen. He wanted to wave a farewell to them, but +they did not look up at his window, and he would not knock upon the +pane--like a sick schoolboy shut up in the nursery enviously watching +his playmates go forth to valiant games. + +When they had disappeared at a fast walk down the gravelled path to the +gate at the back of the grounds, taking by this route a straight course +toward the open country which lay in that direction not more than a mile +away, the grandson of old Matthew Kendrick went reluctantly back to his +work. He hated it, yet--he was tremendously glad he had taken the job. +If only there might be many oases in the dull desert such as this had +been! + + * * * * * + +"How do you like him, Rob?" inquired the young brother, splashing along +at his sister's side down the country road. + +"Like whom?" Roberta answered absently, clearing her eyes of raindrops +by the application of a moist handkerchief. + +"Mr. Kendrick." + +"I think Uncle Cal might have looked a long way and not picked out a +less suitable secretary," said she with spirit. + +"Is that what he is? What is a seccertary anyway?" demanded Ted. + +"Several things Mr. Kendrick is not." + +"Oh, I say, Rob! I can't understand--" + +"It is a person who has learned how to be eyes, ears, hands, and brain +for another," defined Roberta. + +"Gee! Hasn't Uncle Cal got all those things himself--except eyes?" + +"Yes, but anybody who serves him needs them all, too. I don't believe +Mr. Kendrick ever helped anybody before in his life." + +"Maybe he has. He's got loads of money, Louis says." + +"Oh, money! Anybody can give away money." + +"They don't all, I guess," declared Ted, with boyish shrewdness. "Say, +Rob, why wouldn't you ask him to the corn-pop frolic?" + +Roberta looked round at him. Drenched violets would have been dull and +colourless beside the living tint of her eyes, the raindrops clinging to +her lashes. "Because he was too busy," she replied, and looked away +again. + +"I didn't think he seemed so very much in a hurry to get back to the +library," observed Ted. "When I went down to the kitchen after the corn +I looked in the door and he was sitting at the desk looking out of the +window. But then I look out of the window myself at school," he +admitted. + +"Ted, shall we take this path or the other?" asked his sister, halting +where three trails across the meadow diverged. + +"This one will be the wettest," said he promptly. "But I like it best." + +"Then we'll take it." And she plunged ahead. + +"I say, Rob, but you're a true sport!" acknowledged her young brother +with admiration. "Any girl I know would have wanted the dry path." + +"Dry?" Roberta showed him a laughing profile over her shoulder. "Where +all paths are soaking, why be fastidious? The wetter we are the more +credit for keeping jolly, as Mark Tapley would say. Lead on, MacDuff!" + +"You seem to be leading yourself," shouted Ted, as she unexpectedly +broke into a run. + +"It's only seeming, Ted," she called back. "Whenever a woman seems to be +leading, you may take my word for it she's only following the course +pointed out by some man. But--when she seems to be following, look out +for her!" + +But of this oracular statement Ted could make nothing and wisely did not +try. He was quite content to splash along in Rob's wake, thinking +complacently how hot and buttery the popped corn would be an hour hence. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PICTURES + + +Richard Kendrick had been guest at a good many dinners in the course of +his experience, dinners of all sorts and of varying degrees of +formality. Club dinners, college-class dinners, "stag" dinners at +imposing hotels and cafés, impromptu dinners hurriedly arranged by three +or four fellows in for a good time, dinners at which women were present, +more at which they were not--these were everyday affairs with him. But, +strange to say, the one sort of dinner with which he was not familiar +was that of the family type--the quiet gathering in the home of the +members of the household, plus one or two fortunate guests. He had never +sat at such a table under his own roof, and when he was entertained in +the homes of his friends the occasion was invariably made one for +summoning many other guests, and for elaborate feasting and diversion of +all kinds. + +It will be seen, therefore, that Richard looked forward to a totally new +experience, without in the least realizing that he did so. His principal +thought concerning the invitation to the Grays' was that he should at +last have the chance to meet again the niece of his employer, in a way +that would show him considerably more of her as a woman than he had been +able to observe on the occasion when they had so hurriedly finished a +luncheon together, and she had escaped from him as fast as possible in +order to set forth on a madcap adventure with her small brother. + +On the day of which he expected to spend the evening with the Grays he +found it not a little difficult to keep his mind upon his work with the +Judge, and that gentleman seemed to him extraordinarily particular, even +fussy, about having every fact brought to him painstakingly verified +down to the smallest detail. When at last he was released, and he rushed +home in his car to dress, he discovered that his spirits were dancing as +he could not remember having felt them dance for a year. And all over a +simple invitation to a family dinner! + +As he dressed it might have been said of him that he also could be +particular, even fussy. When, at length, he was ready, he was as +carefully attired as ever he had been in his life--and this not only in +body but in mind. It was curious, to his own observation of himself, how +differently he felt, in what different mood he was, than had ever been +the case when he had left his room for the scene of some accustomed +pleasure-making. He could not just define this difference to himself, +though he was conscious of it; but there was in it a sense of wishing +the people he was to meet to think well of him, according to their own +standards, and he was somehow rather acutely aware that their standards +were not likely to be those with which he was most intimate. + +When he entered the now familiar door of the Gray homestead he was +surprised to hear sounds which seemed to indicate that the affair was, +after all, much larger and more formal than he had been led to suppose. +Strains of music fell upon his ears--music from a number of stringed +instruments remarkably well played--and this continued as he made his +entrance into the long drawing-room at the left of the hall, of whose +interior he had as yet caught only tempting glimpses. + +As he greeted his hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray, Judge Calvin Gray, +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Gray, wondering a little where the rest of the +family could be, his eye fell upon the musicians, and the problem was +solved. Ruth, the sixteen-year-old, sat before a harp; Louis, the elder +son, cherished a violin under his chin; Roberta--ah, there she was! +wearing a dull-blue evening frock above which gleamed her white neck, +her half-uncovered arms showing exquisite curves as she handled the bow +which was drawing long, rich notes from the violoncello at her knee. + +Not one of the trio looked up until the nocturne they were playing was +done. Then they rose together, laying aside their instruments, and made +the guest welcome. He had a vivid impression of being done peculiar +honour by their recognition of him as a new friend, for so they received +him. As he looked from one to another of their faces he experienced +another of those curious sensations which had from time to time assailed +him ever since he had first put his head inside the door of this house, +the sensation of looking in upon a new world of which he had known +nothing, and of being strangely drawn by all he saw there. It was not +alone the effect of meeting a more than ordinarily alluring girl, for +each member of the family had for him something of this drawing quality. +As he studied them it was clear to him that they belonged together, that +they loved each other, that the very walls of this old home were +eloquent of the life lived here. + +He had of course seen and noted families before, noted them carelessly +enough: rich families, poor families, big families, little, newly begun +families; but of a certain sort of family of which this was the +interesting and inviting type he knew as little as the foreigner, newly +landed on American shores, knows of the depths of the great country's +interior. And as he studied these people the desire grew and grew within +him to know as much of them as they would let him know. The very +grouping of them, against the effective background of the fine old +drawing-room, made, it seemed to him, a remarkable picture, full of a +certain richness of colour and harmony such as he had never observed +anywhere. + +The evening did not contain as much of gay encounter with Roberta as +he had anticipated--but, somehow, as he afterwards looked back upon it, +he could not feel that there had been any lack. He had fancied himself, +in prospect, sitting beside her at the table, exchanging that pleasant, +half-foolish badinage with which young men are wont to entertain +girls who are their companions at dinners, both nearly oblivious of +the rest of the company. But it turned out that his seat was between +his hostess and her younger daughter, Ruth, and though Roberta was +nearly opposite him at the table and he could look at her to his full +content--conservatively speaking--he was obliged to give himself to +playing the part of the deferential younger man where older and more +distinguished men are present. + +Yet--to his surprise, it must be admitted--he found himself not bored by +that table-talk. It was such table-talk, by the way, as is not to be had +under ordinary roofs. He now recognized that he had only partially +appreciated the qualities of mind possessed by Judge Gray--certainly not +his capacity for brilliant conversation. Mr. Robert Gray was quite his +elder brother's match, however, and more than once Kendrick caught Louis +Gray's eye meeting his own with the glance which means delighted pride +in the contest of wits which is taking place. All three young men +enjoyed it to the full, and even Ted listened with eyes full of eager +desire to comprehend that which he understood to be worth trying hard +for. + +"They enjoy these encounters keenly," said Mrs. Gray, beside Richard, as +a telling story by Mr. Robert Gray, in illustration of a point he had +made, came to a conclusion amid a burst of appreciative laughter. "They +relish them quite as much, we think, as if they often succeeded in +convincing each other, which they seldom do." + +"Are they always in such form?" asked Richard, looking into the fresh, +attractive face of the lady who was the mistress of this home, and +continuing to watch her with eyes as deferential as they were admiring. +She, too, represented a type of woman and mother with which he was +unfamiliar. Grace and charm in women who presided at dinner-tables he +had often met, but he could not remember when before he had sat at the +right hand of a woman who had made him begin, for almost the first time +in his life, to wonder what his own mother had been like. + +"Nearly always, at night, I think," said she, her eyes resting upon her +husband's face. Richard, observing, saw her smile, and guessed, without +looking, that there had been an exchange of glances. He knew, because he +had twice before noted the exchange, as if there existed a peculiarly +strong sympathy between husband and wife. This inference, too, possessed +a curious new interest for the young man--he had not been accustomed to +see anything of that sort between married people of long standing--not +in the world he knew so well. He seemed to be learning strange new +possibilities of existence at every step, since he had discovered the +Grays--he who at twenty-eight had not thought there was very much left +in human experience to be discovered. + +"Is it different in the morning?" Richard inquired. + +"Quite different. They are rather apt to take things more seriously in +the morning. The day's work is just before them and they are inclined to +discuss grave questions and dispose of them. But at night, when the +lights are burning and every one comes home with a sense of duty done, +it is natural to throw off the weights and be merry over the same +matters which, perhaps, it seemed must be argued over in the morning. We +all look forward to the dinner-table." + +"I should think you might," agreed Richard, looking about him once more +at the faces which surrounded him. He caught Roberta's eye, as he did +so--much to his satisfaction--and she gave him a straightforward, steady +look, as if she were taking his measure for the first time. Then, quite +suddenly, she smiled at him and turned away to speak to Ted, who sat by +her side. + +Richard continued to watch, and saw that immediately Ted looked his way +and also smiled. He wanted so much to know what this meant, that, as +soon as dinner was over and they were all leaving the room, he fell in +with the boy and, putting his hand through Ted's arm, whispered with +artful intent: "Was my tie under my left ear?" + +Ted stared up at him. "Your tie's all right, Mr. Kendrick." + +"Then it wasn't that. Perhaps my coat collar was turned up?" + +"Why, no," the boy laughed. "You look as right as anything. What made +you think--" + +"I saw you and your sister laughing at me and it worried me. I thought I +must be looking the guy some way." + +Ted considered. "Oh, no!" he said. "She asked me if I thought you were +enjoying the dinner as well as you would have liked the corn-popping." + +"And what did you decide?" + +"I said I couldn't tell, because I never saw you at a corn-popping. I +asked her that day we went to walk why she wouldn't ask you to it, but +she just said you were too busy to come. I didn't think you acted too +busy to come," he said naïvely, glancing up into Richard's down-bent +face. + +"Didn't I? Haven't I looked very busy whenever you have seen me in your +uncle's library?" + +Ted shook his head. "I don't think you have--not the way Louis looks +busy in father's office, nor the way father does." + +Richard laughed, but somehow the frank comment stung him a little, as he +would not have imagined the comment of an eleven-year-old boy could have +done. "See here, Ted," he urged, "tell me why you say that. I think +myself I've done a lot of work since I've been here, and I can't see why +I haven't looked it." + +But Ted shook his head. "I don't think it would be polite to tell you," +he said, which naturally did not help matters much. + +Still holding the lad's arm, Richard walked over to Roberta, who had +gone to the piano and was arranging some sheets of music there. + +"Miss Gray," he said, "have you accomplished a great deal to-day?" + +She looked up, puzzled. "A great deal of what?" she asked. + +"Work--endeavour--strenuous endeavour." + +"The usual amount. Lessons--and lessons--and one more lesson. I have +really more pupils than I can do justice to, but I am promised an +assistant if the work grows too heavy," she answered. "Why, please?" + +"I've been wondering if the motto of the Gray family might be 'Let us, +then, be up and doing.' Ted gives me that notion." + +Roberta glanced at Ted, whose face had grown quite grave. "Can you tell +him what the motto is, Ted?" + +"Of course I can," responded Ted proudly. "It's _Hoc age_." + +Richard hastily summoned his Latin, but the verb bothered him for a +minute. "_This do_," he presently evolved. "Well, I should say I came +pretty near it." + +"What's yours?" the boy now inquired. + +"My family motto? I believe it is _Crux mihi ancora_; but that doesn't +just suit me, so I've adopted one of my own"--he looked straight at +Roberta--"_Dum vivimus, vivamus_. Isn't that a pleasanter one in this +workaday world?" + +Ted was struggling hard, but his two months' experience with the +rudiments of Latin would not serve him. "What do they mean?" he asked +eagerly. + +"The second one means," said Roberta, with her arm about the slim young +shoulders, "'While we live, let us live--well.'" Her eyes met Richard's +with a shade of defiance in them. + +"Thank you," said he. "Do you expect me to adopt the amendment?" + +"Why not?" + +"Even you--take cross-country runs." + +She nodded. "And am all the better teacher for them next day." + +He laughed. "I should like to take one with you some time," said he. He +saw Judge Gray coming toward them. "I wonder if I'm likely ever to have +the chance," he added hurriedly. + +"_You_ take a cross-country run when you could have a sixty-mile spin in +that motor-car of yours instead?" + +"I couldn't go cross-country in that. You see I've been by the beaten +track so much I should like to try exploring something new." + +He was eager to say more, but Judge Gray, coming up to them, laid an +affectionate hand on his niece's shoulder. + +"She doesn't look the part she plays by day, does she?" he said to +Richard. "Curious, how times have changed. In my day a teacher looked a +teacher every minute of her time. One stood in awe of her--or +him--particularly of her. A prim, stuff gown, hair parted in the middle +and drawn smoothly away"--his glance wandered from Roberta's ivory neck +to the dusky masses of her hair--"spectacles, more than likely--with +steel bows. And a manner--ye gods--the manner! How we were impressed by +it! Well, well! Fine women they were and true to their profession. These +modern girls who look younger than their pupils--" He shook his head +with an air of being quite in despair about them. + +"Uncle Calvin," said Roberta, demurely, with her hand upon his arm, "do +tell Mr. Kendrick about your teaching school 'across the river' when you +were only sixteen years old." + +And, of course, that settled the chance of Richard's hearing anything +about Roberta's teaching, for, though Judge Gray was called out of the +room in the midst of his story, Stephen and Louis came up and joined the +group and switched the talk a thousand miles away from schools and +school-teaching. + +Presently there was music again, and this time Richard found himself +sitting beside young Mrs. Stephen Gray. Between numbers he found +questions to ask, which she answered with evident pleasure. + +"These three must have been playing together a good many years?" + +"Dear me, yes--ever since they were born, I think. They do make real +harmony, don't they?" + +"They do--in more ways than one. Is that colour scheme intentional, do +you think?" + +Mrs. Stephen's glance followed his as it dwelt upon the group. "I hadn't +noticed," she admitted, "but I see it now; it's perfect. And I've no +doubt Ruth thought it out. She's quite a wonderful eye for colour, and +she worships Rob and likes to dress so as to offset her--always giving +Rob the advantage--though of course she would have that, anyway, by +virtue of her own colouring." + +"Blue and corn-colour--should you call it?--and gold. Dull tints in the +background, and the candle-light on Miss Ruth's hair and her sister's +cheek. It makes the prettiest picture yet in my new collection of family +groups." + +Mrs. Stephen looked at him curiously. "Are you making a collection of +family groups?" she inquired. "Beginning away back with your first +memories?" + +"My first memories are not of family groups--only of nurses and tutors, +with occasional portraits of my grandfather making inquiries as to how I +was getting on. And my later memories are all of school and +college--then of travel. Not a home scene among them." + +"You poor boy!" There was something maternal in Mrs. Stephen's tone, +though she looked considerably younger than the object of her pity. "But +you must have looked at plenty of other family groups, if you had none +of your own." + +"That's exactly what I haven't done." + +"But you've lived--in the world," she cried under her breath, puzzled. + +A curious expression came into the young man's face. "That's exactly +what I have done," he said quietly. "In the world, not in the home. I've +not even _seen_ homes--like this one. The sight of brother and sisters +playing violin and harp and 'cello together, with the father and mother +and brother and uncle looking on, is absolutely so new to me that it has +a fascination I can't explain. I find myself continually watching you +all--if you'll forgive me--in your relations to each other. It's a new +interest," he admitted, smiling, "and I can't tell you what it means to +me." + +She shook her head. "It sounds like a strange tale to me," said she, +"but I suppose it must be true. How much you have missed!" + +"I'm just beginning to realize it. I never knew it till I began to come +here. I thought I was well enough off--it seems I'm pretty poor." + +It was rather a strange speech for a young man of his class to make. +Possibly it indicated the existence of those "brains" with which his +grandfather had credited him. + +"Well, Rob, do you think he had as dull a time as you said he would +have?" + +The inquirer was Ruth. She stood, still in the corn-coloured frock, in +the doorway of her sister's room, from which her own opened. "Please +unhook me," she requested, approaching Roberta and turning her back +invitingly. + +Roberta, already out of the blue-silk gown, released her young sister +from the imprisonment of her hooks and eyes. + +"His manners are naturally too good to make it clear whether he had a +dull time or not," was Roberta's non-committal reply. + +"I don't believe his manners are too good to cover up his being bored, +if he was bored," Ruth went on. "He certainly wasn't bored _all_ the +time, anybody could tell that. He's very good-looking, isn't he?" + +"If you care for that sort of good looks--yes." + +"What sort?" + +"The kind that doesn't express anything--except having had a good time +every minute of one's life." + +"Why, Rob, what's the matter with you? Anybody would think you had +something against poor Mr. Kendrick." + +"If he were 'poor Mr. Kendrick' there might be a chance of liking him, +for he would have had to _do_ something." + +Roberta was pulling out hairpins with energy, and now let the whole dark +mass tumble about her shoulders. The half-curling locks were very thick +and soft, and as she shook them away from her face she reminded Ruth of +a certain wild little Arabian pony of her own. + +"You throw back your head just like Sheik when he's going to bolt," Ruth +cried, laughing. "I wish my hair were like that. It looks perfectly dear +whatever you do with it, and mine's only pretty when it's been put just +right." + +"It certainly was put just right to-night then," said a third voice, and +Rosamond, Stephen's wife, appeared in Roberta's half-open door. "May I +come in? Steve hasn't come up yet, and I'm so comfortable in this loose +thing I want to sit up a while and enjoy it." + +Rosamond looked hardly older than Roberta; there were times when she +looked younger, being small and fair. Ruth considered her quite as much +of a girl as either herself or Roberta, and welcomed her eagerly to the +discussion in which she herself was so much interested. + +"Rosy," was her first question, "did _you_ think our guest was bored +to-night?" + +"Bored?" exclaimed Mrs. Stephen in surprise. "Why should he be? He +didn't look it whenever I observed him. And if you had seen him when the +trio was playing you wouldn't have thought so. By the way, he has an eye +for colour. He noticed how your frock and Rob's went together in the +candle-light, with the harp to give a touch of gold." + +"Did he say so?" cried Ruth in delight. + +"He asked if the colour scheme was intentional. I said I thought it +probably was--on your part. Rob never thinks of colour schemes." + +"Neither does any _man_," murmured Roberta from the depths of the hair +she was brushing with an energetic arm. "Unless it happens to be his +business," she amended. + +"Rob doesn't like him," declared Ruth, "just because he has money and +good looks and doesn't work for his living, and likes pretty colour +schemes. He probably gets that from having seen so much wonderful art in +his travels. Aren't painters just as good as bridge-builders? Rob +doesn't think so. She wants every man to get his hands grubby." + +Roberta turned about, laughing. "This one isn't even a painter. Go to +bed, you foolish, analytical child. And don't dream of the beautiful +guest who admired your corn-coloured frock." + +"He only liked it because it set off your blue one," Ruth shot back. + +"He said nothing whatever about my lovely new white gown," Rosamond +called after her. + +Roberta came up to her sister-in-law from behind and put both arms about +her. "Stephen came and whispered in my ear to-night," said she, "and +wanted to know if I had ever seen Rosy look sweeter. I said I had--an +hour before. He asked what you had on, and I said, 'A gray kimono--and +the baby on her arm.' He smiled and nodded--and I saw the look in his +eyes." + +"Rob, you're the dearest sister a girl ever had given to her," Rosamond +answered, returning the embrace. + +"And yet you two say I don't care for colour schemes," Roberta reminded +her as she returned to her hair-brushing. "I care enough for them to +want them made up of colours that will wash--warranted not to fade--that +will stand sun and rain and only grow the more beautiful!" + +"What _are_ you talking about now, dear?" laughed Rosamond happily, +still thinking of what Stephen had said to Roberta. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RICHARD PRICKS HIS FINGERS + + +Hoofbeats on the driveway outside the window! Beside the window stood +the desk at which Richard was accustomed to work at Judge Gray's +dictation. And at the desk on this most alluring of all alluring +Indian-summer days in middle November sat a young man with every drop of +blood in his vigorous body shouting to him to drop his work and rush +out, demanding: "Take me with you!" + +For there, walking their horses along the driveway from the distant +stables, were three figures on horseback. There was one with sunny +hair--Ruth--her brown habit the colour of the pretty mare she rode; one +with russet-gaitered legs astride of the little Arabian pony called +Sheik--Ted; one, all in dark, beautifully tailored green, with a soft +gray hat pulled over masses of dusky hair, her face--Richard could see +her face now as the horses drew nearer--all gay and eager for the +ride--Roberta. + +Judge Gray, his glance following his companion's, looked out also. He +rose and came and stood behind Richard at the window and tapped upon the +pane, waving his hand as the riders looked up. Instantly all three faces +lighted with happy recognition and acknowledgment. Ruth waved and +nodded. Ted pulled off his cap and swung it. Roberta gave a quick +military salute, her gray-gauntleted hand at her hat brim. + +Richard smiled with the Judge at the charming sight, and sighed with the +next breath. What a fool he had been to tie himself down to this desk +when other people were riding into the country! Yet--if he hadn't been +tied to that desk he would neither have known nor cared who rode out +from the old Gray stables, or where they went. + +The Judge caught the slight escaping breath and smiled again as the +riders passed out of sight. "It makes you wish for the open country, +doesn't it?" said he. "I don't blame you. I should have gone with the +young folks myself if I had been ten years younger. It _is_ a fine day, +isn't it? I've been so absorbed I hadn't observed. Suppose we stop work +at three and let ourselves out into God's outdoors? Not a bad idea, eh?" + +"Not bad," agreed Richard with a leap of spirits, "if it pleases you, +sir. I'm ready to work till the usual time if you prefer." + +"Well spoken. But I don't prefer. I shall enjoy a stroll down the avenue +myself in this sunshine. What sunshine--for November!" + +It was barely three when the Judge released his assistant, two hours +after the riding party had left. As he opened the front door and ran to +his waiting car, Richard was wondering how many miles away they were and +in what direction they had gone. He wanted nothing so much as to meet +them somewhere on the road--better yet, to overtake and come upon them +unawares. + +A powerful car driven by a determined and quick-witted young man may +scour considerable country while three horses, trotting in company, are +covering but a few short miles. Richard was sure of one thing: whichever +road appealed to the young Grays as most picturesque and secluded on +this wonderful Indian-summer afternoon would be their choice. Not the +main highways of travel, but some enticing by-way. Where would that be? +He decided on a certain course, with a curious feeling that he could +follow wherever Roberta led, by the invisible trail of her radiant +personality. He would see! Mile after mile--he took them swiftly, +speeding out past the West Wood marshes with assurance of the fact that +this was certainly one of the favourite ways. + +Twelve miles out he came to a fork in the road. Which trail? One led up +a steep hill, the other down into the river valley, soft-veiled in the +late sunshine. Which trail? He could seem to see Roberta choosing the +hill and putting her horse up it, while Ruth called out that the valley +road was better. With a sense of exhilaration he sent the car up the +hill, remembering that from the top was a broad view sure to be worth +while on a day like this. Besides, up here he might be able to see far +ahead and discern the party somewhere in the distance. + +Just over the brow he came upon them where they had camped by the +roadside. It was a road quite off the line of travel and they were a +hundred feet back among a clump of pine trees, their horses tied to the +fence-rail. A bonfire sent up a pungent smoke half veiling the figures. +But the car had come roaring up the hill, and they were all looking his +way. Two of the horses had plunged a little at the sudden noise, and Ted +ran forward. Richard stopped his engine, triumphant, his pulses +quickening with a bound. + +"Oh, hullo!" cried Ted in joyful excitement. "Where'd you come from, Mr. +Kendrick? Isn't this luck!" + +"This is certainly luck," responded Richard, doffing his hat as the +figures by the fire moved his way, the one in brown coming quickly, the +one in green rather more slowly. "Your uncle released me at three and I +rushed for the open. What a day!" + +"Isn't it wonderful?" Ruth came up to the brown mare, which was eying +the big car with some resentment. She patted the velvet nose as she +spoke. "Don't you mind, Bess," she reproached the mare. "It's nothing +but a puffing, noisy car. It's not half so nice as you." + +She smiled up at Richard and he smiled back. "I rather think you're +right," he admitted. "I used to think myself there was nothing like a +good horse. I'd like to exchange the car for one just now; I'm sure of +that." + +"It wouldn't buy any one of ours." Roberta, coming up, glanced from the +big machine to the trio of interested animals, all of which were keeping +watchful eyes on the intruder. "Nonsense, Colonel,--stand still!" + +"I don't want to buy one of yours; I want one of my own, to ride back +with you--if you'd let me." + +"Anyhow, you can stop and have a bite with us," said Ted, with a sudden +thought. "Can't he, Rob?" + +Roberta smiled. "If he is as hungry as he looks." + +"Do I look hungry?" + +"Starving. So do we, no doubt. Come and have some sandwiches." + +"We're going to toast them," explained Ruth, walking back to the fire +with Richard when he had leaped with alacrity over the fence, his hat +left behind, his brown head shining in the sun, his face happier than +any of his fellow-clubmen had seen it in a year, as they would have been +quick to notice if any of them had come upon him now. "We have ginger +ale, too; do you like ginger ale?" + +"Immensely!" Richard eyed the preparations with interest. "How do you +toast your sandwiches?" + +"On forks of wood; Ted's going to cut them." + +"Please let me." And the guest fell to work. He found a keen enjoyment +in preparing these implements, and afterward in the process of toasting, +which was done every-one-for-himself, with varying degrees of success. +The sandwiches were filled with a rich cheese mixture, and the result of +toasting them was a toothsome morsel most gratifying to the hungry +palate. + +"One more?" urged Ruth, offering Richard the nearly empty box which had +contained a good supply. + +"Thank you--no; I've had seven," he refused, laughing. "Nothing ever +tasted quite so good. And I'm an interloper." + +"Here's to the interloper!" Ruth raised her glass and drank the last of +her ginger ale. "We always provide for one. Usually it's a small boy." + +"More often a pair of them. And always there are Bess, Colonel, and +Sheik." Roberta rose to her feet, the last three sandwiches in hand, and +walked away to the horses tied to the fence-rail. + +Richard's eyes followed her. In the austere lines of her riding-habit he +could see more clearly than he had yet done what a superb young image of +health and energy she was. + +"Rob adores horses," Ruth remarked, looking after her sister also. "You +ought to see her ride cross-country. My Bess can't jump, but her Colonel +can. I don't believe there's anything in sight Rob and Colonel couldn't +jump. But I can never get used to seeing her; I have to shut my eyes +when Colonel rises, and I don't open them till I hear him land. But he's +never fallen with her, and she says he never will." + +"He won't." + +"Why not? Any horse might, you know, if he slipped on wet ground or +something." + +"He never will with her on his back. He's more likely to jump so high +he'll never come down." + +Ruth laughed. "Look at Colonel rub his nose against her, now he's had +the sandwich. Don't you wish you had a picture of them?" + +"Indeed I do!" The tone was fervent. Then a thought struck him and he +jumped to his feet. "By all luck, I believe there's a little camera in +the car. If there is we'll have it." + +He ran to the fence, took a flying leap over, and fell to searching. In +a moment he produced something which he waved at Ruth. She and Ted went +to meet him as he returned. Roberta, busy with the horses, had not seen. + +"There are only two exposures left on the film, but they'll do, if +she'll be good. Will she mind if I snap her, or must I ask her +permission?" + +"I think you'd better ask it," counselled Ruth doubtfully. "If it were +one of us she wouldn't mind--" + +"I see." He set the little instrument with a skilled touch and rapidly, +then walked toward Roberta and the horses. He aimed it with care, then +he called: "You won't mind if I take a picture of the horses, will you?" + +Roberta turned quickly, her hand on Colonel's snuggling nose. "Not at +all," she answered, and took a quick step to one side. But before she +had taken it the sharp-eyed little lens of the camera had caught her, +her attitude at the instant one of action, the expression of her face +that of vivacious response. She flew out of range and before she could +speak the camera clicked again, this time the lens so obviously pointed +at the animals, and not at herself, that the intent of the operator +could not be called in question. + +She looked at him with indignant suspicion, but his glance in return was +innocent, though his eyes sparkled. + +"They'll make the prettiest kind of a picture, won't they?" he observed, +sliding the small black box back into its case. "I wish I had another +film; I'd take a lot of pictures about this place. I mean always to be +loaded, but November isn't usually the time for photographs, and I'd +forgotten all about it." + +"If you find you have a picture of me on one of those shots I can trust +you not to keep it?" + +"I may have caught you on that first shot. I'll bring it to you to see. +If your hat is tilted too much or you don't like your own expression--" + +"I shall not like it, whatever it is. You stole it. That wasn't +fair--and when you had just been treated to sandwiches and ginger ale!" + +He looked into her brilliant face and could not tell what he saw there. +He opened the camera box again and took out the instrument. He removed +the roll of films carefully from its position, sealed it, and held it +out to her. His manner was the perfection of courtesy. + +"There are other pictures on the roll, I suppose?" she said doubtfully, +without accepting it. + +"Certainly. I forget what they are. But it doesn't matter." + +"Of course it matters. Have them developed--and give me back my own." + +"If I develop them I shall be obliged to see yours--if you are on it. If +I once see it I may not have the force of character to give it back. +Your only safe course is to take it now." + +Ted burst into the affair with a derisive shout. "Oh, Rob! What a silly +to care about that little bit of a picture! Let him have it. It was only +the horses he wanted anyway!" + +The two pairs of eyes met. His were full of deference, yet compelling. +Hers brimmed with restrained laughter. With a gesture she waved back the +roll and walked away toward the fire. + +"Thank you," said he behind her. "I'll try to prove myself worthy of the +trust." + +"Rufus! Dare you to run down the hill to that big tree with me!" Ted, no +longer interested in this tame conclusion of what had promised to be an +exciting encounter, challenged his sister. Ruth accepted, and the pair +were off down a long, inviting slope none too smooth, with a stiff +stubble, but not the less attractive for that. + +Richard and Roberta were left standing at the top of the hill near the +place where the fire was smouldering into dulness. Before them stretched +the valley, brown and yellow and dark green in the November sunlight, +with a gray-blue river winding its still length along. In the far +distance a blue-and-purple haze enveloped the hills; above all stretched +a sky upon whose fairness wisps of clouds were beginning to show here +and there, while in the south the outlines of a rising bank of gray gave +warning that those who gazed might look their fill to-day--to-morrow +there would be neither sunlight nor purple haze. The two looked in +silence for a minute, not at the boy and girl shouting below, but at the +beauty in the peaceful landscape. + +"An Indian-summer day," said Roberta gravely, as if her mood had changed +with the moment, "is like the last look at something one is not sure one +shall ever see again." + +At the words Richard's gaze shifted from the hill to the face of the +girl beside him. The sunshine was full upon the rich bloom of her cheek, +upon the exquisite line of her dark eyebrow. What was the beauty of an +Indian-summer landscape compared with the beauty of budding summer in +that face? But he answered her in the same quiet way in which she had +spoken: "Yes, it's hard to have faith that winter can sweep over all +this and not blot it out forever. But it won't." + +"No, it won't. And after all I like the storms. I should like to stand +just here, some day when Nature was simply raging, and watch. I wish I +could build a stout little cabin right on this spot and come up here and +spend the worst night of the winter in it. I'd love it." + +"I believe you would. But not alone? You'd want company?" + +"I don't think I'd even mind being alone--if I had a good fire for +company--and a dog. I should be glad of a dog," she owned. + +"But not one good comrade, one who liked the same sort of thing?" + +"So few people really do. It would have to be somebody who wouldn't talk +when I wanted to listen to the wind, or wouldn't mind my not +talking--and yet who wouldn't mind my talking either, if I took a sudden +notion." She began to laugh at her own fancy, with the low, rich note +which delighted his ear afresh every time he heard it. "Comrades who are +tolerant of one's every mood are not common, are they? Mr. Kendrick, +what do you suppose those dots of bright scarlet are, halfway down the +hill? They must be rose haws, mustn't they? Nothing else could have that +colour in November." + +"I don't know what 'rose haws' are. Do you want them--whatever they are? +I'll go and get them for you." + +"I'll go, too, to see if they're worth picking. They're thorny things; +you won't like them, but I do." + +"You think I don't like thorny things?" he asked her as they went down +the hillside, up which Ted and Ruth were now struggling. It was steep +and he held out his hand to her, but she ignored it and went on with +sure, light feet. + +"No, I think you like them soft and rounded." + +"And you prefer them prickly?" + +"Prickly enough to be interesting." + +They reached the scraggly rosebush, bare except for the bright red haws, +their smooth hard surfaces shining in the sun. Richard got out his +knife, and by dint of scratching his hands in a dozen places, succeeded +in gathering quite a cluster. Then he went to work at getting rid of the +thorns. + +"You may like things prickly, but you'll be willing to spare a few of +these," he observed. + +He succeeded in time in pruning the cluster into subordination, bound +them with a tough bit of dried weed which he found at his feet, and held +out the bunch. "Will you do me the honour of wearing them?" + +She thrust the smooth stems into the breast of her riding-coat, where +they gave the last picturesque touch to her attire. "Thank you," she +acknowledged somewhat tardily. "I can do no less after seeing you +scarify yourself in my service. You might have put on your gloves." + +"I might--and suffered your scarifying mirth, which would have been much +worse. 'He jests at scars that never felt a wound,' but he who jests at +them after he has felt them is the hero. Observe that I still jest." He +put his lips to a bleeding tear on his wrist as he spoke. "My only +regret is that the rose haws were not where they are now when I +photographed the horses. Only, mine is not a colour camera. I must get +one and have it with me when I drive, in case of emergencies like this +one." + +A whimsical expression touching his lips, he gazed off over the +landscape as he spoke, and she glanced at his profile. She was obliged +to admit to herself that she had seldom noted one of better lines. +Curiously enough, to her observation there did not lack a suggestion of +ruggedness about his face, in spite of the soft and easy life she +understood him to have led. + +Ted and Ruth now came panting up to them, and the four climbed together +to the hilltop. + +Roberta turned and scanned the sun. Immediately she decreed that it was +time to be off, reminding her protesting young brother that the November +dusk falls early and that it would be dark before they were at home. + +Richard put both sisters into their saddles with the ease of an old +horseman. "I've often regretted selling a certain black beauty named +Desperado," he remarked as he did so, "but never more than at this +minute. My motor there strikes me as disgustingly overadequate to-day. I +can't keep you company by any speed adjustment in my control, and if I +could your steeds wouldn't stand it. I'll let you start down before me +and stay here for a bit. It's too pleasant a place to leave. And even +then I shall be at home before you--worse luck!" + +"We're sorry, too," said Ruth, and Ted agreed, vociferously. As for +Roberta, she let her eyes meet his for a moment in a way so rare with +her, whose heavy lashes were forever interfering with any man's direct +gaze, that Richard made the most of his opportunity. He saw clearly at +last that those eyes were of the deepest sea blue, darkened almost to +black by the shadowing lashes. If by some hard chance he should never +see them again he knew he could not forget them. + +With beat of impatient hoofs upon the hard road the three were off, +their chorusing farewells coming back to him over their shoulders. When +they were out of sight he went back to the place on the hilltop where he +had stood beside Roberta, and thought it all over. In that way only +could he make shift to prolong the happiness of the hour. + +The happiness of the hour! What had there been about it to make it the +happiest hour he could recall? Such a simple, outdoor encounter! He had +spent many an hour which had lingered in his memory--hours in places +made enchanting to the eye by every device of cunning, in the society of +women chosen for their beauty, their wit, their power to allure, to +fascinate, to intoxicate. He had had his senses appealed to by every +form of attraction a clever woman can fabricate, herself a miracle of +art in dress, in smile, in speech. He had gone from more than one door +with his head swimming, the vivid recollection of the hour just past a +drug more potent than the wine that had touched his lips. + +His head was not swimming now, thank heaven, though his pulses were +unquestionably alive. It was the exhilaration of healthy, powerful +attraction, of which his every capacity for judgment approved. He had +not been drugged by the enchantment which is like wine--he had been +stimulated by the charm which is like the feel of the fresh wind upon +the brow. Here was a girl who did not need the background of +artificiality, one who could stand the sunlight on her clear cheek--and +the sunlight on her soul--he knew that, without knowing how he knew. It +was written in her sweet, strong, spirited face, and it was there for +men to read. No man so blind but he can read a face like that. + +The darkness had almost fallen when he forced himself to leave the spot. +But--reward for going while yet a trace of dusky light remained--he had +not reached the bottom of the hill road, up which his car had roared an +hour before, when he saw something fallen there which made him pull the +motor up upon its throbbing cylinders. He jumped out and ran to rescue +what had fallen. It was the bunch of rose haws he had so carefully +denuded of thorns, and which she had worn upon her breast for at least a +short time before she lost it. She had not thrown it away intentionally, +he was sure of that. If she had she would not have flung it +contemptuously into the middle of the road for him to see. + +He put it into the pocket of his coat, where it made a queer bulge, but +he could not risk losing it by trusting it to the seat beside him. Until +he had won something that had been longer hers, it was a treasure not to +be lost. + +Four miles toward town he passed the riding party and exchanged a fire +of gay salutations with them. When he had left them behind he could not +reach home too soon. He hurried to his rooms, hunted out a receptacle of +silver and crystal and filled it with water, placed the bunch of rose +haws in it and set the whole on his reading-table, under the electric +drop-light, where it made a spot of brilliant colour. + +He had an invitation for the evening; he had cared little to accept it +when it had been given him; he was sorry now that he had not refused it. +As the hour drew near, his distaste grew upon him, but there was no way +in which he could withdraw without giving disappointment and even +offence. He went forth, therefore, with reluctance, to join precisely +such a party as he had many times made one of with pleasure and elation. +To-night, however, he found the greatest difficulty in concealing his +boredom, and he more than once caught himself upon the verge of actual +discourtesy, because of his tendency to become absent-minded and let the +merry-making flow by him without taking part in it. + +Altogether, it was with a strong sense of relief and freedom that he at +last escaped from what had seemed to him an interminable period of +captivity to the uncongenial moods and manners of other people. He +opened the door of his rooms with a sense of having returned to a place +where he could be himself--his new self--that strange new self who +singularly failed to enjoy the companionship of those who had once +seemed the most satisfying of comrades. + +The first thing upon which his eager glance fell was the bunch of +scarlet rose haws under the softly illumining radiance of the +drop-light. His eyes lighted, his lips broke into a smile--the lips +which had found it, all evening, so hard to smile with anything +resembling spontaneity. + +Hat in hand, he addressed his treasure: "I've come back to stay with +you!" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UNSUSTAINED APPLICATION + + +"Mr. Kendrick, do you understand typewriting?" + +Judge Gray's assistant looked up, a slight surprise on his face. "No, +sir, I do not," he said. + +"I am sorry. These sheets I am sending to the Capitol to be looked over +and criticised ought to be typewritten. I could send them downtown, but +I want the typist here at my elbow." + +He sat frowning a little with perplexity, and presently he reached for +the telephone. Then he put it down, his brow clearing. "This is +Saturday," he murmured. "If Roberta is at home--" + +He left the room. In five minutes he was back, his niece beside him. +Richard Kendrick had not set eyes upon her for a fortnight; he rose at +her appearance and stood waiting her recognition. She gave it, stopping +to offer him her hand as she passed him, smiling. But, this little +ceremony over, she became on the instant the business woman. Richard saw +it all, though he did his best to settle down to his work again and +pursue it with an air of absorption. + +Roberta went to a cupboard which opened from under bookshelves, and drew +therefrom a small portable typewriter. This she set upon a table beside +a window at right angles from Richard and all of twenty feet away from +him; she could hardly have put a greater distance between them. The +Judge drew up a chair for her; she removed the cover from the compact +little machine, and nodded at him. He placed his own chair beside her +table and sat down, copy in hand. + +"This is going to be a rather difficult business," said he. "There are +many points where I wish to indicate slight changes as we go along. I +can't attempt to read the copy to you, but should like to have you give +me the opening words of each paragraph as you come to it. I think I can +recall those which contain the points for revision." + +The work began. That is to say, work at the typewriter side of the room +began, and in earnest. From the first stroke of the keys it was evident +that the Judge had called to his aid a skilled worker. The steady, +smooth clicking of the machine was interrupted only at the ends of +paragraphs, when the Judge listened to the key words of the succeeding +lines. Roberta sat before that "typer" as if she were accustomed to do +nothing else for her living, her eyes upon the keys, her profile +silhouetted against the window beside her. + +As far as the mechanical part of the labour was concerned, Richard had +never seen a task get under way more promptly nor proceed with greater +or smoother dispatch. As he sat beside his own window he nearly faced +the pair at the other window. Try as he would he could not keep his mind +upon his work. It was a situation unique in his experience. That he, +Richard Kendrick, should be employed in serious work in the same room +with the niece of a prosperous and distinguished gentleman, a girl who +had not hesitated to learn a trade in which she had become proficient, +and that the three of them should spend the morning in this room +together, taking no notice of each other beyond that made necessary by +the task in hand--it was enough to make him burst out laughing. At the +same time he felt a genuine satisfaction in the situation. If he could +but work in the same room with her every day, though she should +vouchsafe him no word, how far from drudgery would the labour be then +removed! + +He managed to keep up at least the appearance of being closely engaged, +turning the leaves of books, making notes, arising to consult other +books upon the shelves. But he could not resist frequent furtive glances +at the profile outlined against the window. It was a distracting +outline, it must be freely admitted. Even upon the hill, seen against +the blue-and-purple haze, it had hardly been more so. What indeed could +a young man do but steal a look at it as often as he might? There was no +knowing when he should have such another chance. + +Things proceeded in this course without interruption until eleven +o'clock. The Judge, finding it possible to get ahead so satisfactorily +by this new method, decided to send on considerably more material to be +passed upon by his critical coadjutor at the Capitol than he had +originally intended to do at this time. But as the clock struck the hour +a caller's card was sent in to him, and with a word to Roberta he left +the room to see his visitor elsewhere. + +Roberta finished her paragraph, then sat studying the next one. She did +not look up, nor did Richard. The moments passed and the Judge did not +return. Roberta rose and threw open the window beside her, letting in a +great sweep of December air. + +Richard seized his opportunity. "Good for you!" he applauded. "Shall I +open mine?" + +"Please. It will warm up again very quickly. It began to seem stifling." + +"Not much like the place where you want to build a cabin and stay alone +in a storm. Or--not alone. You are willing to have a dog with you. What +sort of a dog?" + +"A Great Dane, I think. I have a friend who owns one. They are +inseparable." + +By the worst of luck the Judge chose this moment to return, and the +windows went down with a rush. + +The Judge shivered, smiling at the pair. "You young things, all warmth +and vitality! You are never so happy as when the wind is lifting your +hair. Now I think I'm pretty vigorous for my years, but I wouldn't sit +and talk in a room with two open windows, in December." + +"Neither can we--hang it!" thought Richard. "Why couldn't that chap have +stayed a few minutes longer--when we'd just got started?" + +At luncheon-time Roberta's part in the work was not completed. Her uncle +asked for two hours more of her time and she cheerfully promised it. So +at two o'clock the stage was again set as a business office, the actors +again engaged in their parts. But at three the situation was abruptly +changed. + +"I believe there are no more revisions to be made," declared Judge Gray +with a sigh of weariness. "I have taxed you heavily, my dear, but if you +are equal to finishing these eleven sheets for me by yourself I shall be +grateful. My eyes have reached the limit of endurance, even with all the +help you have given me. I must go to my room." + +He paused by Richard's desk on his way out. "Have you finished the +abstract of the chapter on Judge Cahill?" he asked. "No? I thought you +would perhaps have covered that this morning. But--I do not mean to +exact too much. It will be quite satisfactory if you can complete it +this afternoon." + +"I am sorry," said his assistant, flushing in a quite unaccustomed +manner. "I have been working more slowly than I realized. I will finish +it as rapidly as I can, sir." + +"Don't apologize, Mr. Kendrick. We all have our slow days. I undoubtedly +underestimated the amount of time the chapter would require. Good +afternoon to you." + +Richard sat down and plunged into the task he now saw he had merely +played with during the morning. By a tremendous effort he kept his eyes +from lifting to the figure at the typewriter, whose steady clicking +never ceased but for a moment at a time, putting him to shame. Yet try +as he would he could not apply himself with any real concentration; and +the task called for concentration, all he could command. + +"You are probably not used to working in the same room with a +typewriter," said his companion, quite unexpectedly, after a full half +hour of silence. She had stopped work to oil a bearing in her machine. +There was an odd note in her voice; it sounded to Richard as if she +meant: "You are not used to doing anything worth while." + +"I don't mind it in the least," he protested. + +"I'm sorry not to take my work to another room," Roberta went on, +tipping up her machine and manipulating levers with skill as she applied +the oil. "But I shall soon be through." + +"Please don't hurry. I ought to be able to work under any conditions. +And I certainly enjoy having you at work in the same room," he ventured +to add. It was odd how he found himself merely venturing to say to this +girl things which he would have said without hesitation--putting them +much more strongly withal--to any other girl he knew. + +"One needs to be able to forget there's anybody in the same room." There +was a little curl of scorn about her lips. + +"That might be easier to do under some conditions than others." He did +not mean to be trampled upon. + +But Roberta finished her oiling in silence and again applied herself to +her typing with redoubled energy. + +He went at his abstract, suddenly furious with himself. He would show +her that he could work as persistently as she. He could not pretend to +himself that she was not absorbed. Only entire absorption could enable +her to reel off those pages without more than an infrequent stop for the +correction of an error. + +Turning a page in the big volume of records of speeches in the State +Legislature, which he was consulting, Richard came upon a sheet of paper +on which was written something in verse. His eye went to the bottom of +the sheet to see there the source of the quotation--Browning--with +reference to title and page. No harm to read a quoted poem, certainly; +his eyes sought it eagerly as a relief from the sonorous phrasing of the +speech he was attempting to read. He had never seen the words before; +the first line--and he must read to the end. What a thing to find in a +dusty volume of forgotten speeches of a date long past! + +Such a starved bank of moss + Till, that May-morn, +Blue ran the flash across: + Violets were born! + +Sky--what a scowl of cloud + Till, near and far, +Ray on ray split the shroud: + Splendid, a star! + +World--how it walled about + Life with disgrace +Till God's own smile came out: + That was thy face! + +Speeches were forgotten; he devoured the words over and over again. They +seemed to him to have been made expressly for him. A starved bank of +moss--that was exactly what he had been, only he had not known it, but +had fancied himself a garden of rich resource. He knew better now, +starved he was, and starved he would remain--unless he could make the +violets his own. No doubt but he had found them! + +He followed an impulse. Rising, the sheet of yellowed paper in his hand, +he walked over to the typewriter. Without apology he laid the sheet upon +the pile of typed ones at her side. + +"See what I've found in an old volume of state speeches." + +Roberta's busy hand stopped. Her eyes scanned the yellow page upon which +the stiff, fine handwriting, clearly that of a man, stood out legibly as +print. Business woman she might be, but she could not so far abstract +herself as not to be touched by the hint of romance involved in finding +such words in such a place. + +"How strange!" she owned. "And they've been there a long time, by the +look of the paper and ink. I never saw the handwriting before. Perhaps +Uncle Calvin lent the book to somebody long ago and the 'somebody' left +this in it." + +"Shall I put it back, or show it to Judge Gray?" + +He remained beside her though she had handed back the paper. + +"Put it back, don't you think? If you wrote out such words and left them +in a book, you would want them to stay there, not to be looked at +curiously by other eyes fifty years after." + +"That's somebody's heart there on that sheet of old paper," said he. +Apparently he was looking at the paper; in reality he was stealing a +glance past it at her down-bent face. + +"Not necessarily. Somebody may merely have been attracted by the music +of the lines. Put it back, Mr. Secretary, and concern yourself with +Judge Cahill. It's to be hoped that you won't find any more distracting +verse between his pages." + +"Why not? Oughtn't one to get all the poetry one can out of life?" + +"Not in business hours." + +He laughed in spite of himself at the failure of his effort to make her +self-conscious by any reading of such lines in his presence. Clearly she +meant to allow no personal relation to arise between them while they +were thrown together by Judge Gray's need of them. She fell to typing +again with even more energy than before, if that were possible, while +he--it must be confessed that before he laid the verses away between the +pages for another fifty years' sleep he had made note of their identity, +that he might look them up again in a seldom opened copy of the English +poet on his shelves at home. They belonged to him now! + +In half an hour more Roberta's machine stopped clicking. Swiftly she +covered it, set it away in the book-cupboard, and put her table in +order. She laid the typewritten sheets together upon Judge Gray's desk +in a straight-edged pile, a paperweight on top. In her simple dress of +dark blue, trim as any office woman's attire, she might have been a +hired stenographer--of a very high class--putting her affairs in order +for the day. + +Richard waited till she approached his desk, which she had to pass on +her way out. Then he rose to his feet. + +"Allow me to congratulate you," said he, "on having accomplished a long +task in the minimum length of time possible. I am lost in wonder that a +hand which can play the 'cello with such art can play the typewriter +with such skill." + +"Thank you." There was a flash of mirth in her eyes. "There's music in +both if you have ears to hear." + +"I have recognized that to-day." + +"You never heard it before? Music in the hammer on the anvil, in the +throb of the engine, in the hum of the dynamo." + +"And in the scratch of the pen, the pounding of the boiler shop, and +the--the--slide and grind of the trolley-car, I suppose?" + +"Indeed, yes--even in those. And there'll surely be melody in the +closing of the door which shuts you in to solitude after this +distracting day. Listen to it! Good-bye." + +He long remembered the peculiar parting look she gave him, satiric, +mischievous, yet charmingly provocative. She was keen of mind, she was +brilliant of wit, but she was all woman--no doubt of that. He was +suddenly sure that she had known well enough all day the effect that she +had had upon him, and that it had amused her. His cheek reddened at the +thought. He wondered why on earth he should care to pursue an attempt at +acquaintance with one whose manner with him was frequently so disturbing +to his self-conceit. Well, at least he must forget her now, and redeem +himself with an hour's solid effort. + +But, strange to say, although he had found it difficult to work in her +presence, in her absence he found it impossible to work at all. He stuck +doggedly to his desk for the appointed hour, then gave over the attempt +and departed. The moral of all this, which he discovered he could not +escape, was that though he had taken his university degree, and had +supplemented the academic education with the broader one of travel and +observation, he had not at his command that first requisite for +efficient labour: the power of sustained application. In a way he had +been dimly suspicious of this since the day he had begun this pretence +of work for his grandfather's old friend. To-day, at sight of a girl's +steady concentration upon a wearisome task in spite of his own +supposably diverting presence, it had been brought home to him with +force that he was unquestionably reaping that inevitable product of +protracted idleness: the loss of the power to work. + +As he drove away it suddenly occurred to him that on the morrow, instead +of coming to the house in his car, he would leave it in the garage and +walk. Between the discovery of his inefficiency and his resolution to +dispense with a hitherto accustomed luxury there may have been a subtler +connection than appears to the eye. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TRAITOROUS PROCEEDING + + +"We shall have to make our work count this week, Mr. Kendrick. Next week +I anticipate that there will be no chance whatever to do a stroke." So +spoke Judge Gray to his assistant on one Monday morning as he shook +hands with him in greeting. + +"Very well, sir," replied the young man, with, however, a sense of its +not being at all well. It was to him a regrettable fact that he seldom +saw much of the various members of the household, and of one particular +member so little that he was tempted to wonder if she ever took the +trouble to evade him. But, of course, there was always the chance of an +encounter, and he never opened the house door without the feeling that +just inside might be a certain figure on its way out. + +"Next week is Christmas week," explained Judge Gray. He stood upon the +hearth-rug, his back to the open fire, warming his hands preparatory to +taking up his pen. His fingers were apt to be a little stiff on these +December mornings. "During Christmas week this house is always given +over to such holiday doings as I don't imagine another house in town +ever knows. Christmas house-parties are plenty, I believe, but not the +sort of house-party we indulge in. I am inclined to think ours beats the +world." + +He chuckled, running his hand through the thick white locks above his +brow with a gesture which Richard had come to know meant special +satisfaction. + +"You have so many and such delightful people?" suggested his assistant. + +The white head nodded. "The house would hardly hold more, nor could they +be more delightful. You see, there are five brothers of us. I am the +eldest, Robert the youngest. Rufus, Henry, and Philip come between. +Henry and Philip live in small towns, Rufus in the country proper. Each +has a good-sized family, with several married sons and daughters who +have children of their own. It has been my brother Robert's custom for +twenty years to ask them all here for Christmas week." He began to +laugh. "If the family keeps on growing much larger I don't know that +there will be room to accommodate them all, but so far my sister has +always managed. Fortunately this is an even more roomy old homestead +than it looks. But you may easily imagine, Mr. Kendrick, that there is +very little chance for solitude and quiet work during that week." + +"I can fully imagine," agreed Richard. "And yet I can't imagine," he +amended. "I never saw such a gathering in my life." + +"Never did, eh? You must come in some time during the week and get a +glimpse of it. We have fine times, I can tell you. My old head sometimes +whirls a bit," the Judge admitted, "before the week is over, but--it's +worth it. Particularly on the night of the party. The children always +have a party on Christmas Eve in the attic. It's a great affair. No +dancing-parties nor balls in other places can be mentioned in the same +breath with it. You should see brother Rufus taking out my niece +Roberta, and brother Henry dancing with Stephen's little wife. The girls +accommodate themselves to the old-fashioned steps in great style." + +"I certainly should like to see it," Richard said, wondering if there +were any possible chance of his being invited. + +But Judge Gray offered no suggestion of the sort, and Richard made up +his mind that the Christmas Eve dance would be a strictly family affair. +"Probably the country relatives are a queer lot," he decided, "and the +Grays don't care to show them off. Still--that's not like them, either. +It's certainly like them to do such an eccentric thing as to get their +cousins all here and try to give them a good time. I should like to see +it. I should!" + +He found his thoughts wandering many times during the morning's work to +the image of Roberta dancing with the old uncle from the country. He had +never met her at any of the society dances which were now and then +honoured by his presence. Unquestionably the Grays moved in a circle +with which he was not familiar--a circle made up of people distinguished +rather for their good birth and the things which they had done than for +their wealth. Nobody in the city stood upon a higher social level than +the Grays, but they lived in a world in which the gay and fashionable +set Richard knew were totally unknown and unhonoured. + +The more he thought about it the more he wished that, if only for a +week, he were at least a sixteenth cousin of the Gray family, that he +might be present at that Christmas party. But during the week chance did +not even throw him in the way of meeting the various members of the +family proper, and when Saturday night came he had discovered no +prospect of attaining his wish. He knew that the guests were to arrive +on the following Monday. Christmas Day was on Saturday; the night of the +party then would be Friday night. And the Judge, in taking leave of him, +did not even mention again his wish that Richard might see the guests +together. + +He was coming out of the library, on his way to the hall door, hope +having died hard and his spirits being correspondingly depressed, when +Fate at last intervened in his behalf. Fate took the form of young Mrs. +Stephen Gray, descending the stairs with a two-year-old child in her +arms, such a rosy, brown-eyed cherub of a child that an older and more +hardened bachelor than Richard Kendrick need not have been suspected of +dissimulation if he had stopped short in his course as Richard did, to +admire and wonder. + +"Is that a real, live boy?" cried the young man softly. "Or have you +stolen him out of a frame somewhere?" + +Mrs. Stephen stood still, smiling, on the bottom stair, and Richard +approached with eager interest. He came close and stood looking into the +small face with eyes which took in every exquisite feature. + +"Jove!" he said, under his breath, and looked up at the young mother. "I +didn't know they made them like that." + +She laughed softly, with a mother's happy pride. "His little sister +really ought to have had his looks," she said. "But we're hoping she'll +develop them, and he'll grow plain in time to save him from being +spoiled." + +"Do you really hope that?" he laughed incredulously. "Don't hope it too +fast. See here, Boy, are you real? Come here and let me see." He held +out his arms. + +"He's very shy," began Mrs. Stephen in explanation of the situation she +now expected to have develop. It did develop in so far that the child +shyly buried his head in her shoulder. But in a moment he peeped out +again. Richard continued to hold out his arms, smiling, and suddenly the +little fellow leaned forward. Richard gently drew him away from his +mother, and, though he looked back at her as if to make sure that she +was there, he presently seemed to surrender himself with confidence into +the stranger's care and gave him back smile for smile. + +Richard sat down with little Gordon Gray on his knee, and then ensued +such a conversation between the two, such a frolic of games and smiles, +as his mother could only regard in wonder. + +"He never makes friends easily," she said. "I can't understand it. You +must have had plenty of experience with little children somehow, in +spite of those statements about your never having seen a family like +ours before." + +"I never held a child like this one before in my life," said Richard +Kendrick. He looked up at her as he spoke. + +"If Roberta could see him now," thought Mrs. Stephen, "she wouldn't be +so hard on him. No man who isn't worth knowing can win a baby's +confidence like that. I think he has one of the nicest faces I ever +saw--even though it isn't lined with care." Aloud she said: "It +surprises me that you should care to begin now." + +"It's one of those new experiences I'm getting from time to time under +this roof; that's the only way I can account for it. I never even +guessed at the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a small chap like +this. But I've no right to keep you while I taste new experiences. Thank +you for this one. I shan't forget it." + +He surrendered the boy with evident reluctance. "I hear you are to have +a houseful of guests next week," he ventured to add. "Do they include +any first cousins of this little man?" + +"Two--of his own age--and any number of older ones. I'll take you up to +the playroom some afternoon next week and show you the babies together, +if you're interested, and if Uncle Calvin will let me interrupt his work +for a few minutes." + +"Thank you; I'll gladly come to the house for that special purpose, if +you'll let me know when. Judge Gray has decided not to try to work at +all next week; he's giving me a holiday I really don't want." + +"Are you so interested in your labours with him?" + +Their eyes met. There was something very sweet and womanly in Mrs. +Stephen's face and in the eyes which scanned his, or he would never have +dared to say what he said next. + +"Not in the work itself," he confessed frankly, "though I don't find it +as hard as I did at first. But--the association with Judge Gray, +the--well, I suppose it's really having something definite to do with my +time. Above all, just being in this house, though I don't belong to it, +is getting to seem so interesting to me that I'm afraid I shall hardly +know what to do with myself all next week." + +She could not doubt the genuineness of his admission, strange as it +sounded. So the young aristocrat was really dreading a week's vacation, +he who had done nothing but idle away his time. She felt a touch of pity +for him; yet how absurd it was! + +"I wish you could meet some of the people who will be here next week," +she said. "I wonder if you would care to?" + +"If they're anything like those of the Gray family, I already know I +should care immensely." He spoke with enthusiasm. + +"I think some of them are the most interesting people I have ever met. +My husband's Uncle Rufus, Judge Gray's brother--why, you must meet Uncle +Rufus. I'll speak to Mrs. Robert Gray about it. I'm sure if she thought +you cared she'd be delighted to have you know him. Then there's the +Christmas Eve dance. I wonder if you would enjoy that? We don't usually +have many people outside of the family, but there are always some of +Rob's and Louis's special friends asked for the dance, and I'm sure I +can arrange it. I'll mention it to Roberta." + +"Must it--er--rest with Miss Roberta? I'm afraid she won't ask me," +declared Richard anxiously. + +"Won't she? Why? She will probably say that she doesn't believe you will +enjoy it, but if I assure her that you want to come I think she will +trust me. She's very exacting as to the qualifications of the guests at +this dance, and will have nobody who isn't ready for a good time in +every unconventional way. I warn you, Mr. Kendrick, who are used to +leading cotillions, you may have to dance the Virginia reel with one of +the dear little country cousins. I wonder if you will have the +discernment to see that some of them are better worth meeting than a +good many of the girls you probably know." + +She gave him a keen, analyzing look. Small and sweet as she was, clearly +she belonged to this singular Gray family as if she had been born in it. +He met her look unflinchingly. Then his glance fell to little Gordon. + +"You trusted me with the boy," said he. "I think you may trust me with +the little country cousin--if she will do me the honour." + +"I will see that you have the chance," she assured him, and he went away +feeling like a boy who has been promised a long-desired and despaired-of +treat. + +But it was not of the Virginia reel he was thinking as he went swinging +away down the wintry street. + + * * * * * + +They were sitting, most of them, before the living-room fire, discussing +the plans for the week of the house-party, when Rosamond broke the news. + +"I've taken a great liberty," said she serenely, "for which I hope +you'll all forgive me. I've--tentatively--promised Mr. Kendrick an +invitation to the Christmas dance." + +There was a shout from Louis and Ted together. Ruth beamed with delight. +Across the fireplace Roberta shot at her sister-in-law one rebellious +glance. + +"I knew I had no right to do it," admitted Rosamond gayly. "But I knew +we always asked a few young people to swell the company to the dancing +size, and I was sure you couldn't ask anybody who would appreciate it +more." + +"Hasn't the poor fellow a chance at any other merry-making?" mocked +Louis. "Poor little millionaire! Won't anybody invite him to lead a +Christmas Eve cotillion? I believe there's to be a most gorgeous affair +of the sort at Mrs. Van Tassel Grieve's that night. Has he been +inadvertently overlooked? Not with Miss Gladys Grieve to oversee the +list of the lucky ones, I'll wager. It's a wonder he hadn't accepted +that invitation before you got in yours." + +"I didn't get mine in," was Rosamond's demure rejoinder. "I laid it in +an humbly beseeching hand." + +"How on earth did he know there was to be a dance here?" Stephen +inquired. + +"I mentioned it." + +"I had already told him of it," put in Judge Gray from the background, +where he was listening with interest. "I'm glad you asked him, Rosamond, +and I'll answer for your forgiveness. While you are inviting I should +like to invite his grandfather also. Christmas Eve is a lonely time for +him, I'll be bound, and it would do him good to meet Rufus and Phil, and +the rest again." + +"I'll tell you what we're going to end by being," murmured Louis to +Roberta:--"a 'Discontented Millionaires' Home.'" + + * * * * * + +On the stairs an hour afterward a brief but significant colloquy took +place between Rosamond Gray and her sister-in-law, Roberta. + +"Why do you mind having him come, Rob? Haven't you any charity for the +poor at Christmas time?" + +"Poor! He's poor enough, but he doesn't know it." + +"Doesn't he? The night he was here at dinner he told me he felt poor." +Rosamond's look was triumphant. "He feels it very much; he's never known +what family life meant." + +"Do you imagine he can adapt himself to the conditions of the Christmas +party? If I catch him laughing--ever so covertly--I'll send him home!" + +"You savage person! You don't expect to catch him laughing! He's a +gentleman. And I believe he's enough of a man to appreciate the aunts +and uncles and cousins, even those of them who don't patronize city +tailors and dressmakers. Why, they're perfectly delightful people, every +one of them, and he will have the discernment to see it." + +"I don't believe it. Where have you seen him that you have so much more +confidence than I have?" + +"I've had one or two little talks with him that have told me a good +deal. And this afternoon he met me as I was coming downstairs with +Gordon. Rob, what do you think? Gordon went to him exactly as he goes to +Stephen; they had the greatest time. Gordon knows better than you do +whom to trust." + +"You and Gordon are very discerning. A handsome face and a wheedling +manner--and you think you have a fine, strong character. Handsome is as +handsome does, Rosy Gray of the soft heart, and a wheedling manner is +dust and ashes compared with the ability to accomplish something worth +effort. But--bring your nice young man to the party if you like; only +take care of him. I shall be busy with the real men!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ROSES RED + + +It was certainly rather a curious coincidence that when Mr. Matthew +Kendrick and his grandson Richard entered upon the scene of the Grays' +Christmas Eve party it should be at the moment when Mr. Rufus Gray and +his niece Roberta were dancing a quadrille together. Richard had just +been received by his hosts and had turned from them to look about him, +when his searching eye caught sight of the pair. This was the precise +moment--he always afterward recalled it--when his heart gave its first +great, disconcerting leap at sight of her, such a leap as he had never +known could shake a man to the foundations. + +He had never seen precisely this Roberta before; he explained it to +himself in that way. It was a good explanation. Any sane man who saw her +for the first time that night must instantly have fallen under her +spell. + +The Christmas party was the event of the year dearest to Roberta's +heart. The planning for it, since she had been old enough to take her +part, had been in her hands; it was she who was responsible for every +detail of decoration. The great attic room, which was a glorious +playroom the rest of the year, was transformed on Christmas into a +fairyland. The results were brought about in much the same way as in +other places of revelry, with lighting and draping and the use of +evergreens and flowers; but somehow one felt that no drawing-room +similarly treated could have been half so charming as the big attic +spaces with their gables. + +And the company! At first Richard saw only the pair who danced together +in the quadrille. If he had glanced about him he might have observed +that the gaze of nearly all who were not dancing was centred upon those +two. + +Uncle Rufus was the plumpest, jolliest, most altogether delightful +specimen of the country gentleman that Richard had ever seen. His ruddy +face was clean-shaven, his heavy gray hair waved a little with a boyish +effect about his ears. He was carefully dressed in a frock coat of a cut +not so ancient as to be at all odd, and it fitted his broad shoulders +with precision. He wore a white waistcoat and a flowing black tie, which +helped to carry out the impression of his being a boy whose hair had +accidentally turned gray. As he danced he put every possible +embellishment of posture and step into his task, and when he bowed to +Roberta his attitude expressed the deepest reverence, offset only by his +laughing face as he advanced to take her hand. + +But as for the girl herself--what was she? A beauty stepping out of a +portrait by one of the masters? She wore her grandmother's ball gown of +rose-coloured brocade, and her hair was arranged in the fashion that +went with it, small curls escaping from the knot at the back of her +head, a style which set off her radiant face with peculiarly piquant +effect. Her cheeks matched her frock, and her eyes--what were her eyes? +Black stars, or wells of darkness into which a man might fall and drown +himself? + +She seemed to draw to herself, as she danced, among the soberer colours +of her elders and the white frocks of the country cousins, all the light +in the room. "I would look at something else if I could," thought +Richard to himself, "but it would be only a blur to me after looking at +her." + +When Roberta returned Uncle Rufus's bow it was with a posturing such as +Richard had seen only in plays; it struck him now that the graceful +droop of her whole figure to the floor was the most perfect thing he had +ever seen; and when her head came up and he saw her laughing face lift +again to meet her partner's, he considered the boyish old gentleman who +took her hand and led her on in the intricate figures of the dance a +person to be envied. + +"Aren't Rob and Uncle Rufus the greatest couple you ever laid eyes on?" +exulted Louis Gray, coming up to greet him. "The next is going to be a +waltz. Will you ask Mrs. Stephen? We'll let you begin easily, but shall +expect you to end by dancing with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife--which +will be no hardship when you really know her, I assure you. We indulge +in no ultra-modern dances on Christmas Eve, you see, and have no +dance-cards; it's always part of the fun to watch the scramble for +partners when the number is announced." + +So presently Richard found himself upon the floor with little Mrs. +Stephen Gray, waltzing with her according to his own discretion, though +all around them were dancers whose steps ranged from present-day methods +to the ancient fashion of turning round and round without ever a +reverse. He saw Roberta herself revolving in slow circles in an endless +spiral, piloted by the proud arm of Mr. Philip Gray. She nodded at him +past her uncle's shoulder, and he wondered seriously if she meant to +dance with elderly uncles all the evening. + +Before he could approach her she was off in the next dance with a young +cousin, a lad of seventeen. Richard himself took out one of the country +cousins to whom Mrs. Stephen had presented him, a very pretty, +fair-haired girl in white muslin and blue ribbons; and he did his best +to give her a good time. He found her pleasant company, as Mrs. Stephen +had prophesied, and at another time--any time--before he came into the +attic room to-night, he might have found no little enjoyment in her +bright society. But in his present condition his one hope and endeavour +was to get the queen of the revels, the rose of the garden, into his +possession. + +With this end in view he faithfully devoted himself to whatever partner +was given him by Louis, who had taken him in charge and was enjoying to +the full the spectacle of "Rich" Kendrick exerting himself, as he had +probably never done before, to give pleasure to those with whom he was +thrown. At last Fate and Roberta were kind to him. It was Louis, +however, who manipulated Fate in his behalf. + +Catching his sister as one of her cousins, a young son of Uncle Henry, +released her, Louis drew her into a corner--as much of a corner as one +could get into with a sister at whom, wherever she turned, half the +company was looking. + +"See here, Rob, you're not playing fair with the guest. Here's the +evening half over and you haven't given him a solitary chance. What's +the matter? You're not afraid of His Highness?" + +"This is a dance for the uncles and cousins," retorted Roberta, "not for +society young men." + +"But he's done his duty like a man and a brother. He's danced with aunts +and cousins, too, and has done it as if it were the joy of his life. But +I know what he wants and I think he deserves a reward. The next waltz +will be a peach, 'Roses Red.' Give it to the poor young millionaire, +Robby; there's a good girl." + +"Bring him here," said she with an air of resignation, and she turned to +a group of young people who had followed her as bees follow their queen. +"Not this time, dears," said she. "I'm engaged for this dance to a poor +young man who has wandered in here and must be made to feel at home." + +"Is that the one?" asked one of the pretty country cousins, indicating +Richard, who, obeying Louis's beckoning hand, was crossing the floor in +their direction. "Oh, you won't mind dancing with him. He's as nice as +he is good-looking, too." + +"I'm delighted to hear it," said Roberta. + +The next minute "the poor young man" was before her. "Am I really to +have it?" he asked her. "Will you give me the whole of it and not cut it +in two, as I saw you do with the last one?" + +"It would be rather a pity to cut 'Roses Red' in two, wouldn't it?" said +she. + +"The greatest pity in the world." He was looking at her cheek in the +last instant before they were off. Talk of roses! Was there ever a rose +like that cheek? + +Then the music sent them away upon its wings and for a space measured by +the strains of "Roses Red" Richard Kendrick knew no more of earth. Not a +word did he speak to her as they circled the great room again and again. +He did not want to mar the beauty of it by speech--ordinary exchange of +comment such as dancers feel that they must make. He wanted to dream +instead. + +"Look at Rob and Mr. Kendrick," said Ruth in Rosamond's ear. "Aren't +they the most wonderful pair you ever saw? They look as if they were +made for each other." + +"Don't tell Rob that," Rosamond warned her enthusiastic sister-in-law. +"She would never dance with him again." + +"I can't think what makes her dislike him so. Look at her face--turned +just as far away as she can get it. And she never speaks to him at all. +I've been watching them." + +"It won't hurt him to be disliked a little," declared Mrs. Stephen +wisely. "It's probably the first time in his life a girl has ever turned +away her head--except to turn it back again instantly to see if he +observed." + +"What would Forbes Westcott say if he could see them? Do you know he's +coming back soon? Then Rob will have her hands full! Do you suppose she +will marry him?" + +"Little matchmaker! I don't know. Nobody ever knows what Rob is going to +do." + +Nobody ever did, least of all her newest acquaintance. If he was to have +a moment with her after the dance he realized that he must be clever +enough to manage it in spite of her. He laid his plans, and when the +last strains of "Roses Red" were hastening to a delirious finish he had +Roberta at the far end of the room, at a point fairly deserted and close +to one of the gable corners where rugs and chairs made a resting-place +half hidden by a screen of holly. + +"Please give me just a fraction of your time," he begged. "You've been +dancing steadily all the evening; surely you're ready for a bit of +quiet." + +"I'm not as tired as I was before that dance," said she, and let him +seat her, though she still looked like some spirited creature poised for +flight. + +"Aren't you really?" His face lighted with pleasure. "I feel as if I had +had a draught of--well, something both soothing and exhilarating, but I +didn't dare to hope you enjoyed it, too." + +"Oh, yes, you did," said she coolly, looking up at him for an instant. +"You know perfectly well that you're one of the best dancers who ever +made a girl feel as if she had wings. Of course I knew you would be. The +leader of cotillions--" + +"That's the second time I've had that accusation flung at me under this +roof," said he, and his face clouded as quickly as it had lighted. "I am +beginning to wonder what kind of a crime you people think it to be a +leader of cotillions. As a matter of fact, I'm not one, for I never +accept the part when I can by any chance get out of it." + +"You have the enviable reputation of being the most accomplished person +in that rôle the town can produce. You should be proud of it." + +He pulled up a chair in front of her and sat down, looking--or trying to +look--straight into her eyes. + +"See here, Miss Gray," said he with sudden earnestness, "if that's the +only thing you think I can do you're certainly rating me pretty low." + +"I'm not rating you at all. I don't know enough about you." + +"That's a harder blow than the other one." He tried to speak lightly, +but chagrin was in his face. "If you'd just added 'and don't want to +know' you'd have finished your work of making me feel about three feet +high." + +"Would you prefer to be made to feel eight feet? Plenty of people will +do that for you. You see I so often find a yardstick measures my own +height, I know the humiliating sensation it is. And I'm never more +convinced of my own smallness than when I see my uncles and their +families at Christmas, especially Uncle Rufus. Do you know which one he +is?" + +"You were dancing with him when I came in." + +"I didn't see you come in." + +"I might have known that," he admitted with a rueful laugh. "Well, did +you dance an old-fashioned square dance with him, and is he a delightful +looking, elderly gentleman with a face like a jolly boy?" + +"Exactly that--and he's a boy in heart, too, but a man in mind. I wonder +if--" + +"He'd care to meet me? I'm sure you weren't going to ask if I'd care to +meet him. But I'd consider it an honour if he'd let me be presented to +him." + +"Now you're talking properly," said she. "It is an honour to be allowed +to know Uncle Rufus, and I think you'll feel it so." She rose. + +He got up reluctantly. "Thank you, I certainly shall," said he quite +soberly. "But--must we go this minute? Surely you can sit out one +number, and I'll promise after that to stand on my head and dance with a +broomstick if it will please your guests." + +"I've a mind to hold you to that offer," said she, with mischief in her +eyes. "But the next number is the old-time 'Lancers,' and I'm needed. +Should you like to dance it?" + +"With you? I--" + +"Of course not. With--well, with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife. You +ought to know her if you're to know him. She's just a bit lame, but we +always get her to dance the 'Lancers' once on Christmas Eve, and if you +want the dearest partner in the room you shall have her." + +"I'll be delighted, if you'll tell me how it goes. If it's like the +thing I saw you dancing I can manage it, I'm sure." + +"It's enough like it so you'll have no trouble. I'll dance opposite you +and keep you straight. See here--" and she gave him a hasty outline of +the figures. + +His eyes were sparkling as he followed her out of the alcove. To be +allowed to dance opposite Roberta and be "kept straight" by her through +the figures of an unfamiliar, old-fashioned affair like the "Lancers" +was a privilege indeed. He laughed to himself to think what certain +people he knew would say to his new idea of privilege. + +He bent before Mrs. Rufus Gray, offered her his arm, and took her out +upon the floor, accommodating his step to the little limp of his +partner. As he stood waiting with her he was observing her as he had +never before observed a woman of her years. Of all, the sweet faces, of +all the bright eyes, of all the pleasant voices--Aunt Ruth captured his +interest and admiration from the moment when she first smiled at him. + +He threw himself into the dance with the greatest heartiness. The music +was played rather slowly, to give Aunt Ruth time to get about, and the +result was almost the stately effect of a minuet. Never had he put more +grace and finish into his steps, and when he bowed to Aunt Ruth it was +as a courtier drops knee before a queen. His unfamiliarity with the +figures gave him excuse to keep his eyes upon Roberta, and she found him +a pupil to whom she had only to nod or make the slightest gesture of the +hand to show his part. + +"Did you ever see anything so fascinating as Aunt Ruth and Mr. +Kendrick?" asked Mrs. Stephen in her husband's ear as they stood looking +on. + +"There's certainly no criticism of his manner toward her," Stephen +replied. "I'll say for him that he's a pastmaster at adaptation. I'll +wager he's enjoying himself, too. It's a new experience for the society +youth." + +"Stevie, why do you all insist on making a 'society youth' of him? It's +his misfortune to have been born to that sort of thing, but I don't +believe he cares half as much for it as he does for--just this sort." + +"This is a novelty to him, that's all. And he's clever enough to see +that to please Rob he must be polite to her family. Rob is the stake +he's playing for--till some other pretty girl takes his fancy." + +Rosamond shook her head. "You all do him injustice, I believe. Of course +he admires Rob; men always do if they've any discrimination whatever. +But--there are other things that appeal to him. Stephen"--her appealing +face flushed with interest--"when you have a chance, slip out with Mr. +Kendrick and take him upstairs to see Gordon and Dorothy asleep. I just +went up; they look too dear!" + +"Why, Rosy, you don't imagine he'd care--" + +"Try him--just to please me. I could take him myself, but I'd rather you +would. I want you to look at his face when he looks at them." + +"He _has_ got round you--" began her husband, but she made him promise. + +When Stephen came upon Richard the guest was with Uncle Rufus and Aunt +Ruth. The young man was entering with great spirit into his conversation +with the pair, and they were evidently enjoying him. + +"I'll have to give him credit for possessing genuine courtesy," thought +Stephen. + +At this moment a group of young people came up and demanded the presence +of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray in another part of the room, and Richard was +set at liberty. Stephen took him by the arm. + +"Before you engage again in the antic whirl I have a special exhibit to +show you outside the ballroom. Spare me five minutes?" + +"Spare you anything," responded the guest, following Stephen out of +the room as if he wanted nothing so much as to do whatever might be +suggested to him. + +In two minutes they were downstairs and at the far end of a long +corridor which led to the rooms in a wing of the big house occupied by +the Stephen Grays. Richard was led through a pleasant living-room where +a maid was reading a book under the drop-light. She rose at their +appearance and Stephen nodded an "All right" to her. He conducted +Richard to the door of an inner room, which, as he opened it, let a rush +of cold air upon the two men entering. + +"Turn up your collar; it's winter in here," said Stephen softly. He +switched on a shaded light which revealed a nursery containing two small +beds side by side. Two large windows at the farther end of the room were +wide open, and all the breezes of the December night were playing about +the sleepers. + +The sleepers! Richard bent over them, one after the other, scanning each +rosy face. The baby girl lay upon her side, a round little cheek, a +fringe of dark eyelashes, and a tangle of fair curls showing against the +pillow. The boy was stretched upon his back, his arms outflung, his head +turned toward the light so that his face was fully visible. If he had +been attractive with his wonderful eyes open, he was even more winsome +with them closed. He looked the picture of the sleeping angel who has +never known contact with earth. + +"I thought he would never be done looking," Stephen acknowledged +afterward when he told his exulting wife about the scene. "I was half +frozen, but he acted like a man hypnotized. Finally he looked up at me. +'Gray, you're a rich man,' said he. 'I suppose you know it or you +wouldn't have brought me up here to show me your wealth.' 'I believe I +know it,' said I. 'What does it feel like,' he asked, 'to look at these +and know they're yours?' I told him that that was a thing I couldn't +express. 'Forgive me for asking,' said he. 'No man would want to try to +express it--to another.' I began to like him after that, Rosy--I really +did. The fellow seems to have a heart that hasn't been altogether +spoiled by the sort of life he's lived. On our way upstairs he said +nothing until we were nearly back to the attic. Then he put his hand on +my arm. 'Thank you for taking me, Gray,' he said. I told him you wanted +me to do it. He only gave me a look in answer to that; but I fancy you +would have liked the look, little susceptible girl." + +It was Ted who got hold of the guest next. "I hope you're having a good +time, Mr. Kendrick," said the young son of the house, politely. "I've +been so busy myself, dancing with all my girl cousins, I haven't had +time to ask you." + +"I've been having the time of my life, Ted. I can't remember when I've +enjoyed anything so much." + +"I saw you once with Rob. You're lucky to get her. She hasn't had time +to dance once with me and I'd rather have her than any girl here, she's +so jolly. She always keeps me laughing. You and she didn't seem to be +laughing at all, though." + +"Did we look so serious? Perhaps she felt like laughing inside, though, +at my awkward steps." + +Ted stared. "Why, you're a bully dancer," he declared. "What girl are +you going to have for the Virginia reel? We always end with that--at +twelve o'clock, you know." + +"I haven't a partner, Ted. I wish you'd get me the one I want." + +"Tell me who it is and I'll try. We're going down to bring up supper +now, we fellows. Want to help?" + +"Of course I do. How is it done?" + +"Everything's in the dining-room and some of the younger ones go down. +But we boys and men go and bring up everything for the older folks. +Maybe I oughtn't to ask you, though," he hesitated. "You're company." + +"Let me be one of the family to-night," urged Richard. "I'll bring up +supper for Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray and pretend they're my aunt and +uncle, too. I wish they were." + +"I don't blame you; they _are_ the jolliest ever, aren't they? Come on, +then. Rosy's looking at us; maybe she'll tell you not to go." + +They hurried away downstairs, racing with each other to the first floor. + +"Hullo! you, too?" Louis greeted the guest from the farther side of the +table filled with all manner of toothsome viands, where he was piling up +a tray to carry aloft. "Glad to see you're game for the whole show. Take +one of those trays and load it with discretion--weight equally +distributed, or you'll get into trouble on the stairs. You're new at +this job, and it takes training." + +"I'll manage it," and the young man fell to work, capably assisted by a +maid, who showed him what to take first and how to insure its safe +delivery. + +On his way up, walking cautiously on account of the cups of smoking +bouillon which he was concerned lest he spill, he encountered a +rose-coloured brocade frock on its way down. + +"Good for you, Mr. Kendrick," hailed Roberta's voice, full and sweet. + +He paused, balancing his tray. "Why are you going down? Won't you let me +bring up yours when I've given this to Unc--to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray?" + +"Are you enjoying your task so well? Look out, keep your eye on the +tray! There's nothing so treacherous to carry as cups so full as those." + +"Stop laughing at me and I'll get through all right. All I need is a +little practice. Next time I come up I'm going to try balancing the +whole thing on my hand and carrying it shoulder-high." + +"Please practice that some time when you're all alone in your own +house." + +"I'll remember. And please remember I'm going to bring up your +supper--and my own. May we have it in the place where we were after the +dance?" + +"Yes, with six others who are waiting there already. That will be +lovely, thank you. I'll be back by the time you have everything up." + +"Of all the hard creatures to corner," thought Richard, going on upward +with his tray. "Anyhow, I can have the satisfaction of waiting on her, +which is better than nothing." + +He found it so. The six people in the gable corner proved to be of the +younger boys and girls, and, though they were all eyes and ears for +himself and Roberta, he had a sufficient sense of being paired off with +the person he wanted to keep him contented. They ate and drank merrily +enough, and the food upon his plate seemed to Richard the best he had +ever tasted at an affair of the kind. + +The evening was gone before he knew it. He could secure no more dances +with Roberta, but he had one with Ruth, during which he made up for his +silence with her sister by exchanging every comment possible during +their exhilarating occupation. He began it himself: + +"It's a real sorrow to me, Miss Ruth, to be warned that this party is +nearly over." + +"Is it, Mr. Kendrick? It would be to me if to-morrow weren't Christmas +Day. It's worth having this stop to get to that. You see, to-night we +hang up our stockings." + +"Good heavens, Miss Ruth--where? Not in front of any one chimney?" + +"No, each in our own room, at the foot of the bed. The things that won't +go into the stockings are on the breakfast-table." + +"I'll think of you when I'm waking to my solitary dressing. I never hung +up my stocking in my life." + +"You haven't!" Ruth's tone was all dismay. "But you must have had heaps +of Christmas presents?" + +"Oh, yes, I've a friend or two who present me with all sorts of +interesting articles I seldom find a use for. And when I was a little +chap I remember they always had a tree for me." + +"I don't care much for trees," Ruth confided. "I like them better in +shop windows than I do at home. But to hang up your stocking and then +find it all stuffed and knobby in the morning, with always something +perfectly delightful in the toe for the very last! Oh, I love it!" + +"I wish I were a cousin of yours, so I could look after that toe present +myself," said Richard daringly. + +"You do miss a lot of fun, not having a jolly family Christmas like +ours." + +"I'm convinced of it. See here, Miss Ruth, there's something I want you +to do for me if you will. When you waken to-morrow morning send me--a +Christmas thought. Will you? I'll be looking for it." + +Ruth drew back her head in order to look up into his face for an +instant. "A Christmas thought?" she repeated, surprised. + +He nodded. "As if I were a brother, you know, far away at the other side +of the world--and lonely. I'll really be as far away from all your +merry-making as if I were at the other side of the world, you see--and +I'm not sure but I'll be as lonely." + +"Why, Mr. Kendrick! You--lonely! I can't believe it!" Ruth almost forgot +to keep step in her surprise. "But--of course, just you and your +grandfather! Only--I've heard how popular--" + +She paused, not venturing to tell him all she had heard of his gay and +fashionable friends and how they were always inviting and pursuing him. +"Are you always lonely at Christmas?" she ended. + +"Always; though I've never realized what was the matter with me till +this year. Do you care about finishing this dance? Let's stop in this +nice corner and talk about it a minute." + +It was the same corner, deserted now, where he had twice tried to keep +her elusive sister. Ruth was easier to manage, for she was genuinely +interested. + +"Just this year," he explained, "I've found out why I've never cared for +Christmas. It's a beastly day to me. I spend it as I should Sunday--get +through with it somehow. At last I go out to dinner somewhere in the +evening, and so end the day." + +"We all go to church on Christmas morning," Ruth told him. "That's a +lovely way to spend part of the morning, I think. It gives you the real +Christmas feeling. Don't you ever do it?" + +He shook his head. "Never have; but I will to-morrow if you'll tell me +where you go." + +"To St. Luke's. The service is so beautiful, and we all have been there +since we were old enough to go. I'm sure you'll like it. Wouldn't your +grandfather like to go with you?" + +Richard stared at her. "Why, I shouldn't have thought of it. Possibly he +would. We never go anywhere together, to tell the truth." + +"That's queer, when you're both so lonely. He must be lonely, too, +mustn't he?" + +"I never thought about it," said the young man. "I suppose he is. He +never says so." + +"You never say so either, do you?" suggested the girl naïvely. + +The two looked at each other for a minute without speaking. + +"Miss Ruth," said her companion at length, lowering his eyes to the +floor and speaking thoughtfully, "I believe, to tell the truth, I'm a +selfish beast. You've put a totally new idea into my head--more shame to +me that it should be new. It strikes me that I'll try a new way of +spending Christmas; I'll see to it that whoever is lonely grandfather +isn't--if I can keep him from it." + +"You can!" cried Ruth, beaming at him. "He thinks the world of you; +anybody can see that. And you won't be lonely yourself!" + +"Won't I? I'm not so sure of that--after to-night. But I admit it's +worth trying. May I report to you how it works?" he asked, smiling. + +Ruth agreed delightedly, and, when they separated, watched with interest +to see that the new idea had already begun to work, as indicated by the +way the younger Kendrick approached the elder, who was making his +farewells. + +"Going now, grandfather?" said he, with his hand on old Matthew +Kendrick's arm. "We'll go together. I'll call James." + +"You going too, Dick?" inquired his grandfather, evidently surprised. +"That's good." + +As he took leave of Roberta, Richard found opportunity to exchange with +her ever so brief a conversation. "This has been quite a wonderful +experience to me, Miss Gray," said he. "I shall not forget it." + +Her eyes searched his for an instant, but found there only sincerity. +"You have done your part better than could have been expected," she +admitted. + +"What grudging commendation! What should you have expected? That I +should sulk in a corner because I couldn't have things all my own way?" + +She coloured richly, and he rejoiced at having put her in confusion for +an instant. "Of course not. But every one wouldn't have eyes to see the +beauties of a family party where all the fun wasn't for the young +people." + +"There was only one dance I enjoyed better than the one with Mrs. Rufus +Gray." He lowered his tone so that she could hear. "Since you have +commended me for doing as your brother bade me--be all things to all +partners--will you give me my reward by letting me tell you that I shall +never hear 'Roses Red' again without thinking of the most perfect dance +I ever had?" + +"That sounds like an appropriate farewell from the cotillion leader," +said Roberta. Then instantly she knew that in her haste to cover a very +girlish sense of pleasure in the thing he had said she herself had said +an unkind one. She knew it as a slow red came into her guest's handsome +face and his eyes darkened. Before he could speak--though, indeed, he +did not seem in haste to speak--she added, putting out her hand +impulsively: + +"Forgive me; I didn't mean it. You have been lovely to every one +to-night, and I have appreciated it. I am wrong; I think you are much +more--and have in you far more--than--as if you were only--the thing I +said." + +He made no immediate reply, though he took the hand she gave him. He +continued to look at her for so long that her own eyes fell. When he did +speak it was in a low, odd tone which she could not quite understand. + +"Miss Gray," said he, "if you want to cut a man to the quick, insist on +thinking him that which he has never had any love for being, and which +he has grown to detest the thought of. But perhaps it's a salutary sort +of surgery, for--by the powers! if I can't make you think differently of +me it won't be for lack of will. So--thank you for being hard on me, +thank you for everything. Good-night!" + +As she looked at him march away with his head up, her hand was aching +with the force of the almost brutally hard grip he had given it with +that last speech. Her final glimpse of him showed him with a tinge of +the angry red still lingering on his cheek, and a peculiar set to his +finely cut mouth which she had never noticed there before. But, in spite +of this, anything more courtly than his leave-taking of her mother and +her Aunt Ruth she had never seen from one of the young men of the day. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MR. KENDRICK ENTERTAINS + + +On their way downstairs, Matthew Kendrick and his grandson, escorted by +Louis Gray, encountered a small company of people apparently just +arrived from a train. Louis stopped for a moment to greet them, turned +them over to his brother Stephen, whom he signalled from a stair-landing +above, and went on down to the entrance-hall with the Kendricks. + +"Too bad they're late for the party," he observed. "They had written +they couldn't come, I believe. Mother will have to do a bit of figuring +to dispose of them. But the more the merrier under this roof, every +time." + +"It's rather late to be putting people up for the night," Richard +observed. "Your mother will be sending some of them to a hotel, I +imagine. Couldn't we"--he glanced at his grandfather--"have the pleasure +of taking them in our car? or of sending it back for them, if there are +too many?" + +"Thank you, but I've no doubt mother can arrange--" Louis Gray began, +when old Matthew Kendrick interrupted him: + +"We can do better than that, Dick," said he. He turned to Louis. "We +will wait," said he, "while you present my compliments to your mother +and say that it will give me great satisfaction if she will allow me to +entertain an overflow party of her guests." + +Hardly able to believe his ears, Richard stared at his grandfather. What +had come over him, who had lived in such seclusion for so many years, +that he should be offering hospitality at midnight to total strangers? +He smiled to himself. But the next moment a thought struck him. + +"Grandfather," he said hurriedly, "why not specially invite that +delightful couple--the one they call 'Uncle Rufus' and his wife?" + +"An excellent idea," Mr. Kendrick agreed, "though they might not be +willing to make the change at so late an hour." + +"People who were dancing with spirit ten minutes ago will be ready to +travel right now," prophesied Richard. He took flying leaps up the +stairs in pursuit of Louis. Catching him on the next floor, he made his +request known. Louis received it without sign of surprise, but inwardly, +as he hurried away, he was speculating upon what agencies could be at +work with the young man, that he should be so eager to do this deed of +extraordinary friendliness. + +Mrs. Gray hesitated over Matthew Kendrick's invitation, although her +hospitable home was already crowded to the roof-tree. But, taking Judge +Calvin Gray into her counsels, she was so strongly advised by him to +accept the offer that she somewhat reluctantly consented to do so. + +"It's great, Eleanor, simply great!" he urged. "It will do my friend +Matthew mere good than anything that has happened to him in a +twelvemonth. As for young Richard--from what I've seen to-night you've +nothing to fear from his part in the affair. Let them have Rufus and +Ruth--they'll enjoy it hugely. And give them as many more as will +relieve the congestion. Matthew could take care of a regiment in that +stone barracks of his." + +"Sending Rufus and Ruth would give me quite space enough," she declared. +"Rufus has the largest room in the house, and I could put this last +party there. It is really very kind of Mr. Kendrick, and I shall be glad +to solve my problem in that way, since you think it best." + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, having the question put to them, acceded to it +with readiness. Both had been warmly drawn toward Richard, and though +his grandfather had seemed to them a figure of somewhat unnecessarily +dignified reserve, the mere fact of his extending the invitation at all +was to them sufficient proof of his cordiality. + +"It's nothing at all to pack up," Mrs. Rufus asserted. "I'll just take +what I need for the night, and we'll be coming over for the tree in the +morning, so I can get my other things then. I shall call it a real treat +to be inside the home of such a wealthy man. How lonely he must be, +living in such a great house, with only his grandson!" + +So Aunt Ruth descended the stairs, wearing her little gray silk bonnet +and a heavy cape of gray cloth, her hand on her husband's arm, her +bright eyes shining with anticipation. Aunt Ruth dearly loved a bit of +excitement and seldom found much in her quiet life upon the farm. As +Matthew Kendrick looked up and saw her coming slowly down, her husband +carefully adjusting himself to the dip and swing of her step as she put +always the same foot foremost, he found himself distinctly glad of his +grandson's suggestion, since it gave him so charming a guest to +entertain as Mrs. Rufus Gray. + +In the interval Richard had retired to a telephone, and had made the +wires between his present position and the stone pile warm with his +orders. In consequence a certain gray-haired housekeeper, lately +returned from some family festivities of her own and about to retire, +found herself galvanized into activity by the sound of a well-known and +slightly imperious voice issuing upsetting instructions to have the best +suite of rooms in the house made ready within half an hour for +occupancy, and the house itself lighted for the reception of the guests. +Other commands to butler and Mr. Richard's own manservant followed in +quick succession, and when the young man turned away from the telephone +he was again smiling to himself at thought of the consternation he was +causing in a household accustomed to be run upon such lines of +conservatism and well defined routine that any deviation therefrom was +likely to prove most unacceptable. He himself was at home there such a +small portion of his time, and during the periods he spent there was so +careful never to bring within its walls any festival-making of his own, +he knew just how astonishing to the middle-aged housekeeper, the +solemn-faced old butler, and the rest of them, would be these midnight +orders. He was enjoying the giving of such orders all the more for that! + +Old Matthew Kendrick assisted Mrs. Rufus Gray into his luxuriously +fitted, electric-lighted town-car as if she had been a royal personage, +wrapping about her soft, thick rugs until she was almost lost to view. + +"Why, I couldn't be cold in this shut-in place," she protested. "Not a +breath could touch any one in here, I should say." + +"I should call it pretty snug," Rufus Gray agreed with his wife, looking +about him at the comfortable appointments of the car. "But there's just +one thing a carriage like this wouldn't be good for, and that's taking a +party of young folks on a sleigh ride, on a snapping winter's night!" +His bright brown eyes regarded those of Matthew Kendrick with some +curiosity. "I reckon you never took that sort of a ride, when you were a +boy?" he queried. + +"Yes, yes, I have--many a time," Mr. Kendrick insisted. "And great times +we had. Boys and girls needed no electricity to keep them comfortable on +the coldest of nights. It's my grandson Richard who feels this sort of +thing a necessity. Until he came home a carriage and pair had been all +the equipage I needed." + +"Grandfather is getting where a little extra warmth on a blustering +winter's day is essential to his comfort," Richard declared, feeling a +curious necessity, somehow, to justify the use of the expensive and +commodious equipage in the eyes of the country gentleman who seemed to +regard it so lightly. + +"It's very nice," Mrs. Gray said quickly. "I should hardly know I was +outdoors at all. And how smoothly it runs along over the streets. The +young man out there in front must be a very good driver, I should think. +He doesn't seem to mind the car-tracks at all." + +"No, Rogers doesn't bother much about car-tracks," Richard agreed +gravely. "His idea is to get home and to bed." + +"It is pretty late--and I'm afraid waiting for us has made you a good +deal later than you would have been," said Mrs. Gray regretfully. + +"Not a bit--no, no." + +"We'll go right to our room as soon as we get there," said she, "and you +mustn't trouble to do a thing extra for us." + +"It's going to be a great pleasure to have you under our roof," the +young man assured her, smiling. + +Arrived at the great stone mansion which was the well-known residence of +Matthew Kendrick, as it had been of his family for several generations, +Richard stared up at it with a sense of strangeness. Except for the +halls and dining-room, his grandfather's quarters and his own, he could +not remember seeing it lighted as other homes were lighted, with rows of +gleaming windows here and there, denoting occupancy by many people. Now, +one whole wing, where lay the special suite of guest-rooms used at long +intervals for particularly distinguished persons, was brilliantly +shining out upon the December night. + +The car drew up beneath a massive covered entrance-porch, and a great +door swung back. A heavy-eyed, elderly butler admitted the party, which +were ushered into an impressive but gloomy and inhospitable looking +reception-room. Matthew Kendrick glanced somewhat uncertainly at his +nephew, who promptly took things in charge. + +"I thought perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Gray would have some sandwiches +and--er--something more--with us, before they go to their rooms," +Richard suggested, nodding at Parks, the heavy-eyed. + +"Yes, yes--" agreed Mr. Kendrick, but Mrs. Rufus broke in upon him. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Kendrick!" she cried softly, much distressed. "Please don't +think of such a thing--at this hour. And we've just had refreshments at +Eleanor's. Don't let us keep you up a minute. I'm sure you must be tired +after this long evening." + +"Not at all, Madam. Nor do you yourself look so," responded Matthew +Kendrick, in his somewhat stately manner. "But you may be feeling like +sleep, none the less. If you prefer you shall go to your rest at once." +He turned to his grandson again. "Dick--" + +"I'll take them up," said that young man, eagerly. He offered his arm to +Aunt Ruth. + +Uncle Rufus looked about him for the hand-bag which his wife had so +hurriedly packed. "We had a little grip--" said he, uncertainly. + +"We'll find it upstairs, I think," Richard assured him, and led the way +with Aunt Ruth. "I'm sorry we have no lift," he said to her, "but the +stairs are rather easy, and we'll take them slowly." + +Aunt Ruth puzzled a little over this speech, but made nothing of it and +wisely let it go. The stairs were easy, extremely easy, and so heavily +padded that she seemed to herself merely to be walking up a slight, +velvet-floored incline. The whole house, it may be explained, was fitted +and furnished after the style of that period in the latter half of the +last century, when heavily carpeted floors, heavily shrouded windows, +heavily decorated walls, and heavily upholstered chairs were considered +the essentials of luxury and comfort. Old Matthew Kendrick had never +cared to make any changes, and his grandson had had too little interest +in the place to recommend them. The younger man's own private rooms he +had altered sufficiently to express his personal tastes, but the rest of +the house was to him outside the range of his concern. The whole place, +including his own quarters, was to him merely a sort of temporary +habitation. He had no plans in relation to it, no sense of +responsibility in regard to it. When he had ordered the finest suite of +rooms in the house to be put in readiness for the guests, it was +precisely as he would have requested the management of a great hotel to +place at his disposal the best they had to offer. To tell the truth, he +had no recollection at all of how the rooms looked or what their +dimensions were. + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, entering the first room of the series, a large +and elaborately furnished apartment with the effect of a drawing-room, +much gilt and brocade and many mirrors in evidence, looked at Richard in +some surprise, as he seated them. He himself went to the door of a +second room, glanced in, nodded, and returned to his guests. + +"I hope you will find everything you want in there," he said. "If you +don't, please ring. You will see your dressing-room on the left, Mr. +Gray. I will send you my man in the morning to see if he can do anything +for you." + +"I shan't need any man, thank you," protested Mr. Gray. + +When, after lingering a minute or two, their young host had bade them +good-night and left them, the elderly pair looked at each other. Uncle +Rufus's eyes were twinkling, but in his wife's showed a touch of soft +indignation. + +"It seems like making a joke of us," said she, "to put us in such a +place as this, when he can guess what we're used to." + +"He doesn't mean it as a joke," her husband protested good-humouredly. +"He wants to give us the best he's got. I don't mind a mite. To be sure, +I could get along with one looking-glass to shave myself in, but it's +kind of interesting to know how many some folks think necessary when +they aren't limited. Let's go look in our sleeping-room. Maybe that's a +little less princely." + +Aunt Ruth limped slowly across the Persian carpet, and stood still in +the doorway of the room Richard had designated as hers. Uncle Rufus +stared in over her small shoulder. + +"Well, well," he chuckled. "I reckon Napoleon Bonaparte wouldn't have +thought this any too fine for him, but it sort of dazzles me. I'm glad +somebody's got that bed ready to sleep in. I shouldn't have been sure +'twas meant for that, if they hadn't. There seems to be another room on +behind this one--what's that?" + +He marched across and looked in. "Now, if I was rich, I wouldn't mind +having one of these opening right out of my room. What there isn't in +here for keeping yourself clean can't be thought of." + +"Rufus," said his wife solemnly, following him into the white-tiled +bathroom, "I want you should look at these bath-towels. I never in my +life set eyes on anything like them. They must have cost--I don't know +what they cost--I didn't know there were such bath-towels made!" + +"I don't want to wrap myself in a blanket," asserted her husband. "I +want to know I've got a towel in my hand, that I can whisk round me and +slap myself with. Look here, let's get to bed. We could sit up all night +examining round into our accommodations. For my part, Eleanor's style of +living suits me a good deal better than this kind of elegance. Her house +is fine and comfortable, but no foolishness. There's one thing I do +like, though. This carpet feels mighty good to your bare feet, I'll make +sure!" + +He presently made sure, walking back and forth barefooted across the +soft floor, chuckling like a boy, and making his toes sink into the +heavy pile of the great rug. He surveyed his small wife, in her +dressing-gown, sitting before the wide mirror of an elaborate +dressing-table, putting her white locks into crimping pins. + +"Ruth," said he, with sudden solemnity, "I forgot to undress in my +dressing-room. Had I better put my clothes on and go take 'em off again +in there?" + +He pointed across to an adjoining room, brilliant with lights and +equipped with all manner of furnishings adapted to masculine uses. + +His wife turned about, laughing like a girl. "Maybe in there," she +suggested, "you could find a chair small enough to hang your coat across +the back of. I'm afraid it'll get all wrinkled, folded like that." + +Uncle Rufus explored. After a minute he came back. "There's a queer sort +of bureau-thing in there all filled with coat-and-pants hangers," he +announced. "I'm going to put my things in it. It'll keep 'em from +getting wrinkled, as you say." + +When he returned: "There's another bed in there," he said. "I don't know +what it's for. It's got the covers all turned back, too, just like this +one. Maybe we've made a mistake. Maybe there's somebody that has that +room, and he hasn't come in yet. Do you suppose I'd better shut the door +between?" + +"Maybe you had," agreed his wife anxiously. "It would be dreadful if he +should come in after a while. Still--young Mr. Kendrick called it your +dressing-room." + +"And my clothes are in there," added Uncle Rufus. "It's all right. +Probably the girl made a mistake when she fixed that bed--thought there +was a child with us, maybe." + +"You might just shut the door," Aunt Ruth suggested. "Then if anybody +did come in--" + +Uncle Rufus shook his head. "It's meant for us," he asserted with +conviction as he climbed into bed. "He said 'dressing-room' and pointed. +The girl's made a mistake, that's all. It's a good place for my clothes, +and I'm going to leave 'em there. Will you put out the lights?" + +Aunt Ruth looked around the wall. "I can never get used to electric +lights at Eleanor's," said she. "And I don't see the place here, at +all." + +She searched for the switches some time in vain, but at length +discovered them and succeeded in extinguishing the lights of the room +the pair were in. But the lights of the adjoining rooms still burned +with brilliancy. + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed softly. Then she appealed to her husband. + +Uncle Rufus, who had nearly fallen asleep while his wife had been +searching, spoke without opening his eyes. "Shut all the doors and leave +'em going," he advised, + +"Oh, no, I can't do that! Think of the cost, running all night so." + +"I reckon they can afford it," he commented drowsily. + +But Aunt Ruth continued to hunt, first in the large outer room which +looked like a drawing-room, and possessed an elaborate central +electrolier whose control, even after she discovered the switch, caused +the little lady considerable perplexity. When she had at length +succeeded in extinguishing the illumination she returned, guided by the +lights in the other rooms. The bathroom keys were soon found, and then +she applied herself to discovering those in the dressing-room. These +eluded her for some minutes, but at length, all lights being turned off, +Aunt Ruth found herself in total darkness. She groped about in it for +some time without success, for the heavy curtains had been closely +drawn, and not a ray of light penetrated the spacious rooms from any +quarter. After having followed the wall for what seemed an interminable +distance without reaching a recognizable position, she was forced to +call to her husband. He was asleep, and responded only after being many +times addressed. Then he sat up in bed. + +"Hey? What? What's the matter?" he inquired anxiously, peering into the +darkness. + +"Nothing, dear--only I couldn't find the bed after I turned the lights +out. Keep on talking, and I'll work my way to you," answered his wife's +voice from some distance. + +Guided by his voice--he found plenty to say on the subject of putting +people to bed in the midst of large, unfamiliar spaces--she groped her +way to his side. He put out a gentle hand to welcome her, and as she +took her place the two fell to laughing softly over the whole situation. + +"Why," said Uncle Rufus, "for all I've slept for forty years in the same +room--and a pretty sizable room I've always thought it--I've never got +so I could plough a straight furrow through it in the dark. I reckon a +lifetime would be too short to get to know my way round this +plantation." + +He could with difficulty be restrained from telling Richard about the +incident next morning, when that young man came to their rooms to escort +them down to breakfast. + +"I'm glad to have somebody pilot me," Uncle Rufus declared, his eyes +twinkling as he followed after his wife, who leaned on Richard's arm. "A +man must have a pretty good sense of direction to keep his bearings in a +house as big as this." + +Richard laughed. "It's rather a straight road to the dining-room. I +think I must have worn a path there since I came. Here we are--and +here's grandfather down before us. He's the first one in the house to be +up, always." + +Matthew Kendrick advanced to meet his guests, shaking hands with great +cordiality. + +"It seems very wonderful, Madam Gray," said he, "to have a lady in the +house on Christmas morning. Will you do me the honour to take this +seat?" He put her in a chair before a massive silver urn, under which +burned a spirit lamp. "And will you pour our coffee? It's many a year +since we've had coffee served from the table, poured by a woman's hand." + +"Why, I should be greatly pleased to pour the coffee," cried Aunt Ruth +happily. Her bright glance was fastened upon a mass of scarlet flowers +in the centre of the table, for which Richard had sent between dark and +daylight. He smiled across the table at her. + +"Are they real?" she breathed. + +"Absolutely! Splendid colour, aren't they? I can't remember the name, +but they look like Christmas." + +Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Rufus Gray had ever in their lives eaten such a +breakfast as was now served to them. Such extraordinary fruits, such +perfectly cooked game, such delicious food of various sorts--they could +only taste and wonder. Richard, with a young man's healthy appetite, +kept them company, but his grandfather made a frugal meal of toast, +coffee, and a single egg, quite as if he were more accustomed to such +simple fare than to any other. + +The breakfast over, Mr. Kendrick took them to his own private rooms, to +show them a painting of which he had been telling them. Richard +accompanied them, having constituted himself chief assistant to Mrs. +Gray, to whom he had taken a boyish liking which was steadily growing. +Establishing her in a comfortable armchair, he sat down beside her. + +"Now, Mr. Richard," said she, presently, while Mr. Matthew Kendrick and +her husband were discussing an interesting question over their cigars in +an adjoining room--Mr. Kendrick's adherence to the code of an earlier +day making it impossible for him to think of smoking in the presence of +a lady--"I wonder if there isn't something you would let me do for you. +You and your grandfather living alone, so, you must have things that +need a woman's hand. While I sit here I'd enjoy mending some socks or +gloves for you." + +Richard looked at her. The sincerity of her offer was so evident that he +could not turn it aside with an evasion or a refusal. But he had not an +article in the world that needed mending. When things of his reached +that stage they were invariably turned over to his man, Bliss. He +considered. + +"That's certainly awfully kind of you, Mrs. Gray," said he. "But--have +you--" + +She put her hand into a capacious pocket and produced therefrom a tiny +"housewife," stocked with thimble, needles, and all necessary +implements. + +"I never go without it," said she. "There's always somebody to be mended +up when you least expect it. My niece Roberta tripped on one of her +flounces last night, dancing--and not being used to dancing in such +full, old-fashioned skirts. Rosy was starting to pin it up, but I +whipped out my kit--and how they laughed, to see a pocket in a best +dress!" She laughed herself, at the recollection. "But I had Robby sewed +up in less time than it takes to tell it--much better than pinning!" + +"How beautifully she danced those old-fashioned dances," Richard +observed eagerly. "It was a great pleasure to see her." + +"Yes, it's generally a pleasure to see Robby do things," Roberta's aunt +agreed. "She goes into them with so much vim. When she comes out to +visit us on the farm it's the same way. She must have a hand in the +churning, or the sweeping, or something that'll keep her busy. Aren't +you going to get me the things, Mr. Richard?" + +The young man hastened away. Arrived before certain drawers and +receptacles, he turned over piles of hosiery with a thoughtful air. +Presently selecting a pair of black silk socks of particularly fine +texture, he deliberately forced his thumb through either heel, taking +care to make the edges rough as possible. Laughing to himself, he then +selected a pair of gray street gloves, eyed them speculatively for a +moment, then, taking out a penknife, cut the stitches in several places, +making one particularly long rent down the side of the left thumb. He +regarded these damages doubtfully, wondering if they looked entirely +natural and accidental; then, shaking his head, he gathered up the socks +and gloves and returned with them to Aunt Ruth. + +She looked them over. "For pity's sake," said she, "you wear out your +things in queer ways! How did you ever manage to get holes in your heels +right on the bottom, like that? All the folks I ever knew wear out their +heels on the back or side." + +Richard examined a sock. "That is rather odd," he admitted. "I must have +done it dancing." + +"I shall have to split my silk to darn these places," commented Aunt +Ruth. "These must be summer socks, so thin as this." She glanced at the +trimly shod foot of her companion and shook her head. "You young folks! +In my day we never thought silk cobwebs' warm enough for winter." + +"Tell me about your day, won't you, please?" the young man urged. "Those +must have been great days, to have produced such results." + +The little lady found it impossible to resist such interest, and was +presently talking away, as she mended, while her listener watched her +flying fingers and enjoyed every word of her entertaining discourse. He +artfully led her from the past to the present, brought out a tale or two +of Roberta's visits at the farm, and learned with outward gravity but +inward exultation that that young person had actually gone to the +lengths of begging to be allowed to learn to milk a cow, but had failed +to achieve success. + +"I can't imagine Miss Roberta's failing in anything she chose to +attempt," was his joyous comment. + +"She certainly failed in that." Aunt Ruth seemed rather pleased herself +at the thought. "But then she didn't really go into it seriously--it was +because Louis put her up to it--told her she couldn't do it. She only +really tried it once--and then spent the rest of the morning washing her +hair. Such a task--it's so heavy and curly--" Aunt Ruth suddenly stopped +talking about Roberta, as if it had occurred to her that this young man +looked altogether too interested in such trifles as the dressing of +certain thick, dark locks. + +Presently, the mending over, the Grays were taken, according to promise, +back to the Christmas celebrations in the other house, and Richard, +returning to his grandfather, proposed, with some unwonted diffidence of +manner, that the two attend service together at St. Luke's. + +The old man looked up at his grandson, astonishment in his face. + +"Church, Dick--with you?" he repeated. "Why, I--" He hesitated. "Did the +little lady we entertained last night put that into your head?" + +"She put several things into my head," Richard admitted, "but not that. +Will you go, sir? It's fully time now, I believe." + +Matthew Kendrick's keen eyes continued to search his grandson's face, to +Richard's inner confusion. Outwardly, the younger man maintained an +attitude of dignified questioning. + +"I am willing to go," said Mr. Kendrick, after a moment. + +At St. Luke's, that morning, from her place in the family pew, Ruth +Gray, remembering a certain promise, looked about her as searchingly as +was possible. Nowhere within her line of vision could she discern the +figure of Richard Kendrick, but she was none the less confident that +somewhere within the stately walls of the old church he was taking part +in the impressive Christmas service. When it ended and she turned to +make her way up the aisle, leading a bevy of young cousins, her eyes, +beneath a sheltering hat-brim, darted here and there until, unexpectedly +near-by, they encountered the half-amused but wholly respectful +recognition of those they sought. As Ruth made her slow progress toward +the door she was aware that the Kendricks, elder and younger, were close +behind her, and just before the open air was reached she was able to +exchange with Richard a low-spoken question and answer. + +"Wasn't it beautiful? Aren't you glad you came?" + +"It _was_ beautiful, Miss Ruth--and I'm more than glad I came." + + * * * * * + +Several hours earlier, on that same Christmas morning, Ruth had rushed +into Roberta's room, crying out happily: + +"Flowers--flowers--flowers! For you and Rosy and mother and me! They +just came. Mr. Richard Loring Kendrick's card is in ours; of course it's +in yours. Here are yours; do open the box and let me see! Mother's are +orchids, perfectly wonderful ones. Rosy's are mignonette, great +clusters, a whole armful--I didn't know florists grew such +richness--they smell like the summer kind. She's so pleased. Mine are +violets and lilies-of-the-valley. I'm perfectly crazy over them. +Yours--" + +Roberta had the cover off. Roses! Somehow she had known they would be +roses--after last night. But such roses! + +Ruth cried out in ecstasy, bending to bury her face in the glorious +mass. "They're exactly the colour of the old brocade frock, Robby," she +exulted. She picked up the card in its envelope. "May I look at it?" she +asked, with her fingers already in the flap. "Ours all have some +Christmas wish on, and Rosy's adds something about Gordon and Dorothy." + +"You might just let me see first," said Roberta carelessly, stretching +out her hand for the card. Ruth handed it over. Roberta turned her head. +"Who's calling?" she murmured, and ran to the door, card in hand. + +"I didn't hear any one," Ruth called after her. + +But Roberta disappeared. Around the turn of the hall she scanned her +card. + +"_Thorns to the thorny_," she read, and stood staring at the unexpected +words written in a firm, masculine hand. That was all. Did it sting? +Yet, curiously enough, Roberta rather liked that odd message. + +When she came back, Ruth, in the excitement of examining many other +Christmas offerings, had rushed on, leaving the box of roses on +Roberta's bed. The recipient took out a single rose and examined its +stem. Thorns! She had never seen sharper ones--and not one had been +removed. But the rose itself was perfection. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OPINIONS AND THEORIES + + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray were the last to leave the city, after the +house-party. They returned to their brother Robert's home for a day, +when the other guests had gone, and it was on the evening before their +departure that they related their experiences while at the house of +Matthew Kendrick. With most of the members of the Gray household, they +were sitting before the fire in the living-room when Aunt Ruth suddenly +spoke her mind. + +"I don't know when I've felt so sorry for the too rich as I felt in that +house," said she. She was knitting a gray silk mitten, and her needles +were flying. + +"Why, Aunt Ruth?" inquired her nephew Louis, who sat next her, revelling +in the comfort of home after a particularly harassing day at the office. +"Did they seem to lack anything in particular?" + +"I should say they did," she replied. "Nothing that money can buy, of +course, but about everything that it can't." + +"For instance?" he pursued, turning affectionate eyes upon his aunt's +small figure in its gray gown, as the firelight played upon it, touching +her abundant silvering locks and making her eyes seem to sparkle almost +as brilliantly as her swiftly moving needles. + +Aunt Ruth put down her knitting for an instant, looking at her nephew. +"Why, you know," said she. "You're sitting in the very middle of it this +minute!" + +Louis looked about him, smiling. He was, indeed, in the midst of an +accustomed scene of both home-likeness and beauty. The living-room was +of such generous proportions that even when the entire family were +gathered there they could not crowd it. On a wide couch, at one side of +the fireplace, sat his father and mother, talking in low tones +concerning some matter of evident interest, to judge by their intent +faces. Rosamond, like the girl she resembled, sat, girl fashion, on a +pile of cushions close by the fire; and Stephen, her husband, not far +away, by a table with a drop-light, was absorbed in a book. Uncle Rufus +was examining a pile of photographs on the other side of the table. Ted +sprawled on a couch at the far end of the room, deep in a boy's +magazine, a reading light at his elbow. At the opposite end of the room, +where the piano stood, Roberta, music rack before her, was drawing her +bow across nearly noiseless strings, while Ruth picked softly at her +harp: indications of intention to burst forth into musical strains when +a hush should chance to fall upon the company. + +Judge Calvin Gray alone was absent from the gathering, and even as +Louis's eyes wandered about the pleasant room, his uncle's figure +appeared in the doorway. As if he were answering his sister Ruth, Judge +Gray spoke his thought. + +"I wonder," said he, advancing toward the fireside, "if anywhere in this +wide world there is a happier family life than this!" + +Louis sprang up to offer Judge Gray the chair he had been occupying--a +favourite, luxuriously cushioned armchair, with a reading light beside +it ready to be switched on at will, which was Uncle Calvin's special +treasure, of an evening. Louis himself took up his position on the +hearth-rug, opposite Rosamond. + +Aunt Ruth answered her brother energetically: "None happier, Calvin, +I'll warrant, and few half as happy. I can't help wishing those two +people Rufus and I've been visiting could look in here just now." + +"Why make them envious?" suggested Louis, who loved to hear his Aunt +Ruth's crisp speeches. + +"The question is--would they be envious?" This came from Stephen, whose +absorption in his book evidently admitted of penetration from the +outside. + +"Why, of course they would!" declared Aunt Ruth. "You should have seen +the way they had me pour the coffee and tea, all the while I was there. +That young man Richard was always getting me to pour something--said he +liked to see me do it. And he was always sending a servant off and doing +things for me himself. If I'd been a young girl he couldn't have hovered +round any more devotedly." + +A general laugh greeted this, for Aunt Ruth's expression of face as she +told it was provocative. + +"We can readily believe that, Ruth," declared Judge Gray, and his +brother Robert nodded. The low-voiced talk between Mr. Robert Gray and +his wife had ceased; Stephen had laid down his book; Ruth had stopped +plucking at her harp strings; and only Roberta still seemed interested +in anything but Aunt Ruth and her experiences and opinions. + +"I mended his socks and gloves for him," announced Aunt Ruth +contentedly. "You needn't tell me they don't miss a woman's hand about +the house, over there." + +"She mended Rich Kendrick's socks and gloves!" murmured Louis, with a +laughing, incredulous glance at Rosamond, who lifted delighted eyes to +him. "I can't believe it. He must have made holes in them on purpose." + +"Why, not even a spendthrift would do that!" Aunt Ruth promptly denied +the possibility of such folly. "I don't say but they are lavish with +things there. Rufus and I were a good deal bothered by all their lights. +We couldn't seem to get them all put out. And every time we put them +out, anywhere, somebody'd turn them on again for us." + +Uncle Rufus broke in here, narrating their experience with the various +switch-buttons in the suite of rooms, and the company laughed until they +wept over his comments. + +"But all that's neither here nor there," said he, finally. "Of course we +weren't up to such elaborate arrangements, and it made us feel sort of +rustic. But I can tell you they didn't spare any pains to make us +comfortable and at home--if, as Ruth says, you can make anybody feel at +home in a great place like that. I feel, as she does, sorry for 'em +both. They're pretty fine gentlemen, if I'm any judge, and I don't know +which I like better, the older or the younger." + +"There can be no question about the older," said his brother, Robert +Gray, joining in the talk with evident interest. "Mr. Matthew Kendrick +made his place long ago in the business world as one of the great and +just. He has taught that world many fine lessons of truth and honour, as +well as of success." + +Judge Gray nodded. "I'm glad to hear that you appreciate him, Robert," +said he. "Few know better than I how deserved that is. And still fewer +recognize the fine and sensitive nature behind the impression of power +he has always given. He is the type of man, as sister Ruth here is quick +to discern, who must be lonely in the midst of his great wealth, for the +lack of just such a privilege as this we have here to-night, the close +association with people whom we love, and with whom we sympathize in all +that matters most. Matthew Kendrick was a devoted husband and father. In +spite of his grandson's presence, of late, he must sorely long for +companionship." + +"His grandson's going to give him more of that than he has," declared +Aunt Ruth, smiling over her knitting as if recalling a pleasant memory. +"He and I had quite a bit of talk while I was there, and he's beginning +to realize that he owes his grandfather more than he's given him. I had +a good chance to see what was in that boy's heart, and I know there's +plenty of warmth there. And there's real character in him, too. I've had +enough sons of my own to know the signs, and the fact that they were +poor in this world's goods, and he is rich--too rich--doesn't make a +mite of difference in the signs!" + +Mrs. Robert Gray, who had been listening with an intent expression in +eyes whose beauty was not more appealing than their power of observation +was keen, now spoke, and all turned to her. She was a woman whose +opinion on any subject of common interest was always waited for and +attended upon. Her voice was rich and low--her family did not fully know +how dear to their ears was the sound of that voice. + +"Young Mr. Kendrick," said she, "couldn't wish, Ruth, for a more +powerful advocate than you. To have you approve him, after seeing him +under more intimate circumstances than we are likely to do, must commend +him to our good will. To tell the frank truth, I have been rather afraid +to admit him to my good graces, lest there be really no great force of +character, or even promise of it, behind that handsome face and winning +manner. But if you see the signs--as you say--we must look more +hopefully upon him." + +"She's not the only one who sees signs," asserted Judge Gray. "He's +coming on--he's coming on well, in his work with me. He's learning +really to work. I admit he didn't know how when he came to me. Something +has waked him up. I'm inclined to think," he went on, with a mischievous +glance toward the end of the room where sat the noiseless musicians, "it +might have been my niece Roberta's shining example of industry when she +spent a day with us in my library, typing work for me back in October. +Never was such a sight to serve as an inspiration for a laggardly young +man!" + +There was a general laugh, and all eyes were turned toward that end of +the room devoted to the users of the musical instruments. In response +came a deep, resonant note from Roberta's 'cello, over which the silent +bow had been for some time suspended. There followed a minor scale, +descending well into the depths and vibrating dismally as it went. +Louis, a mocking light in his eye, strolled down the room to his +sisters. + +"That's the way you feel about it, eh?" he queried, regarding Roberta +with brotherly interest. "Consigning the poor, innocent chap to the +bottom of the ladder, when he's doing his best to climb up to the +sunshine of your smile. Have you no respect for the opinion of your +betters?" + +"Get out your fiddle and play the Grieg _Danse Caprice_, with us," was +her reply, and Louis obeyed, though not without a word or two more in +her ear which made her lift her bow threateningly. Presently the trio +were off, playing with a spirit and dash which drew all ears, and at the +close of the _Danse_ hearty applause called for more. After this +diversion, naturally enough, new subjects came up for discussion. + +Returning to the living-room in search of a dropped letter, after the +family had dispersed for the night, Roberta found her mother lingering +there alone. She had drawn a low chair close to the fire, and, having +extinguished all other lights, was sitting quietly looking into the +still glowing embers. Roberta, forgetting her quest, came close, and +flinging a cushion at her mother's knee dropped down there. This was a +frequent happening, and the most intimate hours the two spent together +were after this fashion. + +There was no speech for a little, though Mrs. Gray's hand wandered +caressingly about her daughter's neck in a way Roberta dearly loved, +drawing the loosened dark locks away from the small ears, or twisting a +curly strand about her fingers. Suddenly the girl burst out: + +"Mother, what are you to do when you find all your theories upset?" + +"_All_ upset?" repeated Mrs. Gray, in her rich and quiet voice. "That +would be a calamity indeed. Surely there must be one or two of yours +remaining stable?" + +"It seems not, just now. One disproved overturns another. They all hinge +on one another--at least mine do." + +"Perhaps not as closely as you think. What is it, dear? Can you tell me +anything about it?" + +"Not much, I'm afraid. Oh, it's nothing very real, I suppose--just a +sort of vague discomfort at feeling that certain ideals I thought were +as fixed as the stars in the heavens seem to be wobbling as if they +might shoot downward any minute, and--and leave only a trail of light +behind!" + +The last words came on a note of rather shaky laughter. Roberta's arm +lay across her mother's knee, her head upon it. She turned her head +downward for an instant, burying her face in the angle of her arm. Mrs. +Gray regarded the mass of dark locks beneath her hand with a look amused +yet sympathetic. + +"That sort of discomfort attacks us all, at times," she said. "Ideals +change and develop with our growth. One would not want the same ones to +serve her all her life." + +"I know. But when it's not a new and better ideal which displaces the +old one, but only--an attraction--" + +"An attraction not ideal?" + +Roberta shook her head. "I'm afraid not. And I don't see why it should +be an attraction at all. It ought not to be, if my ideals have been what +they should have been. And they have. Why, you gave them to me, mother, +many of them--or at least helped me to work them out for myself. And +I--I had confidence in them!" + +"And they're shaken?" + +"Not the ideals--they're all the same. Only--they don't seem to be proof +against--assault. Oh, I'm talking in riddles, I know. I don't want to +put any of it into words, it makes it seem more real. And it's only a +shadowy sort of difficulty. Maybe that's all it will be." + +Mothers are wonderful at divination; why should they not be, when all +their task is a training in understanding young natures which do not +understand themselves. From these halting phrases of mystery Mrs. Gray +gathered much more than her daughter would have imagined. But she did +not let that be seen. + +"If it is only a shadowy difficulty the rising of the sun will put it to +flight," she predicted. + +Roberta was silent for a space. Then suddenly she sat up. + +"I had a long letter from Forbes Westcott to-day," she said, in a tone +which tried to be casual. "He's staying on in London, getting material +for that difficult Letchworth case he's so anxious to win. It's a +wonderfully interesting letter, though he doesn't say much about the +case. He's one of the cleverest letter writers I ever knew--in the +flesh. It's really an art with him. If he hadn't made a lawyer of +himself he would have been a man of letters, his literary tastes are so +fine. It's quite an education in the use of delightfully spirited +English, a correspondence with him. I've appreciated that more with each +letter." + +She produced the letter. "Just listen to this account of an interview he +had with a distinguished Member of Parliament, the one who has just made +that daring speech in the House that set everybody on fire." And she +read aloud from several closely written pages, holding the sheets toward +the still bright embers, and giving the words the benefit of her own +clear and understanding interpretation. Her mother listened with +interest. + +"That is, indeed, a fine description," she agreed. "There is no question +that Forbes has a brilliant mind. The position he already occupies +testifies to that, and the older men all acknowledge that he is rising +more rapidly than could be expected of any ordinary man. He will be one +of the great men of the legal profession, your father and uncle think, I +know." + +"One of the great men," repeated Roberta, her face still bent over her +letter. "I suppose there's no doubt at all of that. And, mother--you may +imagine that when he sets himself to persuade--any one--to--any course, +he knows how to put it as irresistibly as words can." + +"Yes, I should imagine that, dear," said her mother, her eyes on the +down-bent profile, whose outlines, against the background of the +firelight, would have held a gaze less loving than her own. + +"His age makes him interesting, you know," pursued Roberta. "He's just +enough older--and maturer--than any of the men I know, to make him seem +immensely more worth while. His very looks--that thin, keen face of +his--it's plain, yet attractive, and his eyes look as if they could +see through stone walls. It flatters you to have him seem to find +the things you say worth listening to. I can't just explain his +peculiar--fascination--I really think it is that, except that it's his +splendid mind that grips yours, somehow. Oh, I sound like a, +schoolgirl," she burst out, "in spite of my twenty-four years. I wonder +if you see what I mean." + +"I think I do," said her mother, smiling a little. "You mean that your +judgment approves him, but that your heart lags a little behind?" + +"How did you know?" Roberta folded her arms upon her mother's lap, and +looked up eagerly into her face. "I didn't say anything about my heart." + +"But you did, dear. The very fact that you can discuss him so coolly +tells me that your heart isn't seriously involved as yet. Is it?" + +"That's what I don't know," said the girl. "When he writes like +this--the last two pages I can't read to you--I don't know what I think. +And I'm not used to not knowing what I think! It's disconcerting. It's +like being taken off your feet and--not set down again. Yet, when I'm +with him--I'm not at all sure I should ever want him nearer than--well, +than three feet away. And he's so insistent--persistent. He wants an +answer--now, by mail." + +"Are you ready to give it?" + +"No. I'm afraid to give it--at long distance." + +"Then do not. You are under no obligation to do that. The test of actual +presence is the only one to apply. Let him wait till he comes home. It +will not hurt him." + +She spoke with spirit, and her daughter responded to the tone. + +"I know that's the best advice," Roberta said, getting to her feet. +"Mother, you like him?" + +"Yes, I have always liked Forbes," said Mrs. Gray, with cordiality. +"Your father likes him, and trusts him, as a man of honour, in his +profession. That is much to say. Whether he is a man who would make you +happy--that is a different question. No one can answer that but +yourself." + +"I haven't wanted any one to make me happy." Roberta stood upon the +hearth-rug, a figure of charm among the lights and shadows. "I've been +absorbed in my work--and my play. I enjoy my men friends--and am glad +when they go away and leave me. Life is so full--and rich--just of +itself. There are so many wonderful people, of all sorts. The world is +so interesting--and home is so dear!" She lifted her arms, her head up. +"Mother, let's play the Bach _Air_," she said. "That always takes the +fever out of me, and makes me feel calm and rational. Is it very +late?--are you too tired? Nobody will be disturbed at this distance." + +"I should love to play it," said Mrs. Gray, and together the two went +down the room to the great piano which stood there in the darkness. +Roberta switched on one hooded light, produced the music for her mother, +and tuned her 'cello, sitting at one side away from the light, with no +notes before her. Presently the slow, deep, and majestic notes of the +"Air for the G String" were vibrating through the quiet room, the 'cello +player drawing her bow across and across the one string with affection +for each rich note in her very touch. The other string tones followed +her with exquisite sympathy, for Mrs. Gray was a musician from whom +three of her four children had inherited an intense love for harmonic +values. + +But a few bars had sounded when a tall figure came noiselessly into the +room, and Mr. Robert Gray dropped into the seat before the fire which +his wife had lately occupied. With head thrown back he listened, and +when silence fell at the close of the performance, his deep voice was +the first to break it. + +"To me," he said, "that is the slow flowing and receding of waves upon a +smooth and rocky shore. The sky is gray, but the atmosphere is warm and +friendly. It is all very restful, after a day of perturbation." + +"Oh, is it like that to you?" queried Roberta softly, out of the +darkness. "To me it's as if I were walking down the nave of a great +cathedral--Westminster, perhaps--big and bare and wonderful, with the +organ playing ever so far away. The sun is shining outside and so it's +not gloomy, only very peaceful, and one can't imagine the world at the +doors." She looked over at her mother, whose face was just visible in +the shaded light. "What is it to you, lovely lady?" + +"It is a prayer," said her mother slowly, "a prayer for peace and purity +in a restless world, yet a prayer for service, too. The one who prays +lies very low, with his face concealed, and his spirit is full of +worship." + +The light was put out; the three, father, mother, and daughter, came +together in the fading fire-glow. Roberta laid a warm young hand upon the +shoulder of each. "You dears," she said, "what fortunate and happy +children your four are, to be the children of you!" + +Her father placed his firm fingers under her chin, lifting her face. +"Your mother and I," said he, "consider ourselves fairly fortunate and +happy to be the parents of you. You are an interesting quartette. 'Age +cannot wither nor custom stale' your 'infinite variety.' But age will +wither you if you often sit up to play Bach at midnight, when you must +teach school next day. Therefore, good-night, Namesake!" + +Yet when she had gone, her father and mother lingered by the last embers +of the fire. + +"God give her wisdom!" said Roberta's mother. + +"He will--with you to ask Him," replied Roberta's father, with his arms +about his wife. "I think He never refuses you anything! I don't see how +He could!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"THE TAMING OF THE SHREW" + + +"School again, Rob! Don't you hate it?" + +"No, of course I don't hate it. I'm much, much happier when I'm teaching +Ethel Revell to forget her important young self and remember the part +she is supposed to play, than I am when I am merely dusting my room or +driving downtown on errands." + +As she spoke Roberta pushed into place the last hairpin in the close and +trim arrangement of her dark hair, briefly surveyed the result with a +hand-glass, and rose from her dressing-table. Ruth, at a considerably +earlier stage of her dressing, regarded her sister's head with interest. + +"I can always tell the difference between a school day and another day, +just by looking at your hair," she observed, sagely. + +"How, Miss Big Eyes, if you please?" + +"You never leave a curl sticking out, on school days. They sometimes +work out before night, but that's not your fault. You look like one of +Jane Austen's heroines, now." + +Roberta laughed a laugh of derision. "Miss Austen's heroines undoubtedly +had ringlets hanging in profusion on either side of their oval faces." + +"Yes, but I mean every hair of theirs was in order, and so are yours." + +"Thank you. Only so can I command respect when I lecture my girls on +their frenzied coiffures. Oh, but I'm thankful I can live at home and +don't have to spend the nights with them! Some of them are dears, but to +be responsible for them day and night would harrow my soul. Hook me up, +will you, Rufus, please?" + +"You look just like a smooth feathered bluebird in this," commented +Ruth, as she obediently fastened the severely simple school dress of +dark blue, relieved only by its daintily fresh collar and cuffs of +embroidered white lawn. + +"I mean to. Miss Copeland wouldn't have a fluffy, frilly teacher in her +school--and I don't blame her. It's difficult enough to train fluffy, +frilly girls to like simplicity, even if one's self is a model of +plainness and repose." + +"And you're truly glad to go back, after this lovely vacation? Shouldn't +you sort of like to keep on typing for Uncle Calvin, with Mr. Richard +Kendrick sitting close by, looking at you over the top of his book?" + +Roberta wheeled, answering with vehemence: "I should say not, you +romantic infant! When I work I want to work with workers, not with +drones! A person who can only dawdle over his task is of no use at all. +How Uncle Calvin gets on with a mere imitation of a secretary, I can't +possibly see. Why, Ted himself could cover more ground in a morning!" + +"I don't think you do him justice," Ruth objected, with all the dignity +of her sixteen years in evidence. "Of course he couldn't work as well +with you in the room--he isn't used to it. And you are--you certainly +are, awfully nice to look at, Rob." + +"Nonsense! It's lucky you're going back to school yourself, child, to +get these sentimental notions out of your head. Come, vacation's over! +Let's not sigh for more dances; let's go at our work with a will. I've +plenty before me. The school play comes week after next, and I haven't +as good material this year as last. How I'm ever going to get Olivia +Cartwright to put sufficient backbone into her _Petruchio_, I don't +know. I only wish I could play him myself!" + +"Rob! Couldn't you?" + +"It's never done. My part is just to coach and coach, to go over the +lines a thousand times and the stage business ten thousand, and then to +stay behind the scenes and hiss at them: 'More spirit! More life! Throw +yourself into it!' and then to watch them walk it through like puppets! +Well, _The Taming of the Shrew_ is pretty stiff work for amateurs, no +doubt of that--there's that much to be said. Breakfast time, childie! +You must hurry, and I must be off." + +Half an hour later Ruth watched her sister walk away down the street +with Louis, her step as lithe and vigorous as her brother's. Ruth +herself was accustomed to drive with her father to the school which she +attended--a rival school, as it happened, of the fashionable one at +which Roberta taught. She was not so strong as her sister, and a +two-mile walk to school was apt to overtire her. But Roberta chose to +walk every day and all days, and the more stormy the weather the surer +was she to scorn all offers of a place beside Ruth in the brougham. + +Louis's comment on the return of his sister to her work at Miss +Copeland's school was much like that of Ruth. "Sorry vacation's over, +Rob? That's where I have the advantage of you. The office never closes +for more than a day; therefore I'm always in training." + +"That's an advantage, surely enough. But I'm ready to go back. As I was +telling Ruth this morning, I'm anxious to know whether Olivia Cartwright +has forgotten her lines, and whether she's going to be able to infuse a +bit of life into her _Petruchio_. This trying to make a schoolgirl play +a big man's part--" + +"You could do it, yourself," observed Louis, even as Ruth had done. + +"And shouldn't I love to! I'm just longing to stride about the stage in +_Petruchio's_ boots." + +"I'll wager you are. I'd like to see you do it. But the part of +_Katherine_ would be the thing for you--fascinating shrew that you could +be." + +"This--from a brother! Yes, I'd like to play _Katherine_, too. But give +me the boots, if you please. Do you happen to remember Olivia +Cartwright?" + +"Of course I do. And a mighty pretty and interesting girl she is. I +should think she might make a _Petruchio_ for you." + +"I thought she would. But the boots seem to have a devastating effect. +The minute she gets them on--even in imagination, for we haven't had a +dress rehearsal yet--her voice grows softer and her manner more +lady-like. It's the funniest thing I ever knew, to hear her say the +lines-- + +"'What is this? mutton?... +'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat. +What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook? + +"How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser, +And serve it thus to me that love it not? + There, take it to you, trenchers, cups and all, +You heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves!'" + +Passersby along the street beheld a young man consumed with mirth as +Louis Gray heard these stirring words issuing from his sister's pretty +mouth in a clever imitation of the schoolgirl _Petruchio's_ "lady-like" +tones. + +"Now speak those lines as you would if you wore the boots," he urged, +when he had recovered his gravity. + +Roberta waited till they were at a discreet distance from other +pedestrians, then delivered the lines as she had already spoken them for +her pupil twenty times or more, with a spirit and temper which gave them +their character as the assumed bluster they were meant to picture. + +"Good!" cried Louis. "Great! But you see, Sis, you have learned the +absolute control of your voice, and that's a thing few schoolgirls have +mastered. Besides, not every girl has a throat like yours." + +"I mean to be patient," said Roberta soberly. "And Olivia has really a +good speaking voice. It's the curious effect of the imaginary boots that +stirs my wonder. She actually speaks in a higher key with them on than +off. But we shall improve that, in the fortnight before the play. They +are really doing very well, and our _Katherine_--Ethel Revell--is going +to forget herself completely in her part, if I can manage it. In spite +of the hard work I thoroughly enjoy the rehearsing of the yearly +play--it's a relief from the routine work of the class. And the girls +appreciate the best there is, in the great writers and dramatists, as +you wouldn't imagine they could do." + +"On the whole, you would rather be a teacher than an office +stenographer?" suggested Louis, with a touch of mischief in his tone. +"You know, I've always been a bit disappointed that you didn't come into +our office, after working so hard to make an expert of yourself." + +"That training wasn't wasted," defended Roberta. "I'm able to make +friends with my working girls lots better on account of the stenography +and typewriting I know. And I may need that resource yet. I'm not at all +sure that I mean to be a teacher all my days." + +"I'm very sure you'll not," said her brother, with a laughing glance, +which Roberta ignored. It was a matter of considerable amusement to her +brothers the serious way in which she had set about being independent. +They fully approved of her decision to spend her time in a way worth the +while, but when it came to planning for a lifetime--there were plenty of +reasons for skepticism as to her needing to look far ahead. Indeed, it +was well known that Roberta might have abandoned all effort long ago, +and have given any one of several extremely eligible young men the +greatly desired opportunity of taking care of her in his own way. + +The pair separated at a street corner, and, as it happened, Louis heard +little more about the progress of the school rehearsals for _The Taming +of the Shrew_ until the day before its public performance--if a +performance could be called public which was to be given in so private a +place as the ballroom in the home of one of the wealthiest patrons of +the school, the audience composed wholly of invited guests, and +admission to the affair for others extremely difficult to procure on any +ground whatever. + +Appearing at the close of the final rehearsal to escort his sister +home--for the hour, like that of all final rehearsals, was late--Louis +found a flushed and highly wrought Roberta delivering last instructions +even as she put on her wraps. + +"Remember, Olivia," he heard her say to a tall girl wrapped in a long +cloak which evidently concealed male trappings, "I'm not going to tone +down my part one bit to fit yours. If I'm stormy you must be blustering; +if I'm furious you must be fierce. You can do it, I know." + +"I certainly hope so, Miss Gray," answered a none-too-confident voice. +"But I'm simply frightened to death to play opposite you." + +"Nonsense! I'll stick pins into you--metaphorically speaking," declared +Roberta. "I'll keep you up to it. Now go straight to bed--no sitting up +to talk it over with Ethel--poor child! Good-night, dear, and don't you +dare be afraid of me!" + +"Are you going to play the boots, after all?" Louis queried as he and +Roberta started toward home, walking at a rapid pace, as usual after +rehearsals. + +"I wish I were, if I must play some part. No, it's _Katherine_. Ethel +Revell has come down with tonsilitis, just at the last minute. It was to +be expected, of course--somebody always does it. But I did hope it +wouldn't be one of the principals. Of course there's nobody who could +possibly get up the part overnight except the coach, so I'm in for it. +And the worst of it is that unless I'm very careful I shall +over-_Katherine_ my _Petruchio_! If Olivia will only keep her voice +resonant! She can stride and gesture pretty well now, but highly +dramatic moments always cause her to raise her key--and then the boots +only serve to make the effect grotesque." + +"Never mind; unconscious humour is always interesting to the audience. +And we shall all be there to see your _Katherine_. I had thought of +cutting the performance for a rather important address, but nothing +would induce me to miss my sister as the _Shrew_." + +Roberta laughed. "Nobody will question my fitness for the part, I fear. +Well, if I teach expression, in a girls' school, I must take the +consequences, and be willing to express anything that comes along." + +If Roberta had expected any sympathy from her family in the exigency of +the hour, she was disappointed. Instead of condoling with her, the +breakfast-table hearers of the news, next morning, were able only to +congratulate themselves upon the augmented interest the school play +would now have for Roberta's friends, confident that the presence of one +clever actress of maturer powers would compensate for much +amateurishness in the others. Ruth, young devotee of her sister, was +delighted beyond measure with the prospect, and joyfully spent the day +taking necessary stitches in the apparel Roberta was to wear, +considerable alteration being necessary to adapt the garments intended +for the slim and girlish _Katherine_ of Ethel Revell's proportions to +the more perfectly rounded lines of her teacher. + +Late in the afternoon, something was needed to complete Roberta's +preparations which could be procured only in a downtown shop, and Ruth +volunteered to order the brougham--now on runners--and go down for it. +She left the house alone, but she did not complete her journey alone, +for halfway down the two-mile boulevard she passed a figure she knew, +and turned to bestow a girlish bow and smile. + +Richard Kendrick not only took off his hat but waved it with a gesture +of entreaty, as he quickened his steps, and Ruth, much excited by the +encounter, bade Thomas stop the horses. + +"Would you take a passenger?" he asked as he came up; "unless, of +course, you're going to stop for some one else?" + +"Do get in," she urged shyly. "No, I'm all alone--going on an errand." + +"I guessed it--not the errand, but the being alone. You looked so small, +wrapped up in all these furs, I felt you needed company," explained +Richard, smiling down into the animated young face, with its delicate +colour showing fresh and fair in the frosty air. There was something +very attractive to the young man in this girl, who seemed to him the +embodiment of sweetness and purity. He never saw her without feeling +that he would have liked just such a little sister. He would have done +much to please her, quite as he had followed her suggestion about the +church-going on Christmas Day. + +"I'm rushing down to find a scarf of a certain colour for Rob," +explained Ruth, too full of her commission to keep it to herself. "You +see, she's playing _Katherine_ to-night. The girl who was to have played +it--Ethel Revell--is ill. Do you know any of Miss Copeland's girls? +Olivia Cartwright plays _Petruchio_." + +"Olivia Cartwright? Is she to be in some play? She's a distant cousin of +mine." + +"It's a school play--Miss Copeland's school, where Rob teaches, you +know. The play is to be in the Stuart Hendersons' ballroom." And Ruth +made known the situation to a listener who gave her his undivided +attention. + +"Well, well,--seems to me I should have had an invitation for that +play," mused Richard, searching his memory. "I wish I'd had one. I +should like to see your sister act _Katherine_. I suppose it's quite +impossible to get one at this late hour?" + +"I'm afraid so. It's really not at all strange that any one is left out +of the list of invitations," Ruth hastened to make clear. "You see, each +girl is allowed only six, and that usually takes just her family or +nearest friends. And if you are only a distant cousin of Olivia's--" + +"It's not at all strange that she shouldn't ask me, for I'm afraid I've +neglected to avail myself of former invitations of hers," admitted +Richard, ruefully. "Too bad. Punishment for such neglect usually +follows--and I certainly have it now. I know the Stuart Hendersons, +though--I wonder--Never mind, Miss Ruth, don't look so sorry. You'll +tell me about it afterward, some time, won't you?" + +"Indeed I will. Oh, it's been such an exciting day. Rob's been +rehearsing her lines all day--when she wasn't trying on. She says she +could have played _Petruchio_ much better, because she's had to coach +Olivia Cartwright for that part so much more than she's had to coach +Ethel for _Katherine_. But, then, she knows the whole play--she could +take any part. She would have loved to play _Petruchio_, though, on +account of the boots and the slashing round the stage the way he does. +But I think it's just as well, for _Katherine_ certainly slashes, +too--and Rob's not quite tall enough for _Petruchio_." + +"I'm glad she plays _Katherine_," said Richard Kendrick decidedly. "I +can't imagine your sister in boots! I've no doubt, though, she'd make +them different from other boots--if she wore them!" + +"Of course she would," agreed Ruth. Then she began to talk about +something else, for a bit of fear had come into her mind that Rob +wouldn't enjoy all this discussion of herself, if she should know about +it. + +She was such an honest young person, however, that she had a good deal +of difficulty, when she had done her errand and was at home again, in +not telling Roberta of her meeting with Richard Kendrick. She did +venture to ask a question. + +"Is Mr. Kendrick invited for to-night, Rob?" + +"Not by me," Roberta responded promptly. + +"He might be, by one of the girls, I suppose?" + +"The girls invite whom they like. I haven't seen the list. I don't +imagine he would be on it. I hope not, certainly." + +"Why? Don't you think he would enjoy it?" + +"No, I do not. Musical comedies are probably more to his taste than +amateur productions of Shakespeare. But I'm not thinking about the +audience--the players are enough for me." Then, suddenly, an idea which +flashed into her mind caused her to turn and scan Ruth's ingenuous young +face. + +"You haven't been inviting Mr. Kendrick yourself, Rufus?" + +"Why, how could I?" But the girl flushed rosily in a way which betrayed +her interest. "I just--wondered." + +"How did you come to wonder? Have you seen him?" + +Ruth being Ruth, there was nothing to do but to tell Roberta of the +encounter with Richard. "He said he was glad you were to play +_Katherine_, because he couldn't imagine you in boots," she added, +hoping this news might appease her sister. But it did nothing of the +sort. + +"As if it made the slightest difference to him! But if he feels that +way, I wish I were to wear the boots, and I wish he might be there to +see me do it. As it is, I hope Mrs. Stuart Henderson will be deaf to his +audacity, if he dares to ask an invitation. It would be quite like him!" + +"I don't see why--" began Ruth. + +But Roberta interrupted her. "There are lots of things you don't see, +little sister," said she, with a swift and impetuous embrace of the +slender form beside her. Then she turned, frowned, flung out her arm, +and broke into one of _Katherine's_ flaming speeches: + +_"'Why, sir, I trust, I may have leave to speak: +And speak I will: I am no child, no babe: +Your betters have endured me say my mind +And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.'"_ + +"Oh, but you do have such a lovely voice!" cried Ruth. "You can't make +even the _Shrew_ sound shrewish--in her tone, I mean." + +"Can't I, indeed? Wait till to-night! If your friend Mr. Kendrick is to +be there I'll be more shrewish than you ever dreamed--it will be a real +stimulus!" + +Ruth shook her head in dumb wonder that any one could be so impervious +to the charms of the young man who so appealed to her youthful +imagination. Three hours afterward, when she turned in her chair, in the +Stuart Henderson ballroom, at the summons of a low voice in her ear, to +find Richard Kendrick in the row behind her, she wondered afresh what +there could possibly be about him to rouse her sister's antagonism. His +face was such an interesting one, his eyes so clear and their glance so +straightforward, his fresh colour so pleasant to note, his whole +personality so attractive, Ruth could only answer him in the happiest +way at her command with a subdued but eager: "Oh, I'm so glad you came!" + +"That's due to Mrs. Cartwright's wonderful kindness. She's the mother of +_Petruchio_, you know," explained Richard, with a smiling glance at the +gorgeously gowned woman beside him, who leaned forward also to say to +Ruth: + +"What is one to do with a sweetly apologetic young cousin who begs to be +allowed to come, at the last moment, to view his cousin in doublet and +hose? But I really didn't venture to tell Olivia. She would have fled +from the stage if she had guessed that cousin Richard, whom she greatly +admires, was to be here. I can only hope she will not hear of it till +the play is over." + +"If his being here is going to make _Petruchio_ tremble more, and +_Katherine_ act naughtier, I shall feel dreadfully guilty," thought +Ruth. But somehow when the curtain went up she could not help being glad +that he was there, behind her. + +Roberta had said much, in hours of relaxation after long and tense +rehearsals, of the difficulty of making schoolgirls forget themselves in +any part. It had been difficult, indeed, to train her pupils to speak +and act with naturalness in rôles so foreign to their experience. But +she had been much more successful than she had dared to believe, and her +own enthusiasm, her tireless drilling, above all her inspiring example +as she spoke her girls' lines for them and demonstrated to them each +telling detail of stage business, had done the work with astonishing +effect. The hardest task of all had been to find and develop a +satisfactory delineator of the difficult part of the _Tamer of the +Shrew_, but Roberta had persevered, even taking a journey of some hours +with Olivia Cartwright to have her see and study one of the greatest of +_Petruchios_ at two successive performances. She had succeeded in +stimulating Olivia to a real determination to be worthy of her teacher's +expressed belief in her, even to the mastering of her girlish tendency +to let her voice revert to a high-keyed feminine quality just when it +needed to be deepest and most stern. + +The audience, as the play began, was in the customary benevolent mood of +audiences beholding amateur productions, ready to see good if possible, +anxious to show favour to all the young actors and to praise without +discrimination, aware of the proximity of proud fathers and mothers. But +this audience soon found itself genuinely interested and amused, and +with the first advent of the enchanting _Shrew_ herself became absorbed +in her personality and her fortunes quite as it might have been in those +of any talented actress of reputation. + +To Ruth, sitting wide eyed and hot cheeked, her sister seemed the most +spirited and bewitching _Katherine_ ever played. Her shrewishness was +that of the wilful madcap girl who has never been crossed rather than +that of the inherently ill-tempered woman, and her every word and +gesture, her every expression of face and tone of voice, were worth +noting and watching. By no means finished work--as how should it be, in +a young teacher but few years out of school herself--it yet had an +originality and freshness of interpretation all its own, and the +applause which praised it was very spontaneous and genuine. Roberta had +been the joy of her class in college dramatics, and several of her +former classmates, in her audience to-night, gleefully told one another +that she was surpassing anything she had formerly done. + +"It's simply superb, you know, don't you?--your sister's acting," said +Richard Kendrick's voice in Ruth's ear again at the end of the first +act, and she turned her burning cheek his way as she answered happily: + +"It seems so to me--but then I'm prejudiced, you know." + +"We're all prejudiced, when it comes to that--made so by this +performance. I'm pretty proud of my cousin _Petruchio_, too," he went +on, including Mrs. Cartwright at his side. "I'd no idea boots could be +so becoming to any girl--outside of a chorus. Olivia's splendid. Do you +suppose"--he was addressing Ruth again--"you and I might go behind the +scenes and tell them how we feel about it?" + +"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Kendrick," Ruth replied, much shocked. "It's lots +different, a girls' play like this, from the regular theatre. They'd be +so astonished to see you. Rob's told me, heaps of times, how they go +perfectly crazy after every act, and she has all she can do to keep them +cool enough for the next. She'd never forgive us. And besides, Olivia +Cartwright's not to know you're here, you know." + +"That's true. I'd forgotten how disturbing my presence is supposed to +be," and Richard leaned back again to laugh with Mrs. Cartwright. + +But, behind the scenes, the news had penetrated, nobody knew just how. +Roberta learned, to her surprise and distraction, that Richard Kendrick +was somehow a particularly interesting figure in the eyes of her young +players, and she speedily discovered that they were all more or less +excited at the knowledge that he was somewhere below the footlights. +Olivia, indeed, was immediately in a flutter, quite as her mother had +predicted, at the thought of Cousin Richard's eyes upon her in her +masculine attire; and Roberta, in the brief interval she could spare for +the purpose, had to take her sternly in hand. An autocratic _Katherine_ +might, then, have been overheard addressing a flurried _Petruchio_, in a +corner: + +"For pity's sake, child, who is he that you need be afraid of him? He's +no critic, I'll wager, and if he's your cousin he'll be sure to think +you act like a veteran, anyhow. Forget him, and go ahead. You're doing +splendidly. Don't you dare slump just because you're remembering your +audience!" + +"Oh, of course I'll try, Miss Gray," replied an extremely feminine voice +from beneath _Petruchio's_ fierce mustachios. "But Richard Kendrick +really is awfully sort of upsetting, don't you know?" + +"Of course I don't know," denied Roberta promptly. "As long as Miss +Copeland herself is pleased with us, nobody else matters. And Miss +Copeland is delighted--she sent me special word just now. So stiffen +your backbone, _Petruchio_, and make this next dialogue with me as rapid +as you know. Come back at me like flash-fire--don't lag a breath--we'll +stir the house to laughter, or know the reason why. Ready?" + +Her firm hand on Olivia's arm, her bracing words in Olivia's ear, put +courage back into her temporarily stage-struck "leading man," and Olivia +returned to the charge determined to play up to her teacher without +lagging. In truth, Roberta's actual presence on the stage was proving a +distinct advantage to those of the players who had parts with her. She +warmed and held them to their tasks with the flash of her own eyes, not +to mention an occasional almost imperceptible but pregnant gesture, and +they found themselves somehow able to "forget the audience," as she had +so many times advised them to do, the better that she herself seemed so +completely to have forgotten it. + +The work of the young actors grew better with each act, and at the end +of the fourth, when the curtain went down upon a scene which had been +all storm on the part of the players and all laughter on the part of the +audience, the applause was long and hearty. There were calls for the +entire cast, and when they had several times responded there was a +special and persistent demand for _Katherine_ herself, in the character +of the producer of the play. She refused it until she could no longer do +so without discourtesy; then she came before the curtain and said a few +winsome words of gratitude on behalf of her "company." + +Ruth, staring up at her sister's face brilliant with the mingled +exertion and emotion of the hour, and thinking her the prettiest picture +there against the great dull-blue silk curtain of the stage she had ever +seen, had no notion that just behind her somebody was thinking the same +thing with a degree of fervour far beyond her own. Richard Kendrick's +heart was thumping vigorously away in his breast as he looked his fill +at the figure before the curtain, secure in the darkness of the house +from observation at the moment. + +When he had first met this girl he had told himself that he would soon +know her well, would soon call her by her name. He wondered at himself +that he could possibly have fancied conquest of her so easy. He was not +a whit nearer knowing her, he was obliged to acknowledge, than on that +first day, nor did he see any prospect of getting to know her--beyond a +certain point. Her chosen occupation seemed to place her beyond his +reach; she was not to be got at by the ordinary methods of approach. +Twice he had called and asked for her, to be told that she was busy with +school papers and must be excused. Once he had ventured to invite her to +go with Mrs. Stephen and himself to a carefully chosen play and a +supper, but she had declined, gracefully enough--but she had declined, +and Mrs. Stephen also. He could not make these people out, he told +himself. Did they and he live in such different worlds that they could +never meet on common ground? + +_The Taming of the Shrew_ came to a triumphant end; the curtain fell +upon the effective closing scene in which the lovely _Shrew_, become a +richly loving and tender wife, without, somehow, surrendering a particle +of her exquisite individuality, spoke her words of wisdom to other +wives. Richard smiled to himself as he heard the lines fall from +Roberta's lips. And beneath his breath he said: + +"I don't see how you can bring yourself to say them, you modern girl. +You'd never let a real husband feel his power that way, I'll wager. If +you did--well--it would go to his head, I'm sure of that. What an idiot +I am to think I could ever make her look at me the way she looked even +at that schoolgirl _Petruchio_--with a clever imitation of devotion. O +Roberta Gray! But I'd rather worship you across the footlights than take +any other girl in my arms. And somehow--somehow I've got to make you at +least respect me. At least that, Roberta! Then--perhaps--more!" + +At Ruth's side, when the play was ended, Richard hoped to attain at +least the chance to speak to Ruth's sister. The young players all +appeared upon the stage, the curtain being raised for the rest of the +evening, and the audience came up, group by group, to offer +congratulations and pour into gratified ears the praise which was the +reward of labour. Richard succeeded in getting by degrees into the +immediate vicinity of Roberta, who was continuously surrounded by happy +parents bent on presenting their felicitations. But just as he was about +to make his way to her side a diversion occurred which took her +completely away from him. A girl near by, who on account of physical +frailty had had a minor part, grew suddenly faint, and in a trice +Roberta had impressed into her service a strong pair of male arms, +nearer at hand than Richard's, and had had the slim little figure +carried behind the scenes, herself following. + +Ten minutes later he learned from Ruth that Roberta had gone back to +Miss Copeland's school with the girl, recovered but weak. + +"Couldn't anybody else have gone?" he inquired, considerable impatience +in his voice. + +"Of course--lots of people could, and would. Only it's just like Rob to +seize the chance to get away from this, and not come back. You'll +see--she won't. She hates being patted on the back, as she calls it. I +never can see why, when people mean it, as I'm sure they do to-night. +She's the queerest girl. She never wants what you'd think she would, or +wants it the way other people do. But she's awfully dear, just the +same," Ruth hastened to add, fearful lest she seem to criticise the +beloved sister. "And somehow you don't get tired of her, the way you do +of some people. Perhaps that's just because she's different." + +"I suspect it is," Richard agreed with conviction. Certainly, a girl who +would run away from such adulation as she had been receiving must be, he +considered, decidedly and interestingly "different." He only wished he +might hit upon some "different" way to pique her interest. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BLANKETS + + +There was destined to be a still longer break in the work which had been +going on in Judge Calvin Gray's library than was intended. He and his +assistant had barely resumed their labours after the Christmas +house-party when the Judge was called out of town for a period whose +limit when he left he was unable to fix. He could leave little for +Richard to do, so that young man found his time again upon his hands and +himself unable to dispose of it to advantage. + +His mind at this period was in a curious state of dissatisfaction. Ever +since the evening of the Christmas dance, when a girl's careless word +had struck home with such unexpected force he had been as restless and +uneasy as a fish out of water. His condition bore as much resemblance to +that of the gasping fish as this: in the old element of life about town, +as he had been in the habit of living it, he now had the sensation of +not being able to breathe freely. + +It was with the intention of getting into the open, both mentally and +physically, that on the second day following the Judge's departure +Richard started on a long drive in his car. Beyond a certain limit he +knew that the roads were likely to prove none too good, though the +winter had thus far been an open one and there was little chance of his +encountering blocking snowdrifts "up State." He took no one with him. He +could think of no one with whom he cared to go. + +As he drove his mind was busy with all sorts of speculations. In his +hurt pride he had said to a girl: "If I can't make you think differently +of me it won't be for lack of will." That meant--what did it mean? That +he had recognized the fact that she despised idlers--and that young rich +men who spent a few hours, on an average of five days of the week, in +assisting elderly gentlemen bereft of their eyesight in looking up old +records, did not thereby in her estimation remove themselves from the +class of those who do nothing in the world but attend to the spending of +their incomes. + +What should he do--how prove himself fit to deserve her approval? +Unquestionably he must devote himself seriously to some serious +occupation. All sorts of ideas chased one another through his mind in +response to this stimulus. What was he fitted to do? He had a certain +facility in the use of the pen, as he had proved in the service of Judge +Calvin Gray. Should he look for a job as reporter on one of the city +dailies? He certainly could not offer himself for any post higher than +that of the rawest scribe on the force; he had had no experience. The +thought of seeking such a post made his lip curl with the absurdity of +the notion. They would make a society reporter of him; it would be the +first idea that would occur to them. It was the only thing for which +they would think him fit! + +The thing he should like to do would be to travel on some interesting +commission for his grandfather. On what commission, for instance? The +purchasing of rare works of art for the picture-gallery of the great +store? No mean exhibition it was they had there. But he had not the +training for such a commission; he would be cheated out of hand when it +came to buying! They sent skilled buyers on such quests. + +He thought of rushing off to the far West and buying a ranch. That was a +fit and proper thing for a fellow like himself; plenty of rich men's +sons had done it. If she could see him in cowboy garb, rough-clad, +sunburnt, muscular, she would respect him then perhaps. There would be +no more flinging at him that he was a cotillion leader! How he hated the +term! + +The day was fair and cold, the roads rather better than he had expected, +and by luncheon-time he had reached a large town, seventy miles away +from his own city, where he knew of an exceptionally good place to +obtain a refreshing meal. With this end in view, he was making more than +ordinary village speed when disaster befell him in the shape of a break +in his electric connections. Two blocks away from the hotel he sought, +the car suddenly went dead. + +While he was investigating, fingers blue with cold, a voice he knew +hailed him. It came from a young man who advanced from the doorway of a +store, in front of which the car had chanced to stop. "Something wrong, +Rich?" + +Richard stood up. He gripped his friend's hand cordially, glancing up at +the sign above the store as he did so. + +"Mighty glad to see you, Benson," he responded. "I didn't realize I'd +stopped in front of your father's place of business." + +Hugh Benson was a college classmate. In spite of the difference between +their respective estates in the college world, the two had been rather +good friends during the four years of their being thrown together. Since +graduation, however, they had seldom met, and for the last two years +Richard Kendrick had known no more of his former friend than that the +good-sized dry-goods store, standing on a prominent corner in the large +town through which he often motored without stopping, still bore the +name of Hugh Benson's father. + +When the car was running again Benson climbed in and showed Richard the +way to his own home, where he prevailed on his friend to remain for +lunch with himself and his mother. Richard learned for the first time +that Benson's father had died within the last year. + +"And you're going on with the business?" questioned Richard, as the two +lingered alone together in Benson's hall before parting. The talk during +the meal had been mostly of old college days, of former classmates, and +of the recent history of nearly every mutual acquaintance except that of +the speakers themselves. + +"There was nothing else for me to do when father left us," Benson +responded in a low tone. "I'm not as well adapted to it as he was, but +I expect to learn." + +"I remember you thought of doing graduate work along scientific lines. +Did you give that up?" + +"Yes. I found father needed me at home; his health must have been +failing even then, though I didn't realize it. I've been in the store +with him ever since. I'm glad I have--now." + +"It's not been good for you," declared Richard, scrutinizing his +friend's pale and rather worn face critically. It would have seemed to +him still paler and more worn if he could have seen it in contrast with +his own fresh-tinted features, ruddy with his morning's drive. "Better +come with me for an afternoon spin farther up State, and a good dinner +at a place I know. Get you back by bedtime." + +"There's nothing I'd like better, Rich," said Benson longingly; "but--I +can't leave the store. I have rather a short force of clerks--and on a +sunny day--" + +"You'd sell more goods to-morrow," urged Richard, feeling increasingly +anxious to do something which might bring light into a face he had not +remembered as so sombre. + +But Benson shook his head again. Afterward, in front of the store to +which the two had returned in the car, Richard could only give his +friend a warm grip of the hand and an urgent invitation to visit him in +the city. + +"I suppose you come down often to buy goods," he suggested. "Or do you +send buyers? I don't know much about the conduct of business in a town +like this--or much about it at home, for that matter," he owned. "Though +I'm not sure I'm proud of my ignorance." + +"It doesn't matter whether you know anything about it or not, of +course," said Benson, looking up at him with a queer expression of +wistfulness. "No, I'm my own buyer. And I don't buy of a great, +high-grade firm like yours; I go to a different class of fellows for my +stuff." + +Richard drove on, thinking hard about Benson. What a pity for a fellow +of twenty-six or seven to look like that, careworn and weary. He +wondered whether it was the loss of his father and the probably +sorrowful atmosphere at home that accounted for the look in Benson's +eyes, or whether his business was not a particularly successful one. He +recalled that the one careless glance he had given the windows of +Benson's store had brought to his mind the fleeting impression that +village shopkeepers had not much art in the dressing of their windows as +a means of alluring the public. + +As he drove on he felt in his pockets for a cigar and found his case +unexpectedly empty. He turned back to a drugstore, went in and supplied +himself from the best in stock--none too good for his fastidious taste. + +"What's your best dry-goods shop here?" he inquired casually. + +"Artwell & Chatford's the best--now," responded the druggist, glancing +across the street, where a sign bearing those names met the eye. +"Chaffee Brothers has run 'em a close second since Benson's dropped out +of the competition. Benson's used to be the best, but it's fallen way +behind. Look at Artwell's window display over there and see the reason," +he added, pointing across the street with the citizen's pride in a +successful enterprise in no way his own rival. + +"Gorgeous!" responded Richard, eying an undoubtedly eye-catching +arrangement of blankets of every hue and quality piled about a centre +figure consisting of a handsome brass bed made up as if for occupancy, +the carefully folded-back covers revealing immaculate and downy blankets +with pink borders, the whole suggestive of warmth and comfort throughout +the most rigorous winter season. + +"Catchy--on a day like this!" suggested the druggist, with a chuckle. +"I'll admit they gave me the key for my own windows." + +Richard's gaze followed the other's glance and rested on piles of +scarlet flannel chest-protectors, flanked by small brass tea-kettles +with alcohol lamps beneath. + +"We carry a side line of spirit-lamp stuff," explained the dealer. "It +sells well this time of year. Got to keep track of the popular thing. +Afternoon teas are all the go among the women of this town now. The +hardware's the only other place they can get these--and they don't begin +to keep the variety we do." + +Richard congratulated the dealer on his window. Lingering by it, his +hand on the door, he said: + +"I noticed Benson's as I came by, and I see now the force of what you +say about window display. I'm not sure I can tell what was in their +windows." + +"Nor anybody else," declared the druggist, chuckling, "unless he went +with a notebook and made an inventory. Since the old man died last year +the windows have been a hodgepodge of stuff that attracts nobody. It's +merely an index to the way the place is running behind. Young Benson +doesn't know how to buy nor how to sell; he'll never succeed. The store +began to go down when the old man got too feeble to take the whole +responsibility. Hugh began to overstock some departments and understock +others. It's not so much lack of capital that'll be responsible for +Hugh's failure when it comes--and I guess it's not far off--as it is +lack of business experience. Why, he's got so little trade he's turned +off half his salespeople; and you know that talks!" + +It did indeed. It talked louder now in the light of the druggist's +shrewd commentaries than it had when Benson had spoken of his "short +force." Richard wondered just how short it was, that the proprietor +could not venture to leave for even a few hours. + +He drove on thoughtfully. He wanted to go back and look those windows +over again, wanted to go through the whole store, but recognized that +though he could have done this when he first arrived, he could not go +back and do it now without exciting his friend's suspicion that sympathy +was his motive. + +He turned about at a point far short of the one he had intended to +reach, and made record time back to the city, impelled by an odd wish he +could hardly explain, to go by the windows of the great department +stores of Kendrick & Company and examine their window displays. Since he +was ordinarily accustomed to select any other streets than those upon +which these magnificent places of custom were situated, merely because +he not only had no interest in them but a positive distaste for seeing +his own name emblazoned--though ever so chastely--above their princely +portals, it may be understood that an entirely new idea was working in +his brain. + +Speed as he would, however, running the risk as he approached the city +streets of being stopped by some watchful authority for exceeding the +limits, he could not get back to the broad avenue upon which the stores +stood before six o'clock. There was all the better chance on that +account, nevertheless, for examining the windows before which belated +shoppers were still stopping to wonder and admire. + +Well, looking at them with Benson's forlorn windows in his mind as a +foil, he saw them as he never had before. What beauty, what originality, +what art they showed! And at a time of year when, the holiday season +past, it might seem as if there could be no real summons for anybody to +go shopping. They were fairly dazzling, some of them, although many of +them showed only white goods. His car came to a standstill before one +great plate-glass frame behind which was a representation of a +sewing-room with several people busily at work. So perfect were the +figures that it hardly seemed as if they could be of wax. One pretty +girl was sewing at a machine; another, on her knees, was fitting a frock +to a little girl who laughed over her shoulder at a second child who was +looking on. The mother of the family sewed by a drop-light on a +work-table. The whole scene was really charming, combining precisely the +element of domesticity with that of accomplishment which strikes the eye +of the average passer as "looking like home," no matter of what sort the +home might be. + +"By heavens! if poor Ben had something like that people wouldn't pass +him by for the blanket store," he said to himself; and drove on, still +thinking. + +The next day, at an hour before the morning tide of shopping at Kendrick +& Company's had reached the flood, two pretty glove clerks were suddenly +tempted into a furtive exchange of conversation at an unoccupied end of +their counter. + +"Look quick! See the young man coming this way? It's Rich Kendrick." + +"It is? They told me he never came here. Say, but he's the real thing!" + +"I should say. Never saw him so close myself. Wish he'd stop here." + +"Bet you couldn't keep your head if he spoke to you!" + +"Bet I could! Don't you worry; he don't buy his gloves in his own +department store. He--" + +"Sh! Granger's looking!" + +There was really nothing about Richard Kendrick to attract attention +except his wholesome good looks, for he dressed with exceptional +quietness, and his manner matched his clothes. A floorwalker recognized +him and bowed, but the elevator man did not know him, and on his way to +the offices he passed only one clerk who could lay claim to a speaking +acquaintance with the grandson of the owner. + +But at the office of the general manager he was met by an office boy who +knew and worshipped him from afar, and in five minutes he was closeted +with that official, who gave him his whole attention. + +"Mr. Henderson, I wish you could give me"--was the substance of +Richard's remarks--"somebody who would go up to Eastman with me and tell +me what's the matter with a dry-goods store there that's on the verge of +failure." + +The general manager was, to put it mildly, astonished. He was a mighty +man of valour himself, so mighty that his yearly salary would have been +to the average American citizen a small fortune. The office was one to +fill which similar houses had often scoured the country without avail. +Other business owners had been forced to remain at the helm long after +health and happiness demanded retirement. Among these, Henderson was +held to be so competent a man that Matthew Kendrick was considered +incredibly lucky to keep his hold upon him. + +To Matthew Kendrick's grandson Henderson put a number of pertinent +inquiries concerning the store in question which Richard found he could +not intelligently answer. He flushed a little under the fire. + +"I suppose you think I might have investigated a bit for myself," said +he. "But that's just what I don't want to do. I want to send a man up +there whom the owner doesn't know; then we can get at things without +giving ourselves away." + +The general manager inferred from this that philanthropy, not business +interest, was at the bottom of young Kendrick's quest and his surprise +vanished. The young man was known as kind-hearted and generous; he was +undoubtedly merely carrying out a careless impulse, though he certainly +seemed much in earnest in the doing of it. + +"You might take Carson, assistant buyer for the dress-goods department, +with you," suggested Henderson after a little consideration. "He could +probably give you a day just now. Alger, his head, is back from London +this week. Carson's a bright man--in line for promotion. He'll put his +finger on the trouble without hesitation--if it lies in the lack of +business experience, buying and selling, as you say. I'll send for him." + +In two minutes Richard Kendrick and Alfred Carson were face to face, +and an appointment had been made for the following day. Richard took +a liking to the assistant buyer on the spot. He felt as if he were +selecting a competent physician for his friend, and was glad to send +him a man whose personality was both prepossessing and inspiring of +confidence. + +As for Carson, it was an interesting experience for him, too. He +thoroughly enjoyed the seventy-mile drive at the side of the young +millionaire, who sent his powerful car flying over the frozen roads at a +pace which made his passenger's face sting. Carson was more accustomed +to travel in subways and sleeping-cars than by long motor drives, and by +the time Eastman was reached he was glad that the return drive would be +preceded by a hot luncheon. + +"We won't go past the store," Richard explained, making a détour from +the main street of the town, regardless of the fact that he forsook a +good road for a poor one. "I don't want him to see me to-day." + +He pressed upon his guest the best that the hotel afforded, then sent +him to the corner store with instructions to let nothing escape his +attention. "Though I don't need to tell you that," he added with a +laugh. "You'll see more in a minute than I should in a month." + +Then he lighted a cigar--from his own case this time, though he strolled +in to see his friend the druggist when he had finished it, and bought of +him various other sundries. He did not venture to mention Benson to-day, +but the druggist did. Evidently Benson's imminent failure was the talk +of the town, and the regret, as well, of those who were not his rivals. + +"Man can't succeed at a thing he picks up so late, and when he'd rather +do something else," volunteered the druggist. "Now I began in this shop +by sweeping out, mornings, and running errands, delivering goods. Got +interested--came to be a clerk after a while. Always saw myself making +up dope, compounding prescriptions. Went off to a school of +pharmacy--came back--showed the old man I could look after the +prescription business. Finally bought him out. Trained for the trade +from the cradle as you might say." + +"I wonder if I'm going to be useless," thought Richard, "because I'm +not trained from the cradle. Carson says he began as a wrapper at +fifteen. At my age--he looks my age--he's assistant buyer for one of +Kendrick & Company's biggest departments, and 'in line for promotion,' +as Henderson says. Rich Kendrick, do you think you're in line for +promotion--anywhere? I wonder!" + +He had gone back to the hotel and was impatiently awaiting Carson for +some time before the buyer appeared. Carson came in with a look of great +interest and eagerness on his face. The assistant buyer had, Richard +thought, one of the brightest faces he had ever seen. He was sure he had +asked the right man to diagnose the case of the invalid business, even +before Carson began to talk. As the talk progressed he was convinced of +it. + +Yet Carson began at the human, not the business, end of the matter. +Richard Kendrick, himself full of concern for his friend Hugh Benson, +liked that, too. + +"I never felt sorrier for a man in my life," said Carson. "He shows a +lot of pluck; he never once owned that the thing was too much for him. +But I got him to talking--a little. Didn't need to talk much; the whole +place was shouting at me--every counter, every showcase. Thunder!" + +"How did you get him to talking?" Richard asked eagerly. + +"Represented myself as an ex-travelling man--the dry-goods line. It's +true enough, if not just the way he took it. Of course he didn't give me +any facts about his business, but we discussed present conditions of the +trade pretty well, and he owned that a good many things puzzled him just +as much as when he was a little chap and used to listen to his father +giving orders. What's going to be wanted and how much? When to load up +and when to unload? How to catch the public fancy and not get caught +yourself? In short, how to turn over the stock in season and out of +season--turn it over and get out from under! He knows no more than a man +who can't swim how to keep his head above water. Nice fellow, too; I +could see it in every word he said. He'd be a success in, say, a +professorship in a college--and not a business college, either." + +"If the place were yours," Richard, alive with interest, put it to him, +"now, this minute, what would be the first thing you would do?" + +Carson laughed--not derisively, but like a boy who sees a chance at a +game he likes to play. "Have a bonfire, I'd like to say," he vowed. "But +that wouldn't be good business, and I wouldn't do it if I had the +chance--unless there was insurance to cover! And there's money in the +stock. Part of it could be got out. But it ought to be got out before +the moon is old. Then I'd like the fun of stocking up with new lines, +new departments, things the town never heard of. I'd make that blanket +window you told me about look sick. That is," he added modestly, "I +think I could. Any good general buyer could. I'm a dress-goods man +myself, only I've grown up under Kendrick & Company's roof and I've been +watching other lines than my own. It interests me--the possibilities of +that store. Why, the man ought not to fail! He has the best location in +town, the biggest windows, the best fixtures, judging by the outside of +the places I saw as I came along. I looked at the blanket-window place. +That's a dark store when you get back a dozen feet. Benson's, being on +the corner, is fairly light to the back door. That counts more than any +other thing about the building itself. And the fellow has his underwear +in the brightest spot in the shop and the dress goods in the darkest! +His heavy lines by the door and his notions and fancy stuff way back +where you've got to hunt for them! And his windows--oh, blazes! I wanted +to climb up and jump on the mess and then throw it out!" + +Richard drove Carson back to town, his heart afire with longing to do +something, he did not yet know what. He could not consult Carson about +the matter further than to find out from him what was wrong with the +business from the standpoint of the customer; why the place did not +attract the customer. Details of this phase of the question Carson had +given him in plenty, all leading back to the one trouble--Benson had not +understood how to appeal to the class of custom at his doors. He had not +the right goods, nor the right means of display; he had not the right +salespeople; in brief, he had nothing, according to Carson, that he +ought to have, and everything, poor fellow, that he ought not! It was a +hard case. + +As to actual business foundations and resources, neither of the young +men could judge. They had no means of knowing how deeply Benson was in +debt, nor what were his assets beyond the visible stock. Yet his fellow +shopkeepers considered him on the verge of bankruptcy; they must know. + +"I've enjoyed this trip, Mr. Kendrick," Carson said at parting, "in more +ways than I can tell you. If I can be of use to you in any way, call on +me, please. I'm honestly interested in your friend Mr. Benson. I'd like +to see him win out." + +"So should I." Richard shook hands heartily. "I've enjoyed the trip, +too, Mr. Carson. I never had better company. Thank you for going--and +for teaching me a lot of things I wanted to know." + +As he drove away he was thinking, "Carson's a success; I'm not. Odd +thing, that I should find myself envying a chap whose place I couldn't +be hired to take. I envy him--not exactly his knowledge and skill, but +his being a definite factor, his being a man who carries +responsibilities and makes good, so that--well, so that he's 'in line +for promotion.' That phrase takes hold of me somehow; I wonder why? +Well, the next thing is to see grandfather." + + * * * * * + +Old Matthew Kendrick was alone. His grandson had just left him. He was +marching up and down his private library. His hands were clasped tightly +behind his back; above his flushed brow his white hair stood erect from +frequent thrustings of his agitated fingers; even his cravat, slightly +awry, bore witness to his excitement. + +"Gad!" he was saying to himself. "The boy's alive after all! The boy's +waked up! He's taking notice! And the thing that's waked him up is a +country store--by cricky! a country store! I believe I'm dreaming yet!" + +If the citizens of the thriving town of Eastman, almost of a size to +call itself a young city and boast of a mayor, could have heard him they +might not have been flattered. Yet when they remembered that this was +the owner of a business so colossal that its immense buildings and +branches were to be found in three great cities, they might have +understood that to him the corner store of Hugh Benson looked like a toy +concern, indeed. But he liked the look of it, as it had been presented +to his mind's eye that night; no doubt but he liked the look of it! + +"Give him Carson to go up there and manage the business for those two +infants-in-arms? Gad! yes, go myself and make change at the desk for the +new firm," he chuckled, "if that would keep Dick interested. But I guess +he's interested enough or he wouldn't have agreed to my ruling that he +must go into the thing himself, not stand off and throw out a rope to +his drowning friend Benson. If young Benson's the man Dick makes him +out, it's as I told Dick: he wouldn't grasp the rope. But if Dick goes +in after him, that's business. Bless the rascal! I wish his father could +see him now. Sitting on the edge of my table and talking window-dressing +to me as if he'd been born to it, which he was, only he wouldn't accept +his birthright, the proud beggar! Talking about moving one of our +show-windows up there bodily for a white-goods sale in February; date a +trifle late for Kendrick & Company, but advance trade for Eastman, +undoubtedly. Says he knows they can start every mother's daughter of 'em +sewing for dear life, if they can get their eye on that sewing-room +scene. Well"--he paused to chuckle again--"he says Carson says that +window cost us five hundred dollars; but if it did it's cheap at the +price, and I'll make the new firm a present of it. Benson & Company--and +a grandson of Matthew Kendrick the Company!" + +He laughed heartily, then paused to stand staring down into the jewelled +shade of his electric drop-light as if in its softly blending colourings +he saw the outlines of a new future for "the boy." + +"I wonder what Cal will say to losing his literary assistant," he mused, +smiling to himself. "I doubt if Dick's proved himself invaluable, and I +presume the man he speaks of will give Cal much better service; but I +shall be sorry not to have him going to the Grays' every day; it seemed +like a safe harbour. Well, well, I never thought to find myself +interested again in the fortunes of a country store. Gad! I can't get +over that. The fellow's been too proud to walk down the aisles of +Kendrick & Company to buy his silk socks at cost--preferred to pay two +prices at an exclusive haberdasher's instead! And now--he's going to +have a share in the sale of socks that retail for a quarter, five pairs +for a dollar! O Dick, Dick, you rascal, your old grandfather hasn't been +so happy since you were left to him to bring up. If only you'll stick! +But you're your father's son, after all--and my grandson; I can't help +believing you'll stick!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LAVENDER LINEN + + +"I'm going to drive into town. Any of you girls want to go with me?" + +Mr. Rufus Gray addressed his wife and their two guests, his nieces, +Roberta and Ruth Gray. It was the midwinter vacation at the school where +Roberta taught and at the equally desirable establishment where Ruth was +taking a carefully selected course of study. Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth +had invited them to spend the four days of this vacation at their +country home, according to a custom they had of decoying one or another +of the young people of Rufus's brothers' families to come and visit the +aunt and uncle whose own children were all married and gone, sorely +missed by the young-hearted pair. Roberta and Ruth had accepted eagerly, +always delighted to spend a day or a month at the "Gray Farm," a most +attractive place even in winter, and in summer a veritable +pleasure-ground of enjoyment. + +They all wanted to go to town, the three "girls," including the +white-haired one whose face was almost as young as her nieces' as she +looked out from the rear seat of the comfortable double sleigh driven by +her husband and drawn by a pair of the handsomest horses the countryside +could boast. It was only two miles from the fine old country homestead +to the centre of the neighbouring village, and though the air was keen +nobody was cold among the robes and rugs with which the sleigh +overflowed. + +"You folks want to do any shopping?" inquired Uncle Rufus, as he drove +briskly along the lower end of Eastman's principal business street. "I +suppose there's no need of asking that. When doesn't a woman want to go +shopping?" + +"Of course we do," Ruth responded, without so much as consulting the +back seat. + +"I meant to bring some lavender linen with me to work on," said Roberta +to Aunt Ruth. "Where do you suppose I could find any, here?" + +"Why, I don't know, dearie," responded Aunt Ruth doubtfully. "White +linen you ought to get anywhere; but lavender--you might try at Artwell +& Chatford's. We'll go past Benson's, but it's no use looking there any +more. Everybody's expecting poor Hugh to fail any day." + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Roberta warmly. "I always liked Hugh Benson. Mr. +Westcott told me some time ago that he was afraid Hugh wasn't +succeeding." + +"The store's been closed to the public a fortnight now," explained Uncle +Rufus over his shoulder. "Hugh hasn't failed yet, and something's going +on there; nobody seems to know just what. Inventory, maybe, or getting +ready for a bankrupt sale. The Benson sign's still up just as it was +before Hugh's father died. Windows covered with white soap or whitewash. +Some say the store's going to open up under new parties--guess nobody +knows exactly. Hullo! who's that making signs?" + +He indicated a tall figure on the sidewalk coming toward them at a rapid +rate, face alight, hat waving in air. + +"It's Mr. Forbes Westcott," exulted Ruth, twisting around to look at her +sister. "Funny how he always happens to be visiting his father and +mother just as Rob is visiting you, isn't it, Aunt Ruth?" + +Uncle Rufus drew up to the sidewalk, and the whole party shook hands +with a tall man of dark, keen features, who bore an unmistakable air of +having come from a larger world than that of the town of Eastman. + +"Mrs. Gray--Miss Roberta--Miss Ruth--Mr. Gray--why, this is delightful. +When did you come? How long are you going to stay? It seems a thousand +years since I saw you last!" + +He was like an eager boy, though he was clearly no boy in years. He +included them all in this greeting, but his eyes were ardently on +Roberta as he ended. Ruth, screwed around upon the front seat and +watching interestedly, could hardly blame him. Roberta, in her furry +wrappings, was as vivid as a flower. Her eyes looked black beneath their +dusky lashes, and her cheeks were brilliant with the touch of the winter +wind. + +"When did you come? How did you find your father and mother?" inquired +Roberta demurely. + +"Well and hearty as ever, and apparently glad to see their son--as he +was to see them. I've been devoting myself to them for three days now, +and mean to give them the whole week. It's only fair--isn't it?--after +being away so long. How fortunate for me that I should meet you; I might +not have found it out till I had missed much time." + +"You've missed much time already," put in Uncle Rufus. "They came last +night." + +"Put your hat on, Forbes," was Aunt Ruth's admonition as Westcott +continued to stand beside Roberta, exchanging question and answer +concerning the long interval which had intervened since they last met. +"Come over to supper to-night, and then you young people can talk +without danger of catching your death of cold." + +Westcott laughed and accepted, but the hat was not replaced upon his +smooth, dark head until the sleigh had gone on. + +"Subjects always keep uncovered before their queen," whispered Ruth in +Uncle Rufus's ear, and he laughed and nodded. + +"Times have changed since I was a young man," said he. "A fellow would +have looked queer in my day unwinding his comforter and pulling off his +coonskin cap and standing holding those things while he talked on a +February morning. He'd have gone home and taken some pepper-tea to ward +off the effects of the chill!" + +"There's Benson's," Roberta interrupted, "and it's open. Why, look at +the people in front of the windows! Look at the windows themselves. +There must be a new firm. Poor Hugh!" + +"There's a new sign over the old one; a '_Successors to_,' I think; but +Benson's name is on it, '_Benson & Company_,'" announced Ruth, straining +her eyes to make it out. + +"Somebody must have come to the rescue," said Uncle Rufus with joyous +interest. "Well, well; the thing has been kept surprisingly still, and I +can't think who it can be, but I'm certainly glad. I hated to see the +boy fail. I suppose you all want to go in?" + +They unquestionably did, but they wanted first to sit still and look at +the windows from their vantage point above the passers-by on foot, who +were all stopping as they came along. It was small wonder that they +should stop. The town of Eastman had never in its experience seen within +its borders window displays like these. + +Benson's possessed the advantage of having larger fronts of clear +plate-glass than any store in town. As it was a corner store, there were +not only two big windows on the front but one equally large upon the +side. Each of these showed an artful arrangement of fresh and alluring +white goods, and in the centre of each was a special scheme arranged +with figures and furnishings to form a charming tableau. In one was the +sewing-room scene, adapted from that one which had first challenged +Richard's interest in his grandfather's store; in a second a children's +tea-party drew many admiring comments from the crowd; and in the side +window the figure of a pretty bride with veil and orange blossoms +suggested that the surrounding draperies were fit for uses such as hers. +The clever adaptability of Carson's art showed in the fact that the +figure wore no longer the costly French robe with which she had been +draped when she stood in a glass case at _Kendrick & Company's_, but a +delicate frock of simpler materials, such as any village girl might +afford, yet so cunningly fashioned that a princess might have worn it as +well, and not have been ashamed. + +Aunt Ruth and her nieces went enthusiastically in, and Uncle Rufus, +declaring that he must go also and congratulate Hugh on this +extraordinary transformation, tied his horses across the street where +they could not interfere with the view of passing sleighs. + +Entering, the visitors found inside the same atmosphere of successful, +timely display of fresh and attractive goods as had been promised by the +outside. The store did not look like a village store at all; its whole +air was metropolitan. The smallest counter carried out this effect; on +every hand were goods selected with rare skill, and this description +held good of the cheaper articles as well as of those more expensive. + +"Well, Hugh, we don't understand, but we are very glad," said Aunt Ruth +heartily, shaking hands with the young man who advanced to meet them. + +"That's kind of you. It goes without saying that I am very glad, too," +responded the proprietor of the place. His thin face flushed a little as +he greeted the others, and his eyes, like Westcott's, dwelt a trifle +longer on the face of one of the party than on any of the others. + +"Rob, I believe you'll find your lavender linen here," said Ruth in her +sister's ear, as Uncle Rufus came in and Benson began to show them all +about the store. "Look, there are all kinds of white linens; let's stop +and ask." + +With a word of explanation, Roberta delayed at the counter Ruth had +indicated, making inquiry for the goods she sought. It chanced that this +department was next to an inclosure which was partially of glass, the +new office of the firm. The old firm had had no office, only a desk in a +dark corner. In this place two men were talking. One was facing the +store, his glance even as he spoke upon the way things were going +outside; the other's back was turned. But Ruth, gazing interestedly +around as her sister examined linens, discovered something familiar +about the set of one of the heads just beyond the glass partition, +though she could not see the face. When this head was suddenly thrown +back with a peculiar motion she had noted when its owner was +particularly amused over something, Ruth said to herself: "Why, that's +Mr. Richard Kendrick! What in the world is he doing out here at +Eastman?" + +As if she had called him Richard turned about and his look encountered +Ruth's. The next instant he was out of the glass inclosure and at her +side. Roberta, hearing Ruth's low but eager, "Why, Mr. Kendrick, who +ever expected to see you in Eastman!" turned about with an expression of +astonishment, which was reflected in both the faces before her. + +An interested village salesgirl now looked on at a little scene the like +of which had never come within the range of her experience. That three +people, clearly so surprised to meet in this particular spot, should not +proceed voluminously to explain to each other within her hearing the +cause of their surprise, was to her an extraordinary thing. But after +the first moment's expression of wonder the three seemed to accept the +fact as a matter of course, and began to exchange observations +concerning the weather, the roads, and various other matters of +comparatively small importance. It was not until Uncle Rufus, rounding a +high-piled counter with his wife and Hugh Benson, came upon the group, +that anything was said of which the curious young person behind the +counter could make enough to guess at the situation. + +"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Kendrick!" he exclaimed, after one keen +look, and hastened forward, hand outstretched. So the group now became +doubled in size, and Uncle Rufus expressed great pleasure at seeing +again the young man whose hospitality he had enjoyed during the +Christmas house-party. + +"But I didn't suppose we should ever see you up here in our town," said +he, "especially in winter. Come by the morning train?" + +"I've been here for a month, most of the time," Richard told him. + +"You have? And didn't come to see us? Well, now--" + +"I didn't know this was your home, Mr. Gray," admitted the young man +frankly. "I don't remember your mentioning the name of Eastman while you +and Mrs. Gray were with us. Probably you did, and if I had realized you +were here--" + +"You'd have come? Well, you know now, and I hope you'll waste no time in +getting out to the 'Gray Farm.' Only two miles out, and the trolley runs +by within a few rods of our turn of the road--conductor'll tell you. +Better come to-night," he urged genially, "seeing my nieces are here and +can help make you feel at home. They'll be going back in a day or two." + +Richard, smiling, looked at Aunt Ruth, then at Roberta. "Do come," urged +Aunt Ruth as cordially as her husband, and Roberta gave a little nod of +acquiescence. + +"I shall be delighted to come," he agreed. + +"Putting up at the hotel?" inquired Uncle Rufus. + +"I'm staying for the present with my friend Mr. Benson," Richard +explained, with a glance toward Benson himself, who had moved aside to +speak to a clerk. "We were classmates at college. We have--gone into +business together here." + +It was out. As he spoke the words his face changed colour a little, but +his eyes remained steadily fixed on Uncle Rufus. + +"Well, well," exclaimed Mr. Rufus Gray. "So it's you who have come to +the rescue of--" + +But Richard interrupted him quickly. "I beg your pardon, not at all," +said he. "It is my friend who has come to my rescue--given me the +biggest interest I have yet discovered--the game of business. I'm having +the time of my life. With the help of our mutual friend, Mr. Carson, who +is to be the business manager of the new house, we hope to make a +success." + +Roberta was looking curiously at him, and his eyes suddenly met hers. +For an instant the encounter lasted, and it ended by her glance dropping +from his. There was something new to her in his face, something she +could not understand. Instead of its former rather studiedly impassive +expression there was an awakened look, a determined look, as if he had +something on hand he meant to do--and to do as soon as the present +interview should be over. Strangely enough, it was the first time she +had met him when he seemed not wholly occupied with herself, but rather +on his way to some affair of strong interest in which she had no concern +and from which she was detaining him. It was not that he was failing in +the extreme courtesy she had learned to expect from him under all +conditions. But--well, it struck her that he would return to his +companion in the glass-screened office and immediately forget her. This +was a change, indeed! + +"However you choose to put it," declared Uncle Rufus kindly, "it's a +mighty fine thing for Hugh, and we wish you both success." + +"You will have it. I have found my lavender linen," said Roberta, +turning back to the counter. + +Richard came around to her side. "Didn't you expect to find it?" he +inquired with interest. + +"I really didn't at all. We seldom find summer goods shown in a town +like this till spring is well along, least of all coloured dress linens. +But you have several shades, besides a beautiful lot of white." + +"That's Carson's buying," said he, fingering a corner of the +lilac-tinted goods she held up. "I shouldn't know it from gingham. I +didn't know what gingham was till the other day. But I can recognize it +now on sight, and am no end proud of my knowledge." + +"I suppose you are familiar with silk," said she with a quick glance. + +He returned it. "Aren't you?" + +"I'm not specially fond of it." + +"What fabrics do you like best?" + +"Thin, sheer things, fine but durable." + +"Linens?" + +"No, cottons, batistes, voiles--that sort of thing." + +"I'm afraid you've got me now," he owned, looking puzzled. "Perhaps I'd +know them if I saw them. If Benson has any--I mean, if we have any," he +amended quickly, "I'd like to have you see them. Let me go and ask +Carson." + +He was off to consult the man in the office and was back in a minute. +When Roberta had purchased the yard of lavender linen he led her into +another aisle and requested the clerk to show her his finest goods. +Roberta looked on, much amused, while the display was made, and praised +liberally. But suddenly she pounced upon a piece of white material with +a tiny white flower embroidered upon its delicate surface. + +"That's one of the prettiest pieces of Swiss muslin I ever saw," said +she. "And at such a reasonable price. It looks like one of the finest +imported Swisses. I'm going to have that pattern this minute." + +She gave the order without hesitation. + +"I didn't know women ever shopped like that," said Richard in her ear. + +"Like what?" + +"Why, bought the thing right off without asking to see everything in the +store. That's what--I've been told they did." + +"Not if they're wise--when they see a thing like that. There was only +the one pattern. Why, another woman might have walked up and said right +over my shoulder that she would take it." + +"If she had I'd have seen that you got it," declared Richard. + +He accompanied the party to the door when they went; he saw them to the +sleigh and tucked them in. + +"Bareheaded again," observed Uncle Rufus, regarding him with interest. + +"Again?" queried Richard. + +"All the young men we meet this morning insist on standing round +outdoors with their hats off," explained the elder man. "It looks +reckless to me." + +"It would be more reckless not to, I imagine," returned Richard, +laughing with Ruth and Roberta. + +"We'll see you to-night," Uncle Rufus reminded him as he drove off. +"Bring Hugh with you. I asked him in the store, but he seemed to +hesitate. It will do him good to get out." + +When the sleigh was a quarter of a mile up the road Ruth turned to her +uncle. "Do you imagine, Uncle Rufus," said she, "that all those men +you've asked for to-night will be grateful--when they see one another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RAPID FIRE + + +"Well, now, we're glad to see you at our place, Mr. Kendrick," was Mr. +Rufus Gray's hearty greeting. He had heard the sound of the motor-car as +it came to a standstill just outside his window, and was in the doorway +to receive his guests. "As for Hugh, he knows he's always welcome, +though it's a good while since he took advantage of it. Sit down here by +the fire and warm up before we send you out again. You see," he +explained enjoyingly, "we have instructions what to do with you." + +Richard Kendrick noted the pleasant room with its great fireplace +roaring with logs ablaze; he noted also its absence of occupants. Only +Aunt Ruth, coming forward with an expression of warm hospitality on her +face, was to be discovered. "They're all down at the river, skating," +she told the young men. "Forbes Westcott is just home again, and he and +Robby had so much to talk over we asked him out to supper. He and the +girls--and Anna Drummond, one of our neighbours' daughters," she +explained to Kendrick, "were taken with the idea of going skating. They +didn't wait for you, because they wanted to get a fire built. When +you're warmed up you can go down." + +"There'll be a girl apiece for you," observed Uncle Rufus. "Hugh knows +Anna--went to school with her. She's a fine girl, eh, Hugh?" + +"She certainly is," agreed Benson heartily. "But I don't see how either +of us is to skate with her or with anybody without--" + +"Oh, that's all right. Look there," and Uncle Rufus pointed to a long +row of skates lying on the floor in a corner. "All the nieces and +nephews leave their skates here to have 'em handy when they come." + +So presently the two young men were rushing down the winding, snowy road +which led through pasture and meadow for a quarter of a mile toward a +beckoning bonfire. + +"I don't know when I've gone skating," said Hugh Benson. + +"The last time I skated was two years ago on the Neva at St. Petersburg. +Jove! but it was a carnival!" And Richard's thoughts went back for a +minute to the face of the girl he had skated with. He had not cared much +for skating since that night. All other opportunities had seemed tame +after that. + +"You've travelled a great deal--had a lot of experiences," Benson said, +with a suppressed sigh. + +"A few. But they don't prevent my looking forward to a new one to-night. +I never went skating on a river in the country before. How far can you +go?" + +"Ten miles, if you like, down. Two miles up. There they are, coming +round the bend four abreast. Westcott has more than his share of girls." + +"More than he wants, probably. He'll cling to one and joyfully hand over +the others." + +"You'll like Anna Drummond; we're old school friends. Forbes and Miss +Roberta naturally seem to get together wherever they are. And Miss Ruth +is a mighty nice little girl." + +Across the blazing bonfire two men scrutinized each other: Forbes +Westcott, one of the cleverest attorneys of a large city, a man with a +rising reputation, who held himself as a man does who knows that every +day advances his success; Richard Kendrick, well-known young +millionaire, hitherto a travelled idler and spender of his income, now +a newly fledged business man with all his honours yet to be won. They +looked each other steadily in the eye as they grasped hands by the +bonfire, and in his inmost heart each man recognized in the other an +antagonist. + +Richard skated away with Miss Drummond, a wholesomely gay and attractive +girl who could skate as well as she could talk and laugh. He devoted +himself to her for half an hour; then, with a skill of which he was +master from long exercise, he brought about a change of partners. The +next time he rounded the bend into a path which led straight down the +moonlight it was in the company he longed for. + +Richard's heart leaped exultantly as he skated around the river bend in +the moonlight with Roberta. And when his hands gathered hers into his +close grasp it was somehow as if he had taken hold of an electric +battery. He distinctly felt the difference between her hands and those +of the other girl. It was very curious and he could not wholly +understand it. + +"What kind of gloves do you wear?" was his first inquiry. He held up the +hand which was not in Roberta's muff and tried to see it in the dim +light. + +"You _are_ deep in the new business, aren't you?" she mocked. "Whatever +they are, will you put them into your stock?" + +"Don't you dare make fun of my new business. I'm in it for scalps and +have no time for joking. Of course I want to put this make in stock. I +never took hold of so warm a hand on so cold a night. The warmth comes +right through your glove and mine to my hand, runs up my arm, and stirs +up my circulation generally. It was running a little cold with some of +the things Miss Drummond was telling me." + +"What could they be?" + +"About how all the rest of you know each other so well. She described +all sorts of good times you have all had together on this river in the +summer. It seems odd that Benson never told me about any of them while +we were together at college." + +"They have happened mostly in the last two summers, since Mr. Benson +left college. We always spend at least part of our summers here, and we +have had worlds of fun on the river and beside it--and in it." + +"I'm glad I'm a business man in Eastman. I can imagine what this river +is like in summer. It's wonderful to-night, isn't it? Let's skate on +down to the mouth and out to sea. What do you say?" + +"A beautiful plan. We have a good start; we must make time or it will be +moonset before we come to the sea." + +"This is a glorious stroke; let's hit it up a little, swing a little +farther--and make for the mouth of the river. No talking till we come in +sight. We're off!" + +It was ten miles to the mouth of the river, as they both understood, so +this was nonsense of the most obvious sort. But the imagination took +hold of them and they swung away on over the smooth, shining floor with +the long vigorous strokes which are so exhilarating to the accomplished +skater. In silence they flew, only the warm, clasped hands making a link +between them, their faces turned straight toward the great golden disk +in the eastern heavens. Richard was feeling that he could go on +indefinitely, and was exulting in his companion's untiring progress, +when he felt her slowing pull upon his hands. + +"Tired?" he asked, looking down at her. + +"Not much, but we've all the way back to go--and we ought not to be away +so long." + +"Oughtn't we? I'd like to be away forever--with you!" + +She looked straight up at him. His eyes were like black coals in the dim +light. His hands would have tightened on hers, but she drew them away. + +"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Mr. Richard Kendrick," said she, as quietly as +one can whose breath comes with some difficulty after long-sustained +exertion. "By the time we reached--even the mouth of the river, you'd be +tired of my company." + +"Should I? I think not. I've thought of nothing but you since the day I +saw you first." + +"Really? That's--how long? Was it November when you came to help Uncle +Calvin? This is February. And you've never spent so much as a whole hour +alone with me. You see, you don't even know me. What a foolish thing to +say to a girl you barely know!" + +"Foolish, is it?" He felt his heart racing now. What other girl he knew +would have answered him like that? "Then you shall hear something that +backs it up. I've loved you since that day I saw you first. What will +you do with that?" + +She was silent for a moment. Then she turned, striking out toward home. +He was instantly after her, reached for her hands, and took her along +with him. But he forced her to skate slowly. + +"You'll trample on that, too, will you?" said he, growing wrathful under +her silence. + +But she answered, quite gently, now: "No, Mr. Kendrick, I don't trample +on that. No girl would. I simply--know you are mistaken." + +"In what? My own feeling? Do you think I don't know--" + +"I _know_ you don't know. I'm not your kind of a girl, Mr. Kendrick. You +think I am, because--well, perhaps because my eyes are blue and my +eyelashes black; just such things as that do mislead people. I can dance +fairly well--" + +He smothered an angry exclamation. + +"And skate well--and play the 'cello a little--and--that's nearly all +you know about me. You don't even know whether I can teach well--or talk +well--or what is stored away in my mind. And I know just as little about +you." + +"I've learned one thing about you in this last minute," he muttered. +"You can keep your head." + +"Why not?" There was a note of laughter in her voice. "There needs to be +one who keeps her head when the other loses his--all because of a little +winter moonlight. What would the summer moonlight do to you, I wonder?" + +"Roberta Gray"--his voice was rough--"the moonlight does it no more than +the sunlight. Whatever you think, I'm not that kind of fellow. The day +I saw you first you had just come in out of the rain. You went back into +it and I saw you go--and wanted to go with you. I've been wanting it +ever since." + +They moved on in silence which lasted until they were within a +quarter-mile of the bonfire, whose flashing light they could see above +the banks which intervened. Then Roberta spoke: + +"Mr. Kendrick"--and her voice was low and rich with its kindest +inflections--"I don't want you to think me careless or hard because I +have treated what you have said to-night in a way that you don't like. +I'm only trying to be honest with you. I'm quite sure you didn't mean to +say it to me when you came to-night, and--we all do and say things on a +night like this that we should like to take back next day. It's quite +true--what I said--that you hardly know me, and whatever it is that +takes your fancy it can't be the real Roberta Gray, because you don't +know her!" + +"What you say is," he returned, staring straight ahead of him, "that I +can't possibly know what you really are, at all; but you know so well +what I am that you can tell me exactly what my own thoughts and feelings +are." + +"Oh, no, I didn't mean--" + +"That's precisely what you do mean. I'm so plainly labelled 'worthless' +that you don't have to stop to examine me. You--" + +"I didn't--" + +"I beg your pardon. I can tell you exactly what you think of me: A young +fool who runs after the latest sensation, to drop it when he finds a +newer one. His head turned by every pretty girl--to whom he says just +the sort of thing he has said to you to-night. Superficial and ordinary, +incapable of serious thought on any of the subjects that interest you. +As for this business affair in Eastman--that's just a caprice, a game to +be dropped when he tires of it. Everything in life will be like that to +him, including his very friends. Come, now--isn't that what you've been +thinking? There's no use denying it. Nearly every time I've seen you +you've said some little thing that has shown me your opinion of me. I +won't say there haven't been times in my life when I may have deserved +it, but on my honour I don't think I deserve it now." + +"Then I won't think it," said Roberta promptly, looking up. "I truly +don't want to do you an injustice. But you are so different from the +other men I have known--my brothers, my friends--that I can hardly +imagine your seeing things from my point of view--" + +"But you can see things from mine without any difficulty!" + +"It isn't fair, is it?" Her tone was that of the comrade, now. "But you +know women are credited with a sort of instinct--even intuition--that +leads them safely where men's reasoning can't always follow." + +"It never leads them astray, by any chance?" + +"Yes, I think it does sometimes," she owned frankly. "But it's as well +for the woman to be on her guard, isn't it? Because, sometimes, you +know, she loses her head. And when that happens--" + +"All is lost? Or does a man's reasoning, slower and not so infallible, +but sometimes based on greater knowledge, step in and save the day?" + +"It often does. But, in this case--well, it's not just a case of +reasoning, is it?" + +"The case of my falling in love with a girl I've only +known--slightly--for four months? It has seemed to me all along it was +just that. It's been a case of the head sanctioning the heart--and you +probably know it's not always that way with a young man's experiences. +Every ideal I've ever known--and I've had a few, though you might not +think it--every good thought and purpose, have been stimulated by my +contact with the people of your father's house. And since I have met you +some new ideals have been born. They have become very dear to me, those +new ideals, Miss Roberta, though they've had only a short time to grow. +It hurts to have you treat me as if you thought me incapable of them." + +"I'm sorry," she said simply, and her hands gave his a little quick +pressure which meant apology and regret. His heart warmed a very little, +for he had been sure she was capable of great generosity if appealed to +in the right way. But justice and generosity were not all he craved, and +he could see quite clearly that they were all he was likely to get from +her as yet. + +"You think," he said, pursuing his advantage, "we know too little of +each other to be even friends. You are confident my tastes and pleasures +are entirely different from yours; especially that my notions of real +work are so different that we could never measure things with the same +footrule." + +He looked down at her searchingly. + +She nodded. "Something like that," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean +that either tastes or notions in either case are necessarily unworthy, +only that they are different." + +"I wonder if they are? What if we should try to find out? I'm going to +stick pretty closely to Eastman this winter, but of course I shall be in +town more or less. May I come to see you, now and then, if I promise not +to become bothersome?" + +It was her turn to look up searchingly at him. If he had expected the +usual answer to such a request, he began, before she spoke, to realize +that it was by no means a foregone conclusion that he should receive +usual answers from her to any questioning whatsoever. But her reply +surprised him more than he had ever been surprised by any girl in his +life. + +"Mr. Kendrick," said she slowly, "I wish that you need not see me again +till--suppose we say Midsummer Day,[A] the twenty-fourth of June, you +know." + +[Footnote A: Midsummer comes at the time of the summer solstice, about +June 21st, but Midsummer Day, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, is the +24th of June.] + +He stared at her. "If you put it that way," he began stiffly, "you +certainly need not--" + +"But I didn't put it that way. I said I wished that you need not see me. +That is quite different from wishing I need not see you. I don't mind +seeing you in the least--" + +"That's good of you!" + +"Don't be angry. I'm going to be quite frank with you--" + +"I'm prepared for that. I can't remember that you've ever been anything +else." + +"Please listen to me, Mr. Kendrick. When I say that I wish you would not +see me--" + +"You said 'need not.'" + +"I shall have to put it 'would not' to make you understand. When I say I +wish you would not see me until Midsummer I am saying the very kindest +thing I can. Just now you are under the impression--hallucination--that +you want to see much of me. To prove that you are mistaken I'm going to +ask this of you--not to have anything whatever to do with me until at +least Midsummer. If you carry out my wish you will find out for yourself +what I mean--and will thank me for my wisdom." + +"It's a wish, is it? It sounds to me more like a decree." + +"It's not a decree. I'll not refuse to see you if you come. But if you +will do as I ask I shall appreciate it more than I can tell you." + +"It is certainly one of the cleverest schemes of getting rid of a fellow +I ever heard. Hang it all! do you expect me not to understand that you +are simply letting me down easy? It's not in reason to suppose that +you're forbidding all other men the house. I beg your pardon; I know +that's none of my business; but it's not in human nature to keep from +saying it, because of course that's bound to be the thing that cuts. If +you were going into a convent, and all other fellows were cooling their +heels outside with me, I could stand it." + +"My dear Mr. Kendrick, you can stand it in any case. You're going to put +all this out of mind and work at building up this business here in +Eastman with Mr. Benson. You will find it a much more interesting game +than the old one of--" + +"Of what? Running after every pretty girl? For of course that's what you +think I've done." + +She did not answer that. He said something under his breath, and his +hands tightened on hers savagely. They were rounding the last bend but +one in the river, and the bonfire was close at hand. + +"Can't you understand," he ground out, "that every other thought and +feeling and experience I've ever had melts away before this? You can put +me under ban for a year if you like; but if at the end of that time +you're not married to another man you'll find me at your elbow. I told +you I'd make you respect me; I'll do more, I'll make you listen to me. +And--if I promise not to come where you have to look at me till +Midsummer, till the twenty-fourth of June--heaven knows why you pick out +that day--I'll not promise not to make you think of me!" + +"Oh, but that's part of what I mean. You mustn't send me letters and +books and flowers--" + +"Oh--thunder!" + +"Because those things will help to keep this idea before your mind. I +want you to forget me, Mr. Kendrick--do you realize that?--forget me +absolutely all the rest of the winter and spring. By that time--" + +"I'll wonder who you are when we do meet, I suppose?" + +"Exactly. You--" + +"All right. I agree to the terms. No letters, no books, no--ye gods! if +I could only send the flowers now! Who would expect to win a girl +without orchids? You do, you certainly do, rate me with the +light-minded, don't you? Music also is proscribed, of course; that's the +one other offering allowed at the shrine of the fair one. All right--all +right--I'll vanish, like a fairy prince in a child's story. But before I +go I--" + +With a dig of his steel-shod heel he brought himself and Roberta to a +standstill. He bent over her till his face was rather close to hers. She +looked back at him without fear, though she both saw and felt the +tenseness with which he was making his farewell speech. + +"Before I go, I say, I'm going to tell you that if you were any other +girl on the old footstool I'd have one kiss from you before I let go of +you if I knew it meant I'd never have another. I could take it--" + +She did not shrink from him by a hair's breadth, but he felt her +suddenly tremble as if with the cold. + +"--but I want you to know that I'm going to wait for it till--Midsummer +Day. Then"--he bent still closer--"you will give it to me yourself. I'm +saying this foolhardy sort of thing to give you something to remember +all these months--I've got to. You'll have so many other people saying +things to you when I can't that I've got to startle you in order to make +an impression that will stick. That one will, won't it?" + +A reluctant smile touched her lips. "It's quite possible that it may," +she conceded. "It probably would, whoever had the audacity to say it. +But--to know a fate that threatens is to be forewarned. +And--fortunately--a girl can always run away." + +"You can't run so far that I can't follow. Meanwhile, tell me just one +thing--" + +"I'll tell you nothing more. We've been gone for ages now--there come +the others--please start on." + +"Good-bye, dear," said he, under his breath. "Good-bye--till Midsummer. +But then--" + +"No, no, you must _not_ say it--or think it." + +"I'm going to think it, and so are you. I defy you to forget it. You may +see that lawyer Westcott every day, and no matter what you're saying to +him, every once in a while will bob up the thought--Midsummer Day!" + +"Hush! I won't listen! Please skate faster!" + +"You _shall_ listen--to just one thing more. Just halfway between now +and Midsummer may I come to see you--just once?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"Because--I shall not want to see you." + +"That's good," said he steadily. "Then let me tell you that I should not +come even if you would let me. I wanted you to know that." + +A little, half-smothered laugh came from her in spite of herself, in +which he rather grimly joined. Then the others, calling questions and +reproaches, bore down upon them, and the evening for Richard Kendrick +was over. But the fight he meant to win was just begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MAKING MEN + + +"Grandfather, have you a good courage for adventure?" + +Matthew Kendrick looked up from his letters. His grandson Richard stood +before him, his face lighted by that new look of expectancy and +enthusiasm which the older man so often noted now. It was early in the +day, Mr. Kendrick having but just partaken of his frugal breakfast. He +had eaten alone this morning, having learned to his surprise that +Richard was already off. + +"Why, Dick? What do you want of me?" his grandfather asked, laying down +his letters. They were important, but not so important, to his mind, as +the giving ear to his grandson. It was something about the business, he +had no doubt. The boy was always talking about the business these days, +and he found always a ready listener in the old man who was such a +pastmaster in the whole difficult subject. + +"It's the mildest sort of weather--bright sun, good roads most of the +way, and something worth seeing at the other end. Put on your fur-lined +coat, sir, will you? and come with me up to Eastman. I want to show you +the new shop." + +Mr. Kendrick's eye brightened. So the boy wanted him, did he? Wanted to +take him off for the day, the whole day, with himself. It was pleasant +news. But he hesitated a little, looking toward the window, where the +late March sun was, surely enough, streaming in warmly. The bare +branches outside were motionless; moreover, there was no wind, such as +had prevailed of late. + +"I can keep you perfectly warm," Richard added, seeing the hesitation. +"There's an electric foot-warmer in the car, and you shall have a heavy +rug. I'll have you there in a couple of hours, and you'll not be even +chilled. If the weather changes, you can come back by train. Please +come--will you?" + +"I believe I will, Dick, if you'll not drive too fast. I should like to +see this wonderful new store, to be sure." + +"We'll go any pace you like, sir. I've been looking for a day when you +could make the trip safely, and this is it." He glanced at the letters. +"Could you be ready in--half an hour?" + +"As soon as I can dictate four short replies. Ring for Mr. Stanton, +please, and I'll soon be with you." + +Richard went out as his grandfather's private secretary came in. +Although Matthew Kendrick no longer felt it necessary to go to his +office in the great store every day, he was accustomed to attend to a +certain amount of selected correspondence, and ordinarily spent an hour +after breakfast in dictation to a young stenographer who came to him for +the purpose. + +Within a half hour the two were off, Mr. Kendrick being quite as alert +in the matter of dispatching business and getting under way toward fresh +affairs as he had ever been. It was with an expression of interested +anticipation that the old man, wrapped from head to foot, took his place +in the long, low-hung roadster, beneath the broad hood which Richard had +raised, that his passenger might be as snug as possible. + +For many miles the road was of macadam, and they bowled along at a rate +which consumed the distance swiftly, though not too fast for Mr. +Kendrick's comfort. Richard artfully increased his speed by fractional +degrees, so that his grandfather, accustomed to being conveyed at a very +moderate mileage about the city in his closed car, should not be +startled by the sense of flight which he might have had if the young man +had started at his usual break-neck pace. + +They did not talk much, for Matthew Kendrick was habitually cautious +about using his voice in winter air, and Richard was too engaged with +the car and with his own thoughts to attempt to keep up a one-sided +conversation. More than once, however, a brief colloquy took place. One +of the last of these, before approaching their destination, was as +follows: + +"Keeping warm, grandfather?" + +"Perfectly, Dick, thanks to your foot-warmer." + +"Tired, at all?" + +"Not a particle. On the contrary, I find the air very stimulating." + +"I thought you would. Wonderful day for March, isn't it?" + +"Unusually fine." + +"We'll be there before you know it. There's one bad stretch of a couple +of miles, beyond the turn ahead, and another just this side of Eastman, +but Old Faithful here will make light work of 'em. She could plough +through a quicksand if she had to, not to mention spring mud to the +hubs." + +"The car seems powerful," said the old man, smiling behind his upturned +fur collar. "I suppose a young fellow like you wouldn't be content with +anything that couldn't pull at least ten times as heavy a load as it +needed to." + +"I suppose not," laughed Richard. "Though it's not so much a question of +a heavy load as of plenty of power when you want it, and of speed--all +the time. Suppose we were being chased by wild Indians right now, +grandfather. Wouldn't it be a satisfaction to walk away from them +like--this?" + +The car shot ahead with a long, lithe spring, as if she had been using +only a fraction of her power, and had reserves greater than could be +reckoned. Her gait increased as she flew down the long straightaway +ahead until her speedometer on the dash recorded a pace with which the +fastest locomotive on the track which ran parallel with the road would +have had to race with wide-open throttle to keep neck to neck. Richard +had not meant to treat his grandfather to an exhibition of this sort, +being well aware of the older man's distaste for modern high speed, but +the sight of the place where he was in the habit of racing with any +passing train was too much for his young blood and love of swift flight, +and he had covered the full two-mile stretch before he could bring +himself to slow down to a more moderate gait. + +Then he turned to look at as much of his grandfather's face as he could +discern between cap-brim and collar. The eagle eyes beneath their heavy +brows were gazing straight ahead, the firmly moulded lips were +close-set, the whole profile, with its large but well-cut nose, +suggested grim endurance. Matthew Kendrick had made no remonstrance, +nor did he now complain, but Richard understood. + +"You didn't like that, did you, grandfather? I had no business to do it, +when I said I wouldn't. Did I chill you, sir? I'm sorry," was his quick +apology. + +"You didn't chill my body, Dick," was the response. "You did make me +realize the difference between--youth and age." + +"That's not what I ever want to do," declared the young man, with swift +compunction. "Not when your age is worth a million times my youth, in +knowledge and power. And of course I'm showing up a particularly +unfortunate trait of youth--to lose its head! Somehow all the boy in me +comes to the top when I see that track over there, even when there's no +competing train. Did you ever know a boy who didn't want to be an engine +driver?" + +"I was a boy once," said Matthew Kendrick. "Trains in my day were doing +well when they made twenty-five miles an hour. I shouldn't mind your +racing with one of those." + +"I'm racing with one of the fastest engines ever built when I set up a +store in Eastman and try to appropriate some of your methods. I wonder +what you'll think of it?" said Richard gayly. "Well, here's the bad +stretch. Sit tight, grandfather. I'll pick out the best footing there +is, but we may jolt about a good bit. I'm going to try what can be done +to get these fellows to put a bottom under their spring mud!" + +When the town was reached Richard convoyed his companion straight to the +best hotel, saw that he had a comfortable chair and as appetizing a meal +as the house could afford, and let him rest for as long a time afterward +as he himself could brook waiting. When Mr. Kendrick professed himself +in trim for whatever might come next Richard set out with him for the +short walk to the store of Benson & Company. + +The young man's heart was beating with surprising rapidity as the two +approached the front of the brick building which represented his present +venture into the business world. He knew just how keen an eye was to +inspect the place, and what thorough knowledge was to pass judgment upon +it. + +"Here we are," he said abruptly, with an effort to speak lightly. "These +are our front windows. Carson dresses them himself. He seems a wonder to +me--I can't get hold of it at all. Rather a good effect, don't you +think?" + +He was distinctly nervous, and he could not conceal it, as Matthew +Kendrick turned to look at the front of the building, taking it all in, +it seemed, with one sweeping glance which dwelt only for a minute apiece +on the two big windows, and then turned to the entrance, above which +hung the signs, old and new. The visitor made no comment, only nodded, +and made straight for the door. + +As it swung open under Richard's hand, the young man's first glance was +for the general effect. He himself was looking at everything as if for +the first time, intensely alive to the impression it was to make upon +his judge. He found that the general effect was considerably obscured by +the number of people at the counters and in the aisles, more, it seemed +to him, than he had ever seen there before. His second observation was +that the class of shoppers seemed particularly good, and he tried to +recall the special feature of Carson's advertisement of the evening +before. There were several different lines, he remembered, to which +Carson had called special attention, with the assertion that the values +were absolute and the quality guaranteed. + +But his attention was very quickly diverted from any study of the store +itself to the even more interesting and instructive study of the old man +who accompanied him. He had invited an expert to look the situation +over, there could be no possible doubt of that. And the expert was +looking it over--there could be no doubt of that, either. As they passed +down one aisle and up another, Richard could see how the eagle eyes +noted one point after another, yet without any disturbing effect of +searching scrutiny. Here and there Mr. Kendrick's gaze lingered a trifle +longer, and more than once he came close to a counter and brought an +eyeglass to bear on the goods there displayed, nodding pleasantly at the +salespeople as he did so. And everywhere he went glances followed him. + +It seemed to Richard that he had never realized before what a +distinguished looking old man his grandfather was. He was not of more +than average height; he was dressed, though scrupulously, as +unobtrusively as is any quiet gentleman of his years and position; but +none the less was there something about him which spoke of the man of +affairs, of the leader, the organizer, the general. + +Alfred Carson came hurrying out of the little office as the two +Kendricks came in sight. Matthew Kendrick greeted him with distinct +evidence of pleasure. + +"Ah, Mr. Carson," he said, "I am very glad to see you again. I have +missed you from your department. How do you find the new business? More +interesting than the old, eh?" + +"It is always interesting, sir," responded Carson, "to enlarge one's +field of operations." + +Mr. Kendrick laughed heartily at this, turning to Richard as he did so. +"That's a great compliment to you, Dick," he said, "that Mr. Carson +feels he has enlarged his field by coming up here to you, and leaving +me." + +"Don't you think it's true, grandfather?" challenged Richard boldly. + +"To be sure it's true," agreed Mr. Kendrick. "But it sometimes takes a +wise man to see that a swing from the centre of things to the rim is the +way to swing back to the centre finally. Well, I've looked about quite a +bit,--what next, Dick?" + +"Won't you come into the office, sir, and ask us any questions that you +like? We want your criticism and your suggestions," declared Richard. +"Where's Mr. Benson, Mr. Carson? I'd like him to meet my grandfather +right away. I thought we'd find him somewhere about the place before +now." + +"He's just come into the office," said Carson, leading the way. "He'll +be mightily pleased to see Mr. Kendrick." + +This prophecy proved true. Hugh Benson, who had not known of his +partner's intention to bring Mr. Kendrick, Senior, to visit the store, +flushed with pleasure and a little nervousness when he saw him, and gave +evidence of the latter as he cleared a chair for his guest and knocked +down a pile of small pasteboard boxes as he did so. + +"We don't usually keep such things in here," he apologized, and sent +post-haste for a boy to take the offending objects away. Then the party +settled down for a talk, Richard carefully closing the door, after +notifying a clerk outside to prevent interruption for so long as it +should remain closed. + +"Now, grandfather, talk business to us, will you?" he begged. "Tell us +what you think of us, and don't spare us. That's what we want, isn't +it?" And he appealed to his two associates with a look which bade them +speak out. + +"We certainly do, Mr. Kendrick," Hugh Benson assured the visitor +eagerly. "It's our chance to have an expert opinion." + +"It will be even more than that," said Alfred Carson. "It will be the +opinion of the master of all experts in the business world." + +"Fie, Mr. Carson," said the old man, with, however, a kind look at the +young man, who, he knew, did not mean to flatter him but to speak the +undeniable truth, "you must remember the old saying about praise to the +face. Still, I must break that rule myself when I tell you all that I am +greatly pleased with the appearance of the place, and with all that +meets the eye in a brief visit." + +Richard glowed with satisfaction at this, but both Benson and Carson +appeared to be waiting for more. The old man looked at them and nodded. + +"You have both had much more experience than this boy of mine," said he, +"and you know that all has not been said when due acknowledgment has +been made of the appearance of a place of business. What I want to know, +gentlemen, is--does the appearance tell the absolute truth about the +integrity of the business?" + +Richard looked at him quickly, for with the last words his grandfather's +tone had changed from mere suavity to a sudden suggestion of sternness. +Instinctively he straightened in his chair, and his glance at the other +two young men showed that they had quite as involuntarily straightened +in theirs. As the head of the firm, Hugh Benson, after a moment's pause, +answered, in a quietly firm tone which made Richard regard him with +fresh respect: + +"If it didn't, Mr. Kendrick, I shouldn't want to be my father's +successor. He may have been a failure in business, but it was not for +want of absolute integrity." + +The keen eyes softened as they rested on the young man's face, and Mr. +Kendrick bent his head, as if he would do honour to the memory of a +father who, however unsuccessful as the world judges success, could make +a son speak as this son had spoken. "I am sure that is true, Mr. +Benson," he said, and paused for a moment before he went on: + +"It is the foundation principle of business--that a reputation for +trustworthiness can be built only on the rock of real merit. The +appearance of the store must not tell one lie--not one--from front door +to back--not even the shadow of a lie. Nothing must be left to the +customer's discretion. If he pays so much money he must get so much +value, whether he knows it or not." He stopped abruptly, waited for a +little, his eyes searching the faces before him. Then he said, with a +change of tone: + +"Do you want to tell me something about the management of the business, +gentlemen?" + +"We want to do just that, Mr. Kendrick," Benson answered. + +So they set it before him, he and Alfred Carson, as they had worked it +out, Richard remaining silent, even when appealed to, merely saying +quietly: "I'm only the crudest kind of a beginner--you fellows will have +to do the talking," and so leaving it all to the others. They showed Mr. +Kendrick the books of the firm, they explained to him their system of +buying, of analyzing their sales that they might learn how to buy at +best advantage and sell at greatest profit; of getting rid of goods +quickly by attractive advertising; of all manner of details large and +small, such as pertain to the conduct of a business of the character of +theirs. + +They grew eager, enthusiastic, as they talked, for they found their +listener ready of understanding, quick of appreciation, kindly of +criticism, yet so skilful at putting a finger on their weak places that +they could only wonder and take earnest heed of every word he said. As +Richard watched him, he found himself understanding a little Matthew +Kendrick's extraordinary success. If his personality was still one to +make a powerful impression on all who came in contact with him, what +must it have been, Richard speculated, in his prime, in those wonderful +years when he was building the great business, expanding it with a +daring of conception and a rapidity of execution which had fairly taken +away the breath of his contemporaries. He had introduced new methods, +laid down new principles, defied old systems, and created better ones +having no precedent anywhere but in his own productive brain. It might +justly be said that he had virtually revolutionized the mercantile +world, for when the bridges that he built were found to hold, in spite +of all dire prophecy to the contrary, others had crossed them, too, and +profited by his bridge building. + +The three young men did their best to lead Mr. Kendrick to talk of +himself, but of that he would do little. Constantly he spoke of the work +of his associates, and when it became necessary to allude to himself it +was always as if they had been identified with every move of his own. It +was Alfred Carson who best recognized this trait of peculiar modesty in +the old man, and who understood most fully how often the more impersonal +"we" of his speech really stood for the "I" who had been the mainspring +of all action in the growth of the great affairs he spoke of. Carson was +the son of a man who had been one of the early heads of a newly created +department, in the days when departments were just being tried, and he +had heard many a time of the way in which Matthew Kendrick had held to +his course of introducing innovations which had startled the men most +closely associated with him, and had made them wonder if he were not +going too far for safety or success. + +"Well, well, gentlemen," said Mr. Kendrick, rising abruptly at last, +"you have beguiled me into long speech. It takes me back to old days to +sit and discuss a young business like this one with young men like you. +It has been very interesting, and it delights me to find you so ready to +take counsel, while at the same time you show a healthy belief in your +own judgment. You will come along--you will come along. You will make +mistakes, but you will profit by them. And you will remember always, I +hope, a motto I am going to give you." + +He paused and looked searchingly into each face before him: Hugh +Benson's, serious and sincere; Alfred Carson's, energy and purpose +showing in every line; his own boy's, Richard's, keen interest and a +certain proud wonder looking out of his fine eyes as he watched the old +man who seemed to him to-day, somehow, almost a stranger in his +unwontedly aroused speech. + +"The most important thing a business can do," said Matthew Kendrick +slowly, "is to make men of those who make the business." + +He let the words sink in. He saw, after an instant, the response in each +face, and he nodded, satisfied. He held out his hand to each in turn, +including his grandson, and received three hearty grips of gratitude and +understanding. + +As he drove away with Richard his eyes were bright under their heavy +brows. It had done him good, this visit to the place where his thoughts +had often been of late, and he was pleased with the way Richard had +borne himself throughout the interview. He could not have asked better +of the heir to the Kendrick millions than the unassuming and yet quietly +assured manner Richard had shown. It had a certain quality, the old man +proudly considered, which was lacking in that of both Benson and Carson, +fine fellows though they were, and well-mannered in every way. It +reminded Matthew Kendrick of the boy's own father, who had been a man +among men, and a gentleman besides. + +"Grandfather, we shall pass Mr. Rufus Gray's farm in a minute. Don't you +want to stop and see them?" + +"Rufus Gray?" questioned Mr. Kendrick. "The people we entertained at +Christmas? I should like to stop, if it will not delay us too long. It +seems a colder air than it did this morning." + +"There's a bit of wind, and it's usually colder, facing this way. If you +prefer, after the call, I'll take you back to the station and run down +alone." + +"We'll see. Is this the place we're coming to? A pleasant old place +enough, and it looks like the right home for such a pair," commented Mr. +Kendrick, gazing interestedly ahead as the car swung in at a stone +gateway, and followed a winding roadway toward a low-lying, hospitable +looking white house, with long porches beyond masses of bare shrubbery. + +It seemed that the welcoming look of the house was justified in the +attitude of its inmates, for the car had but stopped when the door flew +open, and Rufus Gray, his face beaming, bade them enter. Inside, his +wife came forward with her well-remembered sunny smile, and in a trice +Matthew Kendrick and his grandson found themselves sitting in front of a +blazing fire upon a wide hearth, receiving every evidence that their +presence brought delight. + +Richard looked on with inward amusement and satisfaction at the unwonted +sight of his grandfather partaking of a cup of steaming coffee rich with +country cream, and eating with the appetite of a boy a huge, +sugar-coated doughnut which his hostess assured him could not possibly +hurt him. + +"They're the real old-fashioned kind, Mr. Kendrick," said she. "Raised +like bread, you know, and fried in lard we make ourselves in a way I +have so that not a bit of grease gets inside. My husband thinks they're +the only fit food to go with coffee." + +"They are the most delicious food I ever ate, certainly, Madam Gray, and +I find myself agreeing with him, now that I taste them," declared Mr. +Kendrick, and Richard, disposing with zest of a particularly huge, light +specimen of Mrs. Gray's art, seconded his grandfather's appreciation. + +They made a long call, Mr. Kendrick appearing to enjoy himself as +Richard could not remember seeing him do before. He and Mr. Gray found +many subjects to discuss with mutual interest, and the nodding of the +two heads in assent at frequent intervals proved how well they found +themselves agreeing. + +Richard, as at the time of the Grays' brief visit at his own home, +devoted himself to the lady whom he always thought of as "Aunt Ruth," +secretly dwelling on the hope that he might some day acquire the right +to call her by that pleasant title. He led her, by artful +circumlocutions, always tending toward one object, to speak of her +nieces and nephews, and when he succeeded in drawing from her certain +all too meagre news of Roberta, he exulted in his ardent soul, though he +did his best not to betray himself. + +"Maybe," said she, quite suddenly, "you'd enjoy looking at the family +album. Robby and Ruth always get it out when they come here--they like +to see their father and mother the way they used to look. There's some +of themselves, too, though the photographs folks have now are too big to +go in an old-fashioned album like this, and the ones they've sent me +lately aren't in here." + +Never did a modern young man accept so eagerly the chance to scan the +collection of curious old likenesses such as is found between the covers +of the now despised "album" of the days of their grandfathers. Richard +turned the pages eagerly, scanning them for faces he knew, and +discovered much satisfaction in one charming picture of Roberta's mother +at eighteen, because of its suggestion of the daughter. + +"Eleanor was the beauty of the family, and is yet, I always say," +asserted Aunt Ruth. "Robby's like her, they all think, but she can't +hold a candle to her mother. She's got more spirit in her face, maybe, +but her features aren't equal to Eleanor's." + +Richard did not venture to disagree with this opinion, but he privately +considered that, enchanting as was the face of Mrs. Robert Gray at +eighteen, that of her daughter Roberta, at twenty-four, dangerously +rivalled it. + +"I could tell better about the likeness if I saw a late picture of Miss +Roberta," he observed, his eyes and mouth grave, but his voice +expectant. Aunt Ruth promptly took the suggestion, and limping daintily +away, returned after a minute with a framed photograph of Roberta and +Ruth, taken by one of those masters of the art who understand how to +bring out the values of the human face, yet to leave provocative shadows +which make for mystery and charm. Richard received it with a respectful +hand, and then had much ado to keep from showing how the sight of her +pictured face made his heart throb. + +When the two visitors rose to go Aunt Ruth put in a plea for their +remaining overnight. + +"It's turned colder since you came up this morning, Mr. Kendrick," said +she. "Why not stay with us and go back in the morning? We'd be so +pleased to entertain you, and we've plenty of room--too much room for us +two old folks, now the children are all married and gone." + +To Richard's surprise his grandfather did not immediately decline. He +looked at Aunt Ruth, her rosy, smiling face beaming with hospitality, +then he glanced at Richard. + +"Do stay," urged Uncle Rufus. "Remember how you took us in at midnight, +and what a good time you gave us the two days we stayed? It would make +us mighty happy to have you sleep under our roof, you and your grandson +both, if he'll stay, too." + +"I confess I should like to sleep under this roof," admitted Matthew +Kendrick. "It reminds me of my father's old home. It's very good of you, +Madam Gray, to ask us, and I believe I shall remain. As to Richard--" + +"I'd like nothing better," declared that young man promptly. + +So it was settled. Richard drove back to the store and gathered together +various articles for his own and his grandfather's use, and returned to +the Gray fireside. The long and pleasant evening which followed the +hearty country supper gave him one more new experience in the long list +of them he was acquiring. Somehow he had seldom been happier than when +he followed his hostess into the comfortable room upstairs she assigned +him, opening from that she had given the elder man. Cheerful fires +burned in old-fashioned, open-hearthed Franklin stoves, in both rooms, +and the atmosphere was fragrant with the mingled breath of crackling +apple-wood, and lavender from the fine old linen with which both beds +had been freshly made. + +"Sleep well, my dear friends," said Aunt Ruth, in her quaintly friendly +way, as she bade her guests good-night and shook hands with them, +receiving warm responses. + +"One must find sweet repose under your roof," said Matthew Kendrick, and +Richard, attending his hostess to the door, murmured, "You look as if +you'd put two small boys to bed and tucked them in!" at which Aunt Ruth +laughed with pleasure, nodding at him over her shoulder as she went +away. + +Presently, as Matthew Kendrick lay down in the soft bed, his face toward +the glow of his fire that he might watch it, Richard knocked and came in +from his own room and, crossing to the bed, stood leaning on the +foot-board. + +"Too sleepy to talk, grandfather?" he asked. + +"Not at all, my boy," responded the old man, his heart stirring in his +breast at this unwonted approach at an hour when the two were usually +far apart. Never that he could remember had Richard come into his room +after he had retired. + +"I wanted to tell you," said the young man, speaking very gently, "that +you've been awfully kind, and have done us all a lot of good to-day. And +you've done me most of all." + +"Why, that's pleasant news, Dick," answered old Matthew Kendrick, his +eyes fixed on the shadowy outlines of the face at the foot of the bed. +"Sit down and tell me about it." + +So Richard sat down, and the two had such a talk as they had had never +before in their lives--a long, intimate talk, with the barriers +down--the barriers which both felt now never should have existed. Lying +there in the soft bed of Aunt Ruth's best feathers, with the odour of +her lavender in his nostrils, and the sound of the voice he loved in his +ears, the old man drank in the delight of his grandson's confidence, and +the wonder of something new--the consciousness of Richard's real +affection, and his heart beat with slow, heavy throbs of joy, such as he +had never expected to feel again in this world. + +"Altogether," said Richard, rising reluctantly at last, as the tall old +clock on the landing near-by slowly boomed out the hour of midnight, +"it's been a great day for me. I'd been looking forward with quite a bit +of dread to bringing you up, I knew you'd see so plainly wherever we +were lacking; but you were so splendidly kind about it--" + +"And why shouldn't I be kind, Dick?" spoke his grandfather eagerly. +"What have I in the world to interest me as you and your affairs +interest me? Can any possible stroke of fortune seem so great to me as +your development into a manhood of accomplishment? And when it is in the +very world I know so well and have so near my heart--" + +Richard interrupted him, not realizing that he was doing so, but full of +longing to make all still further clear between them. "Grandfather, I +want to make a confession. This world of yours--I didn't want to enter +it." + +"I know you didn't, Dick. And I know why. But you are getting over that, +aren't you? You are beginning to realize that it isn't what a man does, +but the way he does it, that matters." + +"Yes," said Richard slowly. "Yes, I'm beginning to realize that. And do +you want to know what made me realize it to-day, as never before?" + +The old man waited. + +"It was the sight of you, sir--and--the recognition of the power you +have been all your life;--and the--sudden appreciation of the"--he +stumbled a little, but he brought the words out forcefully at the +end--"of the very great gentleman you are!" + +He could not see the hot tears spring into the old eyes which had not +known such a sign of emotion for many years. But he could feel the throb +in the low voice which answered him after a moment. + +"I may not deserve that, Dick, but--it touches me, coming from you." + +When Richard had gone back to his own room, Matthew Kendrick lay for a +long time, wide awake, too happy to sleep. In the next room his +grandson, before he slept, had formulated one more new idea: + +"There's something in the association with people like these that makes +a fellow feel like being absolutely honest with them, with +everybody--most of all with himself. What is it?" + +And pondering this, he was lost in the world of dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ENCOUNTERS + + +"By the way, Rob, I saw Rich Kendrick to-day." Louis Gray detained his +sister Roberta on the stairs as they stopped to exchange greetings on a +certain evening in March. "It struck me suddenly that I hadn't seen him +for a blue moon, and I asked him why he didn't come round when he was in +town. He said he was sticking tight to that new business of his up in +Eastman, but he admitted he was to be here over Sunday. I invited him +round to-night, but to my surprise he wouldn't come. Said he had another +engagement, of course--thanked me fervently and all that--but there was +no getting him. It made me a bit suspicious of you, Bobby." + +"I can't imagine why." But, in spite of herself, Roberta coloured. "He +came here when he was helping Uncle Calvin. There's no reason for his +coming now." + +Her brother regarded her with the observing eye which sisters find it +difficult to evade. "He would have taken a job as nursemaid for Rosy, if +it would have given him a chance to go in and out of this old house, I +imagine. Rosy stuck to it, it was his infatuation for the home and the +members thereof, particularly Gordon and Dorothy. He undoubtedly was +struck with them--it would have been a hard heart that wasn't touched by +the sight of the boy--but if it was the kiddies he wanted, why didn't he +keep coming? Steve and Rosy would have welcomed him." + +"You had better ask him his reasons, next time you see him," Roberta +suggested, and escaped. + +It was two months since she had seen Richard Kendrick. He seemed never +so much as to pass the house, although it stood directly on his course +when he drove back and forth from Eastman in his car. She wondered if he +really did make a détour each time, to avoid the very chance of meeting +her. It was impossible not to think of him, rather disturbingly often, +and to wonder how he was getting on. + +The month of March in the year of this tale was on the whole an +extraordinarily mild and springlike piece of substitution for the +rigorous, wind-swept season it should by all rights have been. On one +of its most beguiling days Roberta Gray was walking home from Miss +Copeland's school. Usually she came by way of the broad avenue which led +straight home. To-day, out of sheer unwillingness to reach that home and +end the walk, she took a quite different course. This led her up a +somewhat similar street, parallel to her own but several blocks beyond, +a street of more than ordinary attractiveness in that it was less of a +thoroughfare than any other of equal beauty in the residential portion +of the city. + +She was walking slowly, drawing in the balmy air and noting with delight +the beds of crocuses which were beginning to show here and there on +lawns and beside paths, when a peculiar sound far up the avenue caught +her ear. She recognized it instantly, for she had heard it often and she +had never heard another quite like it. It was the warning song of a +coming motor-car and it was of unusual and striking musical quality. So +Roberta knew, even before she caught sight of the long, low, powerful +car which had stood many times before her own door during certain weeks +of the last year, that she was about to meet for the first time in two +months the person upon whom she had put a ban. + +Would he see her? He could hardly help it, for there was not another +pedestrian in sight upon the whole length of the block, and the March +sunshine was full upon her. As the car came on the girl who walked +sedately to meet it found that her pulses had somehow curiously +accelerated. So this was the route he took, not to go by her home. + +Did he see her? Evidently as far away as half a block, for at that +distance his motor-cap was suddenly pulled off, and it was with bared +head that he passed her. At the moment the car was certainly not running +as fast as it had been doing twenty rods back; it went by at a pace +moderate enough to show the pair to each other with distinctness. +Roberta saw clearly Richard Kendrick's intent eyes upon her, saw the +flash of his smile and the grace of his bow, and saw--as if written upon +the blue spring sky--the word he had left with her, "Midsummer." If he +had shouted it at her as he passed, it could not have challenged her +more definitely. + +He was obeying her literally--more literally than she could have +demanded. Not to slow down, come to a standstill beside her, exchange at +least a few words of greeting--this was indeed a strict interpretation +of her edict. Evidently he meant to play the game rigorously. Still, he +had been a compellingly attractive figure as he passed; that instant's +glimpse of him was likely to remain with her quite as long as a more +protracted interview. Did he guess that? + +"I wonder how I looked?" was her first thought as she walked on--a +purely feminine one, it must be admitted. When she reached home she +glanced at herself in the hall mirror on her way upstairs--a thing she +seldom took the trouble to do. + +A figure got hastily to its feet and came out into the hall to meet her +as she passed the door of the reception-room. "Miss Roberta!" said an +eager voice. + +"Why, Mr. Westcott! I didn't know you were in town!" + +"I didn't intend to be until next month, as you knew. But this wonderful +weather was too much for me." + +He held her hand and looked down into her face from his tall height. He +told her what he thought of her appearance--in detail with his eyes, in +modified form with his lips. + +"In my old school clothes?" laughed Roberta. "How draggy winter things +seem the first warm days. This velvet hat weighs like lead on my head +to-day." She took it off. "I'll run up and make myself presentable," +said she. + +"Please don't. You're exactly right as you are. And--I want you to go +for a walk if you're not too tired. The road that leads out by the West +Wood marshes--it will be sheer spring out there to-day. I want to share +it with you." + +So Roberta put on her hat again and went to walk with Forbes Westcott +out the road that led by the West Wood marshes. There was not a more +romantic road to be found in a long way. + +When they were well out into the country he began to press a question +which she had heard before, and to which he had had as yet no answer. + +"Still undecided?" said he, with a very sober face. "You can't make up +your mind as to my qualifications?" + +"Your qualifications are undoubted," said she, with a face as sober as +his. "They are more than any girl could ask. But I--how can I know? I +care so much for you--as a friend. Why can't we keep on being just good +friends and let things develop naturally?" + +"If I thought they would ever develop the way I want them," he said +earnestly, "I would wait patiently a great while longer. But I don't +seem to be making any progress. In fact, I seem to have gone backward a +bit in your good graces. Since I saw that young prince of shopkeepers in +your company over at Eastman, I've been wondering--" + +"Prince of shopkeepers! What an extraordinary characterization! I +thought he was a most amateurish shopkeeper. He didn't even know the +name of his own batiste, much less where it was kept." + +"He knew how to skate and to take you along with him. I beg your pardon! +But ever since that night I've been experiencing a most disconcerting +sense of jealousy whenever I think of that young man. He was such a +magnificent figure there in the firelight; he made me feel as old as the +Pyramids. And when you two were gone so long and came back with such an +odd look, both of you--oh, I beg your pardon again! This is most +unworthy of me, I know. But--set me straight if you can! Have you seen +much of him since that night?" + +"Absolutely nothing," said Roberta quickly, with a sense of great +relief. "To-day he passed me in his car, on my way home from school, +over on Egerton Avenue, and didn't even stop." + +He scanned her face closely. "And you are not even interested in him?" + +"Mr. Forbes Westcott," said Roberta desperately, "I have told you often +and often that I'm not interested in any man except as one or two are my +very good friends. Why can't all girls be allowed to live along in peace +and comfort until they are at least thirty years old? You didn't have +anybody besieging you to marry before you were thirty. If anybody had +you'd have said 'No' quickly enough. You had that much of your life +comfortably to yourself." + +He bit his lip, but he was obliged to laugh. His thin, keen face was +more attractive when he laughed, but there was an odd, tense expression +on it which did not leave it even then. + +"I can see you are still hopeless," he owned. "But so long as you are +hopeless for other men I can endure it, I suppose. I really meant not to +speak again for a long time, as I promised you. But the thought of that +embryo plutocrat making after you, as he has after so many girls--" + +"How many girls, I wonder?" queried Roberta quite carelessly. "Do you +happen to know? Has his fame spread so far?" + +"I know nothing about him, of course, except that he's a gay young +spendthrift. It goes without saying that he's made love to every pretty +face, for that kind invariably do." + +"If it goes without saying, why say it?--particularly as you don't know +it. I dare say he has--what serious harm? I presume it's quite as likely +they've run after him. I'm sure it's a matter of no concern to me, for I +know him very little and am likely to know him much less now that he +doesn't come to work with Uncle Calvin any more. Let's go back, Mr. +Westcott. I came out to look for pussy-willows, not for +Robby-will-you's!" + +With which piece of audacity she dismissed the subject. It certainly was +not a subject which harmonized well with that of Midsummer Day, and the +thought of Midsummer Day, quickened into active life by the unexpected +sight of the person who had made a certain preposterous prophecy +concerning it, was a thought which was refusing to down. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +INTRIGUE + + +"Hi!--Mr. Kendrick!--I say, Mr. Kendrick! Wait a minute!" + +The car, about to leave the curb in front of one of Kendrick & Company's +great city stores, halted. Its driver turned to see young Ted Gray +tearing across the sidewalk in hot pursuit. + +"Well, well--glad to see you, Ted, boy. Jump in and I'll take you +along." + +Ted jumped in. He gave Richard Kendrick's welcoming hand a hard squeeze. +"I haven't seen you for an awful while," said he reproachfully. "Aren't +you ever coming to our house any more?" + +"I hope so, Ted. But, you see," explained Richard carefully, "I'm a man +of business now and I can't have much time for calls. I'm in Eastman +most of the time. How are you, Ted? Tell me all about it. Can you go for +a spin with me? I had to come into town in a hurry, but there's no great +hurry about getting back. I'll take you out into the country and show +you the prettiest lot of apple trees in full bloom you ever saw in May." + +"I'd like to first-rate, but could you take me home first? I have to let +mother know where I am after school." + +"All right." And away they flew. But Richard turned off the avenue three +blocks below the corner upon which stood Ted's home and ran up the +street behind it. "Run in the back way, will you, Ted?" he requested. "I +want to do a bit of work on the car while you're in." + +So while Ted dashed up through the garden to the back of the house +Richard got out and unscrewed a nut or two, which he screwed again into +place without having accomplished anything visible to the eye, and was +replacing his wrench when the boy returned. + +"This is jolly," Ted declared. "I'll bet Rob envies me. This is her +Wednesday off from teaching, and she was just going for a walk. She +wanted me to go with her, but of course she let me go with you instead. +I--I suppose I could ride on the running board and let you take her if +you want to," he proposed with some reluctance. + +"I'd like nothing better, but she wouldn't go." + +"Maybe not. Perhaps Mr. Westcott is coming for her. They walk a lot +together." + +"I thought Mr. Westcott practised law with consuming zeal." + +"With what? Anyhow, he's here a lot this spring. About every Wednesday, +I think. I say, this is a bully car! If I were Rob I'd a lot rather ride +with you than go walking with old Westcott--especially when it's so +warm." + +"I'm afraid," said Richard soberly, "that walking in the woods in May +has its advantages over bowling along the main highway in any kind of a +car." + +Nevertheless he managed to make the drive a fascinating experience to +Ted and a diverting one to himself. And on the way home they stopped at +the West Wood marshes to gather a great bunch of trilliums as big as +Ted's head. + +"I'll take 'em to Rob," said her younger brother. "She likes 'em better +than any spring flower." + +"Take my bunch to Mrs. Stephen Gray then. And be sure you don't get them +mixed." + +"What if I did? They're exactly the same size." Ted held up the two +nosegays side by side as the car sped on toward home. + +"I know, but it's of the greatest importance that you keep them +straight. That left-hand one is yours; be sure and remember that." + +Ted looked piercingly at his friend, but Richard's face was perfectly +grave. + +"Must be you don't like Rob, if you're so afraid your flowers will get +to her," he reflected. "Or else you think so much of Rosy you can't bear +to let anybody else have the flowers you picked for her. I'll have to +tell Steve that." + +"Do, by all means. Mere words could never express my admiration for Mrs. +Stephen." + +"She is pretty nice," agreed Ted. "I like her myself. But she isn't in +it with Rob. Why, Rosy's afraid of lots of things, regularly afraid, you +know, so Steve has to laugh her out of them. But Rob--she isn't afraid +of a thing in the world." + +"Except one." + +"One?" Ted pricked up his ears. "What's that? I'll bet she isn't really +afraid of it--just shamming. She does that sometimes. What is it? Tell +me, and I'll tell you if she's shamming." + +"I'd give a good deal to know, but I'm afraid I can't tell you what it +is." + +"Why not? If she isn't really afraid of it she won't mind my knowing. +And if she is maybe I can laugh her out of it, the way Steve does Rosy." + +"I don't believe you're competent to treat the case, Ted. It's not a +thing to be laughed out of, you see. The thing for you to remember is +which bunch of trilliums you are to give Mrs. Stephen Gray from me." + +"This one." Ted waved his left arm. + +"Not a bit of it. The left one is yours." + +"No, because mine was a little the biggest, and you see this right one +is." + +"You are mistaken," Richard assured him positively. "You give Mrs. +Stephen the right one, and I'll take the consequences." + +"Did yours have a red one in?" + +"Has that right one?" + +"No, the left one has. I remember seeing you pick it." + +"But afterward I threw it out. You picked one and left it in. The right +is mine." + +"You've got me all mixed up," vowed Ted discontentedly, at which his +companion laughed, delight in his eye. The left-hand bunch was +unquestionably his own, but if he could only convince Ted of the +contrary he should at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the +flowers he had plucked had reached his lady, though they would have no +significance to her. When the lad jumped out of the car at his own rear +gate he had agreed that the bunch with the one deep red trillium was to +go to Roberta. + +Ted turned to wave both white clusters at his friend as the car went on, +then he proceeded straight to his sister's room. Finding her absent, he +laid one great white-and-green mass in a heap upon her bed and went his +way with the other to Mrs. Stephen's room. Here he found both Roberta +and Rosamond playing with little Gordon and Dorothy, whom their nurse +had just brought in from an airing. + +"Here's some trilliums for you, Rosy," announced Ted. "Mr. Kendrick sent +'em to you. I left yours on your bed, Rob. I picked yours; at least I +think I did. He was awfully particular that his went to Rosy, but we got +sort of mixed up about which picked which, so I can't be sure. I don't +see any use of making such a fuss about a lot of trilliums, anyhow." + +Roberta and Rosamond looked at each other. "I think you are decidedly +mixed, Ted," said Rosamond. "It was Rob Mr. Kendrick meant to send his +to." + +Ted shook his head positively. "No, it wasn't. He said something about +you that I told him I was going to tell Steve, only--I don't know as I +can remember it. Something about his admiring you a whole lot." + +"Delightful! And he didn't say anything about Rob?" + +"Not very much. Said she was afraid of something. I said she wasn't +afraid of anything, and he said she was--of one thing. I tried to make +him say what it was, because I knew he was all off about that, but he +wouldn't tell." + +"Evidently you and Mr. Kendrick talked a good deal of nonsense," was +Roberta's comment, on her way from the room. + +She found the mass of green and white upon her bed and stood +contemplating it for a moment. The one deep red trillium glowed richly +against its snowy brethren, and she picked it out and examined it +thoughtfully, as if she expected it to tell her whereof Richard Kendrick +thought she was afraid. But as it vouchsafed no information she gathered +up the whole mass and disposed it in a big crystal bowl which she set +upon a small table by an open window. + +"If I thought that really was the bunch he picked," said she to herself, +"I should consider he had broken his promise and I should feel obliged +to throw it away. Perhaps I'd better do it anyhow. Yet--it seems a pity +to throw away such a beautiful bowlful of white and green, and--very +likely they were of Ted's picking after all. But I don't like that one +red one against all the white." + +She laid fingers upon it to draw it out. But she did not draw it out. "I +wonder if that represents the one thing I'm afraid of?" she considered +whimsically. "What does his majesty mean--himself? Or--myself? +Or--of--of--Yes, I suppose that's it! Am I afraid of it?" + +She stood staring down at the one deep red flower, the biggest, finest +bloom of them all. It really did not belong there with the others in +their cool, chaste whiteness. Quite suddenly she drew it out. She made +the motion of throwing it out the window, but it seemed to cling to her +fingers. + +"Poor little flower," said she softly, "why should you have to go? +Perhaps you're sorry because you're not white like the rest. But you +can't help it; you were made that way." + +If Richard Kendrick could have seen her standing there, staring down at +the flower he had picked, he would have found it harder than ever to go +on his appointed course. For this was what she was thinking: + +"I ought--I ought--to like best the white flowers of intellect--and +ability--and training--and every sort of fitness. I try and try to like +them best. But, oh!--they are so white--compared with this red, red one. +I like the white ones; they are pure and cool and beautiful. But--the +red one is warm, warm! Oh, I don't know--I don't know. And how am I +going to know? Tell me that, red flower. Did he pick you? Shall I keep +you--on the doubt? Well--but not where you will show. Yes, I'll keep +you, but away down in the middle, where no one will see you, and where +you won't distract my attention from the beautiful white flowers that +are so different from you." + +She bent over the bowlful of snowy spring blossoms, drew them apart, and +sunk the red flower deep among them, drawing them together again so that +not a hint of their alien brother should show against their whiteness. + +"There," said she, turning away with a little laugh, but speaking over +her shoulder, "you ought to be satisfied with that. That's certainly +much better than being thrown out of the window, to wilt in the sun!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE NAILING OF A FLAG + + +"Well--well--well!" drawled a voice at Richard Kendrick's elbow. "How +are you, old man? Haven't seen you since before the days of Noah! Off to +that country shop of yours? I say, take me along, will you? Time hangs +heavy on my hands just now, and I want to see you anyhow, about a plan +of mine." + +"Hop in, Lorimer. Mighty glad to see you. Want to go all the way to +Eastman? That's fine! This is great weather, eh?" + +Belden Lorimer hopped in, if that word may be used to express his eager +acceptance rather than the alacrity of his movements, for he was +accustomed to act with as much deliberation as he spoke. He was one of +Richard's college friends, also one of his late intimate companions at +clubs and in social affairs. Lorimer possessed as much money in his own +right as Richard himself, though his expectations were hardly as great. + +"To tell the truth," said Lorimer, when the car had left the city and +was bowling along the main travelled highway "up the State," "I wanted +to see you as much as anything to get a good look at you. Fellows say +you've changed. Say you have that 'captain-of-industry' expression now. +Say you've acquired that broad brow--alert eye--stern mouth--dominant +chin--and so forth, that goes with indomitable determination to 'get +there.' To be sure, I'd have thought you'd arrived, or your family +before you, but they say you've started out to arrive some more. It's a +wonderful example for a chap like me--fellows say. Think so myself. Mind +imparting--" + +Richard broke in on Lorimer's drawl. It was rather an engaging drawl, by +the way, and he had always enjoyed hearing it, but it struck upon his +ears now with a certain futility. In a world of pressing affairs why +should a man cultivate a tone like that? But he liked Lorimer too much +to mind how he talked. + +"I'm delighted if I've acquired that expression," said he, letting out +the car another notch, although it was already in swift flight. "It's +been a lot of trouble. I've had to practise before a mirror a good deal. +It was the chin bothered me most. It sticks out pretty well, but not as +far as my grandfather's. Could you advise any method of--" + +"What I want to know is," proceeded Lorimer calmly, "how you came to go +into it. Understand you wanted to help fellow out of the ditch--good old +Benson--most worthy. Couldn't help him out without getting in yourself? +But going to get out soon as possible, of course? Unthinkable for Rich +Kendrick to be a country shopkeeper!" + +"Unthinkable, is it? Wait till you see the shop. It's the most fun I +ever had. Get out? Not by a long shot. I'm in for keeps." + +"Not you. With the Kendrick establishments waiting for you to come into +your own? Which will mean, in your case, becoming the nominal head of a +great system, while it continues to be run for you, as now, by a lot of +trained heads under salary--big salary." + +"Great idea of my future you have, Lorry, haven't you? Well, I can't +wonder. I've been doing my best for all the years of my life to implant +that idea in your mind. But, what about you? What are you at, yourself? +You said you had a plan." + +"He asks what I'm 'at,'" remarked Belden Lorimer to the rural landscape +through which the car was passing. "Ever know me to be 'at' anything? +It's as much as I can do to support life until I can be off on my next +little travel-plan. It's me for a leisurely cruise around the world, in +the governor's little old boat--the _Ariel_--painted up within an inch +of her life, brass all shining, lockers filled, a first-class cook +engaged, and a brand-new skipper and crew--picked men. Sounds pretty +good to me. How about you? Shop keeping in it with that, me lord?" + +His usually languid glance was sharp, as he eyed his friend. + +"Jove!" ejaculated Richard Kendrick, under his breath. + +"I thought so. 'Jove!' it is, too--and also Jupiter! You've always said +you'd be ready when I was. Well, I'm ready." + +Richard was silent for a long minute, while his friend waited +confidently. Then, "Good luck to you, old Lorry," he said. "It's mighty +fine of you to remember our ancient vow to do that trick some day. And +I'd like to go--you know that. But--I've a previous engagement." + +"Not with that fool store up in the backwoods? Can't make me believe +that, you know." + +Richard's face was a study. + +"Believe it or not, it's a fact. That store is the joint property of +Benson & Company. I'm the Company. I can't desert my partner just as +we're getting the ground under our feet." + +"Well--I'll--be--hanged," drawled Lorimer, more heavily than ever, as +was his custom when opposed, "if I see it. You go and help a fellow out +with capital and set him on his feet. You save his pride, I suppose, by +making yourself a partner. Fine, sporty thing to do. But you've done it. +You've contributed the capital. Can't reasonably suppose you +contribute anything else. If you don't mind my saying it, +your--previous--training--" + +"Doesn't make me indispensable to the success of the business? Hardly, +as yet. But for the very reason that I lack training, I've got to stay +and get it." + +"Take lessons in shopkeeping from Hugh Benson?" + +"Exactly. And from Alf Carson. He's our manager." + +"Don't know him. But from the way you allude to him I judge +he has the details at his fingers-ends. That's all right. +Leave--him--on--the--job." + +"I will--and stay myself." + +Richard's eyes were straight ahead, as the eyes of a man must be whose +powerful car is running at high speed along a none too smoothly surfaced +portion of state road. Therefore the glances of the two young men could +not meet. But Lorimer's eyes could silently scan the well-cut profile +presented to his view against the green of the fields beyond. + +"Never observed," said he, with a peculiar inflection, "just +how--rock-like--that chin of yours is, Rich. Reminds me of your +grandfather's, for fair." + +"Glad to hear it." + +"You know," pursued Lorimer presently, "you gave me your promise, once, +that you'd be with me on this cruise, whenever it came off. That's where +the chin ought to come in. Man of your word, you know, and all that." + +"I'm mighty sorry, my dear fellow. Let's not talk about it." + +And clearly he was sorry. It had been a pleasant plan, and he had not +forgotten the circumstances of the laughing yet serious pledge the two +had given each other one evening less than two years ago. + +They kept on their way with a change of conversation, and at the rate of +speed which Richard maintained were running into Eastman before they +were half done with asking each other questions concerning the months +during which they had seldom met. + +"This the busy mart?" queried Lorimer, as the car came to a standstill +before the corner store. "Well, beside Kendrick & Company's massive +edifices of stone and marble--" + +"Luckily, it's not beside them," retorted Richard, maintaining his good +humour. "Will you come in?" + +"Thanks, I will. That's what I came for. Curiosity leads me to want to +view you behind the--No, no, of course it's behind the office glass +partition that I'll view you, my boy. I want to hear Rich Kendrick +talking business--with a big B." + +"I'll talk business to you, if you don't let up," declared his friend. +"You've got to be cured of the idea that this is some kind of a joke, +Lorry. Will you be kind enough to take me seriously?" + +"Find--that--impossible," drawled Lorimer, under his breath, as he +followed Richard into the store. + +But once there, of course, his manner changed to the most courteous of +which he was master. He was taken to the office and there shook hands +with Hugh Benson with cordiality, having known him at college as a man +who commanded respect for high scholarship and modest but assured +manners, though of a quite different class of comradeship from his own. +He talked pleasantly with Alfred Carson, and listened with evident +interest to a business discussion between Richard and his associates, in +the course of which he discovered that however much or little Richard +had learned, he could speak intelligently concerning the matters then in +hand. He went to lunch with Richard and Hugh Benson at a hotel, and +listened again, for a decision was to be made which called for haste, +and no time could be lost in the consideration of it. + +He spent the afternoon driving Richard's car on up the state, returning +in time to pick up his friend at the appointed hour, late in the +afternoon, at which they were to start back to the city. Up to the last +moment of their departure business still had the upper hand, and it was +not until Benson and Kendrick parted at the curb that it ended for the +day, as far as Richard's part in it was concerned. + +"Six hours you've been at it," remarked Lorimer, as the car swung away +under Richard's hand. "It makes me fatigued all over to contemplate such +zeal." + +"Tell that to the men who really work. I'm getting off easy, to cut and +run at the end of six hours." + +"Rich--" began his friend, then he paused. "By the Lord Harry, I'd like +to know what's got you. I can't make you and the old Rich fit together +at all. You and your books--you and your music--and your pictures--your +polo--your 'wine, women, and song'--" + +"Take that last back," commanded Richard Kendrick, with sudden heat. +"You know I've never gone in for that sort of thing, except as all our +old crowd went in together. Personally, I haven't cared for it, and you +know it. It's travel and adventure I've cared for--" + +"And that you're throwing over now for a country shop." + +"That I'm throwing over now to learn the ABC in the training school of +responsibility for the big load that's to come on my shoulders. I've +been asleep all these years. Thank Heaven I've waked up in time. It's no +merit of mine--" + +"Mind telling me whose it is, then?" + +"I should mind, very much--if you'll excuse me." + +"Oh--beg pardon," drawled Lorimer. + +Silence followed for a brief space, broken by Richard's voice, in its +old, genial tone. + +"Tell me more about the cruise. It's great that you can have your +father's yacht. I thought he always used it through the summer." + +"He's gone daffy on monoplanes--absolutely daffy. Can't see anything +else." + +"I don't blame him. I might have gone in for aviation myself, if I +hadn't got this bigger game on my hands." + +"Bigger--there you go again! Well, every man to his taste. The +governor's lost interest in the _Ariel_--let me have her without a +reservation as to time limit. Don't care for flying myself. Necessary +to sit up. Like to lie on my back too well for that." + +"You do yourself injustice." + +"Now, now--don't preach. I've been expecting it." + +"You needn't. I'm too busy with my own case to attend to yours." + +"Lucky for me. I feel you'd be a zealous preacher if you ever got +started." + +"What route do you expect to take?" pursued Richard, steering away from +dangerous ground. + +Lorimer outlined it, in his most languid manner. One would have thought +he had little real interest in his plan, after all. + +"It's great! You'll have the time of your life!" + +"I might have had." + +"You will have--you can't help it." + +"Not without the man I want in the bunk next mine," said Belden Lorimer, +gazing through half-shut eyes at nothing in particular. + +Richard experienced the severest pang of regret he had yet known. + +"If that's true, old Lorry," said he slowly, "I'm sorrier than I can +tell you." + +"Then--_come along_!" Lorimer looked waked up at last. He laid a +persuasive hand on Richard's arm. + +There was a moment of tensity. Then: + +"If I should do it," said Richard, regarding steadily a dog in the road +some hundred yards ahead, "would you feel any respect whatever for me?" + +"Dead loads of it, I assure you." + +"Sure of that?" + +"Why not?" + +"Be honest. Would you?" + +"You promised me first," said Lorimer. + +"I know I did. Such idle promises to play don't count when real life +asks for work--it's no good reminding me of that promise. Answer me +straight, now, Lorry--on your honour. If I should give in and go with +you, you'd rejoice for a little, perhaps. Then, some day, when you and +I were lying on deck, you'd look at me and think of me--against your +will--I don't say it wouldn't be against your will--you'd think of me as +a quitter. And you wouldn't like me quite as well as you do now. Eh? Be +honest." + +Lorimer was silent for a minute. Then, to Richard's surprise, he gave an +assenting grunt, and followed it up with a reluctant, "Hang it all, I +suppose you're right. But I'm badly disappointed, just the same. We'll +let that go." + +And let it go they did, parting, when they reached town, with the +friendliest of grips, and a new, if not wholly comprehended, interest +between them. As for Richard, he felt, somehow, as if he had nailed his +flag to the mast! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN THE MORNING + + +"By George, Carson, what do you think's happened now?" + +Richard Kendrick had come into the store's little office like a +thunderbolt. + +"Well, Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Benson's down with typhoid. Came back with it from the trip to Chicago. +What do you think of that?" + +"I thought he was looking a little seedy before he went. Well, well, +that's too bad. Right in the May trade, too. Is he pretty sick?" + +"So the doctor says. He's been keeping up on that trip when he ought to +have been in bed. He's in bed now, all right. I took him in with a nurse +to the City Hospital on the 10:40 Limited; stretcher in the +baggage-car." + +"Don't see where he got typhoid around here at this time of year," mused +Carson. + +"Nobody sees, but that doesn't matter. He has it, and it's up to us to +pull him through--and to get along without him." + +They sat down to talk it over. While they were at it the telephone came +into the discussion with a summons of Richard to a long-distance +connection. To his amazement, when communication was established between +himself and his distant interlocutor, clear and vibrant came to him over +the wire a voice he had dreamed of but had not heard for four months: + +"Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Yes. Is it--it isn't--" + +"This is Miss Gray. Mr. Kendrick, your grandfather wants you very much, +at our home. He has had an accident." + +"An accident? What sort of an accident? Is he much hurt, Miss Gray?" + +"We can't tell yet. He fell down the porch steps; he had been calling on +Uncle Calvin. He--is quite helpless, but the doctor thinks there are no +bones broken. Doctor Thomas wouldn't allow Mr. Kendrick to be moved, so +we have him here with a nurse. He is very anxious to see you." + +"I'll be there as soon as I can get there in the car. I think I can make +it quicker than by train at this hour. Thank you for calling me, Miss +Gray. Please--give my love to grandfather and tell him I'm coming." + +"I will, Mr. Kendrick. I--we are all--so sorry. Good-bye." + +Richard turned back to Carson with an anxious face. The manager was on +his feet, concern in his manner. + +"Something happened to old Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Richard?" + +"A fall--can't move--wants me right away. It never rains but it pours, +Carson--even in May. I thought Benson's illness was the worst thing that +could happen to us, but this is worse yet. I'll have to leave everything +to you to settle while I run down to the old gentleman. A fall, +Carson--isn't that likely to be pretty serious at his age?" + +"Depends on what caused it, I should say," Carson answered cautiously. +"If it was any kind of shock--" + +"Oh--it can't be that!" Richard Kendrick's voice showed his alarm at the +thought. "Grandfather's been such an active old chap--no superfluous +fat--he's not at all a high liver--takes his cold plunge just as he +always has. It can't be that! But I'm off to see. Good-bye, Carson. I'll +'phone you when I know the situation. Meanwhile--wish grandfather safely +out of it, will you?" + +"Of course I will; I think a great deal of Mr. Kendrick. Good-bye--and +don't worry about things here." Carson wrung his employer's hand, then +went out with him to the curb, where the car stood, and saw him off. "He +really cares," he was thinking. "Nobody could fake that anxiety. He +doesn't want the old man to die--and he's his heir--to millions. Well, +I like him better than ever for it. I believe if I got typhoid he'd +personally carry me to the hospital or do any other thing that came into +his head. Well, now it's for me to find a competent salesman for this +May sale that's on with such a rush. It's going to be hard to manage +without Benson." + +The long, low car had never made faster time to the city, and it was in +the early dusk that it came to a standstill before the porch of the Gray +home. Doors and windows were wide open, lights gleamed everywhere, but +the house was very quiet. The car had stolen up as silently as a car of +fine workmanship may in these days of motor perfection, but it had been +heard, and Mrs. Robert Gray came out to meet Richard before he could +ring. + +"My dear Mr. Richard," she said, pressing his hand, her face very grave +and sweet, "you have come quickly. I am glad, for we are anxious. Your +grandfather has dropped into a strange, drowsy state, from which it +seems impossible to rouse him. But I hope you may be able to do so. He +has wanted you from the first moment." + +"Tell me which way to go," cried Richard, under his breath. "Is he +upstairs?" + +She kept her hold upon his hand, and he gripped it tight as she led him +up the stairs. It was as if he felt a mother's clasp for the first time +since his babyhood and could not let it go. + +"In here," she indicated softly, and the young man went in, his head +bent, his lips set. + + * * * * * + +Two hours afterward he came out. She was waiting for him, though it was +midnight. Louis and Stephen were waiting, too, and they in turn grasped +his hand, their faces pitiful for the keen grief they saw in his. Then +Mrs. Gray took him down to the porch, where the warm May night folded +them softly about. She sat down beside him on a wide settle. + +"He is all I have in the world!" cried Richard Kendrick. "If he goes--" +He could not say more, and, turning, put his arms down upon the back of +the seat and his head upon them. Great, tearless sobs shook him. Mrs. +Gray laid her kind hand upon his shoulder, and spoke gentle, motherly +words--a few words, not many--and kept her hand there until he had +himself under control again. + +By and by Mrs. Stephen Gray came out with a little tray upon which was +set forth a simple lunch, daintily served. The young man tried to eat, +to show her how much this touched him, but succeeded in swallowing only +a portion of the delicate food. Then he got up. "You are all so good," +said he gratefully. "You have helped me more than I can tell you. I will +go back now. I want to stay with him to-night, if you will allow me." + +They gave him a room across the hall from that in which his grandfather +lay, but he did not occupy it. All night he sat, a silent figure on the +opposite side of the bed from that where the nurse was on guard. His +grandfather's regular physician was in attendance the greater part of +the night at his request, though there seemed nothing to do but await +the issue. Another distinguished member of the profession had seen the +case in consultation early in the evening, and the two had found +themselves unable between them to discover a remote possibility of hope. + +In the early morning the watcher stole downstairs, feeling as if he must +for at least a few moments get into the outer world. His eyes were heavy +with his vigil, yet there was no sleep behind them, and he could not +bear to be long away lest a change come suddenly. The old man had not +roused when he had first spoken to him, and the nurse had said that his +last conscious words had been a call for his grandson. Goaded by this +thought, Richard turned back before he had so much as reached the foot +of the garden, where he had thought he should spend at least a quarter +of an hour. + +As he came in at the door he was met by Roberta, cool and fresh in blue. +It was but five in the morning; surely she did not commonly rise at this +hour, even in May. The thought made his heart leap. She came straight to +him and put both hands in his, saying in her friendly, low voice: "Mr. +Kendrick, I'm sorry--sorry!" + +He looked long and hungrily into her face, holding her hands with such a +fierce grasp that he hurt her cruelly, though she made no sign. He did +not even thank her--only held her until every detail of her face had +been studied. She let him do it, and only dropped her eyes and stood +colouring warmly under the inquisition. It was as if she understood that +the sight of her was a moment's sedative for an aching heart, and she +must yield it or be more unkind than it was in the heart of woman to be. +When he released her it was with a sigh that came up from the depths, +and as she left him he stood and watched her until she was out of sight. + + * * * * * + +When Matthew Kendrick opened his eyes at ten o'clock on the morning +after his fall the first thing they rested upon was the face he loved +best in the world. It came instantly nearer, the eyes meeting his +imploringly, as if begging him to speak. So with some little effort he +did speak. "Well, Dick," he said slowly, "I'm glad you came, boy. I +wanted you; I didn't know but I was about getting through. But--I +believe I'm still here, after all." + +Then he saw a strange sight. Great tears leaped into the eyes he was +looking at, tears that rolled unheeded down the fresh-coloured cheeks of +his boy. Richard tried to speak, but could not. He could only gently +grasp his grandfather's hand and press it tightly in both his own. + +"I feel pretty well battered up," the old man continued, his voice +growing stronger, "but I think I can move a little." He stirred slightly +under his blanket, a fact the nurse noted with joyful intentness. "So I +think I'm all here. Are you so glad, Dick, that you can cry about it?" + +The smile came then upon his grandson's lighting face. "Glad, +grandfather?" said he, with some difficulty. "Why, you're all I have in +the world! I shouldn't know how to face it without you." + +The old man dropped off to sleep again, his hand contentedly resting in +his grandson's. Presently the doctor looked in, studied the situation in +silence, held a minute's whispered colloquy with the nurse, then moved +to Richard's side. The young man looked up at him and he nodded. He bent +to Richard's ear. + +"Things look different," he whispered succinctly. At the slight +sibilance of the whisper the old man opened his eyes again. His glance +travelled up the distinguished physician's body to his face. He smiled +in quite his own whimsical way. + +"Fooled even a noted person like you, did I, Winston?" he chuckled +feebly. "Just because I chose to go to sleep and didn't fidget round +much you thought I'd got my quietus, did you?" + +"I think you're a pretty vigorous personality," responded the physician, +"and I'm quite willing to be fooled by you. Now I want you to take a +little nourishment and go to sleep again. If you think so much of this +young man of yours you can have him again in an hour, but I'm going to +send him away now. You see, he's been sitting right there all night." + +Matthew Kendrick's eyes rested fondly again upon Richard's smiling face. +"You rascal!" he sighed. "You always did give me trouble about being up +o' nights!" + + * * * * * + +Richard Kendrick ran downstairs three steps at a bound. At the bottom he +met Judge Calvin Gray. He seized the hand of his grandfather's old-time +friend and wrung it. The expression of heavy sadness on the Judge's face +changed to one of bewilderment, and as he scanned the radiant +countenance of Matthew Kendrick's grandson he turned suddenly pale with +joy. + +"You don't mean--" + +Then he comprehended that Richard was finding it as hard to speak good +news as if it had been bad. But in an instant the young man was in +command of himself again. + +"It wasn't apoplexy--it wasn't paralysis--it was only the shock of the +fall and the bruises. He's been talking to me; he's been twitting the +doctor on having been fooled. Oh, he's as alive as possible, and +I--Judge Gray, I never was so happy in my life!" + +With congratulations in his heart for his old friend on the possession +of this young love which was as genuine as it was strong, the Judge +said: "Well, my dear fellow, let us thank God and breathe again. This +has been the darkest night I've spent in many a year--and this is the +brightest morning." + +Everybody in the house was presently rejoicing in the news. But if +Richard expected Roberta to be as generous with him in his joy as she +had been in his grief he found himself disappointed. She did not fail +to express to him her sympathy with his relief, but she did it with +reinforcements of her family at hand, and with Ruth's arm about her +waist. She had trusted him when torn with anxiety; clearly she did not +trust him now in the reaction from that anxiety. He was in wild spirits, +no doubt of that; she could see it in his brilliant eyes. + +It still lacked six weeks of Midsummer. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SIDE LIGHTS + + +Louis Gray sat in a capacious willow easy-chair beside the high white +iron hospital bed upon which lay Hugh Benson, convalescing from his +attack of fever. "Pretty comfortable they make you here," Louis +observed, glancing about. "I didn't know their private rooms were as big +and airy as this one." + +Benson smiled. "I don't imagine they all are. I didn't realize what sort +of quarters I was in till I began to get better and mother told me. +According to her I have the best in the place. That's Rich. Whatever he +looks after is sure to be gilt-edged. I wonder if you know what a prince +of good fellows he is, anyway." + +"I always knew he was a good fellow," Louis agreed. "He has that +reputation, you know--kind-hearted and open-handed. I should know he +would be a substantial friend to his college classmate and business +partner." + +"He's much more than that." Benson's slow and languid speech took on a +more earnest tone. "Do you know, I think if any young man in this city +has been misjudged and underrated it's Rich. I know the reputation you +speak of; it's another way of calling a man a spendthrift, to say he's +free with his money among his friends. But I don't believe anybody knows +how free Rich Kendrick is with it among people who have no claim on him. +I never should have known if I hadn't come here. One of my nurses has +told me a lot of things she wasn't supposed ever to tell; but once she +had let a word drop I got it out of her. Why, Louis, for three years +Rich has paid the expenses of every sick child that came into this +hospital, where the family was too poor to pay. He's paid for several +big operations, too, on children that he wanted to see have the best. +There are four special private rooms he keeps for those they call his +patients, and he sees that whoever occupies them has everything they +need--and plenty of things they may not just need, but are bound to +enjoy--including flowers like those." + +He pointed to a splendid bowlful of blossoms on a stand behind Louis, +such blossoms as even in June grow only in the choicest of gardens. + +"All this is news to me," declared Louis; "mighty good news, too. But +how has he been able to keep it so quiet?" + +"Hospital people all pledged not to tell; so of course you and I mustn't +be responsible for letting it out, since he doesn't want it known. I'm +glad I know it, though, and I felt somehow that you ought to know. I +used to think a lot of Rich at college, but now that he's my partner I +think so much more I can't be happy unless other people appreciate him. +And in the business--I can't tell you what he is. He's more like a +brother than a partner." + +His thin cheeks flushed, and Louis suddenly bethought himself. +"I'm letting you talk too much, Hugh," he said self-accusingly. +"Convalescents mustn't overexert themselves. Suppose you lie still +and let me read the morning paper to you." + +"Thank you, my nurse has done it. Talking is really a great luxury and +it does me good, a little of it. I want to tell you this about Rich--" + +The door opened quietly as he spoke and Richard Kendrick himself came +in. Quite as usual, he looked as if he had that moment left the hands of +a most scrupulous valet. No wonder Louis's first thought was, as he +looked at him, that people gave him credit for caring only for +externals. One would not have said at first glance that he had ever +soiled his hands with any labour more tiring than that of putting on +his gloves. And yet, studying him more closely in the light of the +revelations his friend had made, was there not in his attractive face +more strength and force than Louis had ever observed before? + +"How goes it this morning, Hugh?" was the new-comer's greeting. He +grasped the thin hand of the convalescent, smiling down at him. Then he +shook hands with Louis, saying, "It's good of such a busy man to come in +and cheer up this idle one," and sat down as if he had come to stay. But +he had no proprietary air, and when a nurse looked in he only bowed +gravely, as if he had not often seen her before. If Louis had not known +he would not have imagined that Richard's hand in the affair of Benson's +illness had been other than that of a casual caller. + +Louis Gray went away presently, thinking it over. He was thinking of it +again that evening as he sat upon the big rear porch of the Gray home, +which looked out upon the lawn and tennis court where he and Roberta had +just been having a bout lasting into the twilight. + +"I heard something to-day that surprised me more than anything for a +long time," he began, and when his sister inquired what the strange news +might be he repeated to her as he could remember it Hugh Benson's +outline of the extraordinary story about Richard Kendrick. When she had +heard it she observed: + +"I suppose there is much more of that sort of thing done by the very +rich than we dream of." + +"By old men, yes--and widows, and a few other classes of people. But I +don't imagine it's so common as to be noticeable among the young men of +his class, do you?" + +"Perhaps not. Though you do hear of wonderful things the bachelors do at +Christmas for the poor children." + +"At Christmas--that's another story. Hearts get warmed up at Christmas, +that, like old Scrooge's, are cold and careless the rest of the year. +But for a fellow like Rich Kendrick to keep it up all the year +round--you'll find that's not so commonplace a tale." + +"I don't know much about rich young men." + +"You've certainly kept this one at a distance," Louis observed, eying +his sister curiously in the twilight. She was sitting in a boyish +attitude, racket on lap, elbows on knees, chin on clasped hands, eyes on +the shadowy garden. "He's been coming here evening after evening until +now that his grandfather has gone home, and never once has anybody seen +you so much as standing on the porch with him, to say nothing of +strolling into the garden. What's the matter with you, Rob? Any other +girl would be following him round and getting into his path. Not that +you would need to, judging by the way I've seen him look at you once or +twice. Have you drawn an imaginary circle around yourself and pointed +out to him the danger of crossing it? I should take him for a fellow who +would cross it then anyhow!" + +"Imaginary circles are sometimes bigger barriers than stone walls," she +admitted, smiling to herself, "Besides, Lou, I thought somebody else was +the person you wanted to see walking in the garden with me." + +"Forbes? The person I expected to see, you mean. Well, I don't know +about Forbes Westcott. He's a mighty clever chap, but I sometimes think +his blood is a little thin--like his body. I can't imagine his bothering +about a sick child at a hospital, can you? I've never seen him take a +minute's notice of Steve's pair; and they're little trumps, if ever +children were. Corporations are more in his line than children." + + * * * * * + +One thing leads to another in this interesting world. It was not two +days after this talk that Roberta herself had a private view of a little +affair which proved more illuminating to her understanding of a certain +fellow mortal than might have been all the evidence of other witnesses +than her own eyes. + +Returning from school on one of the last days of the term, weary of +walls and longing for the soothing stillness and refreshment of +outdoors, Roberta turned aside some distance from her regular course to +pass through a large botanical park, originally part of a great estate, +and newly thrown open to the public. It was, as yet, less frequented +than any other of the city parks. Much of it, according to the decree of +its donor, a nature lover of discrimination, had been left in a state +not far removed from wildness, and it was toward this portion that +Roberta took her way; experiencing, with each step along a winding, +secluded path she had recently discovered, that sense of escape into +luxurious freedom which comes only after enforced confinement when the +world outside is at its most alluring. + +At a point where the path swept high above a long, descending slope, at +the foot of which lay a tiny pool surrounded by thick and beautifully +kept turf, Roberta paused, and after looking about her for a minute to +make sure that there was no one near, turned aside from the path and +threw herself down beside a great clump of ferns, breathing a deep sigh +of restful relief. She sat gazing dreamily down at the pool, in which +was mirrored an exquisite reflection of tree and sky, the scene as +silent and still as though drawn upon canvas. She had many things to +think of, in these days, and a place like this was an ideal one in which +to think. + +Was it? Far below her she heard the low hum of a motor. None could come +near her, but the road beneath wound near the pool, though out of sight +except at one point. In spite of this, the girl drew back further into +the shelter of the tall ferns, thinking as she did so that it was the +first time she had seen this remoter part of the park invaded by either +motorist or pedestrian. Watching the point at which the car must appear +she saw it come slowly into sight and stop. There were two occupants, a +man and a boy, but at the distance she could not discern their faces. +The man stepped out, and coming around to the other side of the car put +out his arms and lifted the boy. He did not set him down, but carried +him, seeming to hold him with peculiar care, and brought him through the +surrounding trees and shrubbery to the pool itself, coming, as he did +so, into full view of the unseen eyes above. + +Roberta experienced a sudden strange leap of the heart as she saw that +the supple figure of the man was Richard Kendrick's own, and that the +slight frame he bore was that of a crippled child. She could see now the +iron braces on the legs, like pipe stems, which stuck straight out from +the embrace of the strong young arm which held them. She could discern +clearly the pallor and emaciation of the small face, in pitiful contrast +to the ruggedly healthy one of the child's bearer. Fascinatedly she +watched as Richard set his burden carefully down upon the grass, close +to the edge of the pool, the boy's back against a big white birch trunk. +The two were not so far below her but that she could see the expression +on their faces, though she could not hear their words. + +Richard ran back to the car, returning with a rug and something in a +long and slender case. He arranged a cushion behind the little back. +Roberta judged the boy to be about eight or nine years old, though small +for his age, as such children are. Richard undid the case and produced a +small fishing-rod, which he fell to preparing for use, talking gayly as +he did so, watched eagerly by his youthful companion. Evidently the boy +was to have a great and unaccustomed pleasure. + +Well, it was certainly in line with that which Roberta had heard of this +young man, but somehow to see something of it with her own eyes was +singularly more convincing. She could not bring herself to get up and go +away--surely there could be no need to feel that she was spying if she +stayed to watch the interesting scene. If Richard had chosen a spot +which he fancied entirely secluded from observation, it was undoubtedly +wholly on the boy's own account. She could easily imagine how such a +child as this one would shrink from observation in a public place, +particularly when he was to try the dearly imagined but wholly unknown +delight of fishing. It was plain that he was very shy, even with this +kind friend, for it was only now and then that he replied in words to +Richard's talk, though the response in the white face and big black eyes +was eloquent enough. + +It seemed in every way remarkable that a young man of Richard Kendrick's +sort should devote himself to a poor and crippled child as he was doing +now. Not a gesture or act of his was lost upon the girl who watched. +Clearly he was taking all possible pains to please and interest his +little protégé, and he was doing it in a way which showed much skill, +suggesting previous practice in the art. This was no such interest as he +had shown in Gordon and Dorothy Gray, whose beauty had been so powerful +an appeal to his fancy. There was nothing about this child to take hold +upon any one except his helplessness and need. But Richard was as gentle +with him, as patient with his awkward attempts at holding the light rod +in the proper position for fishing, and as full of resources for +entertaining him when the fish--if there were any--failed to bite, as he +could have been with a small brother of his own. + +There was another thing which it was impossible not to note: Never had +Roberta seen this young man in circumstances so calculated to impress +upon her the potency of his personality. Unconscious of the scrutiny of +any other human being, wholly absorbed in the task of making a small boy +happy, he was naturally showing her himself precisely as he was. In +place of his usual careful manners when in her presence was entire +freedom from restraint and therefore an effect uncoloured by +conventional environment. The tones of his voice, the frank smile upon +his lips, the touch of his hand upon the little lad's--all these +combined to set him before Roberta in a light so different from any she +had seen him in before that she must needs admit she had been far from +knowing him. + +She stole away at length, feeling suddenly that she had seen enough, and +that her defences against the siege being made upon her heart and +judgment were weakening perilously. If she were to hold out before it +she must hear of no more affairs to Richard Kendrick's credit, +especially such affairs as these. Not all his efforts at establishing a +successful career in the world of achievement could touch her +imagination as did the knowledge of his brotherly kindness toward the +unfortunate. That was what meant most to Roberta, in a world which she +had early discovered to be a hard place for the greater part of its +inhabitants. Forgetfulness of self, devotion to the need of +others--these were the qualities she most strove to cultivate in +herself, and most rejoiced at seeing developed in those for whom she +cared. + +Unluckily for his cause, if there had been a possible chance for its +success, Forbes Westcott chose the evening of this same day to come +again to Roberta Gray with his question burning on his lips. He arrived +at a moment when, to his temporary satisfaction, Roberta was said to be +playing a set of singles in the court with Ruth by the light of a +fast-fading afterglow; and he took his way thither without delay. It was +a simple matter, of course, to a man of his resource, to dispose of the +young sister, in spite of the elder's attempt to foil him at his own +game. So presently he had Roberta to himself, with every advantage of +time and place and summer beauty all about. + +Louis Gray, looking down the lawn from the rear porch, upon whose steps +he sat with Rosamond and Stephen, descried the tall figure strolling by +their sister's side along a stretch of closely shaven turf between rows +of slim young birches. + +"Forbes is persistent, eh?" he observed. "Think he has a fighting +chance?" + +"Oh, I hope not!" cried Rosamond impulsively. + +Stephen's grave eyes followed the others, to dwell upon the distant +pair. "Forbes stands to win a big place among men," was his comment. + +"Oh, really big?" Rosamond's tender eyes came to meet her husband's. +"Stephen, do you think he is quite--scrupulous?--wholly honourable?" + +"I have no reason to think otherwise, Rosy." + +She shook her head. "Somehow I--could never quite trust him. He would +live strictly by the letter of the law--but the spirit--" + +"Expect people to live by the spirit--these days, little girl?" inquired +Louis, with an affectionate glance at her. + +She gazed straight back. "Yes. You do it--and so does Stephen--and +Father Gray--and Uncle Calvin." + +The eyes of the brothers met above her fair head, and they smiled. + +"That's high distinction, from you, dear," said her husband. "But you +must not do Westcott injustice. He has the reputation of being sharp as +a knife blade, and of outwitting men in fair contest in court and out of +it, but no shadow has ever touched his character." + +Still she shook her head. "I can't help it. I don't want Rob to marry +him." + +The young men laughed together, and Rosamond smiled with them. + +"There you have it," said Louis. "There's no going behind those returns. +The county votes no, and the candidate is defeated. Let him console +himself with the vote from other counties--if he can." + +The three were still upon the porch half an hour later, with others of +the family, when the two figures came again up the stretch of lawn +between the slim white birches, showing ghostlike now in the June +moonlight. They came in silence, as far as any sound of their voices +reached the porch, and they disappeared like two shades toward the front +of the house. + +"He's not coming even to speak to us," whispered Rosamond to Stephen. +"That's very unlike him. Do you suppose--" + +"It may be a case of the voice sticking in the throat," returned her +husband, under his breath. "I fancy he'll take it hard when Rob disposes +of him--as she certainly ought to do by this time, if she's not going to +take him. But she'd better think twice. He's a brilliant fellow, and he +has no rivals within hailing distance, in his line." + +But Rosamond shook her head again. "He would never make her happy," she +breathed, with conviction. "Oh, I hope--I hope!" + +Her hopes grew with Roberta's absence. Westcott had gone, for Ruth, +appearing at Rosamond's side, announced that Roberta was in her own +room, and would not be down again to-night. + +"I think she has a headache," said the little sister. "Queer, for I +never knew Rob to have a headache before." + +"The headache," murmured Louis, in Rosamond's ear, "is the feminine +defence against the world. A timely headache, now and then, is suffered +by the best of men--and women. Well--let her rest, Rufus. She'll be all +right in the morning." + +Above them, by her open window, sat Roberta, for a little while, elbows +on sill, chin in hands. Then, presently, she stole downstairs again, out +by a side entrance, and away among the shrubbery, to the furthest point +of the grounds--not far, in point of actual distance, but quite removed +by its environment from contact with the world around. Here, stretched +upon the warm turf, her arms outflung, her eyes gazing up at the +star-set heavens above her, the girl rested from her encounter with a +desperate besieging force. + +For a time, the last words she had heard that evening were ringing in +her ears--sombre words, uttered in a deep tone of melancholy, by a voice +which commanded cadences that had often reached the minds and hearts of +men and swayed them. "Is that all--_all_, Roberta? Must I go away with +_that_?" + +She had sent him away, and her heart ached for him, for she could not +doubt the depth and sincerity of his feeling for her. Being a woman, +with a warm and kindly nature, she was sad with the disquieting thought +that anywhere under that starry sky was one whose spirit was heavy +to-night because of her. But--there had been no help for it. She knew +now, beyond a doubt, that there had been no help. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +PORTRAITS + + +Revelations were in order in these days. Another of a quite different +sort came to Roberta within the week. On a morning when she knew Richard +Kendrick to be in Eastman she consented to drive with Mrs. Stephen to +make a call upon Mr. Matthew Kendrick, now at home and recovering +satisfactorily from his fall, but still confined to his room. With a +basketful of splendid garden roses upon her arm she followed Rosamond +into the great stone pile. + +They seemed to have left the sunlight and the summer day itself outside +as they sat waiting in the stiff and formal reception-room, which looked +as if no woman's hand or foot had touched it for a decade. As they were +conducted to Mr. Kendrick's room upon the floor above they noted with +observant eyes the cheerless character of every foot of the way--lofty +hall, sombre staircase, gloomy corridor. Even Mr. Kendrick's own room, +filled though it was with costly furniture, its walls hung with +portraits and heavy oil paintings, after the fashion of the rich man who +wants his home comfortable and attractive but does not know how to make +it so, was by no means homelike. + +"This is good of you--this is good of you," the old man said happily, as +they approached his couch. He held out his hands to them, and when +Roberta presented her roses, exclaimed over them like a pleased child, +and sent his man hurrying about to find receptacles for them. He lay +looking from the flowers to the faces while he talked, as if he did not +know which were the more refreshing to his eyes, weary of the +surroundings to which they had been so long accustomed. + +"These will be the first thing Dick will spy when he comes to-morrow," +he prophesied. "I never saw a fellow so fond of roses. The last time he +was down he found time to tell me about somebody's old garden up there +in Eastman, where they have some kind of wonderful, old-fashioned rose +with the sweetest fragrance he ever knew. He had one in his coat; the +sight of it took me back to my boyhood. But he wasn't all roses and +gardens, not a bit of it! I never thought to see him so absorbed in such +a subject as the management of a business. But he's full of it--he's +full of it! You can't imagine how it delights me." + +He was full of it himself. Though he more than once apologized for +talking of his grandson and his pleasure in the way "the boy" was +throwing himself into the real merits of the problems presented to the +new firm in Eastman, he kept returning to this fascinating subject. It +was not of interest to himself alone, and though Roberta only listened, +Mrs. Stephen led him on, asking questions which he answered with eager +readiness. But all at once he pulled himself up short. + +"Dick would be the first person to hush my garrulous old tongue," said +he. "But I feel like father and mother and grandfather all combined, in +the matter of his success. I wouldn't have you think his making good--as +they say in these days--in the world I am used to is my only idea of +success. No, no, he has a world of his own besides. I should like you to +see--there are several things I should like you to see. Last winter Dick +begged from me a portrait of his mother which I had done when he was a +year old; she lived only six months after that. He has it now over his +desk. His father's portrait is on the opposite wall. Should you care to +step across the hall into my grandson's rooms? The portraits I speak of +are in the second room of the suite. Stop and examine anything else that +interests you; I am sure he would be proud; and he has brought back many +interesting things, principally pictures, from his travels. I should +like to go with you, but if you will be so kind--" + +There was no refusing the enthusiastic old man. He sent his housekeeper +to see that the rooms were open of window and ready for inspection, then +waved his guests away. Mrs. Stephen went with alacrity; Roberta followed +more slowly, as if she somehow feared to go. Of all the odd +happenings!--that she should be walking into Richard Kendrick's own +habitation, with all the intimate revelations it was bound to make to +her. She wondered what he would say if he knew. + +The first room was precisely what she might have expected, quite +obviously the apartment of a modern young man whose wishes lacked no +opportunity to satisfy themselves. The room was not in bad taste; on the +contrary, its somewhat heavy furnishings had an air of dignity in +harmony with an earlier day than that more ostentatious period in which +the rest of the house had been fitted. Upon its walls was a choice +collection of pictures of various styles and schools of art, some of +them unquestionably of much value. At one end of the room stood a closed +grand piano. But, like the grandfather's room, the place could not by +any stretch of the imagination be called homelike, and to this fact +Rosamond called her companion's attention. + +"It's really very interesting," said she, "and quite impressive, but I +don't wonder in the least at his saying that he had no home. This might +be a room in a fine hotel; there's nothing to make you feel as if +anybody really lives here, in spite of the beautiful paintings. But Mr. +Kendrick said the portraits were in the second room." + +On her way into the second room, however, Rosamond's attention was +attracted by a picture beside the door opening thereto, and with an +exclamation, "Oh, this looks like Gordon! Where did he get it?" she +paused. Roberta glanced that way, but a quite different object in the +inner room had caught her eye, and leaving Rosamond to her wonder over a +rather remarkable resemblance to her own little son in the rarely +exquisite colour-drawing of a child of similar age, she went on, to +stand still in the doorway, surprised out of all restraint as to the use +of her interested eyes. + +For this, contrary to all possible expectations, was either the room of +a man of literary tastes, and of one who also preferred simplicity and +utility to display of any sort, or it was an extremely clever imitation +of such a room. And there were certain rather trustworthy evidences of +the former. + +The room, although smaller than the outer one, was a place of good size, +with several large windows. Its walls to a height of several feet were +lined with bookshelves filled to overflowing, the whole representing no +less than three or four thousand books; Roberta could hardly guess at +their number. Several comfortable easy-chairs and a massive desk were +almost the only other furnishings, unless one included a few framed +foreign photographs and the two portraits which hung on opposite walls. +These presently called for study. + +Rosamond came in and stood beside her sister, regarding the portraits +with curiosity. "The father has a remarkably fine face, hasn't he?" she +observed, turning from one to the other. "Unusually fine; and I think +his son resembles him. But he is more like his mother. Isn't she +beautiful? And he never knew her; she died when he was such a little +fellow. Isn't it touching to see how he has her there above his desk as +if he wanted to know her? How many books! I didn't know he cared for +books, did you? Perhaps they were his father's; though his father was a +business man. Yet I don't know why we never credit business men with any +interest in books. Perhaps they study them more than we imagine; they +must study something. Rob, did you see the picture in the other room +that looks so like Gordon? It seems almost as if it must have been +painted from him." + +She flitted back into the outer room. Roberta stood still before the +desk, above which hung the portrait of the lovely young woman who had +been Richard's mother. Younger than Roberta herself she looked; such a +girl to pass away and leave her baby, her first-born! And he had her +here in the place of honour above his desk, where he sat to write and +read. For he did read, she grew sure of it as she looked about her. +Though the room was obviously looked after by a servant, it was probable +that there were orders not to touch the contents of the desk-top itself, +for this was as if it had been lately used. Books, a foreign review or +two, a pile of letters, various desk furnishings in a curious design of +wrought copper, and--what was this?--a little photograph in a frame! +Horses, three of them, saddled and tied to a fence; at one side, in an +attitude of arrested attention, a girl's figure in riding dress. + +A wave of colour surged over Roberta's face as she picked up the picture +to examine it. She had never thought again of the shot he had snapped; +he had never brought it to her. Instead he had put it into this +frame--she noted the frame, of carved ivory and choice beyond +question--and had placed it upon his desk. There were no other +photograph's of people in the room, not one. If she had found herself +one among many she might have had more--or less--reason for displeasure; +it was hard to say which. But to be the only one! Yet doubtless--in his +bedroom, the most intimate place of all, which she was not to see, would +be found his real treasures--photographs of beauties he had known, +married women, girls, actresses--She caught herself up! + +Rosamond, eager over the colour-drawing, had taken it from its place on +the wall and gone with it across the hall to discuss its extraordinary +likeness with the old man, who had sent for little Gordon several times +during his stay at the Gray home and would be sure to appreciate the +resemblance. Roberta, again engaged with the portrait above the desk, +had not noticed her sister's departure. There was something peculiarly +fascinating about this pictured face of Richard Kendrick's mother. +Whether it was the illusive likeness to the son, showing first in the +eyes, then in the mouth, which was one of extraordinary sweetness, it +was hard to tell. But the attempt to _analyze_ it was absorbing. + +The sound of a quick step in the outer room, as it struck a bit of bare +floor between the costly rugs which lay thickly upon it, arrested her +attention. That was not Rosy's step! Roberta turned, a sudden fear upon +her, and saw the owner of the room standing, as if surprised out of +power to proceed, in the doorway. + +Now, it was manifestly impossible for Roberta to know just how she +looked, standing there, as he had seen her for the instant before she +turned. From her head to her feet she was dressed in white, therefore +against the dull background of books and heavy, plain panelling above, +her figure stood out with the effect of a cameo. Her dusky hair under +her white hat-brim was the only shadowing in a picture which was to his +gaze all light and radiance. He stood staring at it, his own face +glowing. Then: + +"Oh--_Roberta_!" he exclaimed, under his breath. Then he came forward, +both hands outstretched. She let him have one of hers for an instant, +but drew it away again--with some difficulty. + +"You must be surprised to find me here." Roberta strove for her usual +cool control. "Rosy and I came to see your grandfather. He sent us in +here to look at these portraits. Rosy has gone back to him with a +picture she thought looked like Gordon. I--was staying a minute to see +this; it is very beautiful." + +He laughed happily. "You have explained it all away. I wish you had let +me go on thinking I was dreaming. To find you--_here_!" He smothered an +exultant breath and went on hastily:--"I'm glad you find my mother +beautiful. I never knew how beautiful she was till I brought her up here +and put her where I could look at her. Such a little, girlish mother for +such a strapping son! But she has the look--somehow she has the look! +Don't you think she has? I was a year old when that was painted--just in +time, for she died six months afterward. But she had had time to get the +look, hadn't she?" + +"Indeed she had. I can imagine her holding her little son. Is there no +picture of her with you?" + +"None at all that I can find. I don't know why. There's one of me on my +father's knee, four years old--just before he went, too. I am lucky to +have it. I can just remember him, but not my mother at all. Do you mind +my telling you that it was after I saw your mother I brought this +portrait of mine up from the drawing-room and put it here? It seemed to +me I must have one somehow, if only the picture of one." His voice +lowered. "I can't tell you what it has done for me, the having her +here." + +"I can guess," said Roberta softly, studying the young, gently smiling, +picture face. Somehow her former manner with this young man had +temporarily deserted her. The appeal of the portrait seemed to have +extended to its owner. "You--don't want to disappoint her," she added +thoughtfully. + +"That's it--that's just it," he agreed eagerly. "How did you know?" + +"Because that's the way I feel about mine. They care so much, you know." +She moved slowly toward the door. "I must go back to your grandfather." + +"Why? He has Mrs. Stephen, you say. And I--like to see you here. There +are a lot of things I want to show you." His eager gaze dropped to the +desk-top and fell upon the ivory-framed photograph. He looked quickly at +her. Her cheeks were of a rich rose hue, her eyes--he could not tell +what her eyes were like. But she moved on toward the door. He followed +her into the other room. + +"Won't you stay a minute here, then? I don't care for it as I do the +other, but--it's a place to talk in. And I haven't talked to you +for--four months. It's the middle of June.... Let me show you this +picture over here." + +He succeeded in detaining her for a few minutes, which raced by on wings +for him. He did it only by keeping his speech strictly upon the subject +of art, and presently, in spite of his endeavours, she was off across +the room and out of the door, through the hall and in the company of +Mrs. Stephen and Mr. Matthew Kendrick. The pair, the old man and the +girlish young mother, looked up from a collection of miniatures, brought +out in continuance of the discussion over child faces begun by +Rosamond's interest in the colour-drawing found upon Richard's walls. +They saw a flushed and heart-disturbing face under a drooping white +hat-brim, and eyes which looked anywhere but at them, though Roberta's +voice said quite steadily: "Rosy, do you know how long we are staying?" + +In explanation of this sudden haste another face appeared, seen over +Roberta's shoulder. This face was also of a somewhat warm colouring, but +these eyes did not hide; they looked as if they were seeing visions and +noted nothing earthly. + +"Why, Dick!" exclaimed Mr. Kendrick. "I didn't expect you till +to-morrow." Gladness was in his voice. He held out welcoming hands, and +his grandson came to him and took the hands and held them while he +explained the errand which had brought him and upon which he must +immediately depart. But he would come again upon the morrow, he +promised. It was clear that the closest relations existed between the +two; it was a pleasant thing to see. And when Richard turned out again +toward the visitors he had his face in order. + +Some imperceptible signalling had been exchanged between Roberta and +Rosamond, and the call came shortly to an end, in spite of the old man's +urgent invitation to them to remain. + +"Do you see the roses they brought me, Dick?" He indicated the bowls and +vases which stood about the room. "I told them you would notice them +directly you came in. Where are your eyes, boy?" + +"Do you really blame me for not seeing them, grandfather?" retorted his +grandson audaciously. "But I recognize them now; they are wonderful. I +suppose they have thorns?" His eyes met Roberta's for one daring +instant. + +"You wouldn't like them if they didn't," said she. + +"Shouldn't I? I'd like to find one with the thorns off; I'd wear it--if +I might. May I have one, grandfather?" + +"Of course, Dick. They're mine now to give away, Miss Roberta? Perhaps +you'll put it on for him." + +Since the suggestion was made by an old man, who might or might not have +been wholly innocent of taking sides in a game in which his boy was +playing for high stakes, Roberta could do no less than hurriedly to +select a splendid crimson bud without regard to thorns--she was aware of +more than one as she handled it--and fasten it upon a gray coat, +intensely conscious of the momentary nearness of a personality whose +influence upon her was the strangest, most perturbing thing she had ever +experienced. + +The flower in place, she could not get away too fast. Rosamond, +understanding now that the air was electric and that her sister wanted +nothing so much as to escape to a safer atmosphere, aided her by taking +the lead and engaging Richard Kendrick in conversation all the way +downstairs to the door and out to the waiting carriage. As they drove +away Rosamond looked back at the figure leaping up the steps, with the +crimson rose showing brilliantly in the June sunshine. + +"Rob, he's splendid, simply splendid," she whispered, so that the old +family coachman in front, driving the old family horses, could not hear. +"I don't wonder his grandfather is so proud of him. One can see that +he's going to go right on now and make himself a man worth anybody's +while. He's that now, but he's going to be more." + +"I don't see how you can tell so much from hearing him make a few +foolish remarks about some roses!" Roberta's face was carefully averted. + +"Oh, it wasn't what he said, it's what he is! It shows in his face. I +never saw purpose come out so in a face as it has in his in the time +that we've known him. Besides, we began by taking him for nothing but a +society man, and we were mistaken in that from the beginning. Stephen +has been telling me some things Louis told him." + +"I know. About the hospital and the children." + +"Yes. Isn't it interesting? And that's been going on for years; it's not +a new pose for our benefit. I've no doubt there are lots of other +things, if we knew them. But--oh, Rob, his grandfather says he bought +the little head in colour because he thought it looked like Gordon. I'm +going to send him the last photograph right away. Rob, there's Forbes +Westcott!" + +"Where?" + +"Right ahead. Shall we stop and take him in? Of course he's on his way +to see you, as usual. How he does anything in his own office--" + +"James!" Roberta leaned forward and spoke to the coachman. "Turn down +this street--quickly, please. Don't look, Rosy--don't! Let's not go +straight home; let's drive a while. It--it's such a lovely day!" + +"Why, Rob! I thought--" + +"Please don't think anything. I'm trying not to." + +Rosamond impulsively put her white-gloved hand on Roberta's. "I don't +believe you are succeeding," she whispered daringly. "Particularly +since--this morning!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ROBERTA WAKES EARLY + + +Midsummer Day! Roberta woke with the thought in her mind, as it had been +the last in her mind when she had gone to sleep. She had lain awake for +a long time the night before, watching a strip of moonlight which lay +like flickering silver across her wall. Who would have found it easy to +sleep, with the consciousness beating at her brain that on the morrow +something momentous was as surely going to happen as that the sun would +rise? Did she want it to happen? Would she rather not run away and +prevent its happening? There was no doubt that, being a woman, she +wanted to run away. At the same time--being a woman--she knew that she +would not run. Something would stay her feet. + +With wide-open eyes on this Midsummer morning she lay, as she had lain +the night before, regarding without attention the early sunlight +flooding the room where moonlight had lain a few hours ago. Her bare, +round arms, from which picturesque apologies for sleeves fell back, were +thrown wide upon her pillows, her white throat and shoulders gleamed +below the loose masses of her hair, her heart was beating a trifle more +rapidly than was natural after a night of repose. + +It was very early, as a little clock upon a desk announced--half after +five. Yet some one in the house was up, for Roberta heard a light +footfall outside her door. There followed a soft sound which drew her +eyes that way; she saw something white appear beneath the door--in the +old house the sills were not tight. The white rectangle was obviously a +letter. + +Her curiosity alive, she lay looking at this apparition for some time, +unwilling to be heard to move even by a maidservant. But at length she +arose, stole across the floor, picked up the missive, and went back to +her bed. She examined the envelope--it was of a heavy plain paper; the +address--it was in a hand she had seen but once, on the day when she had +copied many pages of material upon the typewriter for her Uncle +Calvin--a rather compact, very regular and positive hand, unmistakably +that of a person of education and character. + +She opened the letter with fingers that hesitated. Midsummer Day was at +hand; it had begun early! Two closely written sheets appeared. Sitting +among her pillows, her curly, dusky locks tumbling all about her face, +her pulses beating now so fast they shook the paper in her fingers, she +read his letter: + + * * * * * + +My Roberta: I can't begin any other way, for, even though you should +never let me use the words again, you have become such a part of me, both +of the man I am and of the man I want and mean to become, that in some +degree you will always belong to me in spite of yourself. + +Why do I write to you to-day? Because there are things I want to say to +you which I could never wait to say when I see you, but which I want you +to know before you answer me. I don't want to tell you "the story of my +life," but I do feel that you must understand a few of my thoughts, for +only so can I be sure that you know me at all. + +Before I came to your home, one night last October, I had unconsciously +settled into a way of living which as a rule seemed to me all-sufficient. +My friends, my clubs, my books--yes, I care for my books more than you +have ever discovered--my plans for travel, made up a life which satisfied +me--a part of the time. Deep down somewhere was a sense of unrest, a +knowledge that I was neither getting nor giving all that I was meant +to. But this I was accustomed to stifle--except at unhappy hours when +stifling would not work, and then I was frankly miserable. Mostly, +however, my time was so filled with diversion of one sort or another +that I managed to keep such hours from over-whelming me; I worried +through them somehow and forgot them as soon as I could. + +From the first day that I came through your door my point of view was +gradually and strangely altered. I saw for the first time in my life what +a home might be. It attracted me; more, it showed me how empty my own +life was, that I had thought so full. The sight of your mother, of your +brothers, of your sisters, of your brother's little children--each of +these had its effect on me. As for yourself--Roberta, I don't know how to +tell you that; at least I don't know how to tell you on paper. I can +imagine finding words to tell you, if--you were very much nearer to me +than you are now. I hardly dare think of that! + +Yet I must try, for it's part of the story; it's all of it. With my first +sight of you, I realized that here was what I had dreamed of but never +hoped to find: beauty and charm and--character. I had seen many women who +possessed two of these attributes; it seemed impossible to discover one +who had all three. Many women I had admired--and despised; many I had +respected--and disliked. I am not good at analysis, but perhaps you can +guess at what I mean. I may have been unfortunate; I don't know. There +may be many women who are both beautiful and good. No, that is not what I +mean! The combination I am trying to describe as impossibly desirable is +that not only of beauty and goodness--I suppose there are really many who +have those; but--goodness and fascination! That's what a man wants. Can +you possibly understand? + +I wonder if I had better stop writing? I am showing myself up as +hopelessly awkward at expression; probably because my heart is pounding +so as I write that it is taking the blood from my brain. But--I'll make +one more try at it. + +I had no special purpose in life last October. I meant to do a little +good in the world if I could--without too much trouble. Some time or +other I supposed I should marry--intended to put it off as long as I +could. I saw no reason why I shouldn't travel all I wanted to; it was the +one thing I really cared for with enthusiasm. I didn't appreciate much +what a selfish life I was leading, how I was neglecting the one person in +the world who loved me and was anxious about me. Your little sister, +Ruth, opened my eyes to that, by the way. I shall always thank her for +it. I hadn't known what I was missing. + +I don't know how the change came about. You charmed me, yet you made me +realize every time I was with you that I was not the sort of man you +either admired or respected. I felt it whenever I looked at any of the +people in your home. Every one of them was busy and happy; every one of +them was leading a life worth while. Slowly I waked up. I believe I'm +wide awake now. What's more, nothing could ever tempt me to go to sleep +again. I've learned to _like_ being awake! + +You decreed that I should keep away from you all these months. I agreed, +and I have kept my word. All the while has been the fear bothering me +beyond endurance that you did it to be rid of me. I said some bold words +to you--to make you remember me. Roberta, I am humbler to-day than I was +then. I shouldn't dare say them to you now. I was madly in love with you +then; I dared say anything. I am not less in love now--great heavens! not +less--but I have grown to worship you so that I have become afraid. When +I saw you in my room before my mother's portrait I could have knelt at +your feet. From the beginning I have felt that I was not worthy of you, +but I feel it so much more deeply now that I don't know how to offer +myself to you. I have written as if I wanted to persuade you that I am +more of a man than when you knew me first, and therefore more worthy of +you. I _am_ more of a man, but by just so much more do I realize my own +unworthiness. + +And yet--it is Midsummer Day; this is the twenty-fourth of June--and I am +on fire with love and longing for you, and I must know whether you care. +If I were strong enough I would offer to wait longer before asking you to +tell me--but I'm not strong enough for that. + +I have a plan which I am hoping you will let me carry out, whatever +answer you are going to give me. If you will allow it I will ask Mr. and +Mrs. Stephen Gray to go with us on a long horseback ride this afternoon, +to have supper at a place I know. I could take you all in my car if you +prefer, but I hope you will not prefer it. You have never seemed like a +motoring girl to me every other one I know is--and ever since I saw you +on Colonel last November I've been hoping to have a ride with you. If I +can have it to-day--Midsummer--it will be a dream fulfilled. If only I +dared hope my other--and dearer--dream were to come true! Roberta, are we +really so different? I have thought a thousand times of your "_stout +little cabin on the hilltop_," where you would like to spend "_the worst +night of the winter_." All alone? "_Well, with a fire for company, +and--perhaps--a dog_." But not with a good comrade? "_There are so +few good comrades--who can be tolerant of one's every mood_." You were +right; there are few. And--this one might not be so clever as to +understand every mood of yours, but--Roberta, Roberta--he would love you +so much that you wouldn't mind if he didn't always understand. That +is--you wouldn't mind if, in return, you--But I dare not say it--I can +only hope--hope! + +Unless you send me word to the contrary by ten o'clock, I will then ask +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen, and arrange to come for you at four this afternoon. +You are committed to nothing by agreeing to this arrangement. But I--am +committed to everything for as long as I live. RICHARD. + + * * * * * + +It was well that it was not yet six o'clock in the morning and that +Roberta had two long hours to herself before she need come forth from +her room. She needed them, every minute of them, to get herself in hand. + +It was a good letter, no doubt of that. It was neither clever nor +eloquent, but it was better: it was manly and sincere. It showed +self-respect; it showed also humility, a proud humility which rejoiced +that it could feel its own unworthiness and know thereby that it would +strive to be more fit. And it showed--oh, unquestionably it showed!--the +depth of his feeling. Quite clearly he had restrained a pen that longed +to pour forth his heart, yet there were phrases in which his tenderness +had been more than he could hold back, and it was those phrases which +made the recipient hold her breath a little as she read them, wondering +how, if the written words were almost more than she could bear, she +could face the spoken ones. + +And now she really wanted to run away! If she could have had a week, a +month, between the reading of this letter and the meeting of its writer, +it seemed to her that it would have been the happiest month of her life. +To take the letter with her into exile, to read it every day, but to +wait--wait--for the real crisis till she could quiet her racing +emotions. One sweet at a time--not an armful of them. But the man--true +to his nature--the man wanted the armful, and at once. And she had made +him wait all these months; she could not, knowing her own heart, put him +off longer now. The cool composure with which, last winter, she had +answered his first declaration that he loved her was all gone; the +months, of waiting had done more than show him whether his love was +real: they had shown her that she wanted it to be real. + +The day was a hard one to get through. The hours lagged--yet they flew. +At eight o'clock she went down, feeling as if it were all in her face; +but apparently nobody saw anything beyond the undoubted fact that in her +white frock she looked as fresh and as vivid as a flower. At half after +ten Rosamond came to her to know if she had received an invitation from +Richard Kendrick to go for a horseback ride, adding that she herself was +delighted at the thought and had telephoned Stephen, to find that he +also was pleased and would be up in time. + +"I wonder where he's going to take us," speculated Rosamond, in a +flutter of anticipation. "Without doubt it will be somewhere that's +perfectly charming; he knows how to do such things. Of course it's all +for you, but I shall love to play chaperon, and Stevie and I shall have +a lovely time out of it. I haven't been on a horse since Dorothy came; I +hope I haven't grown too stout for my habit. What are you going to wear, +Rob? The blue cloth? You are perfectly irresistible in that! Do wear +that rakish-looking soft hat with the scarf; it's wonderfully becoming, +if it isn't quite so correct; and I'm sure Richard Kendrick won't take +us to any stupid fashionable hotel. He'll arrange an outdoor affair, I'm +confident, with the Kendrick chef to prepare it and the Kendrick +servants to see that it is served. Oh, it's such a glorious June day! +Aren't you happy, Rob?" + +"If I weren't it would make me happy to look at you, you dear married +child," and Roberta kissed her pretty sister-in-law, who could be as +womanly as she was girlish, and whose companionship, with that of +Stephen's, she felt to be the most discriminating choice of chaperonage +Richard could have made. Stephen and Rosamond, off upon a holiday like +this, would be celebrating a little honeymoon anniversary of their own, +she knew, for they had been married in June and could never get over +congratulating themselves on their own happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +RICHARD HAS WAKED EARLIER + + +Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock. Roberta wondered afterward +what she had done with the hours! At three she had her bath; at half +after she put up her hair, hardly venturing to look at her own face in +her mirror, so flushed and shy was it. Roberta shy?--she who, according +to Ted, "wasn't afraid of anything in the world!" But she _had_ been +afraid of one thing, even as Richard Kendrick had averred. Was she not +afraid of it now? She could not tell. But she knew that her hands shook +as she put up her hair, and that it tumbled down twice and had to be +done over again. Afraid! She was afraid, as every girl worth winning is, +of the sight of her lover! + +Yet when she heard hoofbeats on the driveway could have kept her from +peeping out. The rear porch, from which the riding party would start, +was just below her window, the great pillars rising past her. She had +closed one of her blinds an hour before; she now made use of its +sheltering interstices. She saw Richard on a splendid black horse coming +up the drive, looking, as she had foreseen he would look, at home in the +saddle and at his best. She saw the colour in his cheeks, the brightness +in his eyes, caught his one quick glance upward--did he know her window? +He could not possibly see her, but she drew back, happiness and fear +fighting within her for the ascendency. Could she ever go down and face +him out there in the strong June light, where he could see every curving +hair of eyelash? note the slightest ebb and flow of blood in cheek? + +Rosamond was calling: "Come, Rob! Mr. Kendrick is here and Joe is +bringing round the horses. Can I help you?" + +Roberta opened her door. "I couldn't do my hair at all; does it look a +fright under this hat?" + +Rosamond surveyed her. "Of course it doesn't. You're the most bewitching +thing I ever saw in that blue habit, and your hair is lovely, as it +always is. Rob, I have grown stout; I had to let out two bands before I +could get this on; it was made before I was married. Steve's been +laughing at me. Here he is; now do let's hurry. I want every bit of this +good time, don't you?" + +There was no delaying longer. Rosamond, all eagerness, was leading the +way downstairs, her little riding-boots tapping her departure. Stephen +was waiting for Roberta; she had to precede him. The next she knew she +was down and out upon the porch, and Richard Kendrick, hat and crop in +hand, was meeting her halfway, his expectant eyes upon her face. One +glance at him was all she was giving him, and he was mercifully making +no sign that any one looking on could have recognized beyond his eager +scrutiny as his hand clasped hers. And then in two minutes they were +off, and Roberta, feeling the saddle beneath her and Colonel's familiar +tug on the bit at the start-off--he was always impatient to get +away--was realizing that the worst, at least for the present, was over. + +"Which way?" called Stephen, who was leading with Rosamond. + +"Out the road past the West Wood marshes, please--straight out. Take it +moderately; we're going about twelve miles and it's pretty warm yet." + +There was not much talking while they were within the city limits--nor +after they were past, for that matter. Rosamond, ahead with her husband, +kept up a more or less fitful conversation with him, but the pair behind +said little. Richard made no allusion to his letter of the morning +beyond a declaration of his gratitude to the whole party for falling in +with his plans. But the silence was somehow more suggestive of the great +subject waiting for expression than any exchange of words could have +been, out here in the open. Only once did the man's impatience to begin +overcome his resolution to await the fitting hour. + +Turning in his saddle as Colonel fell momentarily behind, passing the +West Wood marshes, Richard allowed his eyes to rest upon horse and rider +with full intent to take in the picture they made. + +"I haven't ventured to let myself find out just how you look," he said. +"The atmosphere seems to swim around you; I see you through a sort of +haze. Do you suppose there can be anything the matter with my eyesight?" + +"I should think there must be," she replied demurely. "It seems a +serious symptom. Hadn't you better turn back?" + +"While you go on? Not if I fall off my horse. I have a suspicion that +it's made up of a curious compound of feelings which I don't dare to +describe. But--may I tell you?--I _must_ tell you--I never saw anything +so beautiful in my life as--yourself, to-day. I--" He broke off +abruptly. "Do you see that old rosebush there by those burnt ruins of a +house? Amber-white roses, and sweet as--I saw them there yesterday when +I went by. Let me get them for you." + +He rode away into the deserted yard and up to a tangle of neglected +shrubbery. He had some difficulty in getting Thunderbolt--who was as +restless a beast as his name implied--to stand still long enough to +allow him to pick a bunch of the buds; he would have nothing but buds +just breaking into bloom. These he presently brought back to Roberta. +She fancied that he had planned to stop here for this very purpose. +Clearly he had the artist's eye for finishing touches. He watched her +fasten the roses upon the breast of the blue-cloth habit, then he turned +determinedly away. + +"If I don't look at you again," said he, his eyes straight before him, +"it's because I can't do it--and keep my head. You accused me once of +losing it under a winter moon; this is a summer sun--more dangerous +yet.... Shall we talk about the crops? This is fine weather for growing +things, isn't it?" + +"Wonderful. I haven't been out this road this season--as far as this. +I'm beginning to wonder where you are taking us." + +"To the hill where you and Miss Ruth and Ted and I toasted sandwiches +last November. Could there be a better place for the end--of our ride? +You haven't been out here this season--are you sure?" + +"No, indeed. I've been too busy with the close of school to ride +anywhere--much less away out here." + +"You like my choice, then? I hoped you would." + +"Very much." + +It was a queer, breathless sort of talking; Roberta hardly knew what she +was saying. She much preferred to ride along in silence. The hour was at +hand--so close at hand! And there was now no getting away. She knew +perfectly that her agreeing to come at all had told him his answer; none +but the most cruel of women would allow a man to bring her upon such a +ride, in the company of other interested people, only to refuse him at +the end of it. But she had to admit to herself that if he were now +exulting in the sure hope of possessing her he was keeping it well out +of sight. There was now none of the arrogant self-confidence in his +manner toward her which there had been on the February night when he had +made a certain prophecy concerning Midsummer. Instead there was that in +his every word and look which indicated a fine humility--almost a boyish +sort of shyness, as if even while he knew the treasure to be within his +grasp he could neither quite believe it nor feel himself fit to take it. +From a young man of the world such as he had been it was the most +exquisite tribute to her power to rouse the best in him that he could +have given and she felt it to the inmost soul of her. + +"Here are the forks," said Richard suddenly, and Roberta recognized with +a start that they were nearly at the end of their journey. + +"Which way?" Stephen was shouting back, and Richard was waving toward +the road at the left, which led up the steep hill. + +"Here is where you dropped the bunch of rose haws," said he, with a +quick glance as they began the ascent. "I have them yet--brown and dry. +Did you know you dropped them?" + +"I remember. But I didn't suppose anybody--" + +"Found them? By the greatest luck--and stopped my car in a hurry. They +were bright on my desk for a month after that; I cared more for them +than for anything I owned. I had the greatest difficulty in keeping my +man from throwing them away, though. You see, he hadn't my point of +view! Roberta--here we are! Will you forgive what will seem like a piece +of the most unwarrantable audacity?" He was speaking fast as they came +up over the crown of the hill: "I didn't do it because I was sure of +anything at all, but because--it was something to make myself think I +could carry out a wish of yours. Do you remember the '_stout little +cabin on the hilltop_', Roberta? Could you--_could_ you care for it, as +I do?" + +The last words were almost a whisper, but she heard them. Her eyes were +riveted on the outlines, two hundred feet away through the trees, of a +small brown building at the very crest of the hill over-looking the +valley. Very small, very rough, with its unhewn logs--the "stout little +cabin" stood there waiting. + +Well! What was she to think? He _had_ been sure, to build this and bring +her to it! And yet--it was no house for a home; no expensive bungalow; +not even a summer cottage. Only a "stout little cabin," such as might +house a hunter on a winter's night; the only thing about it which looked +like luxury the chimney of cobblestones taken from the hillside below, +which meant the possibility of the fire inside without which one could +hardly spend an hour in the small shelter on any but a summer day. +Suddenly she understood. It was the sheer romance of the thing which had +appealed to him; there was no audacity about it. + +He was watching her anxiously as she stared at the cabin; she came +suddenly to the realization of that. Then he threw himself off his horse +as they neared the rail fence, fastened him, and came back to Roberta. +Near-by, Stephen was taking Rosamond down and she was exclaiming over +the charm of the place. + +Richard came close, looking straight up into Roberta's face, which was +like a wild-rose for colouring, but very sober. Her eyes would not meet +his. His own face had paled a little, in spite of all its healthy, +outdoor hues. + +"Oh, don't misunderstand me," he whispered. "Wait--till I can tell you +all about it. I was wild to do something--anything--that would make you +seem nearer. Don't misunderstand--_dear_!" + +Stephen's voice, calling a question about the horses, brought him back +to a realization of the fact that his time was not yet, and that he must +continue to act the part of the sane and responsible host. He turned, +summoning all his social training, and replied to the question in his +usual quiet tone. But, as he took her from her horse, Roberta recognized +the surge of his feeling, though he controlled his very touch of her, +and said not another word in her ear. She had all she could do, herself, +to maintain an appearance of coolness under the shock of this +extraordinary surprise. She had no doubt that Rosamond and Stephen +comprehended the situation, more or less. Let them not be able to guess +just how far things had developed, as yet. + +Rosamond came to her aid with her own freely manifested pleasure in the +place. Clever Rosy! her sister-in-law was grateful to her for expressing +that which Roberta could not trust herself to speak. + +"What a dear little house, a real log cabin!" cried Rosamond as the four +drew near. "It's evidently just finished; see the chips. It opens the +other way, doesn't it? Isn't that delightful! Not even a window on this +side toward the road, though it's back so far. I suppose it looks toward +the valley. A window on this end; see the solid shutters; it looks as if +one could fortify one's self in it. Oh, and here's a porch! What a +view--oh, what a view!" + +They came around the end of the cabin together and stood at the front, +surveying the wide porch, its thick pillars of untrimmed logs, its +balustrade solid and sheltering, its roof low and overhanging. From the +road everything was concealed; from this aspect it was open to the +skies; its door and two front windows wide, yet showing, door as well as +windows, the heavy shutters which would make the place a stronghold +through what winter blasts might assault it. From the porch one could +see for miles in every direction; at the sides, only the woods. + +"It's an ideal spot for a camp," declared Stephen with enthusiasm. "Is +it yours, Kendrick? I congratulate you. Invite me up here in the hunting +season, will you? I can't imagine anything snugger. May we look inside?" + +"By all means! It's barely finished--it's entirely rough inside--but I +thought it would do for our supper to-night." + +"Do!" Rosamond gave a little cry of delight as she looked in at the open +door. "Rough! You don't want it smoother. Does he, Rob? Look at the +rustic table and benches! And will you behold that splendid fireplace? +Oh, all you want here is the right company!" + +"And that I surely have." Richard made her a little bow, his face +emphasizing his words. He went over to a cupboard in the wall, of which +there were two, one on either side of the fireplace. He threw it open, +disclosing hampers. "Here is our supper, I expect. Are you hungry? It's +up to us to serve it. I didn't have the man stay; I thought it would be +more fun to see to things ourselves." + +"A thousand times more," Rosamond assured him, looking to Roberta for +confirmation, who nodded, smiling. + +They fell to work. Hats were removed, riding skirts were fastened out of +the way, hampers were opened and the contents set forth. Everything that +could possibly be needed was found in the hampers, even to coffee, +steaming hot in the vacuum bottles as it had been poured into them. + +"Some other time we'll come up and rough it," Richard explained, when +Stephen told him he was no true camper to have everything prepared for +him in detail like this; "but to-night I thought we'd spend as little +time in preparations as possible and have the more of the evening. It +will be a Midsummer Night's Dream on this hill to-night," said he, with +a glance at Roberta which she would not see. + +Presently they sat down, Roberta finding herself opposite their host, +with the necessity upon her of eating and drinking like a common mortal, +though she was dwelling in a world where it seemed as if she did not +know how to do the everyday things and do them properly. It was a +delicious meal, no doubt of that, and at least Stephen and Rosamond did +justice to it. + +"But you're not eating anything yourself, man," remonstrated Stephen, +as Richard pressed upon him more cold fowl and delicate sandwiches +supplemented by a salad such as connoisseurs partake of with sighs of +appreciation, and with fruit which one must marvel to look upon. + +"You haven't been watching me, that's evident," returned Richard, +demonstrating his ability to consume food with relish by seizing upon a +sandwich and making away with it in short order. + +Roberta rose. "I can eat no more," she said, "with that wonderful sky +before me out there." She escaped to the porch. + +They all turned to exclaim at a gorgeous colouring beginning in the +west, heralding the sunset which was coming. Rosamond ran out also, +Stephen following. Richard produced cigars. + +"Have a smoke out here, Gray," said he, "while I put away the stuff. No, +no help, thank you. James will be here, by and by, to pack it properly." + +"Stephen"--Rosamond stood at the edge of the hill below the +porch--"bring your cigar down here; it's simply perfect. You can lie on +your side here among the pine needles and watch the sky." + +They went around a clump of trees to a spot where the pine needles were +thick, just out of sight of the cabin door. No doubt but Rosamond and +Stephen liked to have things to themselves; there was no pretence about +that. It was almost the anniversary of their marriage--their most happy +marriage. + +Roberta stood still upon the porch, looking, or appearing to look, off +at the sunset. Once again she would have liked to run away. But--where +to go? Rosamond and Stephen did not want her; it would have been absurd +to insist on following them. If she herself should stroll away among the +pine trees, she would, of course, be instantly pursued. The porch was +undoubtedly the most open and therefore the safest spot she could be in. +So she leaned against the pillar and waited, her heart behaving +disturbingly meanwhile. She could hear Richard, within the cabin +hurriedly clearing the table and stuffing everything away into the +cupboards on either side of the fireplace--he was making short work of +it. Before she could have much time to think, his step was upon the +porch behind her; he was standing by her shoulder. + +"It's a wonderful effect, isn't it? Must we talk about it?" he inquired +softly. + +"Don't you think it deserves to be talked about?" she answered, trying +to speak naturally. + +"No. There's only one thing in the world I want to talk about. I can't +even see that sky, for looking at--you. I've stood at the top of this +slope more times than I can tell you, wondering if I should dare to +build this little cabin. The idea possessed me, I couldn't get away from +it. I bought the land--and still I was afraid. I gave the order to the +builder--and all but took it back. I knew I ran every kind of risk that +you wouldn't understand me--that you would think I still had that +abominable confidence that I was fool enough to express to you +last--February. Does it look so?" + +She nodded slowly without turning her head. + +His voice grew even more solicitous; she could hear a little tremble in +it, such as surely had not been there last February, such as she had +never heard there before. "But it isn't so! With every log that's gone +in, a fresh fear has gone in with it. Even on the way here to-day I had +all I could do not to turn off some other way. The only thing that kept +me coming on to meet my fate here, and nowhere else, was the hope that +you loved the spot itself so well that you--that your heart would be a +bit softer here than--somewhere else. O Roberta--I'm not half good +enough for you, but--I love you--love you--" + +His voice broke on the words. It surely was a very far from confident +suitor who pleaded his case in such phrases as these. He did not so much +as take her hand, only waited there, a little behind her, his head bent +so that he might see as much as he could of the face turned away from +him. + +She did not answer; something seemed to hold her from speech. One of her +arms was twined about the rough, untrimmed pillar of the porch; her +clasp tightened until she held it as if it were a bulwark against the +human approach ready to take her from it at a word from her lips. + +"I told you in my letter all I knew I couldn't say now. You know what +you mean to me. I'm going to make all I can out of what there is in me +whether you help me or not. But--if I could do it for you--" + +Still she could not speak. She clung to the pillar, her breath +quickening. He was silent until he could withstand no longer, then he +spoke so urgently in her ear that he broke in upon that queer, choking +reserve of hers which had kept her from yielding to him: + +"Roberta--I _must_ know--I can't bear it." + +She turned, then, and put out her hand. He grasped it in both his own. + +"What does that mean, dear? May I--may I have the rest of you?" + +It was only a tiny nod she gave, this strange girl, Roberta, who had +been so afraid of love, and was so afraid of it yet. And as if he +understood and appreciated her fear, he was very gentle with her. His +arms came about her as they might have come about a frightened child, +and drew her away from the pillar with a tender insistence which all at +once produced an extraordinary effect. When she found that she was not +to be seized with that devastating grasp of possession which she had +dreaded, she was suddenly moved to desire it. His humbleness touched and +melted her--his humbleness, in him who had been at first so +arrogant--and with the first exquisite rush of response she was taken +out of herself. She gave herself to his embrace as one who welcomes it, +and let him have his way--all his way--a way in which he quite forgot to +be gentle at all. + +When this had happened, Roberta remembered, entirely too late, that it +was this which, whatever else she gave him, she had meant to refuse +him--at least until to-morrow. Because to-day was undeniably the +twenty-fourth of June--Midsummer's Day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE PILLARS OF HOME + + +"Listen, grandfather--they're playing! We'll catch them at it. Here's an +open window." + +Matthew Kendrick followed his grandson across the wide porch to a French +window opening into the living-room of the Gray home, at the opposite +end from that where stood the piano, and from which the strains of +'cello and harp were proceeding. The two advanced cautiously to take up +their position just within that far window, gazing down the room at the +pair at the other end. + +Roberta, in hot-weather white, with a bunch of blue corn-flowers thrust +into her girdle, sat with her 'cello at her knee, her dark head bent as +she played. Ruth, a gay little figure in pink, was fingering her harp, +and the poignantly rich harmonies of Saint-Säens' _Mon coeur s'ouvre a +ta voix_ were filling the room. Upon the great piano stood an enormous +bowl of summer bloom; the air was fragrant with the breath of it. The +room was as cool and fresh with its summer draperies and shaded windows +as if it were not fervid July weather outside. + +Richard flung one exulting glance at his grandfather, for the sight was +one to please the eyes of any man even if he had no such interest in the +performers as these two had. The elder man smiled, for he was very happy +in these days, happier than he had been for a quarter of a century. + +The music ceased with the last slow harp-tones, the 'cello's earlier +upflung bow waving in a gesture of triumph. + +"Splendid, Rufus!" she commended. "You never did it half so well." + +"She never did," agreed a familiar voice from the other end of the room, +and the sisters turned with a start. Richard advanced down the room, Mr. +Kendrick following more slowly. + +"You look as cool as a pond-lily, love," said Richard, "in spite of this +July weather." His approving eyes regarded Roberta's cheek at close +range. "Is it as cool as it looks?" he inquired, and placed his own +cheek against it for an instant, regardless of the others present. + +Roberta laid her hand in Mr. Kendrick's, and the old man raised it to +his lips, in a stately fashion he sometimes used. + +"That was very beautiful music you were making," he said. "It seems a +pity to bring it to an end. Richard and I want you for a little drive, +to show you something which interests us very much. Will you go--and +will Ruth go, too?" + +"Oh, do you really want me?" cried Ruth eagerly. + +"Of course we want you, little sister," Richard told her. + +"I'll get our hats," offered Ruth, and was off. + +So presently the four had taken their places in Mr. Kendrick's car, its +windows open, its luxurious winter cushioning covered with dust-proof, +cool-feeling materials. Richard sat opposite Roberta, and it was easy +for her to see by the peculiar light in his eyes that there was +something afoot which was giving him more than ordinary joy in her +companionship. His lips could hardly keep themselves in order, the tones +of his voice were vibrant, his glance would have met hers every other +minute if she would have allowed it. + +The car rolled along a certain aristocratic boulevard leading out of the +city, past one stately residence after another. As the distance became +greater from the centre of affairs, the places took on a more and more +comfortable aspect, with less majesty of outline, and more home-likeness. +Surrounding grounds grew more extensive, the houses themselves lower +spreading and more picturesque. It was a favourite drive, but there were +comparatively few abroad on this July morning. Nearly every residence +was closed, and the inhabitants away, though the beauty of the +environment was as carefully preserved as if the owners were there to +observe and enjoy. + +"We're the only people in the city this summer," observed Richard, +"except ninety-nine-hundredths of the population, which fails to count, +of course, in the eyes of these residents. Curious custom, isn't it? to +close such homes as these, just when they're at their most attractive, +and go off to a country house. They'd be twice as comfortable at home, +in this weather--just as we are. And this is the first summer I ever +tried it! Robin, that's a pleasant place, isn't it?" + +He indicated one of the houses they were passing, an unusually +interesting combination of wood and stone, half hidden beneath spreading +vines. + +"Yes, that's charming," she agreed. "And I like the next even better, +don't you?" + +The next was of a different style entirely, less ambitious and more +friendly of appearance, with long reaches of porch and pergola, and more +than usually well-arranged masses of shrubbery enhancing the whole +effect of withdrawal from the public gaze. + +"I do, I think, for some reasons. You choose the least pretentious +houses, every time, don't you? Don't care a bit for show places?" + +"Not a bit," owned the girl. + +"Here's one, now," Richard pointed it out. "The owner spent a lot of +money on that. Would you live in it?" + +"Not--willingly." + +Richard glanced at his grandfather. "I wonder just how much she would +suffer," he suggested, with sparkling eyes. "Suppose we should drive in +there and tell her we'd bought it!" + +Mr. Kendrick turned to the figure in white at his side. The eyes of the +old man and the young woman met with understanding, and the two smiled +affectionately before the meeting was over. Richard looked on +approvingly. But he complained. + +"I'd like one like that, myself," said he. "Robin has looked at me only +three times this morning, and once was when we met, for purposes of +identification!" + +He had a glance of his own, then, and apparently it went to his head, +for he became more animated than ever in calling the party's attention +to each piece, of property passed by. + +"These are all modern," he commented presently. "There's something about +your really old house that can't be copied. Your own home, Robin--that's +the type of antique beauty that's come to seem to me more desirable than +any other. Isn't there one along here somewhere that reminds one of it?" + +"There's the General Armitage place," Roberta said. "That must be close +by, now. It used to be far out in the country. It was built by the same +architect who built ours. General Armitage and my great-grandfather were +intimate friends--they were in the Civil War together." + +"Here it is." Ruth pointed it out eagerly. "I always like to go by it, +because it looks quite a little like ours, only the grounds are much +larger, and it has a wonderful old garden behind it. Mother has often +said she wished she could transplant the Armitage garden bodily, now +that the house has been closed so long. She says the old gardener is +still here, and looks after the garden--or his grandsons do." + +"Shall we drive in and see it?" proposed Richard. "A garden like that +ought to have some one to admire it now and then." + +He gave the order, and the car rolled in through the old stone gateway. +The place, though of a noble old type, was far from a pretentious one, +and there was no lodge at the gate, as with most of its neighbours. The +house was no larger than the comfortable home of the Gray family, but +its closed blinds and empty white-pillared portico gave it a deserted +air. The grounds about it were not indicative of present day, fastidious +landscape gardening, but suggested an old-time country gentleman's +estate, sufficiently kept up to prevent wild and alien growth, though +needing the supervision of an interested owner to suggest beneficial +changes here and there. + +"It's a beautiful old place, isn't it?" Richard looked to Roberta for +confirmation, and saw it in her kindling eyes. + +"It has always been our whole family's ideal of a home," she said. "Ours +is so much nearer the centre of things, we haven't the acres we should +like, and whenever we have driven past this place we have looked +longingly at it. Since General and Mrs. Armitage died, and their family +became scattered, father has often said that he was watching anxiously +to see it come on the market, for there was no place he more coveted the +right ownership for, even though he couldn't think of living here +himself. It seems such a pity when homes like this go to people who +don't appreciate them, and alter and spoil them." + +"So it does," agreed Richard, and now he had much ado to keep his +soaring spirits from betraying the happy secret which he saw his +betrothed did not remotely suspect. He knew she expected to dwell +hereafter in the "stone pile" which had been the home of the Kendricks +for many years, and she had never by a word or look made him feel that +such a prospect tried her spirit. That it was not to her a wholly happy +prospect he had divined, as he might have divined that a wild bird would +not be happy in a cage, nor a deer in a close corral. + +"Oh, the garden!" breathed Roberta, and clasped her hands with an +unconscious gesture of pleasure, as the car swept round the house and +past the tall box borders of what was, indeed, such an old-time +memorial, tended by faithful and loving hands, as must stir the interest +of any admirer of the stately conceptions of an earlier day. A bowed +figure, at work in a great bed of rosy phlox, straightened painfully as +the car stopped, and the visitors looked into the seamed, tanned face of +the presiding spirit of the place, the old gardener who had served +General Armitage all his life. + +All four alighted, and walked through the winding paths, talked with old +Symonds, and studied the charming spot with growing delight. Richard, +managing to get Roberta to himself for a brief space, eagerly questioned +her. + +"You find this prettier than any picture in any gallery, don't you?" + +"Oh, it has great charm for me. I can hardly express the curious content +it gives me, to wander about such an old garden. The fragrance of the +box is particularly pleasant to me, and I love the old-fashioned flowers +better than any of the wonders the modern gardeners show. Just look at +that mass of larkspur--did you ever see such a satisfying blue?" + +"I have. The first time I came to your house to dinner you wore blue, +the softest, richest blue imaginable, and you sat where the shaded light +made a picture of you I shall never forget. I've never seen that +peculiar blue since without thinking of you. It's one of the shades of +that larkspur, isn't it?" + +"I made fun of you, afterward, for telling Rosy you noticed the colours +we wore," confessed Roberta, with a mischievous glance. + +"You did--you rascal! Look up at me a minute--please. The blue of your +eyes, with those black lashes, is another larkspur shade, in this light. +I've called it sea-blue. Rob--dearest--the nights I've dreamed about +those eyes of yours!" + +He got no further chance to observe them just then, as he might have +expected, for Roberta immediately turned their light on the garden and +away from his worshipful regard. She engaged the old gardener in +conversation, and made his dull gaze brighten with her praise. Meanwhile +Richard went off to the house, and presently returning, drew his party +into a group and put a question, striving to maintain an appearance of +indifference. + +"It occurred to me you might care to look into the house itself. It's +rather interesting inside, I believe. There seems to be a caretaker +there, and she says we may come in. She'll meet us at the front. Shall +we take a minute to do it?" + +"I should like it very much," agreed Roberta promptly. "I've heard +mother speak of the fine old hall with its staircase--a different type +from ours, and very interesting." + +"There certainly is a remarkable attraction to me in this place," said +Matthew Kendrick, walking beside Roberta with hands clasped behind his +back and head well up. "It has a homelike look, in spite of its deserted +state, which appeals to me. I wonder that the remnant of the family does +not care to retain it." + +"I hear the remnant is all but gone," his grandson informed him, with +sober lips but dancing eyes. He was delighted with his grandfather for +his assistance in playing the part of the casual observer. He led the +way up the steps of the white-pillared portico, and wheeled to see the +others ascending. He watched Roberta as she preceded him over the +threshold of the opened door. + +"Shall I see you coming in that door, you beautiful thing, years and +years from now?" he asked her in his heart, and smiled happily to +himself. + +And now, indeed, old Matthew Kendrick played his part nobly and with +skill. When the party had admired the distinction of the hall, and the +stately sweep of its staircase, he led Ruth into a room on the left at +the same moment that Richard summoned Roberta to look at something he +had described in the room on the right. A question drew the caretaker +after Mr. Kendrick, senior, and the younger man had the moment he was +playing for. + +"This fireplace, Robin--isn't it the very counter-part of the one in +your own living-room?" He asked it with his hand on the chimney-piece, +and his glowing eyes studying hers. + +Roberta looked, and nodded delightedly. "It certainly is, only still +wider and higher. What a splendid one! And what a room! Oh, how could +they leave it? Imagine it furnished, and lived in." + +"Imagine it! And a great fire on this hearth. It would take in an +immense log, wouldn't it?" + +"Poor hearth!" She turned again to it, and her glance sobered. "So cold +now, even on a July day, after having been warmed with so many fires." + +"Shall we warm it?" He took an eager step toward her. "Shall we build +our own home fires upon it?" + +Startled, she stared at him, the blue of her eyes growing deep. He +smiled into them, his own gleaming with satisfaction. + +"Richard! What do you--mean?" + +"What I say, darling. Could you be happy here? Should you like it better +than the Kendrick house?--gloomy old place that that is!" + +"But--your grandfather! We--we couldn't possibly leave him lonely!" + +"Bless your kind heart, dear--we couldn't. Shall we make a home for him +here?" + +"Would he be content?" + +"So content that he's only waiting to know that you like it, and he'll +tell you so. The plan is this, Robin--if you approve it. Three months of +the year grandfather will stay in the old home, the hard, winter months, +and if you are willing, we'll stay with him. The rest of the year--here, +in our own home. Eh? Do you like it?" + +She stood a moment, staring into the empty fireplace, her eyes shining +with a sudden hint of most unwonted tears. Then she turned to him. + +"Oh, you dear!" she whispered, and was swept into his arms. + +"Then you do like it?" he insisted, presently. + +"Like it! Oh, I can't tell you. To have such a home as this, so like the +old one, yet so wonderful of itself. To make it ours--to put our own +individuality into it, yet never hurt it. And that garden! What will +mother say? Oh, Richard--I was never so happy in my life!" + +He knew that was true of himself, for his heart was full to bursting, +with the success of his scheming. They walked the length of the long +room, looked out of each window, returned to the fireplace. He held her +fast and whispered in her ear: + +"Robin, I can see all sorts of things in this room. I saw them the +minute I came into it first, a month ago. I've stood here, dreaming, +more than once since then. I see ourselves, living here, and--I +see--Robin--I see--little figures!" + +She nodded, with her face against his breast. He lifted her face, and +his lips met hers in such a meeting as they had not yet known. Richard's +heart beat hard with the sure knowledge of that which he had only dared +before to believe would be true--that his wife would rejoice to be the +mother of his children. Not in vain had this young man looked into child +faces and brought joy to their eyes; he had learned that life would +never be complete without children of his own. And now he knew, +certainly, that this woman whom he loved would gladly join her superb +young life with his in the bringing of other lives into the world, with +their full heritage, and not a drop withheld. It was a wondrous moment. + +They went out together, in search of Mr. Kendrick and Ruth, and then the +party proceeded over the house. With a word and a fee Richard dismissed +the caretaker, and the four were free to talk of their affairs. Ruth was +wild with delight at the news; Mr. Kendrick quietly happy at Roberta's +words to him, and her clasp of his hand. + +"Richard was sure you would be pleased, my dear," he said, "and I myself +could not doubt that, brought up in the atmosphere you have been, you +must prefer such a home as this, so like your own. And if you would +really care to have me here with you, a part of the year, I could but be +gratified and contented." + +They assured him of their joy at this: they mounted the stairs with him +and searched for the apartments which should be his. In spite of his +protests they insisted on his occupying those which were obviously the +choicest of the house, declaring that nothing could be too good for him. +He was deeply touched at their devotion, and they were as glad as he. +The time passed rapidly in these momentous affairs. + +"I suppose we must be off," admitted Richard reluctantly, discovering +the hour. "Robin, how can you bear to leave it so long untenanted? From +July to Christmas--what an interminable stretch of time!" + +"Not with all you have planned to do," Roberta reminded him. "Think what +it will mean to get it all in order." + +"I do think what it will mean. Don't I, though! It will mean--shopping +with my love, choosing rugs and furniture--and plates and cups, +Robin--plates and cups to eat and drink from. The fun of that! Will you +help us, Rufus?" He turned, laughing, to the young girl beside him. +"Will you come and eat and drink from our plates and cups? Ah, but this +is a great old world--yes? you three dear people! And I'm the happiest +fellow in it!" + +There seemed small doubt that there could be few happier, just then, as +standing at the top of his own staircase and gazing down into the wide +and empty hall toward the open door which led out upon the +white-pillared portico of his home-that-was-to-be, Richard Kendrick +flung up one arm, lifting an imaginary cup high in the air, and calling +joyously: + +_"Here's hoping!"_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A STOUT LITTLE CABIN + +Christmas morning! and the bells in St. Luke's pealing the great old +hymn, dear for scores of years to those who had heard it chiming from +the ivy-grown towers--"_Adeste, Fideles_." + +_"Oh, come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!"_ + +Joyful and triumphant, indeed, though yet subdued and humble, since this +paradox may be at times in human hearts, was Richard Kendrick, as he +stood waiting in the vestibule of St. Luke's, on Christmas morning, for +a tryst he had made. Not with Roberta, for it was not possible for her +to be present to-day, but with Ruth Gray, that young sister who had +become so like a sister by blood to Richard that, at her suggestion, it +had seemed to him the happiest thing in the world to go to church with +her on Christmas morning--the morning of the day which was to see his +marriage. + +The Gray homestead was full of wedding guests, the usual family guests +of the Christmas house-party. On the evening before had occurred the +Christmas dance, and Richard had led the festivities, with his +bride-elect at his side. It had been a glorious merry-making and his +pulses had thrilled wildly to the rapture of it. But to-day--to-day was +another story. + +A slender young figure, in brown velvet with a tiny twig of holly +perched among furry trimmings, hurried up the steps and into the +vestibule. Richard met Ruth halfway, his face alight, his hand clasping +hers eagerly. + +"I'm so sorry I am late," she whispered. "Oh, it's so fine of you to +come. Isn't it a lovely, lovely way to begin this Day--your and Rob's +day, too?" + +He nodded, smiling down at her with eyes full of brotherly affection for +a most lovable girl. He followed her into the church and took his place +beside her, feeling that he would rather be here, just now, than +anywhere in the world. + +It must be admitted that he hardly heard the service, except for the +music, which was of a sort to make its own way into the most abstracted +consciousness. But the quiet spirit of the place had its effect upon +him, and when he knelt beside Ruth it seemed the most natural thing in +the world to form a prayer in his heart that he might be a fit husband +for the wife he was so soon to take to himself. Once, during a long +period of kneeling, Ruth's hand slipped shyly into his, and he held it +fast, with a quickening perception of what it meant to have a pure young +spirit like hers beside him in this sacred hour. His soul was full of +high resolve to be a son and brother to this rare family into which he +was entering such as might do them honour. For it was a very significant +fact that to him the people who stood nearest to Roberta were of great +consequence; and that a source of extraordinary satisfaction to him, +from the first, had been his connection with a family which seemed to +him ideal, and association with which made up to him for much of which +his life had been empty. + +A proof of this had been his invitation, through his grandfather, who +had warmly seconded his wish, to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, to come and +stay with the Kendricks throughout this Christmas party, precisely as +they had done the year before. To have Aunt Ruth preside at breakfast on +this auspicious morning had given Richard the greatest pleasure, and the +kiss he had bestowed upon her had been one which she recognized as very +like the tribute of a son. From her side he had gone to St. Luke's. + +"Good-bye, dear, for a few hours," he whispered to Ruth, as he put her +into the brougham, driven by the old family coachman, in which she had +come alone to church. "When I see you next I'll be almost your brother. +And in just a few minutes after that--" + +"Oh, Richard--are you happy?" she whispered back, scanning his face with +brimming eyes. + +"So happy I can't tell even you. Give my love, my dearest love, to--" + +"I will--" as he paused on the name, as if he could not speak it just +then. "She was so glad to have us go to church together. She wanted to +come herself--so much." + +He pressed the small gloved hand held out to him. He knew that Ruth +idealized him far beyond his worth--he could read it in her gaze, which +was all but reverential. He said to himself, as he turned away, that a +man never had so many motives to be true to the girl he was to marry. To +bring the first shade of distrust into this little sister's tender eyes +would be punishment enough for any disloyalty, no matter what the cause +might be. + +The wedding was to be at six o'clock. There was nothing about the whole +affair, as it had been planned by Roberta, with his full assent, to make +it resemble any event of the sort in which he had ever taken part. Not +one consideration of custom or of vogue had had weight with her, if it +differed from her carefully wrought-out views of what should be. Her +ruling idea had been to make it all as simple and sincere as possible, +to invite no guests outside her large family and his small one except +such personal friends as were peculiarly dear to both. When Richard had +been asked to submit his list of these, he had been taken aback to find +how pitifully few people he could put upon it. Half a dozen college +classmates, a small number of fellow clubmen--these painstakingly +considered from more than one standpoint--the Cartwrights, his cousins, +whom he really knew but indifferently well; two score easily covered the +number of those whom by any stretch of the imagination he could call +friends. The long roll of his fashionable acquaintance he dismissed as +out of the question. If he had been married in church there would have +been several hundreds of these who must unquestionably have been bidden; +but since Roberta wanted as she put it, "only those who truly care for +us," he could but choose those who seemed to come somewhere near that +ideal. To be quite honest, he was aware that his real friends were among +those who could not be bidden to his marriage. The crippled children in +the hospitals; the suffering poor who would send him their blessing when +they read in to-morrow's paper that he was married; the shop-people in +Eastman who knew him for the kindest employer they had ever had:--these +were they who "truly cared"; and the knowledge was warm at his heart, as +with a ruthless hand he scored off names of the mighty in the world of +society and finance. + +"Dick, my boy, you've grown--you've grown!" was his grandfather's +comment, when Richard, with a rueful laugh, had shown the old man the +finished list, upon which, well toward the top, had been the names of +Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Carson. Of Hugh Benson, as best man, Matthew +Kendrick heartily approved. "You've chosen the nugget of pure gold, +Dick," he said, "where you might have been expected to take one with +considerable alloy. He's worth all the others put together." + +Richard had never realized this more thoroughly than when, on Christmas +afternoon, he invited Benson to drive with him for a last inspection of +a certain spot which had been prepared for the reception of the bridal +pair at the first stage of their journey. He could not, as Hugh took his +place beside him and the two whirled away down the frost-covered avenue, +imagine asking any other man in the world to go with him on such a +visit. There was no other man he knew who would not have made it the +occasion for more or less distasteful raillery; but Hugh Benson was of +the rarely few, he felt, who would understand what that "stout little +cabin" meant to him. + +They came upon it presently, standing bleak and bare as to exterior upon +its hilltop, with only a streaming pillar of smoke from its big chimney +to suggest that it might be habitable within. But when the heavy door +was thrown open, an interior of warmth and comfort presented itself such +as brought an exclamation of wonder from the guest, and made Richard's +eyes shine with satisfaction. + +The long, low room had been furnished simply but fittingly with such +hangings, rugs, and few articles of furniture as should suggest +home-likeness and service. Before the wide hearth stood two big winged +chairs, and a set of bookshelves was filled with a carefully chosen +collection of favourite books. The colourings were warm but harmonious, +and upon a heavy table, now covered with a rich, dull red cloth, stood a +lamp of generous proportions and beauty of design. + +"I've tried to steer a line between luxury and austerity," Richard +explained, as Hugh looked about him with pleased observation. "We shall +not be equipped for real roughing it--not this time, though sometimes we +may like to come here dressed as hunters and try living on bare boards. +I just wanted it to seem like a bit of home, when she comes in to-night. +There'll be some flowers here then, of course--lots of them, and that +ought to give it the last touch. There are always flowers in her home, +bowls of them, everywhere--it was one of the first things I noticed. Do +you think she will like it here?" he ended, with a hint of almost boyish +diffidence in his tone. + +"Like it? It's wonderful. I never heard of anything so--so--all it +should be for--a girl like her," Hugh exclaimed, lamely enough, yet with +a certain eloquence of inflection which meant more than his choice of +words. He turned to Richard. "I can't tell you," he went on, flushing +with the effort to convey to his friend his deep feeling, "how fortunate +I think you are, and how I hope--oh, I hope you and she will be--the +happiest people in the world!" + +"I'm sure you hope that, old fellow," Richard answered, more touched by +this difficult voicing of what he knew to be Hugh's genuine devotion +than he should have been by the most felicitous phrasing of another's +congratulations. "And I can tell you this. There's nobody else I know +whom I would have brought here to see my preparations--nobody else who +would have understood how I feel about--what I'm doing to-day. I never +should have believed it would have seemed so--well, so sacred a thing to +take a girl away from all the people who love her, and bring her to a +place like this. I wish--wish I were a thousand times more fit for her." + +"Rich Kendrick--" Benson was taken out of himself now. His voice was +slightly tremulous, but he spoke with less difficulty than before. "You +are fitter than you know. You've developed as I never thought any man +could in so short a time. I've been watching you and I've seen it. There +was always more in you than people gave you credit for--it was your +inheritance from a father and grandfather who have meant a great deal in +their world. You've found out what you were meant for, and you're coming +up to new and finer standards every day. You _are_ fit to take this +girl--and that means much, because I know a little of what a--" Now _he_ +was floundering again, and his fine, then face flamed more hotly than +before--"of what she is!" he ended, with a complete breakdown in the +style of his phraseology, but with none at all in the conveyance of his +meaning. + +Richard flung out his hand, catching Hugh's, and gripping it. "Bless you +for a friend and a brother!" he cried, his eyes bright with sudden +moisture. "You're another whom I mustn't disappoint. Disappoint? I ought +to be flayed alive if I ever forget the people who believe in me--who +are trusting me with--Roberta!" + +It was a pity she could not have heard him speak her name, have seen the +way he looked at his friend as he spoke it, and have seen the way his +friend looked back at him. There was a quality in their mentioning of +her, here in this place where she was soon to be, which was its own +tribute to the young womanhood she so radiantly imaged. + +In spite of all these devices to make the hours pass rapidly, they +seemed to Richard to crawl. That one came, at last, however, which saw +him knocking at the door of his grandfather's suite, dressed for his +marriage, and eager to depart. Bidden by Mr. Kendrick's man to enter, he +presented himself in the old gentleman's dressing-room, where its +occupant, as scrupulously attired as himself, stood ready to descend to +the waiting car. Richard closed the door behind him, and stood looking +at his grandfather with a smile. + +"Well, Dick, boy--ready? Ah, but you look fresh and fine! Clean in body +and mind and heart for her--eh? That's how you look, sir--as a man +should look--and feel--on his wedding day. Well, she's worth it, +Dick--worth the best you can give." + +"Worth far better than I can give, grandfather," Richard responded, the +glow in his smooth cheek deepening. + +"Well, I don't mean to overrate you," said the old man, smiling, "but +you seem to me pretty well worth while any girl's taking. Not that you +can't become more so--and will, I thoroughly believe. It's not so much +what you've done this last year as what you show promise of doing--great +promise. That's all one can ask at your age. Ten years later--but we +won't go into that. To-night's enough--eh, my dear boy? My dear boy!" +he repeated, with a sudden access of tenderness in his voice. Then, as +if afraid of emotion for them both, he pressed his grandson's hand and +abruptly led the way into the outer room, where Thompson stood waiting +with his fur-lined coat and muffler. + +From this point on it seemed to Richard more or less like a rapidly +shifting series of pictures, all wonderfully coloured. The first was +that of the electric light of the big car's interior shining on the +faces of Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth, on Mr. Kendrick and Hugh Benson--the +latter a little pale but quite composed. Hugh had owned that he felt +seriously inadequate for the role which was his to-night, being no +society man and unaccustomed to taking conspicuous parts anywhere but in +business. But Richard had assured him that it was all a very simple +matter, since it was just a question of standing by a friend in the +crisis of his life! And Hugh had responded that it would be a pity +indeed if he were unwilling to do that. + +The next picture was that of the wide hall at the Gray home--as he came +into it a vivid memory flashed over Richard of his first entrance +there--less honoured than to-night! Soft lights shone upon him; the +spicy fragrance of the ropes and banks of Christmas "greens," bright +with holly, saluted his nostrils; and the glimpse of a great fire +burning, quite as usual, on the broad hearth of the living-room--a place +which had long since come to typify his ideal of a home--served to make +him feel that there could be no spot more suitable for the beginning of +a new home, because there could be nothing in the world finer or more +beautiful to model it upon. + +Nothing seemed afterward clear in his memory until the moment when he +came from his room upstairs, with Hugh close behind him, and met the +rector of St. Luke's, who was to marry him. There followed a hazy +impression of a descent of the staircase, of coming from a detour +through the library out into the full lights and of standing +interminably facing a large gathering of people, the only face at which +he could venture to glance that of Judge Calvin. Gray, standing +dignified and stately beside another figure of equal dignity and +stateliness--probably that of Mr. Matthew Kendrick. Then, at last--there +was Roberta, coming toward him down a silken lane, her eyes fixed on +his--such eyes, in such a face! He fixed his own gaze upon it, and held +it--and forgot everything else, as he had hoped he should. Then there +were the grave words of the clergyman, and his own voice responding--and +sounding curiously unlike his own, of course, as the voice of the +bridegroom has sounded in his own ears since time began. Then +Roberta's--how clearly she spoke, bless her! Then, before he knew it, it +was done, and he and she were rising from their knees, and there were +smiles and pleasant murmurings all about them--and little Ruth was +sobbing softly with her cheek against his! + +It was here that he became conscious again of the family--Roberta's +family, and of what it meant to have such people as these welcome him +into their circle. When he looked into the face of Roberta's mother and +felt her tender welcoming kiss upon his lips, his heart beat hard with +joy. When Roberta's father, his voice deep with feeling, said to him, +"Welcome to our hearts, my son," he could only grasp the firm hand with +an answering, passionate pressure which meant that he had at last that +which he had consciously or unconsciously longed for all his life. All +down the line his overcharged spirit responded to the warmth of their +reception of him--Stephen and Rosamond, Louis and Ruth and young Ted, +smiling at him, saying the kindest things to him, making him one of them +as only those can who are blessed with understanding natures. To be +sure, it was all more or less confused in his memory, when he tried to +recall it afterward, but enough of it remained vivid to assure him that +it had been all he could have asked or hoped--and that it was far, far +more than he deserved! + +"The boy bears up pretty well, eh?" observed old Matthew Kendrick to his +lifelong friend, Judge Calvin Gray, as the two stood aside, having gone +through their own part in the greeting of the bridal pair. Mr. +Kendrick's hand was still tingling with the wringing grip of his +grandson's; his heart was warm with the remembrance of the way Richard's +brilliant eyes had looked into his as he had said, low in the old man's +ear--"I'm not less yours, grandfather--and she's yours, too." Roberta +had put both arms about his neck, whispering: "Indeed I am, dear +grandfather--if you'll have me." Well, it had been happiness enough, +and it was good to watch them as they went on with their joyous task, +knowing that he had a large share in their lives, and would continue to +have it. + +"Bears up? I should say he did. He looks as if he could assist in +steadying the world upon the shoulders of old Atlas," answered Judge +Gray happily. "It's a trying position for any man, and some of them only +just escape looking craven." + +"The man who could stand beside that young woman and look craven would +deserve to be hamstrung," was the other's verdict. "Cal, she's enough to +turn an old man's head; we can't wonder that a young one's is swimming. +And the best of it is that it isn't all looks, it's real beauty to the +core. She's rich in the qualities that stand wear in a wearing +world--and her goodness isn't the sort that will ever pall on her +husband. She'll keep him guessing to the end of time, but the answer +will always give him fresh delight in her." + +"You analyze her well," admitted Roberta's uncle. "But that's to be +expected of a man who's been a pastmaster all his life in understanding +and dealing with human nature." + +"When it was not too near me, Cal. When it came to the dearest thing +I had in the world, I made a mistake with it. It was only when the boy +came under this roof that he received the stimulus that has made him +what he is. That was sure to tell in the end." + +"Ah, but he had your blood in him," declared Calvin Gray heartily. + +Thus, all about them, in many quarters, were the young pair +affectionately discussed. Not the least eloquent in their praise were +the youngest members of the company. + +"I say, but I'm proud of my new brother," declared Ted Gray, the picture +of youthful elegance, with every hair in place, and a white rose on the +lapel of his short evening-jacket. He was playing escort to the +prettiest of his girl cousins. "Isn't he a stunner to-night?" + +"He always was--that is, since I've known him," responded Esther, Uncle +Philip's daughter. "I can't help laughing when I think of the Christmas +party last year, and how Rob made us all think he was a poor young man, +and she didn't like him at all. All of us girls thought she was so queer +not to want to dance with him, when he was so handsome and danced so +beautifully. I suppose she was just pretending she didn't care for him." + +"Nobody ever'll know when Rob did change her mind about him," Ted +assured her. "She can make you think black's green when she wants to." + +"Isn't she perfectly wonderful to-night?" sighed the pretty cousin, with +a glance from her own home-made frock--in which, however, she looked +like a freshly picked rose--to Roberta's bridal gown, shimmering through +mistiness, simplicity itself, yet, as the little cousin well knew, the +product of such art as she herself might never hope to command. "I +always thought she was perfectly beautiful, but she's absolutely +fascinating to-night." + +"Tell that to Rich. I'm afraid he doesn't appreciate her," laughed Ted, +indicating his new brother-in-law, who, at the moment being temporarily +unemployed, was to be observed following his bride with his eyes with a +wistful gaze indicating helplessness without her even for a fraction of +time. + +Roberta had been drawn a little away by her husband's best man, who had +something to tell her which he had reserved for this hour. + +"Mrs. Kendrick," he was beginning--at which he was bidden to remember +that he had known the girl Roberta for many years; and so began again, +smiling with gratitude: + +"Roberta, have you any idea what is happening in Eastman to-night?" + +"Indeed I haven't, Hugh. Anything I ought to know of?" + +"I think it's time you did. Every employee in our store is sitting down +to a great dinner, served by a caterer from this city, with a Christmas +favour at every plate. The place cards have a K and G on them in +monogram. There are such flowers for decorations as most of those people +never saw. I don't need to tell you whose doing this is." + +He had the reward he had anticipated for the telling of this +news--Roberta's cheek coloured richly, and her eyes fell for a moment +to hide the surprise and happiness in them. + +"That may seem like enough," he went on gently, "but it wasn't enough +for him. At every children's hospital in this city, and in every +children's ward, there is a Christmas tree to-night, loaded with gifts. +And I want you to know that, busy as he has been until to-day, he picked +out every gift himself, and wrote the name on the card with his own +hand." + +It was too much to tell her all at once, and he knew it when he saw her +eyes fill, though she smiled through the shining tears as she murmured: + +"And he didn't tell me!" + +"No, nor meant to. When I remonstrated with him he said you might think +it a posing to impress you, whereas it simply meant the overflow of his +own happiness. He said if he didn't have some such outlet he should +burst with the pressure of it!" + +Her moved laughter provided some sort of outlet for her own pressure of +feeling about these tidings. When she had recovered control of herself +she turned to glance toward her husband, and Hugh's heart stirred within +him at the starry radiance of that look, which she could not veil +successfully from him, who knew the cause of it. + +It was the Alfred Carsons who came to her last; the young manager +beaming with pleasure in the honour done him by his invitation to this +family wedding, to which the great of the city were mostly intentionally +unbidden; his pretty young wife, in effective modishness of attire by no +means ill-chosen, glowing with pride and rosy with the effort to +comport herself in keeping with the standards of these "democratically +aristocratic" people, as her husband had shrewdly characterized them. As +they stood talking with the bride, two of Richard's friends standing +near by, former close associates in the life of the clubs he was now too +busy to pursue, exchanged a brief colloquy which would mightily have +interested the subject of it if he could have heard it. + +"Who are these?" demanded one of the other, gazing elsewhere as he +spoke. + +"Partner or manager or something, in that business of Rich's up in +Eastman. So Belden Lorimer says." + +"Bright looking chap--might be anybody, except for the wife. A bit too +conscious, she." + +"You might not notice that except in contrast with the new Mrs. +Kendrick. There's the real thing, yes? Rich knew what he was doing when +he picked her out." + +"Undoubtedly he did. The whole family's pretty fine--not the usual sort. +Watch Mrs. Clifford Cartwright. Even she's impressed. Odd, eh?--with all +the country cousins about, too." + +"I know. It's in the air. And of course everybody knows the family blood +is of the bluest. Unostentatious but sure of itself. The Cartwrights +couldn't get that air, not in a thousand years." + +"Rich himself has it, though--and the grandfather." + +"True enough. I'm wondering which class we belong in!" + +The two laughed and moved closer. Neither could afford to miss a chance +of observing their old friend under these new conditions, for he had +been a subject of their speculations ever since the change in him had +begun. And though they had deplored the loss of him from their favourite +haunts, they had been some time since forced to admit that he had never +been so well worth knowing as now that he was virtually lost to them. + +"Oh, Robby, darling--I can never, never let you go!" + +So softly wailed Ruth, her slim young form clinging to her sister's, +regardless of her bridesmaid's crushed finery, daintily cherished till +this moment. Over her head Roberta's eyes looked into her mother's. +There were no tears in the fine eyes which met hers, but somehow Roberta +knew that Ruth's heartache was a tiny pain beside that other's. + +Richard, looking on, standing ready to take his bride away, wondered +once more within himself how he could have the heart to do it. But it +was done, and he and Roberta were off together down the steps; and he +was putting her into Mr. Kendrick's closed car; and she was leaning past +him to wave and wave again at the dear faces on the porch. Under the +lights here and there one stood out more clearly than the rest--Louis's, +flushed and virile; Rosamond's, lovely as a child's; old Mr. Kendrick's, +intent and grave, forgetting to smile. The father and the mother were in +the shadow--but little Gordon, Stephen's boy, made of himself a central +figure by running forward at the last to fling up a sturdy arm and cry: + +"Good-bye, Auntie Wob--come back soon!" + +It had been a white Christmas, and the snow had fallen lightly all day +long. It was coming faster now, and the wind was rising, to Richard's +intense satisfaction. He had been fairly praying for a gale, improbable +though that seemed. There was a considerable semblance of a storm, +however, through which to drive the twelve miles to the waiting cabin on +the hilltop, and when the car stopped and the door was opened, a heavy +gust came swirling in. The absence of lights everywhere made the +darkness seem blacker, out here in the country, and the general effect +of outer desolation was as near this strange young man's desire as could +have been hoped. + +"Good driving, Rogers. It was a quick trip, in spite of the heavy roads +at the last. Thank you--and good-night." + +"Thank you, sir. Good-night, Mr. Kendrick--and Mrs. Kendrick, if I may." + +"Good-night, Rogers," called the voice Rogers had learned greatly to +admire, and he saw her face smiling at him as the lights of the car +streamed out upon it. + +Then the great car was gone, and Richard was throwing open the door of +the cabin, letting all the warmth and glow and fragrance of the snug +interior greet his bride, as he led her in and shut the door with a +resounding force against the winter night and storm. + +It had been a dream of his that he should put her into one of the big, +cushioned, winged chairs, and take his own place on the hearth-rug at +her feet. Together they should sit and look into the fire, and be as +silent or as full of happy speech as might seem to befit the hour. Now, +when he had bereft her of her furry wraps and welcomed her as he saw +fit, he made his dream come true. He told her of it as he put her in her +chair, and saw her lean back against the comfortable cushioning with a +long breath of inevitable weariness after many hours of tension. + +"And you wondered which it would be, speech or silence?" queried +Roberta, as he took that place he had meant to take, at her knee, and +looked up, smiling, into her down-bent face. + +"I did wonder, but I don't wonder now. I know. There aren't any words, +are there?" + +"No," she answered, looking now into the fire, yet seeing, as clearly as +before, his fine and ardent, yet reverent face, "I think there are no +words." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE*** + + +******* This file should be named 14491-8.txt or 14491-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/4/9/14491 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/old/14491-8.zip b/old/old/14491-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d533685 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/14491-8.zip diff --git a/old/old/14491.txt b/old/old/14491.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d11ef89 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/14491.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10362 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Twenty-Fourth of June, by Grace S. +Richmond + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Twenty-Fourth of June + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: December 28, 2004 [eBook #14491] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE*** + + +E-text prepared by Ted Garvin, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE + +Midsummer's Day + +by + +GRACE S RICHMOND + +1914 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. The Curtain Rises on a Home + + II. Richard Changes His Plans + + III. While It Rains + + IV. Pictures + + V. Richard Pricks His Fingers + + VI. Unsustained Application + + VII. A Traitorous Proceeding + + VIII. Roses Red + + IX. Mr. Kendrick Entertains + + X. Opinions and Theories + + XI. "The Taming of the Shrew" + + XII. Blankets + + XIII. Lavender Linen + + XIV. Rapid Fire + + XV. Making Men + + XVI. Encounters + + XVII. Intrigue + + XVIII. The Nailing of a Flag + + XIX. In the Morning + + XX. Side Lights + + XXI. Portraits + + XXII. Roberta Wakes Early + + XXIII. Richard Has Waked Earlier + + XXIV. The Pillars of Home + + XXV. A Stout Little Cabin + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE CURTAIN RISES ON A HOME + + +None of it might ever have happened, if Richard Kendrick had gone into +the house of Mr. Robert Gray, on that first night, by the front door. +For, if he had made his first entrance by that front door, if he had +been admitted by the maidservant in proper fashion and conducted into +Judge Calvin Gray's presence in the library, if he had delivered his +message, from old Matthew Kendrick, his grandfather, and had come away +again, ushered out of that same front door, the chances are that he +never would have gone again. In which case there would have been no +story to tell. + +It all came about--or so it seems--from its being a very rainy night in +late October, and from young Kendrick's wearing an all-concealing +motoring rain-coat and cap. He had been for a long drive into the +country, and had just returned, mud-splashed, when his grandfather, +having taken it into his head that a message must be delivered at once, +requested his grandson to act as his messenger. + +So the young man had impatiently bolted out with the message, had sent +his car rushing through the city streets, and had become a still muddier +and wetter figure than before when he stood upon the porch of the old +Gray homestead, well out in the edge of the city, and put thumb to the +bell. + +His hand was stayed by the shrill call of a small boy who dashed up on +the porch out of the dusk. "You can't get in that way," young Ted Gray +cried. "Something's happened to the lock--they've sent for a man to fix +it. Come round to the back with me--I'll show you." + +So this was why Richard Kendrick came to be conducted by way of the +tall-pillared rear porch into the house through the rear door of the +wide, central hall. There was no light at this end of the hall, and the +old-fashioned, high-backed settee which stood there was in shadow. + +With a glance at the caller's muddy condition the young son of the house +decided it the part of prudence to assign him this waiting-place, while +he himself should go in search of his uncle. The lad had seen the big +motor-car at the gate; quite naturally he took its driver for a +chauffeur. + +Ted looked in at the library door; his uncle was not there. He raced off +upstairs, not noting the change which had already taken place in the +visitor's appearance with the removal of the muddy coat and cap. + +Richard Kendrick now looked a particularly personable young man, well +built, well dressed, of the brown-haired, gray-eyed, clear-skinned type. +The eyes were very fine; the nose and mouth had the lines of +distinction; the chin was--positive. Altogether the young man did not +look the part he had that day been playing--that of the rich young idler +who drives a hundred and fifty miles in a powerful car, over the worst +kind of roads, merely for the sake of diversion and a good luncheon. + +While he waited Richard considered the hall, at one end of which he sat +in the shadow. There was something very homelike about this hall. The +quaint landscape paper on the walls, the perceptibly worn and faded +crimson Turkey carpeting on the floors, the wide, spindle-balustrade +staircase with the old clock on its landing; more than all, perhaps, on +an October night like this, the warm glow from a lamp with crystal +pendants which stood on the table of polished mahogany near the front +door--all these things combined to give the place a quite distinctive +look of home. + +There were one or two other touches in the picture worth mentioning, the +touches which spoke of human life. An old-fashioned hat-tree just +opposite the rear door was hung full with hats. A heavy ulster lay over +a chair close by, and two umbrellas stood in the corner. And over +hat-rack, hats, ulster, and chair, with one end of silken fringe caught +upon one of the umbrella ribs, had been flung by some careless hand, +presumably feminine, a long silken scarf of the most intense +rose-colour, a hue so vivid, as the light caught it from the landing +above, that it seemed almost to be alive. + +From various parts of the house came sounds--of voices and of footsteps, +more than once of distant laughter. Far above somewhere a child's high +call rang out. Nearer at hand some one touched the keys of a piano, +playing snatches of Schumann--_Der Nussbaum, Mondnacht, Die Lotosblume_. +Richard recognized the airs which thus reached his ears, and was sorry +when they ceased. + +Now there might be nothing in all this worth describing if the effect +upon the observer had not been one to him so unaccustomed. Though he had +lived to the age of twenty-eight years, he had never set foot in a place +which seemed so curiously like a vague dream he had somewhere at the +back of his head. For the last two years he had lived with his +grandfather in the great pile of stone which they called home. If this +were no real home, the young man had never had one. He had spent periods +of his life in various sorts of dwelling-places; in private rooms at +schools and college--always the finest of their kind--in clubs, on +ships, in railway trains; but no time at all in any place remotely +resembling the house in which he now waited, a stranger in every sense +of the word, more strange to the everyday, fine type of home known to +the American of good birth and breeding than may seem credible as it is +set down. + +"Hold on there!" suddenly shouted a determined male voice from somewhere +above Richard. A door banged, there was a rush of light-running feet +along the upper hall, closely followed by the tread of heavier ones. A +burst of the gayest laughter was succeeded by certain deep grunts, +punctuated by little noises as of panting breath and half-stifled +merriment. It was easy to determine that a playful scuffle of some sort +was going on overhead, which seemed to end only after considerable +inarticulate but easily translatable protest on the part of the weaker +person involved. + +Then came an instant's silence, a man's ringing laugh of triumph; next, +in a girl's voice, a little breathless but of a quality to make the +listener prick up ears already alert, these most unexpected words: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +"Is it, indeed, Miss Arrogance?" mocked the deeper voice. "Well, if you +had given it back at once, as all laws of justice, not to mention +propriety, demanded, I should not have had to force it away from you. +Oh, I say, did I really hurt that wrist, or are you shamming?" + +"Shamming! You big boys have no idea how brutally violent you are when +you want some little thing you ought not to have. It aches like +anything," retorted the other voice, its very complaints uttered in such +melodious tones of contralto music that the listener found himself +wishing with all his might to know if the face of its owner could by any +possibility match the loveliness of her voice. Dark, he fancied she must +be, and young, and strong--of education, of a gay wit, yet of a +temper--all this the listener thought he could read in the voice. + +"Poor little wilful girl! Did she get hurt, then, trying to have her own +way? Come in here, jade, and I'll fix it up for you," the deeper tones +declared. + +Footsteps again; a door closed. Silence succeeded for a minute; then the +Schumann music began again, a violin accompanying. And suddenly, +directly opposite the settee, a door swung slowly open, the hand upon +the knob invisible. A picture was presented to the stranger's eyes as if +somebody had meant to show it to him. He could but look. Anybody, seeing +the picture, would have looked and found it hard to turn his eyes away. + +For it was the heart of the house, right here, so close at hand that +even a stranger could catch a glimpse of it by chance. A great, +wide-throated fireplace held a splendid fire of burning logs, the light +from it illumining the whole room, otherwise dark in the October +twilight. Before it on the hearth-rug were silhouetted, in distinct +lines against its rich background, two figures. One was that of a woman +in warm middle life, sitting in a big chair, her face full of both +brightness and peace; at her feet knelt a young girl, her arm upon her +mother's knees, her face uplifted. The two faces were smiling into each +other. + +Somebody--it looked to be a tall young man against the fire-glow--came +and abruptly closed the door from within, and the picture was gone. The +fitful music ceased again; the house was quiet. + +Thereupon Richard Kendrick grew impatient. Fully ten minutes must have +elapsed since his youthful conductor had disappeared. He looked about +him for some means of summoning attention, but discovered none. + +Suddenly a latchkey rattled uselessly in the lock of the front door; +then came lusty knocks upon its stout panels, accompanied by the +whirring of a bell somewhere in the distance. + +A maidservant came hurriedly into the hall through a door near Richard, +and at the same moment a boy of ten or eleven came tearing down the +front stairs. As the lad shouted through the door, Richard recognized +his late conductor. + +"You can't get in, Daddy; the lock's gone queer. Come around to the +back. I'll see to him, Mary," the boy called to the maid, who, nodding, +disappeared. + +At this moment the door opposite Richard opened again, and the mother of +the household came out, her comely waist closely clasped by the arm of +the young girl. The two were followed by the tall young man. + +Richard stood up, and was, of course, instantly upon the road to the +delivery of his message. + +Ted, ushering in his father, and spying the waiting messenger, cried +repentantly, "Oh, I forgot!" and the tall young man responded gravely, +"You usually do, don't you, Cub?" This elder son of the house, waving +the small boy aside, attended to taking Richard to the library, and to +summoning Judge Calvin Gray. + +In five minutes the business had been dispatched, Judge Gray had made +friendly inquiry into the condition of his old friend's health, and +Richard was ready to take his departure. Curiously enough he did not now +want to go. As he stood for a moment near the open library door, while +Judge Gray returned to his desk for a newspaper clipping, the caller was +listening to the eager greetings taking place in the hall just out of +his sight. The father of the family appeared to have returned from an +absence of some length, and the entire household had come rushing to +meet and welcome him. Richard listened for the contralto notes he had +heard above, and presently detected them declaring with vivid emphasis: +"Mother has been a dear, splendid martyr. Nobody would have guessed she +was lonely, but--we knew!" + +"She couldn't possibly have been more lonely than I. Next time I'll take +her with me!" was the emphatic response. + +Then the whole group swept by the library door, down the hall, and into +the room of the great fireplace. Nobody looked his way, and Richard +Kendrick had one swift view of them all. Vigorous young men, graceful +young women, a child or two, the mother of them all on the arm of her +husband--there were plenty to choose from, but he could not find the one +he looked for. Then, quite by itself, another figure flashed past him. +He had a glimpse of a dusky mass of hair, of a piquant profile, of a +round arm bared to the elbow. As the figure passed the hat-tree he saw +the arm reach out and catch the rose-coloured scarf, flinging it over +one shoulder. Then the whole vision had vanished, and he stood alone in +the library doorway, with Judge Gray saying behind him: "I cannot find +the clipping. I will mail it to your grandfather when I come upon it." + +"I knew that scarf was hers," Richard was thinking as he went out into +the night by way of the rear door, Judge Gray having accompanied him to +the threshold and given him a cordial hand of farewell. What a voice! +She could make a fortune with it on the stage, if she couldn't sing a +note. The stage! What had the stage to do with people who lived together +in a place like that? + +He looked curiously back at the house as he went down the box-bordered +path which led, curving, from it to the street. It was obviously one of +the old-time mansions of the big city, preserved in the midst of its +grounds in a neighbourhood now rampant with new growth. It was outside, +on this chill October night, as hospitable in appearance as it was +inside; there was hardly a window which did not glow with a mellow +light. As Richard drove down the street, he was recalling vividly the +picture of the friendly-looking hall with its faded Turkey carpet worn +with the tread of many rushing feet, its atmosphere of welcoming +warmth--and the rose-hued scarf flung over the dull masculine belongings +as if typifying the fashion in which the women of the household cast +their bright influence over the men. + +It suddenly occurred to Richard Kendrick that if he had lived in such a +home even until he went away to school, if he had come back to such a +home from college and from the wanderings over the face of the earth +with which he had filled in his idle days since college was over, he +should be perhaps a better, surely a different, man than he was now. + + * * * * * + +Louis Gray, coming into the hall precisely as Richard Kendrick, again +enveloped in his muddy motoring coat, was releasing Judge Gray's hand +and disappearing into the night, looked curiously after the departing +figure. His sister Roberta, following him into the hall a moment after, +rose-coloured scarf still drifting across white-clad shoulder, was in +time to receive his comment: + +"Seems rather odd to see that chap departing humbly by any door but the +front one." + +"You knew him, then. Who was he?" inquired his sister. + +"Didn't you? He's a familiar figure enough about town. Why, he's Rich +Kendrick. Grandson of Matthew Kendrick, of Kendrick & Company, you know. +Only Rich doesn't take much interest in the business. You'll find his +doings carefully noticed in certain columns in certain society +journals." + +"I don't read them, thank you. Do you?" + +"Don't need to. Kendrick's a familiar figure wherever the gay and +youthful rich disport themselves--when he's in the country at all. He's +doing his best to get away with the money his father left him. +Fortunately the bulk of the family fortune is still in the hands of his +grandfather, who seems an uncommonly healthy and vigorous old man." +Louis laughed. "Can't think what Rich Kendrick can be doing here with +Uncle Cal. I believe, though, he and old Matthew Kendrick are good +friends. Probably grandson Richard came on an errand. It certainly +behooves him to do grandfather's errands with as good a grace as he can +muster." + +"He was sitting in the hall quite a while before Uncle Cal saw him," +volunteered Ted, who had tagged at Roberta's heels, and was listening +with interest. + +"Sitting in the hall, eh--like any district messenger?" Louis was +clearly delighted with this news. "How did it happen, Cub? Mary take him +for an everyday, common person?" + +"I let him in. I thought he was a chauffeur," admitted Ted. "He was +awfully wet and muddy. Steve took him in to Uncle Cal." + +An explosion of laughter from his interested elder brother interrupted +him. "I wish I'd come along and seen him. So he had the bad manners to +sit in our hall in a wet and muddy motoring coat, and go in to see Uncle +Cal--" + +"The young man had on no muddy coat when Stephen brought him in to see +me," declared Judge Calvin Gray, coming out and catching the last +sentence. "He put it on in the hall before going out. What are you +saying? That was the grandson of my good friend, Matthew Kendrick, and +so had claim upon my good will from the start, though I haven't laid +eyes upon the boy since his schooldays. He was rather a restless and +obstreperous youngster then, I'll admit. What he is now seems pleasing +enough to the eye, certainly, though of course that may not be +sufficient. A fine, mannerly young fellow he appeared to me, and I was +glad to see that he seemed willing enough to run upon his grandfather's +errands, though they took him out upon a raw night like this." + +But Louis Gray, though he did not pursue the subject further, was still +smiling to himself as he obeyed a summons to dinner. + +At opposite ends of the long table sat Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray. The +head of the house looked his part: fine of face, crisp of speech, +authoritative yet kindly of manner. His wife may be described best by +saying that one had but to look upon her to know that here sat the Queen +of the little realm, the one whose gentle rule covered them all as with +the brooding wing of wise motherhood. Down the sides of the board sat +the three sons: Stephen, tall and slender, grave-faced, quiet but +observant; Louis, of a somewhat lesser height but broad of shoulder and +deep of chest, his bright face alert, every motion suggesting vigour of +body and mind; Ted--Edgar--the youngest, a slim, long-limbed lad with +eyes eager as a collie's for all that might concern him--this was the +tale of the sons of the house. There were the two daughters: Roberta, +she of the rose-coloured scarf--it was still about her shoulders, +seeming to draw all the light in the room to its vivid hue, reflecting +itself in her cheeks--Roberta, the elder daughter, dusky of hair, +adorable of face, her round white throat that of a strong and healthy +girl, her laugh a song to listen to; the other daughter, Ruth, a +fair-haired, sober-eyed creature of growing sixteen, as different as if +of other blood. One would not have said the two were sisters. There was +one more girl at the table; no, not a girl, yet she looked younger than +Roberta--a little person with a wild-rose, charming face, and the +sweetest smile of them all--Rosamond, Stephen's wife, quite incredibly +mother of two children of nursery age, at this moment already properly +asleep upstairs. + +Last but far from least, loved and honoured of them all above the lot of +average man to command such tribute, was the elder brother of the master +of the house, his handsome white head and genial face drawing toward him +all eyes whenever he might choose to speak--Judge Calvin Gray. All in +all they were a goodly family, just such a family as is to be found +beneath many a fortunate roof; yet a family with an individuality all +its own and a richness of life such as is less common than it ought to +be. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RICHARD CHANGES HIS PLANS + + +The next time Richard Kendrick went to the Gray home was a fortnight +later, when old Matthew Kendrick was sending some material for which +Judge Gray had written to ask him--books and pamphlets, and a set of +maps. This time he would have sent a servant, but his grandson Richard +heard him giving directions and came into the affair with a careless +suggestion that he was driving that way and might as well take the stuff +if Mr. Kendrick wished it. The old man glanced curiously at him across +the table where the two sat at luncheon. + +"Glad to have you, of course," he commented, "but you made so many +objections when I asked you before I thought I wouldn't interfere with +your time again. Did you meet any of the family when you went?" + +"Only Judge Gray and two of his nephews," responded Richard, truthfully +enough. + +So he went with the big package. This time, it being a fine, sunny, +summerlike day almost as warm as September, he went clad in careful +dress with only a light motoring coat on over all to preserve the +integrity of his attire. He left this in the car when he leaped out of +it, and appeared upon the doorstep looking not at all like his own +chauffeur, but quite his comely self. + +The door-lock was in full working order now, and he was admitted by the +same little maid whom he remembered seeing before. Upon his inquiry for +Judge Gray he was told that that gentleman was receiving another caller +and had asked to be undisturbed for a short time, but if he could wait-- + +Now there was no reason in the world for his waiting, since the package +of books, pamphlets, and maps was under his arm and he had only to +bestow it upon the maid and give her the accompanying directions. But, +at this precise moment, Richard caught sight of a figure running down +the staircase; concluded in one glance, as he had concluded in one +glance before, that if a personality could be expressed by a speaking +voice, a laugh, and a rose-hued scarf, this must be the one they +expressed; and decided in the twinkling of an eye to wait. The maid +conducted him toward the room on the right of the hall and he followed +her, passing as he did so the person who had reached the foot of the +stairs and who went by him in such haste that he had only time to give +her one short but--it must be described as--concentrated look straight +in the eyes. She in turn bestowed upon him the one glance necessary to +inform her whether she knew him and so must stay long enough in her +rapid progress to greet him. Their eyes therefore met at rather close +range, lingered for the space of two running seconds, and parted. + +Richard Kendrick accepted the chair offered him and sat upon it for the +space of some eighteen-odd minutes; they might have been hours or +seconds, he could not have told which. He could hardly have described +the room to which he had been shown, unless to say that it was a square, +old-fashioned reception room, a little formal, decidedly quaint, and +dignified, and clearly not used by the family as other rooms were used. +Certainly the piano, from which he had heard the Schumann music on his +former visit, was not here, and certainly there were no rose-hued scarfs +flung carelessly about. It was undoubtedly a place kept for the use of +strange callers like himself, and had small part in the life of the +household. + +At length he was summoned to Judge Gray's library. He was met with the +same pleasant courtesy as before, delivered his parcel, and lingered as +long as might be, listening politely to his host's remarks, and looking, +looking--for a chance to make a reason to come again. Quite unexpectedly +it was offered him by the Judge himself. + +"I wonder if you could recommend to me," said Judge Gray as Richard was +about to take his leave, "a capable young man--college-bred, of +course--to come here daily or weekly as I might need him, to assist me +in the work of preparing my book. My eyes, as you see, will not allow me +to use them for much more than the reading of a paragraph, and while my +family are very ready to help whenever they have the time, mine is so +serious a task, likely to continue for so long a period, that I shall +need continuous and prolonged assistance. Do you happen to know--?" + +Well, it can hardly be explained. This was a rich man's heir and the +grandson of millions more, in need--according to his own point of +view--of no further education along the lines of work, and he had a +voyage to the Far East in prospect. Certainly, a fortnight earlier the +thing furthest from his thoughts would have been the engaging of himself +as amanuensis and general literary assistant to an ex-judge upon so +prosaic a task as the history of the Supreme Court of the State. To say +that a rose-hued scarf, a laugh, and an alluring speaking voice explain +it seems absurd, even when you add to these that which the young man saw +during that moment of time when he looked into the face of their owner. +Rather would I declare that it was the subtle atmosphere of that which +in all his travels he had never really seen before--a home. At all +events a new force of some sort had taken hold upon him, and was leading +him whither he had never thought to go. + +If Judge Gray was surprised that the grandson of his old friend Matthew +Kendrick should thus offer himself for the obscure and comparatively +unremunerative post of secretary, he gave no evidence of it. Possibly it +did not seem strange to him that this young man should show interest in +the work the Judge himself had laid out with an absorbing enthusiasm. +Therefore a trial arrangement was soon made, and Richard Kendrick agreed +to present himself in Judge Gray's library on the following morning at +ten o'clock. The only stipulation he made was that if, for any reason, +he should decide suddenly to go upon a journey he had had some time in +contemplation, he should be allowed to provide a substitute. He had not +yet so completely surrendered to his impulse that he was not careful to +leave himself a loophole of escape. + +The young man laughed to himself all the way down the avenue. What would +his grandfather say? What would his friends say? His friends should not +know--confound them!--it was none of their business. He would have his +evenings; he would appear at his clubs as usual. If comments were made +upon his absence at other hours he would quietly inform the observing +ones that he had gone to work, but would refuse to say where. It +certainly was a joke, his going to work; not that his grandfather had +not often and strenuously recommended it, saying that the boy would +never know happiness until he shook hands with labour; not that he +himself had not fully intended some day to go into the training +necessary to the assuming of the cares incident to the handling of a +great fortune. But thus far--well, he had never been ready to begin. One +journey more, one more long voyage-- + +Her eyes--had they been blue or black? Blue, he was quite sure, although +the masses of her hair had been like night for dusky splendour, and her +cheeks of that rich bloom which denotes young vigour and radiant health. +He could hear her voice now, quoting a serious poet to fit a madcap +mood--and quoting him in such a voice! What were the words? He +remembered her mockingly exaggerated inflection: + +"'O, it is _excellent_ +To have a giant's strength; but it is _tyrannous_ +To use it like a giant!'" + +Well, from his flash-fire observation of her he should say that a man +might need a giant's strength to overcome her, if she chose to oppose +him, in any situation whatever. What a glorious task--to overcome +her--to teach that lovely, teasing voice gentler words-- + +He laughed again. Since he had left college he had not been so +interested in what was coming next--not even on the day he met Amelie +Penstoff in St. Petersburg--nor on the day, in Japan, when his friend +Rogers made an appointment with him to meet that little slant-eyed girl, +half Japanese, half French, and whole minx--the beauty!--he could not +even recall her name at this moment--with whom he had had an absorbing +experience he should be quite unwilling to repeat. And now, here was a +girl--a very different sort of girl--who interested him more than any of +them. He wondered what was her name. Whatever it was, he would know it +soon--call her by it--soon. + +He went home. He did not tell his grandfather that night. There was not +much use in putting it off, but--somehow--he preferred to wait till +morning. Business sounds more like business--in the morning. + + * * * * * + +The first result of his telling his grandfather in the morning was a +note from old Matthew Kendrick to old Judge Gray. The note, which almost +chuckled aloud, was as follows: + +MY DEAR CALVIN GRAY: Work him--work the rascal hard! He's a lazy chap +with a way with him which plays the deuce with my foolish old heart. I +could make my own son work, and did; but this son of his--that seems to +be another matter. Yet I know well enough the dangers of idleness--know +them so well that I'm tickled to death at the mere thought of his +putting in his time at any useful task. He did well enough in college; +there are brains there unquestionably. I didn't object seriously to his +travelling--for a time--after his graduation; but that sort of life has +gone on long enough, and when I talk to him of settling down at some +steady job it's always "after one more voyage." I don't yet understand +what has given him the impulse--whim--caprice--I don't venture to give +it any stronger name--to accept this literary task from you. He vows +he's not met the women of your household, or I should think that might +explain it. I hope he will meet them--all of them; they'll be good for +him--and so will you, Cal. Do your best by the boy for my sake, and +believe me, now as always, + +Gratefully your old friend, + +MATTHEW. + +"Eleanor, have you five minutes to spare for me?" Judge Gray, his old +friend's note in hand, hailed his brother's wife as she passed the open +door of his library. She came in at once, and, though she was in the +midst of household affairs, sat down with that delightful air of having +all the time in the world to spare for one who needed her, which was one +of her endearing characteristics. + +When she had heard the note she nodded her head thoughtfully. "I think +the grandfather may well congratulate himself that the grandson has +fallen into your hands, Calvin," said she. "The work you give him may +not be to him the interesting task it would be to some men, but it will +undoubtedly do him good to be harnessed to any labour which means a bit +of drudgery. By all means do as Mr. Kendrick bids you--'work him hard.'" +She smiled. "I wonder what the boy would think of Louis's work." + +"He would take to his heels, probably, if it were offered him. It's +plain that Matthew's pleased enough at having him tackle a gentleman's +task like this, and hopes to make it a stepping-stone to something more +muscular. I shall do my best by Richard, as he asks. You note that he +wants the young man to meet us all. Are you willing to invite him to +dinner some time--perhaps next week--as a special favour to me?" + +"Certainly, Calvin, if you consider young Mr. Kendrick in every way fit +to know our young people." + +Her fine eyes met his penetratingly, and he smiled in his turn. "That's +like you, Eleanor," said he, "to think first of the boy's character and +last of his wealth." + +"A fig for his wealth!" she retorted with spirit. "I have two +daughters." + +"I have made inquiries," said he with dignity, "of Louis, who knows +young Kendrick as one young man knows another, which is to the full. He +considers him to be more or less of an idler, and as much of a +spendthrift as a fellow in possession of a large income is likely to be +in spite of the cautions of a prudent grandfather. He has a passion for +travel and is correspondingly restless at home. But Louis thinks him to +be a young man of sufficiently worthy tastes and standards to have +escaped the worst contaminations, and he says he has never heard +anything to his discredit. That is considerable to say of a young man in +his position, Eleanor, and I hope it may constitute enough of a passport +to your favour to permit of your at least inviting him to dinner. +Besides--let me remind you--your daughters have standards of their own +which you have given them. Ruth is a girl yet, of course, but a mighty +discerning one for sixteen. As for Roberta, I'll wager no young +millionaire is any more likely to get past her defences than any young +mechanic--unless he proves himself fit." + +"I am confident of that," she agreed, and with her charming gray head +held high went on about her household affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHILE IT RAINS + + +The advanced age of the Honourable Calvin Gray, and the precarious state +of his eyesight, made it possible for him to work at his beloved +self-appointed task for only a scant number of hours daily. His new +assistant, therefore, found his own working hours not only limited but +variable. Beginning at ten in the morning, by four in the afternoon +Judge Gray was usually too weary to proceed farther; sometimes by the +luncheon hour he was ready to lay aside his papers and dismiss his +assistant. On other days he would waken with a severe headache, the +result of the overstrain he was constantly tempted to give his eyes, in +spite of all the aid that was offered him. On such days Richard could +not always find enough to do to occupy his time, and would be obliged to +leave the house so early that many hours were on his hands. When this +happened, he would take the opportunity to drop in at one or two of his +clubs, and so convey the impression that only caprice kept him away on +other days. Curiously enough, this still seemed to him an object; he +might have found it difficult to explain just why, for he assuredly was +not ashamed of his new occupation. + +Rather unexplainably to Richard, nearly the first fortnight of his new +experience went by without his meeting any members of the family except +the heads thereof and the younger son, Edgar, familiarly called by every +one "Ted." With this youthful scion of the house he was destined to form +the first real acquaintance. It came about upon a particularly rainy +November day. Richard had found Judge Gray suffering from one of his +frequent headaches, as a result of the overwork he had not been able +wholly to avoid. Therefore a long day's work of research in various +ancient volumes had been turned over to his assistant by an employer who +left him to return to a seclusion he should not have forsaken. + +Richard was accustomed to run down to an excellent hotel for his +luncheon, and was preparing to leave the house for this purpose when Ted +leaped at him from the stairs, tumbling down them in great haste. + +"Mr. Kendrick, won't you stay and have lunch with me? It's pouring +'great horn spoons' and I'm all alone." + +"Alone, Ted? Nobody here at all?" + +"Not a soul. Uncle Cal's going to have his upstairs and he says I may +ask you. Please stay. I don't go to school in the afternoon and maybe I +can help you, if you'll show me how." + +Richard smiled at the notion, but accepted the eager invitation, +and presently found himself sitting alone with the lad at a big, +old-fashioned mahogany table, being served with a particularly tempting +meal. + +"You see," Ted explained, spooning out grapefruit with an energetic +hand, "father and mother and Steve and Rosy have gone to the country to +a funeral--a cousin of ours. Louis and Rob aren't home till night except +Saturdays and Sundays, and Ruth is at school till Friday nights. It +makes it sort of lonesome for me. Wednesdays, though, every other week, +Rob's home all day. When she's here I don't mind who else is away." + +"I was just going to ask if you had three brothers," observed Richard. +"Do I understand 'Rob' is a girl?" + +"Sure, Rob's a girl all right, and I'm mighty glad of it. I wouldn't be +a girl myself, not much; but I wouldn't have Rob anything else--I should +say not. Name's Roberta, you know, after father. She's a peach of a +sister, I tell you. Ruth's all right, too, of course, but she's +different. She's a girl all through. But Rob's half boy, or--I should +say there's just enough boy about her to make her exactly right, if you +know what I mean." + +He looked inquiringly at Richard, who nodded gravely. "I think I get +something of your idea," he agreed. "It makes a fine combination, does +it?" + +"I should say it did. You know a girl that's all girl is too much girl. +But one that likes some of the things boys like--well, it helps out a +lot. Through with the grapefruit, Mary," he added, over his shoulder, to +the maid. "Have you any brothers or sisters, Mr. Kendrick?" he inquired +interestedly, when he had assured himself that the clam broth with which +he was now served was unquestionably good to eat. + +"Not one--living. I had a brother, but he died when I was a little +chap." + +"That was too bad," said Ted with ready sympathy. He looked straight +across the table at Richard out of sea-blue eyes shaded by very heavy +black lashes, which, it struck Richard quite suddenly, were much like +another pair which he had had one very limited opportunity of observing. +The boy also possessed a heavy thatch of coal-black hair, a lock of +which was continually falling over his forehead and having to be thrust +back. "Because father says," Ted went, on, "it's a whole lot better for +children to be brought up together, so they will learn to be polite to +each other. I'm the youngest, so I'm most like an only child. But, you +see," he added hurriedly, "the older ones weren't allowed to give up to +me, and I had to be polite to them, so perhaps"--he looked so in earnest +about it that Richard could not possibly laugh at him--"I won't turn out +as badly as some youngest ones do." + +There was really nothing priggish about this statement, however it may +sound. And the next minute the boy had turned to a subject less +suggestive of parental counsels. He launched into an account of his +elder brother Louis's prowess on the football fields of past years, +where, it seemed, that young man had been a remarkable right tackle. He +gave rather a vivid account of a game he had witnessed last year, +talking, as Richard recognized, less because he was eager to talk than +from a sense of responsibility as to the entertainment of his guest. + +"But he won't play any more," he added mournfully. "He took his degree +last year and he's in father's office now, learning everything from the +beginning. He's just a common clerk, but he won't be long," he asserted +confidently. + +"No, not long," agreed Richard. "The son of the chief won't be a common +clerk long, of course." + +"I mean," explained Ted, buttering a hot roll with hurried fingers, +"he'll work his way up. He won't be promoted until he earns it; he +doesn't want to be." + +Richard smiled. The boy's ideals had evidently been given a start by +some person or persons of high moral character. He was considering the +subject in some further detail with the lad when the dining-room door +suddenly opened and the owner of the black-lashed blue eyes, which in a +way matched Ted's, came most unexpectedly in upon them. She was in +street dress of dark blue, and her eyes looked out at them from under +the wide gray brim of a sombrero-shaped hat with a long quill in it, the +whole effect of which was to give her the breezy look of having +literally blown in on the November wind which was shaking the trees +outside. Her cheeks had been stung into a brilliant rose colour. Two +books were tucked under her arm. + +"Why, Rob!" cried her younger brother. "What luck! What brought you +home?" + +Rising from his chair Richard observed that Ted had risen also, and he +now heard Ted's voice presenting him to his sister with the ease of the +well-bred youngster. + +From this moment Richard owed the boy a debt of gratitude. He had been +waiting impatiently for a fortnight for this presentation and had begun +to think it would never come. + +Roberta Gray came forward to give the guest her hand with a ready +courtesy which Richard met with the explanation of his presence. + +"I was asked to keep your brother company in the absence of the family. +I can't help being glad that you didn't come in time to forestall me." + +"I'm sure Ted's hospitality might have covered us both," she said, +pulling off her gloves. He recognized the voice. At close range it was +even more delightful than he had remembered. + +"I doubt it, since he tells me that when you're here he doesn't mind who +else is away." + +"Did you say that, Teddy?" she asked, smiling at the boy. "Then you'll +surely give me lunch, though it isn't my day at home. I'm so hungry, +walking in this wind. But the air is glorious." + +She went away to remove her hat and coat, and came back quickly, her +masses of black hair suggesting but not confirming the impression that +the wind had lately had its way with them. Her eyes scanned the table +eagerly like those of a hungry boy. + +"Some of your scholars sick?" inquired Ted. + +"Two--and one away. So I'm to have a whole beautiful afternoon, though I +may have to see them Wednesday to make up. I am a teacher in Miss +Copeland's private school," she explained to Richard as simply as one of +the young women he knew would have explained. "I have singing lessons of +Servensky." + +This gave the young man food for thought, in which he indulged while +Miss Roberta Gray told Ted of an encounter she had had that morning with +a special friend of his own. This daughter of a distinguished man--of a +family not so rich as his own, but still of considerable wealth and +unquestionably high social position--was a teacher in a school for +girls; a most exclusive school, of course--he knew the one very +well--but still in a school and for a salary. To Richard the thing was +strange enough. She must surely do it from choice, not from necessity; +but why from choice? With her face and her charm--he felt the charm +already; it radiated from her--why should she want to tie herself down +to a dull round of duty like that instead of giving her thoughts to the +things girls of her position usually cared for? Taking into +consideration the statement Ted had lately made about his elder brother, +it struck Richard Kendrick that this must be a family of rather +eccentric notions. Somewhat to his surprise he discovered that the idea +interested him. He had found people of his own acquaintance tiresomely +alike; he congratulated himself on having met somebody who seemed likely +to prove different. + +"So you rejoice in your half-holiday, Miss Gray," Richard observed when +he had the chance. "I suppose you know exactly what you are going to do +with it?" + +"Why do you think I do?" she asked with an odd little twist of the lip. +"Do you always plan even unexpected holidays so carefully?" + +It occurred to Richard that up to the last fortnight his days since he +left college had been all holidays, and there had been plenty of them +throughout college life itself. But he answered seriously: "I don't +believe I do. But I had the idea that teachers were so in the habit of +living on schedules scientifically made out that even their holidays +were conscientiously lived up to, with the purpose of getting the full +value out of them." + +Even as he said it he could have laughed aloud at the thought of these +straitlaced principles being applicable to the young person who sat at +the table with himself and Ted. She a teacher? Never! He had known no +women teachers since his first governess had been exchanged for a tutor, +the sturdy youngster having rebelled, at an extraordinarily early age, +against petticoat government. His acquaintance included but one woman of +that profession--and she was a college president. He and she had not got +on well together, either, during the brief period in which they had been +thrown together--on an ocean voyage. But he had seen plenty of teachers, +crossing the Atlantic in large parties, surveying cathedrals, taking +coach drives, inspecting art galleries--all with that conscientious air +of making the most of it. Miss Roberta Gray one of that serious company? +It was incredible! + +"Dear me," laughed Roberta, "what a keen observer you are! I am almost +afraid to admit that I have no conscientiously thought-out plan--but +one. I am going to put myself in Ted's hands and let him personally +conduct my afternoon." + +Blue eyes met blue eyes at that and flashed happy fire. Lucky Ted! + +"Oh, jolly!" exclaimed that delighted youth. "Will you play basket-ball +in the attic?" + +"Of course I will. Just the thing for a rainy day." + +"Bowls?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Take a cross-country tramp?" His eyes were sparkling. + +Roberta glanced out of the window. The rain was dashing hard against the +pane. "If you won't go through the West Wood marshes," she stipulated. + +"Sure I won't. They'd be pretty wet even for me on a day like this. Is +there anything you'd specially like to do yourself?" he bethought +himself at this stage to inquire. + +Roberta shrugged her shoulders. "Of course it seems tame to propose +settling down by the living-room fire and popping corn, after we get +back and have got into our dry clothes," said she, "but--" + +Ted grinned. "That's the stuff," he acknowledged. "I knew you'd think of +the right thing to end up the lark with." He looked across at Richard +with a proud and happy face. "Didn't I tell you she was a peach of a +sister?" he challenged his guest. + +Richard nodded. "You certainly did," he said. "And I see no occasion to +question the statement." + +His eyes met Roberta's. Never in his life had the thought of a +cross-country walk in the rain so appealed to him. At the moment he +would have given his eagerly planned trip to the Far East for the chance +to march by her side to-day, even though the course should lie through +the marshes of West Wood, unquestionably the wettest place in the +country on that particular wet afternoon. But nobody would think of +inviting him to go--of course not. And while Roberta and Ted were +dashing along country lanes--he could imagine how her cheeks would look, +stung with rain, drops clinging to those bewildering lashes of hers--he +himself would be looking up references in dry and dusty State Supreme +Court records, and making notes with a fountain pen--a fountain +pen--symbol of the student. What abominable luck! + +Roberta was laughing as his eyes met hers. The gay curve of her lips +recalled to him one of the things Ted had said about her, concerning a +certain boyish quality in her makeup, and he was strongly tempted to +tell her of it. But he resisted. + +"I can see you two are great chums," said he. "I envy you both your +afternoon, clear through to the corn-popping." + +"If you are still at work when we reach that stage we will--send you in +some of it," she promised, and laughed again at the way his face fell. + +"I thought perhaps you were going to invite me in to help pop," he +suggested boldly. + +"I understand you are engaged in the serious labour of collecting +material for a book on a most serious subject," she replied. "We +shouldn't dare to divert your mind; and besides I am told that Uncle +Calvin intends to introduce you formally to the family by inviting you +to dinner some evening next week. Do you think you ought to steal in by +coming to a corn-popping beforehand? You see now I can quite truthfully +say to Uncle Calvin that I don't yet know you, but after I had popped +corn with you--" + +She paused, and he eagerly filled out the sentence: "You would know me? +I hope you would! Because, to tell the honest truth, literary research +is a bit new and difficult to me as yet, and any diversion--" + +But she would not ask him to the corn-popping. And he was obliged to +finish his luncheon in short order because Roberta and Ted, plainly +anxious to begin the afternoon's program, made such short work of it +themselves. They bade him farewell at the door of the dining-room like a +pair of lads who could hardly wait to be ceremonious in their eagerness +to be off, and the last he saw of them they were running up the +staircase hand in hand like the comrades they were. + +During his intensely stupid researches Richard Kendrick could hear +faintly in the distance the thud of the basket-ball and the rumble of +the bowls. But within the hour these tantalizing sounds ceased, and, in +the midst of the fiercest dash of rain against the library window-panes +that had yet occurred that day, he suddenly heard the bang of the +back-hall entrance-door. He jumped to his feet and ran to reconnoitre, +for the library looked out through big French windows upon the lawn +behind the house, and he knew that the pair of holiday makers would +pass. + +There they were! What could the rain matter to them? Clad in high +hunting boots and gleaming yellow oilskin coats, and with hunters' caps +on their heads, they defied the weather. Anything prettier than +Roberta's face under that cap, with the rich yellow beneath her chin, +her face alight with laughter and good fellowship, Richard vowed to +himself he had never seen. He wanted to wave a farewell to them, but +they did not look up at his window, and he would not knock upon the +pane--like a sick schoolboy shut up in the nursery enviously watching +his playmates go forth to valiant games. + +When they had disappeared at a fast walk down the gravelled path to the +gate at the back of the grounds, taking by this route a straight course +toward the open country which lay in that direction not more than a mile +away, the grandson of old Matthew Kendrick went reluctantly back to his +work. He hated it, yet--he was tremendously glad he had taken the job. +If only there might be many oases in the dull desert such as this had +been! + + * * * * * + +"How do you like him, Rob?" inquired the young brother, splashing along +at his sister's side down the country road. + +"Like whom?" Roberta answered absently, clearing her eyes of raindrops +by the application of a moist handkerchief. + +"Mr. Kendrick." + +"I think Uncle Cal might have looked a long way and not picked out a +less suitable secretary," said she with spirit. + +"Is that what he is? What is a seccertary anyway?" demanded Ted. + +"Several things Mr. Kendrick is not." + +"Oh, I say, Rob! I can't understand--" + +"It is a person who has learned how to be eyes, ears, hands, and brain +for another," defined Roberta. + +"Gee! Hasn't Uncle Cal got all those things himself--except eyes?" + +"Yes, but anybody who serves him needs them all, too. I don't believe +Mr. Kendrick ever helped anybody before in his life." + +"Maybe he has. He's got loads of money, Louis says." + +"Oh, money! Anybody can give away money." + +"They don't all, I guess," declared Ted, with boyish shrewdness. "Say, +Rob, why wouldn't you ask him to the corn-pop frolic?" + +Roberta looked round at him. Drenched violets would have been dull and +colourless beside the living tint of her eyes, the raindrops clinging to +her lashes. "Because he was too busy," she replied, and looked away +again. + +"I didn't think he seemed so very much in a hurry to get back to the +library," observed Ted. "When I went down to the kitchen after the corn +I looked in the door and he was sitting at the desk looking out of the +window. But then I look out of the window myself at school," he +admitted. + +"Ted, shall we take this path or the other?" asked his sister, halting +where three trails across the meadow diverged. + +"This one will be the wettest," said he promptly. "But I like it best." + +"Then we'll take it." And she plunged ahead. + +"I say, Rob, but you're a true sport!" acknowledged her young brother +with admiration. "Any girl I know would have wanted the dry path." + +"Dry?" Roberta showed him a laughing profile over her shoulder. "Where +all paths are soaking, why be fastidious? The wetter we are the more +credit for keeping jolly, as Mark Tapley would say. Lead on, MacDuff!" + +"You seem to be leading yourself," shouted Ted, as she unexpectedly +broke into a run. + +"It's only seeming, Ted," she called back. "Whenever a woman seems to be +leading, you may take my word for it she's only following the course +pointed out by some man. But--when she seems to be following, look out +for her!" + +But of this oracular statement Ted could make nothing and wisely did not +try. He was quite content to splash along in Rob's wake, thinking +complacently how hot and buttery the popped corn would be an hour hence. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PICTURES + + +Richard Kendrick had been guest at a good many dinners in the course of +his experience, dinners of all sorts and of varying degrees of +formality. Club dinners, college-class dinners, "stag" dinners at +imposing hotels and cafes, impromptu dinners hurriedly arranged by three +or four fellows in for a good time, dinners at which women were present, +more at which they were not--these were everyday affairs with him. But, +strange to say, the one sort of dinner with which he was not familiar +was that of the family type--the quiet gathering in the home of the +members of the household, plus one or two fortunate guests. He had never +sat at such a table under his own roof, and when he was entertained in +the homes of his friends the occasion was invariably made one for +summoning many other guests, and for elaborate feasting and diversion of +all kinds. + +It will be seen, therefore, that Richard looked forward to a totally new +experience, without in the least realizing that he did so. His principal +thought concerning the invitation to the Grays' was that he should at +last have the chance to meet again the niece of his employer, in a way +that would show him considerably more of her as a woman than he had been +able to observe on the occasion when they had so hurriedly finished a +luncheon together, and she had escaped from him as fast as possible in +order to set forth on a madcap adventure with her small brother. + +On the day of which he expected to spend the evening with the Grays he +found it not a little difficult to keep his mind upon his work with the +Judge, and that gentleman seemed to him extraordinarily particular, even +fussy, about having every fact brought to him painstakingly verified +down to the smallest detail. When at last he was released, and he rushed +home in his car to dress, he discovered that his spirits were dancing as +he could not remember having felt them dance for a year. And all over a +simple invitation to a family dinner! + +As he dressed it might have been said of him that he also could be +particular, even fussy. When, at length, he was ready, he was as +carefully attired as ever he had been in his life--and this not only in +body but in mind. It was curious, to his own observation of himself, how +differently he felt, in what different mood he was, than had ever been +the case when he had left his room for the scene of some accustomed +pleasure-making. He could not just define this difference to himself, +though he was conscious of it; but there was in it a sense of wishing +the people he was to meet to think well of him, according to their own +standards, and he was somehow rather acutely aware that their standards +were not likely to be those with which he was most intimate. + +When he entered the now familiar door of the Gray homestead he was +surprised to hear sounds which seemed to indicate that the affair was, +after all, much larger and more formal than he had been led to suppose. +Strains of music fell upon his ears--music from a number of stringed +instruments remarkably well played--and this continued as he made his +entrance into the long drawing-room at the left of the hall, of whose +interior he had as yet caught only tempting glimpses. + +As he greeted his hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gray, Judge Calvin Gray, +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Gray, wondering a little where the rest of the +family could be, his eye fell upon the musicians, and the problem was +solved. Ruth, the sixteen-year-old, sat before a harp; Louis, the elder +son, cherished a violin under his chin; Roberta--ah, there she was! +wearing a dull-blue evening frock above which gleamed her white neck, +her half-uncovered arms showing exquisite curves as she handled the bow +which was drawing long, rich notes from the violoncello at her knee. + +Not one of the trio looked up until the nocturne they were playing was +done. Then they rose together, laying aside their instruments, and made +the guest welcome. He had a vivid impression of being done peculiar +honour by their recognition of him as a new friend, for so they received +him. As he looked from one to another of their faces he experienced +another of those curious sensations which had from time to time assailed +him ever since he had first put his head inside the door of this house, +the sensation of looking in upon a new world of which he had known +nothing, and of being strangely drawn by all he saw there. It was not +alone the effect of meeting a more than ordinarily alluring girl, for +each member of the family had for him something of this drawing quality. +As he studied them it was clear to him that they belonged together, that +they loved each other, that the very walls of this old home were +eloquent of the life lived here. + +He had of course seen and noted families before, noted them carelessly +enough: rich families, poor families, big families, little, newly begun +families; but of a certain sort of family of which this was the +interesting and inviting type he knew as little as the foreigner, newly +landed on American shores, knows of the depths of the great country's +interior. And as he studied these people the desire grew and grew within +him to know as much of them as they would let him know. The very +grouping of them, against the effective background of the fine old +drawing-room, made, it seemed to him, a remarkable picture, full of a +certain richness of colour and harmony such as he had never observed +anywhere. + +The evening did not contain as much of gay encounter with Roberta as +he had anticipated--but, somehow, as he afterwards looked back upon it, +he could not feel that there had been any lack. He had fancied himself, +in prospect, sitting beside her at the table, exchanging that pleasant, +half-foolish badinage with which young men are wont to entertain +girls who are their companions at dinners, both nearly oblivious of +the rest of the company. But it turned out that his seat was between +his hostess and her younger daughter, Ruth, and though Roberta was +nearly opposite him at the table and he could look at her to his full +content--conservatively speaking--he was obliged to give himself to +playing the part of the deferential younger man where older and more +distinguished men are present. + +Yet--to his surprise, it must be admitted--he found himself not bored by +that table-talk. It was such table-talk, by the way, as is not to be had +under ordinary roofs. He now recognized that he had only partially +appreciated the qualities of mind possessed by Judge Gray--certainly not +his capacity for brilliant conversation. Mr. Robert Gray was quite his +elder brother's match, however, and more than once Kendrick caught Louis +Gray's eye meeting his own with the glance which means delighted pride +in the contest of wits which is taking place. All three young men +enjoyed it to the full, and even Ted listened with eyes full of eager +desire to comprehend that which he understood to be worth trying hard +for. + +"They enjoy these encounters keenly," said Mrs. Gray, beside Richard, as +a telling story by Mr. Robert Gray, in illustration of a point he had +made, came to a conclusion amid a burst of appreciative laughter. "They +relish them quite as much, we think, as if they often succeeded in +convincing each other, which they seldom do." + +"Are they always in such form?" asked Richard, looking into the fresh, +attractive face of the lady who was the mistress of this home, and +continuing to watch her with eyes as deferential as they were admiring. +She, too, represented a type of woman and mother with which he was +unfamiliar. Grace and charm in women who presided at dinner-tables he +had often met, but he could not remember when before he had sat at the +right hand of a woman who had made him begin, for almost the first time +in his life, to wonder what his own mother had been like. + +"Nearly always, at night, I think," said she, her eyes resting upon her +husband's face. Richard, observing, saw her smile, and guessed, without +looking, that there had been an exchange of glances. He knew, because he +had twice before noted the exchange, as if there existed a peculiarly +strong sympathy between husband and wife. This inference, too, possessed +a curious new interest for the young man--he had not been accustomed to +see anything of that sort between married people of long standing--not +in the world he knew so well. He seemed to be learning strange new +possibilities of existence at every step, since he had discovered the +Grays--he who at twenty-eight had not thought there was very much left +in human experience to be discovered. + +"Is it different in the morning?" Richard inquired. + +"Quite different. They are rather apt to take things more seriously in +the morning. The day's work is just before them and they are inclined to +discuss grave questions and dispose of them. But at night, when the +lights are burning and every one comes home with a sense of duty done, +it is natural to throw off the weights and be merry over the same +matters which, perhaps, it seemed must be argued over in the morning. We +all look forward to the dinner-table." + +"I should think you might," agreed Richard, looking about him once more +at the faces which surrounded him. He caught Roberta's eye, as he did +so--much to his satisfaction--and she gave him a straightforward, steady +look, as if she were taking his measure for the first time. Then, quite +suddenly, she smiled at him and turned away to speak to Ted, who sat by +her side. + +Richard continued to watch, and saw that immediately Ted looked his way +and also smiled. He wanted so much to know what this meant, that, as +soon as dinner was over and they were all leaving the room, he fell in +with the boy and, putting his hand through Ted's arm, whispered with +artful intent: "Was my tie under my left ear?" + +Ted stared up at him. "Your tie's all right, Mr. Kendrick." + +"Then it wasn't that. Perhaps my coat collar was turned up?" + +"Why, no," the boy laughed. "You look as right as anything. What made +you think--" + +"I saw you and your sister laughing at me and it worried me. I thought I +must be looking the guy some way." + +Ted considered. "Oh, no!" he said. "She asked me if I thought you were +enjoying the dinner as well as you would have liked the corn-popping." + +"And what did you decide?" + +"I said I couldn't tell, because I never saw you at a corn-popping. I +asked her that day we went to walk why she wouldn't ask you to it, but +she just said you were too busy to come. I didn't think you acted too +busy to come," he said naively, glancing up into Richard's down-bent +face. + +"Didn't I? Haven't I looked very busy whenever you have seen me in your +uncle's library?" + +Ted shook his head. "I don't think you have--not the way Louis looks +busy in father's office, nor the way father does." + +Richard laughed, but somehow the frank comment stung him a little, as he +would not have imagined the comment of an eleven-year-old boy could have +done. "See here, Ted," he urged, "tell me why you say that. I think +myself I've done a lot of work since I've been here, and I can't see why +I haven't looked it." + +But Ted shook his head. "I don't think it would be polite to tell you," +he said, which naturally did not help matters much. + +Still holding the lad's arm, Richard walked over to Roberta, who had +gone to the piano and was arranging some sheets of music there. + +"Miss Gray," he said, "have you accomplished a great deal to-day?" + +She looked up, puzzled. "A great deal of what?" she asked. + +"Work--endeavour--strenuous endeavour." + +"The usual amount. Lessons--and lessons--and one more lesson. I have +really more pupils than I can do justice to, but I am promised an +assistant if the work grows too heavy," she answered. "Why, please?" + +"I've been wondering if the motto of the Gray family might be 'Let us, +then, be up and doing.' Ted gives me that notion." + +Roberta glanced at Ted, whose face had grown quite grave. "Can you tell +him what the motto is, Ted?" + +"Of course I can," responded Ted proudly. "It's _Hoc age_." + +Richard hastily summoned his Latin, but the verb bothered him for a +minute. "_This do_," he presently evolved. "Well, I should say I came +pretty near it." + +"What's yours?" the boy now inquired. + +"My family motto? I believe it is _Crux mihi ancora_; but that doesn't +just suit me, so I've adopted one of my own"--he looked straight at +Roberta--"_Dum vivimus, vivamus_. Isn't that a pleasanter one in this +workaday world?" + +Ted was struggling hard, but his two months' experience with the +rudiments of Latin would not serve him. "What do they mean?" he asked +eagerly. + +"The second one means," said Roberta, with her arm about the slim young +shoulders, "'While we live, let us live--well.'" Her eyes met Richard's +with a shade of defiance in them. + +"Thank you," said he. "Do you expect me to adopt the amendment?" + +"Why not?" + +"Even you--take cross-country runs." + +She nodded. "And am all the better teacher for them next day." + +He laughed. "I should like to take one with you some time," said he. He +saw Judge Gray coming toward them. "I wonder if I'm likely ever to have +the chance," he added hurriedly. + +"_You_ take a cross-country run when you could have a sixty-mile spin in +that motor-car of yours instead?" + +"I couldn't go cross-country in that. You see I've been by the beaten +track so much I should like to try exploring something new." + +He was eager to say more, but Judge Gray, coming up to them, laid an +affectionate hand on his niece's shoulder. + +"She doesn't look the part she plays by day, does she?" he said to +Richard. "Curious, how times have changed. In my day a teacher looked a +teacher every minute of her time. One stood in awe of her--or +him--particularly of her. A prim, stuff gown, hair parted in the middle +and drawn smoothly away"--his glance wandered from Roberta's ivory neck +to the dusky masses of her hair--"spectacles, more than likely--with +steel bows. And a manner--ye gods--the manner! How we were impressed by +it! Well, well! Fine women they were and true to their profession. These +modern girls who look younger than their pupils--" He shook his head +with an air of being quite in despair about them. + +"Uncle Calvin," said Roberta, demurely, with her hand upon his arm, "do +tell Mr. Kendrick about your teaching school 'across the river' when you +were only sixteen years old." + +And, of course, that settled the chance of Richard's hearing anything +about Roberta's teaching, for, though Judge Gray was called out of the +room in the midst of his story, Stephen and Louis came up and joined the +group and switched the talk a thousand miles away from schools and +school-teaching. + +Presently there was music again, and this time Richard found himself +sitting beside young Mrs. Stephen Gray. Between numbers he found +questions to ask, which she answered with evident pleasure. + +"These three must have been playing together a good many years?" + +"Dear me, yes--ever since they were born, I think. They do make real +harmony, don't they?" + +"They do--in more ways than one. Is that colour scheme intentional, do +you think?" + +Mrs. Stephen's glance followed his as it dwelt upon the group. "I hadn't +noticed," she admitted, "but I see it now; it's perfect. And I've no +doubt Ruth thought it out. She's quite a wonderful eye for colour, and +she worships Rob and likes to dress so as to offset her--always giving +Rob the advantage--though of course she would have that, anyway, by +virtue of her own colouring." + +"Blue and corn-colour--should you call it?--and gold. Dull tints in the +background, and the candle-light on Miss Ruth's hair and her sister's +cheek. It makes the prettiest picture yet in my new collection of family +groups." + +Mrs. Stephen looked at him curiously. "Are you making a collection of +family groups?" she inquired. "Beginning away back with your first +memories?" + +"My first memories are not of family groups--only of nurses and tutors, +with occasional portraits of my grandfather making inquiries as to how I +was getting on. And my later memories are all of school and +college--then of travel. Not a home scene among them." + +"You poor boy!" There was something maternal in Mrs. Stephen's tone, +though she looked considerably younger than the object of her pity. "But +you must have looked at plenty of other family groups, if you had none +of your own." + +"That's exactly what I haven't done." + +"But you've lived--in the world," she cried under her breath, puzzled. + +A curious expression came into the young man's face. "That's exactly +what I have done," he said quietly. "In the world, not in the home. I've +not even _seen_ homes--like this one. The sight of brother and sisters +playing violin and harp and 'cello together, with the father and mother +and brother and uncle looking on, is absolutely so new to me that it has +a fascination I can't explain. I find myself continually watching you +all--if you'll forgive me--in your relations to each other. It's a new +interest," he admitted, smiling, "and I can't tell you what it means to +me." + +She shook her head. "It sounds like a strange tale to me," said she, +"but I suppose it must be true. How much you have missed!" + +"I'm just beginning to realize it. I never knew it till I began to come +here. I thought I was well enough off--it seems I'm pretty poor." + +It was rather a strange speech for a young man of his class to make. +Possibly it indicated the existence of those "brains" with which his +grandfather had credited him. + +"Well, Rob, do you think he had as dull a time as you said he would +have?" + +The inquirer was Ruth. She stood, still in the corn-coloured frock, in +the doorway of her sister's room, from which her own opened. "Please +unhook me," she requested, approaching Roberta and turning her back +invitingly. + +Roberta, already out of the blue-silk gown, released her young sister +from the imprisonment of her hooks and eyes. + +"His manners are naturally too good to make it clear whether he had a +dull time or not," was Roberta's non-committal reply. + +"I don't believe his manners are too good to cover up his being bored, +if he was bored," Ruth went on. "He certainly wasn't bored _all_ the +time, anybody could tell that. He's very good-looking, isn't he?" + +"If you care for that sort of good looks--yes." + +"What sort?" + +"The kind that doesn't express anything--except having had a good time +every minute of one's life." + +"Why, Rob, what's the matter with you? Anybody would think you had +something against poor Mr. Kendrick." + +"If he were 'poor Mr. Kendrick' there might be a chance of liking him, +for he would have had to _do_ something." + +Roberta was pulling out hairpins with energy, and now let the whole dark +mass tumble about her shoulders. The half-curling locks were very thick +and soft, and as she shook them away from her face she reminded Ruth of +a certain wild little Arabian pony of her own. + +"You throw back your head just like Sheik when he's going to bolt," Ruth +cried, laughing. "I wish my hair were like that. It looks perfectly dear +whatever you do with it, and mine's only pretty when it's been put just +right." + +"It certainly was put just right to-night then," said a third voice, and +Rosamond, Stephen's wife, appeared in Roberta's half-open door. "May I +come in? Steve hasn't come up yet, and I'm so comfortable in this loose +thing I want to sit up a while and enjoy it." + +Rosamond looked hardly older than Roberta; there were times when she +looked younger, being small and fair. Ruth considered her quite as much +of a girl as either herself or Roberta, and welcomed her eagerly to the +discussion in which she herself was so much interested. + +"Rosy," was her first question, "did _you_ think our guest was bored +to-night?" + +"Bored?" exclaimed Mrs. Stephen in surprise. "Why should he be? He +didn't look it whenever I observed him. And if you had seen him when the +trio was playing you wouldn't have thought so. By the way, he has an eye +for colour. He noticed how your frock and Rob's went together in the +candle-light, with the harp to give a touch of gold." + +"Did he say so?" cried Ruth in delight. + +"He asked if the colour scheme was intentional. I said I thought it +probably was--on your part. Rob never thinks of colour schemes." + +"Neither does any _man_," murmured Roberta from the depths of the hair +she was brushing with an energetic arm. "Unless it happens to be his +business," she amended. + +"Rob doesn't like him," declared Ruth, "just because he has money and +good looks and doesn't work for his living, and likes pretty colour +schemes. He probably gets that from having seen so much wonderful art in +his travels. Aren't painters just as good as bridge-builders? Rob +doesn't think so. She wants every man to get his hands grubby." + +Roberta turned about, laughing. "This one isn't even a painter. Go to +bed, you foolish, analytical child. And don't dream of the beautiful +guest who admired your corn-coloured frock." + +"He only liked it because it set off your blue one," Ruth shot back. + +"He said nothing whatever about my lovely new white gown," Rosamond +called after her. + +Roberta came up to her sister-in-law from behind and put both arms about +her. "Stephen came and whispered in my ear to-night," said she, "and +wanted to know if I had ever seen Rosy look sweeter. I said I had--an +hour before. He asked what you had on, and I said, 'A gray kimono--and +the baby on her arm.' He smiled and nodded--and I saw the look in his +eyes." + +"Rob, you're the dearest sister a girl ever had given to her," Rosamond +answered, returning the embrace. + +"And yet you two say I don't care for colour schemes," Roberta reminded +her as she returned to her hair-brushing. "I care enough for them to +want them made up of colours that will wash--warranted not to fade--that +will stand sun and rain and only grow the more beautiful!" + +"What _are_ you talking about now, dear?" laughed Rosamond happily, +still thinking of what Stephen had said to Roberta. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RICHARD PRICKS HIS FINGERS + + +Hoofbeats on the driveway outside the window! Beside the window stood +the desk at which Richard was accustomed to work at Judge Gray's +dictation. And at the desk on this most alluring of all alluring +Indian-summer days in middle November sat a young man with every drop of +blood in his vigorous body shouting to him to drop his work and rush +out, demanding: "Take me with you!" + +For there, walking their horses along the driveway from the distant +stables, were three figures on horseback. There was one with sunny +hair--Ruth--her brown habit the colour of the pretty mare she rode; one +with russet-gaitered legs astride of the little Arabian pony called +Sheik--Ted; one, all in dark, beautifully tailored green, with a soft +gray hat pulled over masses of dusky hair, her face--Richard could see +her face now as the horses drew nearer--all gay and eager for the +ride--Roberta. + +Judge Gray, his glance following his companion's, looked out also. He +rose and came and stood behind Richard at the window and tapped upon the +pane, waving his hand as the riders looked up. Instantly all three faces +lighted with happy recognition and acknowledgment. Ruth waved and +nodded. Ted pulled off his cap and swung it. Roberta gave a quick +military salute, her gray-gauntleted hand at her hat brim. + +Richard smiled with the Judge at the charming sight, and sighed with the +next breath. What a fool he had been to tie himself down to this desk +when other people were riding into the country! Yet--if he hadn't been +tied to that desk he would neither have known nor cared who rode out +from the old Gray stables, or where they went. + +The Judge caught the slight escaping breath and smiled again as the +riders passed out of sight. "It makes you wish for the open country, +doesn't it?" said he. "I don't blame you. I should have gone with the +young folks myself if I had been ten years younger. It _is_ a fine day, +isn't it? I've been so absorbed I hadn't observed. Suppose we stop work +at three and let ourselves out into God's outdoors? Not a bad idea, eh?" + +"Not bad," agreed Richard with a leap of spirits, "if it pleases you, +sir. I'm ready to work till the usual time if you prefer." + +"Well spoken. But I don't prefer. I shall enjoy a stroll down the avenue +myself in this sunshine. What sunshine--for November!" + +It was barely three when the Judge released his assistant, two hours +after the riding party had left. As he opened the front door and ran to +his waiting car, Richard was wondering how many miles away they were and +in what direction they had gone. He wanted nothing so much as to meet +them somewhere on the road--better yet, to overtake and come upon them +unawares. + +A powerful car driven by a determined and quick-witted young man may +scour considerable country while three horses, trotting in company, are +covering but a few short miles. Richard was sure of one thing: whichever +road appealed to the young Grays as most picturesque and secluded on +this wonderful Indian-summer afternoon would be their choice. Not the +main highways of travel, but some enticing by-way. Where would that be? +He decided on a certain course, with a curious feeling that he could +follow wherever Roberta led, by the invisible trail of her radiant +personality. He would see! Mile after mile--he took them swiftly, +speeding out past the West Wood marshes with assurance of the fact that +this was certainly one of the favourite ways. + +Twelve miles out he came to a fork in the road. Which trail? One led up +a steep hill, the other down into the river valley, soft-veiled in the +late sunshine. Which trail? He could seem to see Roberta choosing the +hill and putting her horse up it, while Ruth called out that the valley +road was better. With a sense of exhilaration he sent the car up the +hill, remembering that from the top was a broad view sure to be worth +while on a day like this. Besides, up here he might be able to see far +ahead and discern the party somewhere in the distance. + +Just over the brow he came upon them where they had camped by the +roadside. It was a road quite off the line of travel and they were a +hundred feet back among a clump of pine trees, their horses tied to the +fence-rail. A bonfire sent up a pungent smoke half veiling the figures. +But the car had come roaring up the hill, and they were all looking his +way. Two of the horses had plunged a little at the sudden noise, and Ted +ran forward. Richard stopped his engine, triumphant, his pulses +quickening with a bound. + +"Oh, hullo!" cried Ted in joyful excitement. "Where'd you come from, Mr. +Kendrick? Isn't this luck!" + +"This is certainly luck," responded Richard, doffing his hat as the +figures by the fire moved his way, the one in brown coming quickly, the +one in green rather more slowly. "Your uncle released me at three and I +rushed for the open. What a day!" + +"Isn't it wonderful?" Ruth came up to the brown mare, which was eying +the big car with some resentment. She patted the velvet nose as she +spoke. "Don't you mind, Bess," she reproached the mare. "It's nothing +but a puffing, noisy car. It's not half so nice as you." + +She smiled up at Richard and he smiled back. "I rather think you're +right," he admitted. "I used to think myself there was nothing like a +good horse. I'd like to exchange the car for one just now; I'm sure of +that." + +"It wouldn't buy any one of ours." Roberta, coming up, glanced from the +big machine to the trio of interested animals, all of which were keeping +watchful eyes on the intruder. "Nonsense, Colonel,--stand still!" + +"I don't want to buy one of yours; I want one of my own, to ride back +with you--if you'd let me." + +"Anyhow, you can stop and have a bite with us," said Ted, with a sudden +thought. "Can't he, Rob?" + +Roberta smiled. "If he is as hungry as he looks." + +"Do I look hungry?" + +"Starving. So do we, no doubt. Come and have some sandwiches." + +"We're going to toast them," explained Ruth, walking back to the fire +with Richard when he had leaped with alacrity over the fence, his hat +left behind, his brown head shining in the sun, his face happier than +any of his fellow-clubmen had seen it in a year, as they would have been +quick to notice if any of them had come upon him now. "We have ginger +ale, too; do you like ginger ale?" + +"Immensely!" Richard eyed the preparations with interest. "How do you +toast your sandwiches?" + +"On forks of wood; Ted's going to cut them." + +"Please let me." And the guest fell to work. He found a keen enjoyment +in preparing these implements, and afterward in the process of toasting, +which was done every-one-for-himself, with varying degrees of success. +The sandwiches were filled with a rich cheese mixture, and the result of +toasting them was a toothsome morsel most gratifying to the hungry +palate. + +"One more?" urged Ruth, offering Richard the nearly empty box which had +contained a good supply. + +"Thank you--no; I've had seven," he refused, laughing. "Nothing ever +tasted quite so good. And I'm an interloper." + +"Here's to the interloper!" Ruth raised her glass and drank the last of +her ginger ale. "We always provide for one. Usually it's a small boy." + +"More often a pair of them. And always there are Bess, Colonel, and +Sheik." Roberta rose to her feet, the last three sandwiches in hand, and +walked away to the horses tied to the fence-rail. + +Richard's eyes followed her. In the austere lines of her riding-habit he +could see more clearly than he had yet done what a superb young image of +health and energy she was. + +"Rob adores horses," Ruth remarked, looking after her sister also. "You +ought to see her ride cross-country. My Bess can't jump, but her Colonel +can. I don't believe there's anything in sight Rob and Colonel couldn't +jump. But I can never get used to seeing her; I have to shut my eyes +when Colonel rises, and I don't open them till I hear him land. But he's +never fallen with her, and she says he never will." + +"He won't." + +"Why not? Any horse might, you know, if he slipped on wet ground or +something." + +"He never will with her on his back. He's more likely to jump so high +he'll never come down." + +Ruth laughed. "Look at Colonel rub his nose against her, now he's had +the sandwich. Don't you wish you had a picture of them?" + +"Indeed I do!" The tone was fervent. Then a thought struck him and he +jumped to his feet. "By all luck, I believe there's a little camera in +the car. If there is we'll have it." + +He ran to the fence, took a flying leap over, and fell to searching. In +a moment he produced something which he waved at Ruth. She and Ted went +to meet him as he returned. Roberta, busy with the horses, had not seen. + +"There are only two exposures left on the film, but they'll do, if +she'll be good. Will she mind if I snap her, or must I ask her +permission?" + +"I think you'd better ask it," counselled Ruth doubtfully. "If it were +one of us she wouldn't mind--" + +"I see." He set the little instrument with a skilled touch and rapidly, +then walked toward Roberta and the horses. He aimed it with care, then +he called: "You won't mind if I take a picture of the horses, will you?" + +Roberta turned quickly, her hand on Colonel's snuggling nose. "Not at +all," she answered, and took a quick step to one side. But before she +had taken it the sharp-eyed little lens of the camera had caught her, +her attitude at the instant one of action, the expression of her face +that of vivacious response. She flew out of range and before she could +speak the camera clicked again, this time the lens so obviously pointed +at the animals, and not at herself, that the intent of the operator +could not be called in question. + +She looked at him with indignant suspicion, but his glance in return was +innocent, though his eyes sparkled. + +"They'll make the prettiest kind of a picture, won't they?" he observed, +sliding the small black box back into its case. "I wish I had another +film; I'd take a lot of pictures about this place. I mean always to be +loaded, but November isn't usually the time for photographs, and I'd +forgotten all about it." + +"If you find you have a picture of me on one of those shots I can trust +you not to keep it?" + +"I may have caught you on that first shot. I'll bring it to you to see. +If your hat is tilted too much or you don't like your own expression--" + +"I shall not like it, whatever it is. You stole it. That wasn't +fair--and when you had just been treated to sandwiches and ginger ale!" + +He looked into her brilliant face and could not tell what he saw there. +He opened the camera box again and took out the instrument. He removed +the roll of films carefully from its position, sealed it, and held it +out to her. His manner was the perfection of courtesy. + +"There are other pictures on the roll, I suppose?" she said doubtfully, +without accepting it. + +"Certainly. I forget what they are. But it doesn't matter." + +"Of course it matters. Have them developed--and give me back my own." + +"If I develop them I shall be obliged to see yours--if you are on it. If +I once see it I may not have the force of character to give it back. +Your only safe course is to take it now." + +Ted burst into the affair with a derisive shout. "Oh, Rob! What a silly +to care about that little bit of a picture! Let him have it. It was only +the horses he wanted anyway!" + +The two pairs of eyes met. His were full of deference, yet compelling. +Hers brimmed with restrained laughter. With a gesture she waved back the +roll and walked away toward the fire. + +"Thank you," said he behind her. "I'll try to prove myself worthy of the +trust." + +"Rufus! Dare you to run down the hill to that big tree with me!" Ted, no +longer interested in this tame conclusion of what had promised to be an +exciting encounter, challenged his sister. Ruth accepted, and the pair +were off down a long, inviting slope none too smooth, with a stiff +stubble, but not the less attractive for that. + +Richard and Roberta were left standing at the top of the hill near the +place where the fire was smouldering into dulness. Before them stretched +the valley, brown and yellow and dark green in the November sunlight, +with a gray-blue river winding its still length along. In the far +distance a blue-and-purple haze enveloped the hills; above all stretched +a sky upon whose fairness wisps of clouds were beginning to show here +and there, while in the south the outlines of a rising bank of gray gave +warning that those who gazed might look their fill to-day--to-morrow +there would be neither sunlight nor purple haze. The two looked in +silence for a minute, not at the boy and girl shouting below, but at the +beauty in the peaceful landscape. + +"An Indian-summer day," said Roberta gravely, as if her mood had changed +with the moment, "is like the last look at something one is not sure one +shall ever see again." + +At the words Richard's gaze shifted from the hill to the face of the +girl beside him. The sunshine was full upon the rich bloom of her cheek, +upon the exquisite line of her dark eyebrow. What was the beauty of an +Indian-summer landscape compared with the beauty of budding summer in +that face? But he answered her in the same quiet way in which she had +spoken: "Yes, it's hard to have faith that winter can sweep over all +this and not blot it out forever. But it won't." + +"No, it won't. And after all I like the storms. I should like to stand +just here, some day when Nature was simply raging, and watch. I wish I +could build a stout little cabin right on this spot and come up here and +spend the worst night of the winter in it. I'd love it." + +"I believe you would. But not alone? You'd want company?" + +"I don't think I'd even mind being alone--if I had a good fire for +company--and a dog. I should be glad of a dog," she owned. + +"But not one good comrade, one who liked the same sort of thing?" + +"So few people really do. It would have to be somebody who wouldn't talk +when I wanted to listen to the wind, or wouldn't mind my not +talking--and yet who wouldn't mind my talking either, if I took a sudden +notion." She began to laugh at her own fancy, with the low, rich note +which delighted his ear afresh every time he heard it. "Comrades who are +tolerant of one's every mood are not common, are they? Mr. Kendrick, +what do you suppose those dots of bright scarlet are, halfway down the +hill? They must be rose haws, mustn't they? Nothing else could have that +colour in November." + +"I don't know what 'rose haws' are. Do you want them--whatever they are? +I'll go and get them for you." + +"I'll go, too, to see if they're worth picking. They're thorny things; +you won't like them, but I do." + +"You think I don't like thorny things?" he asked her as they went down +the hillside, up which Ted and Ruth were now struggling. It was steep +and he held out his hand to her, but she ignored it and went on with +sure, light feet. + +"No, I think you like them soft and rounded." + +"And you prefer them prickly?" + +"Prickly enough to be interesting." + +They reached the scraggly rosebush, bare except for the bright red haws, +their smooth hard surfaces shining in the sun. Richard got out his +knife, and by dint of scratching his hands in a dozen places, succeeded +in gathering quite a cluster. Then he went to work at getting rid of the +thorns. + +"You may like things prickly, but you'll be willing to spare a few of +these," he observed. + +He succeeded in time in pruning the cluster into subordination, bound +them with a tough bit of dried weed which he found at his feet, and held +out the bunch. "Will you do me the honour of wearing them?" + +She thrust the smooth stems into the breast of her riding-coat, where +they gave the last picturesque touch to her attire. "Thank you," she +acknowledged somewhat tardily. "I can do no less after seeing you +scarify yourself in my service. You might have put on your gloves." + +"I might--and suffered your scarifying mirth, which would have been much +worse. 'He jests at scars that never felt a wound,' but he who jests at +them after he has felt them is the hero. Observe that I still jest." He +put his lips to a bleeding tear on his wrist as he spoke. "My only +regret is that the rose haws were not where they are now when I +photographed the horses. Only, mine is not a colour camera. I must get +one and have it with me when I drive, in case of emergencies like this +one." + +A whimsical expression touching his lips, he gazed off over the +landscape as he spoke, and she glanced at his profile. She was obliged +to admit to herself that she had seldom noted one of better lines. +Curiously enough, to her observation there did not lack a suggestion of +ruggedness about his face, in spite of the soft and easy life she +understood him to have led. + +Ted and Ruth now came panting up to them, and the four climbed together +to the hilltop. + +Roberta turned and scanned the sun. Immediately she decreed that it was +time to be off, reminding her protesting young brother that the November +dusk falls early and that it would be dark before they were at home. + +Richard put both sisters into their saddles with the ease of an old +horseman. "I've often regretted selling a certain black beauty named +Desperado," he remarked as he did so, "but never more than at this +minute. My motor there strikes me as disgustingly overadequate to-day. I +can't keep you company by any speed adjustment in my control, and if I +could your steeds wouldn't stand it. I'll let you start down before me +and stay here for a bit. It's too pleasant a place to leave. And even +then I shall be at home before you--worse luck!" + +"We're sorry, too," said Ruth, and Ted agreed, vociferously. As for +Roberta, she let her eyes meet his for a moment in a way so rare with +her, whose heavy lashes were forever interfering with any man's direct +gaze, that Richard made the most of his opportunity. He saw clearly at +last that those eyes were of the deepest sea blue, darkened almost to +black by the shadowing lashes. If by some hard chance he should never +see them again he knew he could not forget them. + +With beat of impatient hoofs upon the hard road the three were off, +their chorusing farewells coming back to him over their shoulders. When +they were out of sight he went back to the place on the hilltop where he +had stood beside Roberta, and thought it all over. In that way only +could he make shift to prolong the happiness of the hour. + +The happiness of the hour! What had there been about it to make it the +happiest hour he could recall? Such a simple, outdoor encounter! He had +spent many an hour which had lingered in his memory--hours in places +made enchanting to the eye by every device of cunning, in the society of +women chosen for their beauty, their wit, their power to allure, to +fascinate, to intoxicate. He had had his senses appealed to by every +form of attraction a clever woman can fabricate, herself a miracle of +art in dress, in smile, in speech. He had gone from more than one door +with his head swimming, the vivid recollection of the hour just past a +drug more potent than the wine that had touched his lips. + +His head was not swimming now, thank heaven, though his pulses were +unquestionably alive. It was the exhilaration of healthy, powerful +attraction, of which his every capacity for judgment approved. He had +not been drugged by the enchantment which is like wine--he had been +stimulated by the charm which is like the feel of the fresh wind upon +the brow. Here was a girl who did not need the background of +artificiality, one who could stand the sunlight on her clear cheek--and +the sunlight on her soul--he knew that, without knowing how he knew. It +was written in her sweet, strong, spirited face, and it was there for +men to read. No man so blind but he can read a face like that. + +The darkness had almost fallen when he forced himself to leave the spot. +But--reward for going while yet a trace of dusky light remained--he had +not reached the bottom of the hill road, up which his car had roared an +hour before, when he saw something fallen there which made him pull the +motor up upon its throbbing cylinders. He jumped out and ran to rescue +what had fallen. It was the bunch of rose haws he had so carefully +denuded of thorns, and which she had worn upon her breast for at least a +short time before she lost it. She had not thrown it away intentionally, +he was sure of that. If she had she would not have flung it +contemptuously into the middle of the road for him to see. + +He put it into the pocket of his coat, where it made a queer bulge, but +he could not risk losing it by trusting it to the seat beside him. Until +he had won something that had been longer hers, it was a treasure not to +be lost. + +Four miles toward town he passed the riding party and exchanged a fire +of gay salutations with them. When he had left them behind he could not +reach home too soon. He hurried to his rooms, hunted out a receptacle of +silver and crystal and filled it with water, placed the bunch of rose +haws in it and set the whole on his reading-table, under the electric +drop-light, where it made a spot of brilliant colour. + +He had an invitation for the evening; he had cared little to accept it +when it had been given him; he was sorry now that he had not refused it. +As the hour drew near, his distaste grew upon him, but there was no way +in which he could withdraw without giving disappointment and even +offence. He went forth, therefore, with reluctance, to join precisely +such a party as he had many times made one of with pleasure and elation. +To-night, however, he found the greatest difficulty in concealing his +boredom, and he more than once caught himself upon the verge of actual +discourtesy, because of his tendency to become absent-minded and let the +merry-making flow by him without taking part in it. + +Altogether, it was with a strong sense of relief and freedom that he at +last escaped from what had seemed to him an interminable period of +captivity to the uncongenial moods and manners of other people. He +opened the door of his rooms with a sense of having returned to a place +where he could be himself--his new self--that strange new self who +singularly failed to enjoy the companionship of those who had once +seemed the most satisfying of comrades. + +The first thing upon which his eager glance fell was the bunch of +scarlet rose haws under the softly illumining radiance of the +drop-light. His eyes lighted, his lips broke into a smile--the lips +which had found it, all evening, so hard to smile with anything +resembling spontaneity. + +Hat in hand, he addressed his treasure: "I've come back to stay with +you!" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +UNSUSTAINED APPLICATION + + +"Mr. Kendrick, do you understand typewriting?" + +Judge Gray's assistant looked up, a slight surprise on his face. "No, +sir, I do not," he said. + +"I am sorry. These sheets I am sending to the Capitol to be looked over +and criticised ought to be typewritten. I could send them downtown, but +I want the typist here at my elbow." + +He sat frowning a little with perplexity, and presently he reached for +the telephone. Then he put it down, his brow clearing. "This is +Saturday," he murmured. "If Roberta is at home--" + +He left the room. In five minutes he was back, his niece beside him. +Richard Kendrick had not set eyes upon her for a fortnight; he rose at +her appearance and stood waiting her recognition. She gave it, stopping +to offer him her hand as she passed him, smiling. But, this little +ceremony over, she became on the instant the business woman. Richard saw +it all, though he did his best to settle down to his work again and +pursue it with an air of absorption. + +Roberta went to a cupboard which opened from under bookshelves, and drew +therefrom a small portable typewriter. This she set upon a table beside +a window at right angles from Richard and all of twenty feet away from +him; she could hardly have put a greater distance between them. The +Judge drew up a chair for her; she removed the cover from the compact +little machine, and nodded at him. He placed his own chair beside her +table and sat down, copy in hand. + +"This is going to be a rather difficult business," said he. "There are +many points where I wish to indicate slight changes as we go along. I +can't attempt to read the copy to you, but should like to have you give +me the opening words of each paragraph as you come to it. I think I can +recall those which contain the points for revision." + +The work began. That is to say, work at the typewriter side of the room +began, and in earnest. From the first stroke of the keys it was evident +that the Judge had called to his aid a skilled worker. The steady, +smooth clicking of the machine was interrupted only at the ends of +paragraphs, when the Judge listened to the key words of the succeeding +lines. Roberta sat before that "typer" as if she were accustomed to do +nothing else for her living, her eyes upon the keys, her profile +silhouetted against the window beside her. + +As far as the mechanical part of the labour was concerned, Richard had +never seen a task get under way more promptly nor proceed with greater +or smoother dispatch. As he sat beside his own window he nearly faced +the pair at the other window. Try as he would he could not keep his mind +upon his work. It was a situation unique in his experience. That he, +Richard Kendrick, should be employed in serious work in the same room +with the niece of a prosperous and distinguished gentleman, a girl who +had not hesitated to learn a trade in which she had become proficient, +and that the three of them should spend the morning in this room +together, taking no notice of each other beyond that made necessary by +the task in hand--it was enough to make him burst out laughing. At the +same time he felt a genuine satisfaction in the situation. If he could +but work in the same room with her every day, though she should +vouchsafe him no word, how far from drudgery would the labour be then +removed! + +He managed to keep up at least the appearance of being closely engaged, +turning the leaves of books, making notes, arising to consult other +books upon the shelves. But he could not resist frequent furtive glances +at the profile outlined against the window. It was a distracting +outline, it must be freely admitted. Even upon the hill, seen against +the blue-and-purple haze, it had hardly been more so. What indeed could +a young man do but steal a look at it as often as he might? There was no +knowing when he should have such another chance. + +Things proceeded in this course without interruption until eleven +o'clock. The Judge, finding it possible to get ahead so satisfactorily +by this new method, decided to send on considerably more material to be +passed upon by his critical coadjutor at the Capitol than he had +originally intended to do at this time. But as the clock struck the hour +a caller's card was sent in to him, and with a word to Roberta he left +the room to see his visitor elsewhere. + +Roberta finished her paragraph, then sat studying the next one. She did +not look up, nor did Richard. The moments passed and the Judge did not +return. Roberta rose and threw open the window beside her, letting in a +great sweep of December air. + +Richard seized his opportunity. "Good for you!" he applauded. "Shall I +open mine?" + +"Please. It will warm up again very quickly. It began to seem stifling." + +"Not much like the place where you want to build a cabin and stay alone +in a storm. Or--not alone. You are willing to have a dog with you. What +sort of a dog?" + +"A Great Dane, I think. I have a friend who owns one. They are +inseparable." + +By the worst of luck the Judge chose this moment to return, and the +windows went down with a rush. + +The Judge shivered, smiling at the pair. "You young things, all warmth +and vitality! You are never so happy as when the wind is lifting your +hair. Now I think I'm pretty vigorous for my years, but I wouldn't sit +and talk in a room with two open windows, in December." + +"Neither can we--hang it!" thought Richard. "Why couldn't that chap have +stayed a few minutes longer--when we'd just got started?" + +At luncheon-time Roberta's part in the work was not completed. Her uncle +asked for two hours more of her time and she cheerfully promised it. So +at two o'clock the stage was again set as a business office, the actors +again engaged in their parts. But at three the situation was abruptly +changed. + +"I believe there are no more revisions to be made," declared Judge Gray +with a sigh of weariness. "I have taxed you heavily, my dear, but if you +are equal to finishing these eleven sheets for me by yourself I shall be +grateful. My eyes have reached the limit of endurance, even with all the +help you have given me. I must go to my room." + +He paused by Richard's desk on his way out. "Have you finished the +abstract of the chapter on Judge Cahill?" he asked. "No? I thought you +would perhaps have covered that this morning. But--I do not mean to +exact too much. It will be quite satisfactory if you can complete it +this afternoon." + +"I am sorry," said his assistant, flushing in a quite unaccustomed +manner. "I have been working more slowly than I realized. I will finish +it as rapidly as I can, sir." + +"Don't apologize, Mr. Kendrick. We all have our slow days. I undoubtedly +underestimated the amount of time the chapter would require. Good +afternoon to you." + +Richard sat down and plunged into the task he now saw he had merely +played with during the morning. By a tremendous effort he kept his eyes +from lifting to the figure at the typewriter, whose steady clicking +never ceased but for a moment at a time, putting him to shame. Yet try +as he would he could not apply himself with any real concentration; and +the task called for concentration, all he could command. + +"You are probably not used to working in the same room with a +typewriter," said his companion, quite unexpectedly, after a full half +hour of silence. She had stopped work to oil a bearing in her machine. +There was an odd note in her voice; it sounded to Richard as if she +meant: "You are not used to doing anything worth while." + +"I don't mind it in the least," he protested. + +"I'm sorry not to take my work to another room," Roberta went on, +tipping up her machine and manipulating levers with skill as she applied +the oil. "But I shall soon be through." + +"Please don't hurry. I ought to be able to work under any conditions. +And I certainly enjoy having you at work in the same room," he ventured +to add. It was odd how he found himself merely venturing to say to this +girl things which he would have said without hesitation--putting them +much more strongly withal--to any other girl he knew. + +"One needs to be able to forget there's anybody in the same room." There +was a little curl of scorn about her lips. + +"That might be easier to do under some conditions than others." He did +not mean to be trampled upon. + +But Roberta finished her oiling in silence and again applied herself to +her typing with redoubled energy. + +He went at his abstract, suddenly furious with himself. He would show +her that he could work as persistently as she. He could not pretend to +himself that she was not absorbed. Only entire absorption could enable +her to reel off those pages without more than an infrequent stop for the +correction of an error. + +Turning a page in the big volume of records of speeches in the State +Legislature, which he was consulting, Richard came upon a sheet of paper +on which was written something in verse. His eye went to the bottom of +the sheet to see there the source of the quotation--Browning--with +reference to title and page. No harm to read a quoted poem, certainly; +his eyes sought it eagerly as a relief from the sonorous phrasing of the +speech he was attempting to read. He had never seen the words before; +the first line--and he must read to the end. What a thing to find in a +dusty volume of forgotten speeches of a date long past! + +Such a starved bank of moss + Till, that May-morn, +Blue ran the flash across: + Violets were born! + +Sky--what a scowl of cloud + Till, near and far, +Ray on ray split the shroud: + Splendid, a star! + +World--how it walled about + Life with disgrace +Till God's own smile came out: + That was thy face! + +Speeches were forgotten; he devoured the words over and over again. They +seemed to him to have been made expressly for him. A starved bank of +moss--that was exactly what he had been, only he had not known it, but +had fancied himself a garden of rich resource. He knew better now, +starved he was, and starved he would remain--unless he could make the +violets his own. No doubt but he had found them! + +He followed an impulse. Rising, the sheet of yellowed paper in his hand, +he walked over to the typewriter. Without apology he laid the sheet upon +the pile of typed ones at her side. + +"See what I've found in an old volume of state speeches." + +Roberta's busy hand stopped. Her eyes scanned the yellow page upon which +the stiff, fine handwriting, clearly that of a man, stood out legibly as +print. Business woman she might be, but she could not so far abstract +herself as not to be touched by the hint of romance involved in finding +such words in such a place. + +"How strange!" she owned. "And they've been there a long time, by the +look of the paper and ink. I never saw the handwriting before. Perhaps +Uncle Calvin lent the book to somebody long ago and the 'somebody' left +this in it." + +"Shall I put it back, or show it to Judge Gray?" + +He remained beside her though she had handed back the paper. + +"Put it back, don't you think? If you wrote out such words and left them +in a book, you would want them to stay there, not to be looked at +curiously by other eyes fifty years after." + +"That's somebody's heart there on that sheet of old paper," said he. +Apparently he was looking at the paper; in reality he was stealing a +glance past it at her down-bent face. + +"Not necessarily. Somebody may merely have been attracted by the music +of the lines. Put it back, Mr. Secretary, and concern yourself with +Judge Cahill. It's to be hoped that you won't find any more distracting +verse between his pages." + +"Why not? Oughtn't one to get all the poetry one can out of life?" + +"Not in business hours." + +He laughed in spite of himself at the failure of his effort to make her +self-conscious by any reading of such lines in his presence. Clearly she +meant to allow no personal relation to arise between them while they +were thrown together by Judge Gray's need of them. She fell to typing +again with even more energy than before, if that were possible, while +he--it must be confessed that before he laid the verses away between the +pages for another fifty years' sleep he had made note of their identity, +that he might look them up again in a seldom opened copy of the English +poet on his shelves at home. They belonged to him now! + +In half an hour more Roberta's machine stopped clicking. Swiftly she +covered it, set it away in the book-cupboard, and put her table in +order. She laid the typewritten sheets together upon Judge Gray's desk +in a straight-edged pile, a paperweight on top. In her simple dress of +dark blue, trim as any office woman's attire, she might have been a +hired stenographer--of a very high class--putting her affairs in order +for the day. + +Richard waited till she approached his desk, which she had to pass on +her way out. Then he rose to his feet. + +"Allow me to congratulate you," said he, "on having accomplished a long +task in the minimum length of time possible. I am lost in wonder that a +hand which can play the 'cello with such art can play the typewriter +with such skill." + +"Thank you." There was a flash of mirth in her eyes. "There's music in +both if you have ears to hear." + +"I have recognized that to-day." + +"You never heard it before? Music in the hammer on the anvil, in the +throb of the engine, in the hum of the dynamo." + +"And in the scratch of the pen, the pounding of the boiler shop, and +the--the--slide and grind of the trolley-car, I suppose?" + +"Indeed, yes--even in those. And there'll surely be melody in the +closing of the door which shuts you in to solitude after this +distracting day. Listen to it! Good-bye." + +He long remembered the peculiar parting look she gave him, satiric, +mischievous, yet charmingly provocative. She was keen of mind, she was +brilliant of wit, but she was all woman--no doubt of that. He was +suddenly sure that she had known well enough all day the effect that she +had had upon him, and that it had amused her. His cheek reddened at the +thought. He wondered why on earth he should care to pursue an attempt at +acquaintance with one whose manner with him was frequently so disturbing +to his self-conceit. Well, at least he must forget her now, and redeem +himself with an hour's solid effort. + +But, strange to say, although he had found it difficult to work in her +presence, in her absence he found it impossible to work at all. He stuck +doggedly to his desk for the appointed hour, then gave over the attempt +and departed. The moral of all this, which he discovered he could not +escape, was that though he had taken his university degree, and had +supplemented the academic education with the broader one of travel and +observation, he had not at his command that first requisite for +efficient labour: the power of sustained application. In a way he had +been dimly suspicious of this since the day he had begun this pretence +of work for his grandfather's old friend. To-day, at sight of a girl's +steady concentration upon a wearisome task in spite of his own +supposably diverting presence, it had been brought home to him with +force that he was unquestionably reaping that inevitable product of +protracted idleness: the loss of the power to work. + +As he drove away it suddenly occurred to him that on the morrow, instead +of coming to the house in his car, he would leave it in the garage and +walk. Between the discovery of his inefficiency and his resolution to +dispense with a hitherto accustomed luxury there may have been a subtler +connection than appears to the eye. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A TRAITOROUS PROCEEDING + + +"We shall have to make our work count this week, Mr. Kendrick. Next week +I anticipate that there will be no chance whatever to do a stroke." So +spoke Judge Gray to his assistant on one Monday morning as he shook +hands with him in greeting. + +"Very well, sir," replied the young man, with, however, a sense of its +not being at all well. It was to him a regrettable fact that he seldom +saw much of the various members of the household, and of one particular +member so little that he was tempted to wonder if she ever took the +trouble to evade him. But, of course, there was always the chance of an +encounter, and he never opened the house door without the feeling that +just inside might be a certain figure on its way out. + +"Next week is Christmas week," explained Judge Gray. He stood upon the +hearth-rug, his back to the open fire, warming his hands preparatory to +taking up his pen. His fingers were apt to be a little stiff on these +December mornings. "During Christmas week this house is always given +over to such holiday doings as I don't imagine another house in town +ever knows. Christmas house-parties are plenty, I believe, but not the +sort of house-party we indulge in. I am inclined to think ours beats the +world." + +He chuckled, running his hand through the thick white locks above his +brow with a gesture which Richard had come to know meant special +satisfaction. + +"You have so many and such delightful people?" suggested his assistant. + +The white head nodded. "The house would hardly hold more, nor could they +be more delightful. You see, there are five brothers of us. I am the +eldest, Robert the youngest. Rufus, Henry, and Philip come between. +Henry and Philip live in small towns, Rufus in the country proper. Each +has a good-sized family, with several married sons and daughters who +have children of their own. It has been my brother Robert's custom for +twenty years to ask them all here for Christmas week." He began to +laugh. "If the family keeps on growing much larger I don't know that +there will be room to accommodate them all, but so far my sister has +always managed. Fortunately this is an even more roomy old homestead +than it looks. But you may easily imagine, Mr. Kendrick, that there is +very little chance for solitude and quiet work during that week." + +"I can fully imagine," agreed Richard. "And yet I can't imagine," he +amended. "I never saw such a gathering in my life." + +"Never did, eh? You must come in some time during the week and get a +glimpse of it. We have fine times, I can tell you. My old head sometimes +whirls a bit," the Judge admitted, "before the week is over, but--it's +worth it. Particularly on the night of the party. The children always +have a party on Christmas Eve in the attic. It's a great affair. No +dancing-parties nor balls in other places can be mentioned in the same +breath with it. You should see brother Rufus taking out my niece +Roberta, and brother Henry dancing with Stephen's little wife. The girls +accommodate themselves to the old-fashioned steps in great style." + +"I certainly should like to see it," Richard said, wondering if there +were any possible chance of his being invited. + +But Judge Gray offered no suggestion of the sort, and Richard made up +his mind that the Christmas Eve dance would be a strictly family affair. +"Probably the country relatives are a queer lot," he decided, "and the +Grays don't care to show them off. Still--that's not like them, either. +It's certainly like them to do such an eccentric thing as to get their +cousins all here and try to give them a good time. I should like to see +it. I should!" + +He found his thoughts wandering many times during the morning's work to +the image of Roberta dancing with the old uncle from the country. He had +never met her at any of the society dances which were now and then +honoured by his presence. Unquestionably the Grays moved in a circle +with which he was not familiar--a circle made up of people distinguished +rather for their good birth and the things which they had done than for +their wealth. Nobody in the city stood upon a higher social level than +the Grays, but they lived in a world in which the gay and fashionable +set Richard knew were totally unknown and unhonoured. + +The more he thought about it the more he wished that, if only for a +week, he were at least a sixteenth cousin of the Gray family, that he +might be present at that Christmas party. But during the week chance did +not even throw him in the way of meeting the various members of the +family proper, and when Saturday night came he had discovered no +prospect of attaining his wish. He knew that the guests were to arrive +on the following Monday. Christmas Day was on Saturday; the night of the +party then would be Friday night. And the Judge, in taking leave of him, +did not even mention again his wish that Richard might see the guests +together. + +He was coming out of the library, on his way to the hall door, hope +having died hard and his spirits being correspondingly depressed, when +Fate at last intervened in his behalf. Fate took the form of young Mrs. +Stephen Gray, descending the stairs with a two-year-old child in her +arms, such a rosy, brown-eyed cherub of a child that an older and more +hardened bachelor than Richard Kendrick need not have been suspected of +dissimulation if he had stopped short in his course as Richard did, to +admire and wonder. + +"Is that a real, live boy?" cried the young man softly. "Or have you +stolen him out of a frame somewhere?" + +Mrs. Stephen stood still, smiling, on the bottom stair, and Richard +approached with eager interest. He came close and stood looking into the +small face with eyes which took in every exquisite feature. + +"Jove!" he said, under his breath, and looked up at the young mother. "I +didn't know they made them like that." + +She laughed softly, with a mother's happy pride. "His little sister +really ought to have had his looks," she said. "But we're hoping she'll +develop them, and he'll grow plain in time to save him from being +spoiled." + +"Do you really hope that?" he laughed incredulously. "Don't hope it too +fast. See here, Boy, are you real? Come here and let me see." He held +out his arms. + +"He's very shy," began Mrs. Stephen in explanation of the situation she +now expected to have develop. It did develop in so far that the child +shyly buried his head in her shoulder. But in a moment he peeped out +again. Richard continued to hold out his arms, smiling, and suddenly the +little fellow leaned forward. Richard gently drew him away from his +mother, and, though he looked back at her as if to make sure that she +was there, he presently seemed to surrender himself with confidence into +the stranger's care and gave him back smile for smile. + +Richard sat down with little Gordon Gray on his knee, and then ensued +such a conversation between the two, such a frolic of games and smiles, +as his mother could only regard in wonder. + +"He never makes friends easily," she said. "I can't understand it. You +must have had plenty of experience with little children somehow, in +spite of those statements about your never having seen a family like +ours before." + +"I never held a child like this one before in my life," said Richard +Kendrick. He looked up at her as he spoke. + +"If Roberta could see him now," thought Mrs. Stephen, "she wouldn't be +so hard on him. No man who isn't worth knowing can win a baby's +confidence like that. I think he has one of the nicest faces I ever +saw--even though it isn't lined with care." Aloud she said: "It +surprises me that you should care to begin now." + +"It's one of those new experiences I'm getting from time to time under +this roof; that's the only way I can account for it. I never even +guessed at the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a small chap like +this. But I've no right to keep you while I taste new experiences. Thank +you for this one. I shan't forget it." + +He surrendered the boy with evident reluctance. "I hear you are to have +a houseful of guests next week," he ventured to add. "Do they include +any first cousins of this little man?" + +"Two--of his own age--and any number of older ones. I'll take you up to +the playroom some afternoon next week and show you the babies together, +if you're interested, and if Uncle Calvin will let me interrupt his work +for a few minutes." + +"Thank you; I'll gladly come to the house for that special purpose, if +you'll let me know when. Judge Gray has decided not to try to work at +all next week; he's giving me a holiday I really don't want." + +"Are you so interested in your labours with him?" + +Their eyes met. There was something very sweet and womanly in Mrs. +Stephen's face and in the eyes which scanned his, or he would never have +dared to say what he said next. + +"Not in the work itself," he confessed frankly, "though I don't find it +as hard as I did at first. But--the association with Judge Gray, +the--well, I suppose it's really having something definite to do with my +time. Above all, just being in this house, though I don't belong to it, +is getting to seem so interesting to me that I'm afraid I shall hardly +know what to do with myself all next week." + +She could not doubt the genuineness of his admission, strange as it +sounded. So the young aristocrat was really dreading a week's vacation, +he who had done nothing but idle away his time. She felt a touch of pity +for him; yet how absurd it was! + +"I wish you could meet some of the people who will be here next week," +she said. "I wonder if you would care to?" + +"If they're anything like those of the Gray family, I already know I +should care immensely." He spoke with enthusiasm. + +"I think some of them are the most interesting people I have ever met. +My husband's Uncle Rufus, Judge Gray's brother--why, you must meet Uncle +Rufus. I'll speak to Mrs. Robert Gray about it. I'm sure if she thought +you cared she'd be delighted to have you know him. Then there's the +Christmas Eve dance. I wonder if you would enjoy that? We don't usually +have many people outside of the family, but there are always some of +Rob's and Louis's special friends asked for the dance, and I'm sure I +can arrange it. I'll mention it to Roberta." + +"Must it--er--rest with Miss Roberta? I'm afraid she won't ask me," +declared Richard anxiously. + +"Won't she? Why? She will probably say that she doesn't believe you will +enjoy it, but if I assure her that you want to come I think she will +trust me. She's very exacting as to the qualifications of the guests at +this dance, and will have nobody who isn't ready for a good time in +every unconventional way. I warn you, Mr. Kendrick, who are used to +leading cotillions, you may have to dance the Virginia reel with one of +the dear little country cousins. I wonder if you will have the +discernment to see that some of them are better worth meeting than a +good many of the girls you probably know." + +She gave him a keen, analyzing look. Small and sweet as she was, clearly +she belonged to this singular Gray family as if she had been born in it. +He met her look unflinchingly. Then his glance fell to little Gordon. + +"You trusted me with the boy," said he. "I think you may trust me with +the little country cousin--if she will do me the honour." + +"I will see that you have the chance," she assured him, and he went away +feeling like a boy who has been promised a long-desired and despaired-of +treat. + +But it was not of the Virginia reel he was thinking as he went swinging +away down the wintry street. + + * * * * * + +They were sitting, most of them, before the living-room fire, discussing +the plans for the week of the house-party, when Rosamond broke the news. + +"I've taken a great liberty," said she serenely, "for which I hope +you'll all forgive me. I've--tentatively--promised Mr. Kendrick an +invitation to the Christmas dance." + +There was a shout from Louis and Ted together. Ruth beamed with delight. +Across the fireplace Roberta shot at her sister-in-law one rebellious +glance. + +"I knew I had no right to do it," admitted Rosamond gayly. "But I knew +we always asked a few young people to swell the company to the dancing +size, and I was sure you couldn't ask anybody who would appreciate it +more." + +"Hasn't the poor fellow a chance at any other merry-making?" mocked +Louis. "Poor little millionaire! Won't anybody invite him to lead a +Christmas Eve cotillion? I believe there's to be a most gorgeous affair +of the sort at Mrs. Van Tassel Grieve's that night. Has he been +inadvertently overlooked? Not with Miss Gladys Grieve to oversee the +list of the lucky ones, I'll wager. It's a wonder he hadn't accepted +that invitation before you got in yours." + +"I didn't get mine in," was Rosamond's demure rejoinder. "I laid it in +an humbly beseeching hand." + +"How on earth did he know there was to be a dance here?" Stephen +inquired. + +"I mentioned it." + +"I had already told him of it," put in Judge Gray from the background, +where he was listening with interest. "I'm glad you asked him, Rosamond, +and I'll answer for your forgiveness. While you are inviting I should +like to invite his grandfather also. Christmas Eve is a lonely time for +him, I'll be bound, and it would do him good to meet Rufus and Phil, and +the rest again." + +"I'll tell you what we're going to end by being," murmured Louis to +Roberta:--"a 'Discontented Millionaires' Home.'" + + * * * * * + +On the stairs an hour afterward a brief but significant colloquy took +place between Rosamond Gray and her sister-in-law, Roberta. + +"Why do you mind having him come, Rob? Haven't you any charity for the +poor at Christmas time?" + +"Poor! He's poor enough, but he doesn't know it." + +"Doesn't he? The night he was here at dinner he told me he felt poor." +Rosamond's look was triumphant. "He feels it very much; he's never known +what family life meant." + +"Do you imagine he can adapt himself to the conditions of the Christmas +party? If I catch him laughing--ever so covertly--I'll send him home!" + +"You savage person! You don't expect to catch him laughing! He's a +gentleman. And I believe he's enough of a man to appreciate the aunts +and uncles and cousins, even those of them who don't patronize city +tailors and dressmakers. Why, they're perfectly delightful people, every +one of them, and he will have the discernment to see it." + +"I don't believe it. Where have you seen him that you have so much more +confidence than I have?" + +"I've had one or two little talks with him that have told me a good +deal. And this afternoon he met me as I was coming downstairs with +Gordon. Rob, what do you think? Gordon went to him exactly as he goes to +Stephen; they had the greatest time. Gordon knows better than you do +whom to trust." + +"You and Gordon are very discerning. A handsome face and a wheedling +manner--and you think you have a fine, strong character. Handsome is as +handsome does, Rosy Gray of the soft heart, and a wheedling manner is +dust and ashes compared with the ability to accomplish something worth +effort. But--bring your nice young man to the party if you like; only +take care of him. I shall be busy with the real men!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ROSES RED + + +It was certainly rather a curious coincidence that when Mr. Matthew +Kendrick and his grandson Richard entered upon the scene of the Grays' +Christmas Eve party it should be at the moment when Mr. Rufus Gray and +his niece Roberta were dancing a quadrille together. Richard had just +been received by his hosts and had turned from them to look about him, +when his searching eye caught sight of the pair. This was the precise +moment--he always afterward recalled it--when his heart gave its first +great, disconcerting leap at sight of her, such a leap as he had never +known could shake a man to the foundations. + +He had never seen precisely this Roberta before; he explained it to +himself in that way. It was a good explanation. Any sane man who saw her +for the first time that night must instantly have fallen under her +spell. + +The Christmas party was the event of the year dearest to Roberta's +heart. The planning for it, since she had been old enough to take her +part, had been in her hands; it was she who was responsible for every +detail of decoration. The great attic room, which was a glorious +playroom the rest of the year, was transformed on Christmas into a +fairyland. The results were brought about in much the same way as in +other places of revelry, with lighting and draping and the use of +evergreens and flowers; but somehow one felt that no drawing-room +similarly treated could have been half so charming as the big attic +spaces with their gables. + +And the company! At first Richard saw only the pair who danced together +in the quadrille. If he had glanced about him he might have observed +that the gaze of nearly all who were not dancing was centred upon those +two. + +Uncle Rufus was the plumpest, jolliest, most altogether delightful +specimen of the country gentleman that Richard had ever seen. His ruddy +face was clean-shaven, his heavy gray hair waved a little with a boyish +effect about his ears. He was carefully dressed in a frock coat of a cut +not so ancient as to be at all odd, and it fitted his broad shoulders +with precision. He wore a white waistcoat and a flowing black tie, which +helped to carry out the impression of his being a boy whose hair had +accidentally turned gray. As he danced he put every possible +embellishment of posture and step into his task, and when he bowed to +Roberta his attitude expressed the deepest reverence, offset only by his +laughing face as he advanced to take her hand. + +But as for the girl herself--what was she? A beauty stepping out of a +portrait by one of the masters? She wore her grandmother's ball gown of +rose-coloured brocade, and her hair was arranged in the fashion that +went with it, small curls escaping from the knot at the back of her +head, a style which set off her radiant face with peculiarly piquant +effect. Her cheeks matched her frock, and her eyes--what were her eyes? +Black stars, or wells of darkness into which a man might fall and drown +himself? + +She seemed to draw to herself, as she danced, among the soberer colours +of her elders and the white frocks of the country cousins, all the light +in the room. "I would look at something else if I could," thought +Richard to himself, "but it would be only a blur to me after looking at +her." + +When Roberta returned Uncle Rufus's bow it was with a posturing such as +Richard had seen only in plays; it struck him now that the graceful +droop of her whole figure to the floor was the most perfect thing he had +ever seen; and when her head came up and he saw her laughing face lift +again to meet her partner's, he considered the boyish old gentleman who +took her hand and led her on in the intricate figures of the dance a +person to be envied. + +"Aren't Rob and Uncle Rufus the greatest couple you ever laid eyes on?" +exulted Louis Gray, coming up to greet him. "The next is going to be a +waltz. Will you ask Mrs. Stephen? We'll let you begin easily, but shall +expect you to end by dancing with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife--which +will be no hardship when you really know her, I assure you. We indulge +in no ultra-modern dances on Christmas Eve, you see, and have no +dance-cards; it's always part of the fun to watch the scramble for +partners when the number is announced." + +So presently Richard found himself upon the floor with little Mrs. +Stephen Gray, waltzing with her according to his own discretion, though +all around them were dancers whose steps ranged from present-day methods +to the ancient fashion of turning round and round without ever a +reverse. He saw Roberta herself revolving in slow circles in an endless +spiral, piloted by the proud arm of Mr. Philip Gray. She nodded at him +past her uncle's shoulder, and he wondered seriously if she meant to +dance with elderly uncles all the evening. + +Before he could approach her she was off in the next dance with a young +cousin, a lad of seventeen. Richard himself took out one of the country +cousins to whom Mrs. Stephen had presented him, a very pretty, +fair-haired girl in white muslin and blue ribbons; and he did his best +to give her a good time. He found her pleasant company, as Mrs. Stephen +had prophesied, and at another time--any time--before he came into the +attic room to-night, he might have found no little enjoyment in her +bright society. But in his present condition his one hope and endeavour +was to get the queen of the revels, the rose of the garden, into his +possession. + +With this end in view he faithfully devoted himself to whatever partner +was given him by Louis, who had taken him in charge and was enjoying to +the full the spectacle of "Rich" Kendrick exerting himself, as he had +probably never done before, to give pleasure to those with whom he was +thrown. At last Fate and Roberta were kind to him. It was Louis, +however, who manipulated Fate in his behalf. + +Catching his sister as one of her cousins, a young son of Uncle Henry, +released her, Louis drew her into a corner--as much of a corner as one +could get into with a sister at whom, wherever she turned, half the +company was looking. + +"See here, Rob, you're not playing fair with the guest. Here's the +evening half over and you haven't given him a solitary chance. What's +the matter? You're not afraid of His Highness?" + +"This is a dance for the uncles and cousins," retorted Roberta, "not for +society young men." + +"But he's done his duty like a man and a brother. He's danced with aunts +and cousins, too, and has done it as if it were the joy of his life. But +I know what he wants and I think he deserves a reward. The next waltz +will be a peach, 'Roses Red.' Give it to the poor young millionaire, +Robby; there's a good girl." + +"Bring him here," said she with an air of resignation, and she turned to +a group of young people who had followed her as bees follow their queen. +"Not this time, dears," said she. "I'm engaged for this dance to a poor +young man who has wandered in here and must be made to feel at home." + +"Is that the one?" asked one of the pretty country cousins, indicating +Richard, who, obeying Louis's beckoning hand, was crossing the floor in +their direction. "Oh, you won't mind dancing with him. He's as nice as +he is good-looking, too." + +"I'm delighted to hear it," said Roberta. + +The next minute "the poor young man" was before her. "Am I really to +have it?" he asked her. "Will you give me the whole of it and not cut it +in two, as I saw you do with the last one?" + +"It would be rather a pity to cut 'Roses Red' in two, wouldn't it?" said +she. + +"The greatest pity in the world." He was looking at her cheek in the +last instant before they were off. Talk of roses! Was there ever a rose +like that cheek? + +Then the music sent them away upon its wings and for a space measured by +the strains of "Roses Red" Richard Kendrick knew no more of earth. Not a +word did he speak to her as they circled the great room again and again. +He did not want to mar the beauty of it by speech--ordinary exchange of +comment such as dancers feel that they must make. He wanted to dream +instead. + +"Look at Rob and Mr. Kendrick," said Ruth in Rosamond's ear. "Aren't +they the most wonderful pair you ever saw? They look as if they were +made for each other." + +"Don't tell Rob that," Rosamond warned her enthusiastic sister-in-law. +"She would never dance with him again." + +"I can't think what makes her dislike him so. Look at her face--turned +just as far away as she can get it. And she never speaks to him at all. +I've been watching them." + +"It won't hurt him to be disliked a little," declared Mrs. Stephen +wisely. "It's probably the first time in his life a girl has ever turned +away her head--except to turn it back again instantly to see if he +observed." + +"What would Forbes Westcott say if he could see them? Do you know he's +coming back soon? Then Rob will have her hands full! Do you suppose she +will marry him?" + +"Little matchmaker! I don't know. Nobody ever knows what Rob is going to +do." + +Nobody ever did, least of all her newest acquaintance. If he was to have +a moment with her after the dance he realized that he must be clever +enough to manage it in spite of her. He laid his plans, and when the +last strains of "Roses Red" were hastening to a delirious finish he had +Roberta at the far end of the room, at a point fairly deserted and close +to one of the gable corners where rugs and chairs made a resting-place +half hidden by a screen of holly. + +"Please give me just a fraction of your time," he begged. "You've been +dancing steadily all the evening; surely you're ready for a bit of +quiet." + +"I'm not as tired as I was before that dance," said she, and let him +seat her, though she still looked like some spirited creature poised for +flight. + +"Aren't you really?" His face lighted with pleasure. "I feel as if I had +had a draught of--well, something both soothing and exhilarating, but I +didn't dare to hope you enjoyed it, too." + +"Oh, yes, you did," said she coolly, looking up at him for an instant. +"You know perfectly well that you're one of the best dancers who ever +made a girl feel as if she had wings. Of course I knew you would be. The +leader of cotillions--" + +"That's the second time I've had that accusation flung at me under this +roof," said he, and his face clouded as quickly as it had lighted. "I am +beginning to wonder what kind of a crime you people think it to be a +leader of cotillions. As a matter of fact, I'm not one, for I never +accept the part when I can by any chance get out of it." + +"You have the enviable reputation of being the most accomplished person +in that role the town can produce. You should be proud of it." + +He pulled up a chair in front of her and sat down, looking--or trying to +look--straight into her eyes. + +"See here, Miss Gray," said he with sudden earnestness, "if that's the +only thing you think I can do you're certainly rating me pretty low." + +"I'm not rating you at all. I don't know enough about you." + +"That's a harder blow than the other one." He tried to speak lightly, +but chagrin was in his face. "If you'd just added 'and don't want to +know' you'd have finished your work of making me feel about three feet +high." + +"Would you prefer to be made to feel eight feet? Plenty of people will +do that for you. You see I so often find a yardstick measures my own +height, I know the humiliating sensation it is. And I'm never more +convinced of my own smallness than when I see my uncles and their +families at Christmas, especially Uncle Rufus. Do you know which one he +is?" + +"You were dancing with him when I came in." + +"I didn't see you come in." + +"I might have known that," he admitted with a rueful laugh. "Well, did +you dance an old-fashioned square dance with him, and is he a delightful +looking, elderly gentleman with a face like a jolly boy?" + +"Exactly that--and he's a boy in heart, too, but a man in mind. I wonder +if--" + +"He'd care to meet me? I'm sure you weren't going to ask if I'd care to +meet him. But I'd consider it an honour if he'd let me be presented to +him." + +"Now you're talking properly," said she. "It is an honour to be allowed +to know Uncle Rufus, and I think you'll feel it so." She rose. + +He got up reluctantly. "Thank you, I certainly shall," said he quite +soberly. "But--must we go this minute? Surely you can sit out one +number, and I'll promise after that to stand on my head and dance with a +broomstick if it will please your guests." + +"I've a mind to hold you to that offer," said she, with mischief in her +eyes. "But the next number is the old-time 'Lancers,' and I'm needed. +Should you like to dance it?" + +"With you? I--" + +"Of course not. With--well, with Aunt Ruth, Uncle Rufus's wife. You +ought to know her if you're to know him. She's just a bit lame, but we +always get her to dance the 'Lancers' once on Christmas Eve, and if you +want the dearest partner in the room you shall have her." + +"I'll be delighted, if you'll tell me how it goes. If it's like the +thing I saw you dancing I can manage it, I'm sure." + +"It's enough like it so you'll have no trouble. I'll dance opposite you +and keep you straight. See here--" and she gave him a hasty outline of +the figures. + +His eyes were sparkling as he followed her out of the alcove. To be +allowed to dance opposite Roberta and be "kept straight" by her through +the figures of an unfamiliar, old-fashioned affair like the "Lancers" +was a privilege indeed. He laughed to himself to think what certain +people he knew would say to his new idea of privilege. + +He bent before Mrs. Rufus Gray, offered her his arm, and took her out +upon the floor, accommodating his step to the little limp of his +partner. As he stood waiting with her he was observing her as he had +never before observed a woman of her years. Of all, the sweet faces, of +all the bright eyes, of all the pleasant voices--Aunt Ruth captured his +interest and admiration from the moment when she first smiled at him. + +He threw himself into the dance with the greatest heartiness. The music +was played rather slowly, to give Aunt Ruth time to get about, and the +result was almost the stately effect of a minuet. Never had he put more +grace and finish into his steps, and when he bowed to Aunt Ruth it was +as a courtier drops knee before a queen. His unfamiliarity with the +figures gave him excuse to keep his eyes upon Roberta, and she found him +a pupil to whom she had only to nod or make the slightest gesture of the +hand to show his part. + +"Did you ever see anything so fascinating as Aunt Ruth and Mr. +Kendrick?" asked Mrs. Stephen in her husband's ear as they stood looking +on. + +"There's certainly no criticism of his manner toward her," Stephen +replied. "I'll say for him that he's a pastmaster at adaptation. I'll +wager he's enjoying himself, too. It's a new experience for the society +youth." + +"Stevie, why do you all insist on making a 'society youth' of him? It's +his misfortune to have been born to that sort of thing, but I don't +believe he cares half as much for it as he does for--just this sort." + +"This is a novelty to him, that's all. And he's clever enough to see +that to please Rob he must be polite to her family. Rob is the stake +he's playing for--till some other pretty girl takes his fancy." + +Rosamond shook her head. "You all do him injustice, I believe. Of course +he admires Rob; men always do if they've any discrimination whatever. +But--there are other things that appeal to him. Stephen"--her appealing +face flushed with interest--"when you have a chance, slip out with Mr. +Kendrick and take him upstairs to see Gordon and Dorothy asleep. I just +went up; they look too dear!" + +"Why, Rosy, you don't imagine he'd care--" + +"Try him--just to please me. I could take him myself, but I'd rather you +would. I want you to look at his face when he looks at them." + +"He _has_ got round you--" began her husband, but she made him promise. + +When Stephen came upon Richard the guest was with Uncle Rufus and Aunt +Ruth. The young man was entering with great spirit into his conversation +with the pair, and they were evidently enjoying him. + +"I'll have to give him credit for possessing genuine courtesy," thought +Stephen. + +At this moment a group of young people came up and demanded the presence +of Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray in another part of the room, and Richard was +set at liberty. Stephen took him by the arm. + +"Before you engage again in the antic whirl I have a special exhibit to +show you outside the ballroom. Spare me five minutes?" + +"Spare you anything," responded the guest, following Stephen out of +the room as if he wanted nothing so much as to do whatever might be +suggested to him. + +In two minutes they were downstairs and at the far end of a long +corridor which led to the rooms in a wing of the big house occupied by +the Stephen Grays. Richard was led through a pleasant living-room where +a maid was reading a book under the drop-light. She rose at their +appearance and Stephen nodded an "All right" to her. He conducted +Richard to the door of an inner room, which, as he opened it, let a rush +of cold air upon the two men entering. + +"Turn up your collar; it's winter in here," said Stephen softly. He +switched on a shaded light which revealed a nursery containing two small +beds side by side. Two large windows at the farther end of the room were +wide open, and all the breezes of the December night were playing about +the sleepers. + +The sleepers! Richard bent over them, one after the other, scanning each +rosy face. The baby girl lay upon her side, a round little cheek, a +fringe of dark eyelashes, and a tangle of fair curls showing against the +pillow. The boy was stretched upon his back, his arms outflung, his head +turned toward the light so that his face was fully visible. If he had +been attractive with his wonderful eyes open, he was even more winsome +with them closed. He looked the picture of the sleeping angel who has +never known contact with earth. + +"I thought he would never be done looking," Stephen acknowledged +afterward when he told his exulting wife about the scene. "I was half +frozen, but he acted like a man hypnotized. Finally he looked up at me. +'Gray, you're a rich man,' said he. 'I suppose you know it or you +wouldn't have brought me up here to show me your wealth.' 'I believe I +know it,' said I. 'What does it feel like,' he asked, 'to look at these +and know they're yours?' I told him that that was a thing I couldn't +express. 'Forgive me for asking,' said he. 'No man would want to try to +express it--to another.' I began to like him after that, Rosy--I really +did. The fellow seems to have a heart that hasn't been altogether +spoiled by the sort of life he's lived. On our way upstairs he said +nothing until we were nearly back to the attic. Then he put his hand on +my arm. 'Thank you for taking me, Gray,' he said. I told him you wanted +me to do it. He only gave me a look in answer to that; but I fancy you +would have liked the look, little susceptible girl." + +It was Ted who got hold of the guest next. "I hope you're having a good +time, Mr. Kendrick," said the young son of the house, politely. "I've +been so busy myself, dancing with all my girl cousins, I haven't had +time to ask you." + +"I've been having the time of my life, Ted. I can't remember when I've +enjoyed anything so much." + +"I saw you once with Rob. You're lucky to get her. She hasn't had time +to dance once with me and I'd rather have her than any girl here, she's +so jolly. She always keeps me laughing. You and she didn't seem to be +laughing at all, though." + +"Did we look so serious? Perhaps she felt like laughing inside, though, +at my awkward steps." + +Ted stared. "Why, you're a bully dancer," he declared. "What girl are +you going to have for the Virginia reel? We always end with that--at +twelve o'clock, you know." + +"I haven't a partner, Ted. I wish you'd get me the one I want." + +"Tell me who it is and I'll try. We're going down to bring up supper +now, we fellows. Want to help?" + +"Of course I do. How is it done?" + +"Everything's in the dining-room and some of the younger ones go down. +But we boys and men go and bring up everything for the older folks. +Maybe I oughtn't to ask you, though," he hesitated. "You're company." + +"Let me be one of the family to-night," urged Richard. "I'll bring up +supper for Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray and pretend they're my aunt and +uncle, too. I wish they were." + +"I don't blame you; they _are_ the jolliest ever, aren't they? Come on, +then. Rosy's looking at us; maybe she'll tell you not to go." + +They hurried away downstairs, racing with each other to the first floor. + +"Hullo! you, too?" Louis greeted the guest from the farther side of the +table filled with all manner of toothsome viands, where he was piling up +a tray to carry aloft. "Glad to see you're game for the whole show. Take +one of those trays and load it with discretion--weight equally +distributed, or you'll get into trouble on the stairs. You're new at +this job, and it takes training." + +"I'll manage it," and the young man fell to work, capably assisted by a +maid, who showed him what to take first and how to insure its safe +delivery. + +On his way up, walking cautiously on account of the cups of smoking +bouillon which he was concerned lest he spill, he encountered a +rose-coloured brocade frock on its way down. + +"Good for you, Mr. Kendrick," hailed Roberta's voice, full and sweet. + +He paused, balancing his tray. "Why are you going down? Won't you let me +bring up yours when I've given this to Unc--to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray?" + +"Are you enjoying your task so well? Look out, keep your eye on the +tray! There's nothing so treacherous to carry as cups so full as those." + +"Stop laughing at me and I'll get through all right. All I need is a +little practice. Next time I come up I'm going to try balancing the +whole thing on my hand and carrying it shoulder-high." + +"Please practice that some time when you're all alone in your own +house." + +"I'll remember. And please remember I'm going to bring up your +supper--and my own. May we have it in the place where we were after the +dance?" + +"Yes, with six others who are waiting there already. That will be +lovely, thank you. I'll be back by the time you have everything up." + +"Of all the hard creatures to corner," thought Richard, going on upward +with his tray. "Anyhow, I can have the satisfaction of waiting on her, +which is better than nothing." + +He found it so. The six people in the gable corner proved to be of the +younger boys and girls, and, though they were all eyes and ears for +himself and Roberta, he had a sufficient sense of being paired off with +the person he wanted to keep him contented. They ate and drank merrily +enough, and the food upon his plate seemed to Richard the best he had +ever tasted at an affair of the kind. + +The evening was gone before he knew it. He could secure no more dances +with Roberta, but he had one with Ruth, during which he made up for his +silence with her sister by exchanging every comment possible during +their exhilarating occupation. He began it himself: + +"It's a real sorrow to me, Miss Ruth, to be warned that this party is +nearly over." + +"Is it, Mr. Kendrick? It would be to me if to-morrow weren't Christmas +Day. It's worth having this stop to get to that. You see, to-night we +hang up our stockings." + +"Good heavens, Miss Ruth--where? Not in front of any one chimney?" + +"No, each in our own room, at the foot of the bed. The things that won't +go into the stockings are on the breakfast-table." + +"I'll think of you when I'm waking to my solitary dressing. I never hung +up my stocking in my life." + +"You haven't!" Ruth's tone was all dismay. "But you must have had heaps +of Christmas presents?" + +"Oh, yes, I've a friend or two who present me with all sorts of +interesting articles I seldom find a use for. And when I was a little +chap I remember they always had a tree for me." + +"I don't care much for trees," Ruth confided. "I like them better in +shop windows than I do at home. But to hang up your stocking and then +find it all stuffed and knobby in the morning, with always something +perfectly delightful in the toe for the very last! Oh, I love it!" + +"I wish I were a cousin of yours, so I could look after that toe present +myself," said Richard daringly. + +"You do miss a lot of fun, not having a jolly family Christmas like +ours." + +"I'm convinced of it. See here, Miss Ruth, there's something I want you +to do for me if you will. When you waken to-morrow morning send me--a +Christmas thought. Will you? I'll be looking for it." + +Ruth drew back her head in order to look up into his face for an +instant. "A Christmas thought?" she repeated, surprised. + +He nodded. "As if I were a brother, you know, far away at the other side +of the world--and lonely. I'll really be as far away from all your +merry-making as if I were at the other side of the world, you see--and +I'm not sure but I'll be as lonely." + +"Why, Mr. Kendrick! You--lonely! I can't believe it!" Ruth almost forgot +to keep step in her surprise. "But--of course, just you and your +grandfather! Only--I've heard how popular--" + +She paused, not venturing to tell him all she had heard of his gay and +fashionable friends and how they were always inviting and pursuing him. +"Are you always lonely at Christmas?" she ended. + +"Always; though I've never realized what was the matter with me till +this year. Do you care about finishing this dance? Let's stop in this +nice corner and talk about it a minute." + +It was the same corner, deserted now, where he had twice tried to keep +her elusive sister. Ruth was easier to manage, for she was genuinely +interested. + +"Just this year," he explained, "I've found out why I've never cared for +Christmas. It's a beastly day to me. I spend it as I should Sunday--get +through with it somehow. At last I go out to dinner somewhere in the +evening, and so end the day." + +"We all go to church on Christmas morning," Ruth told him. "That's a +lovely way to spend part of the morning, I think. It gives you the real +Christmas feeling. Don't you ever do it?" + +He shook his head. "Never have; but I will to-morrow if you'll tell me +where you go." + +"To St. Luke's. The service is so beautiful, and we all have been there +since we were old enough to go. I'm sure you'll like it. Wouldn't your +grandfather like to go with you?" + +Richard stared at her. "Why, I shouldn't have thought of it. Possibly he +would. We never go anywhere together, to tell the truth." + +"That's queer, when you're both so lonely. He must be lonely, too, +mustn't he?" + +"I never thought about it," said the young man. "I suppose he is. He +never says so." + +"You never say so either, do you?" suggested the girl naively. + +The two looked at each other for a minute without speaking. + +"Miss Ruth," said her companion at length, lowering his eyes to the +floor and speaking thoughtfully, "I believe, to tell the truth, I'm a +selfish beast. You've put a totally new idea into my head--more shame to +me that it should be new. It strikes me that I'll try a new way of +spending Christmas; I'll see to it that whoever is lonely grandfather +isn't--if I can keep him from it." + +"You can!" cried Ruth, beaming at him. "He thinks the world of you; +anybody can see that. And you won't be lonely yourself!" + +"Won't I? I'm not so sure of that--after to-night. But I admit it's +worth trying. May I report to you how it works?" he asked, smiling. + +Ruth agreed delightedly, and, when they separated, watched with interest +to see that the new idea had already begun to work, as indicated by the +way the younger Kendrick approached the elder, who was making his +farewells. + +"Going now, grandfather?" said he, with his hand on old Matthew +Kendrick's arm. "We'll go together. I'll call James." + +"You going too, Dick?" inquired his grandfather, evidently surprised. +"That's good." + +As he took leave of Roberta, Richard found opportunity to exchange with +her ever so brief a conversation. "This has been quite a wonderful +experience to me, Miss Gray," said he. "I shall not forget it." + +Her eyes searched his for an instant, but found there only sincerity. +"You have done your part better than could have been expected," she +admitted. + +"What grudging commendation! What should you have expected? That I +should sulk in a corner because I couldn't have things all my own way?" + +She coloured richly, and he rejoiced at having put her in confusion for +an instant. "Of course not. But every one wouldn't have eyes to see the +beauties of a family party where all the fun wasn't for the young +people." + +"There was only one dance I enjoyed better than the one with Mrs. Rufus +Gray." He lowered his tone so that she could hear. "Since you have +commended me for doing as your brother bade me--be all things to all +partners--will you give me my reward by letting me tell you that I shall +never hear 'Roses Red' again without thinking of the most perfect dance +I ever had?" + +"That sounds like an appropriate farewell from the cotillion leader," +said Roberta. Then instantly she knew that in her haste to cover a very +girlish sense of pleasure in the thing he had said she herself had said +an unkind one. She knew it as a slow red came into her guest's handsome +face and his eyes darkened. Before he could speak--though, indeed, he +did not seem in haste to speak--she added, putting out her hand +impulsively: + +"Forgive me; I didn't mean it. You have been lovely to every one +to-night, and I have appreciated it. I am wrong; I think you are much +more--and have in you far more--than--as if you were only--the thing I +said." + +He made no immediate reply, though he took the hand she gave him. He +continued to look at her for so long that her own eyes fell. When he did +speak it was in a low, odd tone which she could not quite understand. + +"Miss Gray," said he, "if you want to cut a man to the quick, insist on +thinking him that which he has never had any love for being, and which +he has grown to detest the thought of. But perhaps it's a salutary sort +of surgery, for--by the powers! if I can't make you think differently of +me it won't be for lack of will. So--thank you for being hard on me, +thank you for everything. Good-night!" + +As she looked at him march away with his head up, her hand was aching +with the force of the almost brutally hard grip he had given it with +that last speech. Her final glimpse of him showed him with a tinge of +the angry red still lingering on his cheek, and a peculiar set to his +finely cut mouth which she had never noticed there before. But, in spite +of this, anything more courtly than his leave-taking of her mother and +her Aunt Ruth she had never seen from one of the young men of the day. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MR. KENDRICK ENTERTAINS + + +On their way downstairs, Matthew Kendrick and his grandson, escorted by +Louis Gray, encountered a small company of people apparently just +arrived from a train. Louis stopped for a moment to greet them, turned +them over to his brother Stephen, whom he signalled from a stair-landing +above, and went on down to the entrance-hall with the Kendricks. + +"Too bad they're late for the party," he observed. "They had written +they couldn't come, I believe. Mother will have to do a bit of figuring +to dispose of them. But the more the merrier under this roof, every +time." + +"It's rather late to be putting people up for the night," Richard +observed. "Your mother will be sending some of them to a hotel, I +imagine. Couldn't we"--he glanced at his grandfather--"have the pleasure +of taking them in our car? or of sending it back for them, if there are +too many?" + +"Thank you, but I've no doubt mother can arrange--" Louis Gray began, +when old Matthew Kendrick interrupted him: + +"We can do better than that, Dick," said he. He turned to Louis. "We +will wait," said he, "while you present my compliments to your mother +and say that it will give me great satisfaction if she will allow me to +entertain an overflow party of her guests." + +Hardly able to believe his ears, Richard stared at his grandfather. What +had come over him, who had lived in such seclusion for so many years, +that he should be offering hospitality at midnight to total strangers? +He smiled to himself. But the next moment a thought struck him. + +"Grandfather," he said hurriedly, "why not specially invite that +delightful couple--the one they call 'Uncle Rufus' and his wife?" + +"An excellent idea," Mr. Kendrick agreed, "though they might not be +willing to make the change at so late an hour." + +"People who were dancing with spirit ten minutes ago will be ready to +travel right now," prophesied Richard. He took flying leaps up the +stairs in pursuit of Louis. Catching him on the next floor, he made his +request known. Louis received it without sign of surprise, but inwardly, +as he hurried away, he was speculating upon what agencies could be at +work with the young man, that he should be so eager to do this deed of +extraordinary friendliness. + +Mrs. Gray hesitated over Matthew Kendrick's invitation, although her +hospitable home was already crowded to the roof-tree. But, taking Judge +Calvin Gray into her counsels, she was so strongly advised by him to +accept the offer that she somewhat reluctantly consented to do so. + +"It's great, Eleanor, simply great!" he urged. "It will do my friend +Matthew mere good than anything that has happened to him in a +twelvemonth. As for young Richard--from what I've seen to-night you've +nothing to fear from his part in the affair. Let them have Rufus and +Ruth--they'll enjoy it hugely. And give them as many more as will +relieve the congestion. Matthew could take care of a regiment in that +stone barracks of his." + +"Sending Rufus and Ruth would give me quite space enough," she declared. +"Rufus has the largest room in the house, and I could put this last +party there. It is really very kind of Mr. Kendrick, and I shall be glad +to solve my problem in that way, since you think it best." + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, having the question put to them, acceded to it +with readiness. Both had been warmly drawn toward Richard, and though +his grandfather had seemed to them a figure of somewhat unnecessarily +dignified reserve, the mere fact of his extending the invitation at all +was to them sufficient proof of his cordiality. + +"It's nothing at all to pack up," Mrs. Rufus asserted. "I'll just take +what I need for the night, and we'll be coming over for the tree in the +morning, so I can get my other things then. I shall call it a real treat +to be inside the home of such a wealthy man. How lonely he must be, +living in such a great house, with only his grandson!" + +So Aunt Ruth descended the stairs, wearing her little gray silk bonnet +and a heavy cape of gray cloth, her hand on her husband's arm, her +bright eyes shining with anticipation. Aunt Ruth dearly loved a bit of +excitement and seldom found much in her quiet life upon the farm. As +Matthew Kendrick looked up and saw her coming slowly down, her husband +carefully adjusting himself to the dip and swing of her step as she put +always the same foot foremost, he found himself distinctly glad of his +grandson's suggestion, since it gave him so charming a guest to +entertain as Mrs. Rufus Gray. + +In the interval Richard had retired to a telephone, and had made the +wires between his present position and the stone pile warm with his +orders. In consequence a certain gray-haired housekeeper, lately +returned from some family festivities of her own and about to retire, +found herself galvanized into activity by the sound of a well-known and +slightly imperious voice issuing upsetting instructions to have the best +suite of rooms in the house made ready within half an hour for +occupancy, and the house itself lighted for the reception of the guests. +Other commands to butler and Mr. Richard's own manservant followed in +quick succession, and when the young man turned away from the telephone +he was again smiling to himself at thought of the consternation he was +causing in a household accustomed to be run upon such lines of +conservatism and well defined routine that any deviation therefrom was +likely to prove most unacceptable. He himself was at home there such a +small portion of his time, and during the periods he spent there was so +careful never to bring within its walls any festival-making of his own, +he knew just how astonishing to the middle-aged housekeeper, the +solemn-faced old butler, and the rest of them, would be these midnight +orders. He was enjoying the giving of such orders all the more for that! + +Old Matthew Kendrick assisted Mrs. Rufus Gray into his luxuriously +fitted, electric-lighted town-car as if she had been a royal personage, +wrapping about her soft, thick rugs until she was almost lost to view. + +"Why, I couldn't be cold in this shut-in place," she protested. "Not a +breath could touch any one in here, I should say." + +"I should call it pretty snug," Rufus Gray agreed with his wife, looking +about him at the comfortable appointments of the car. "But there's just +one thing a carriage like this wouldn't be good for, and that's taking a +party of young folks on a sleigh ride, on a snapping winter's night!" +His bright brown eyes regarded those of Matthew Kendrick with some +curiosity. "I reckon you never took that sort of a ride, when you were a +boy?" he queried. + +"Yes, yes, I have--many a time," Mr. Kendrick insisted. "And great times +we had. Boys and girls needed no electricity to keep them comfortable on +the coldest of nights. It's my grandson Richard who feels this sort of +thing a necessity. Until he came home a carriage and pair had been all +the equipage I needed." + +"Grandfather is getting where a little extra warmth on a blustering +winter's day is essential to his comfort," Richard declared, feeling a +curious necessity, somehow, to justify the use of the expensive and +commodious equipage in the eyes of the country gentleman who seemed to +regard it so lightly. + +"It's very nice," Mrs. Gray said quickly. "I should hardly know I was +outdoors at all. And how smoothly it runs along over the streets. The +young man out there in front must be a very good driver, I should think. +He doesn't seem to mind the car-tracks at all." + +"No, Rogers doesn't bother much about car-tracks," Richard agreed +gravely. "His idea is to get home and to bed." + +"It is pretty late--and I'm afraid waiting for us has made you a good +deal later than you would have been," said Mrs. Gray regretfully. + +"Not a bit--no, no." + +"We'll go right to our room as soon as we get there," said she, "and you +mustn't trouble to do a thing extra for us." + +"It's going to be a great pleasure to have you under our roof," the +young man assured her, smiling. + +Arrived at the great stone mansion which was the well-known residence of +Matthew Kendrick, as it had been of his family for several generations, +Richard stared up at it with a sense of strangeness. Except for the +halls and dining-room, his grandfather's quarters and his own, he could +not remember seeing it lighted as other homes were lighted, with rows of +gleaming windows here and there, denoting occupancy by many people. Now, +one whole wing, where lay the special suite of guest-rooms used at long +intervals for particularly distinguished persons, was brilliantly +shining out upon the December night. + +The car drew up beneath a massive covered entrance-porch, and a great +door swung back. A heavy-eyed, elderly butler admitted the party, which +were ushered into an impressive but gloomy and inhospitable looking +reception-room. Matthew Kendrick glanced somewhat uncertainly at his +nephew, who promptly took things in charge. + +"I thought perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Gray would have some sandwiches +and--er--something more--with us, before they go to their rooms," +Richard suggested, nodding at Parks, the heavy-eyed. + +"Yes, yes--" agreed Mr. Kendrick, but Mrs. Rufus broke in upon him. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Kendrick!" she cried softly, much distressed. "Please don't +think of such a thing--at this hour. And we've just had refreshments at +Eleanor's. Don't let us keep you up a minute. I'm sure you must be tired +after this long evening." + +"Not at all, Madam. Nor do you yourself look so," responded Matthew +Kendrick, in his somewhat stately manner. "But you may be feeling like +sleep, none the less. If you prefer you shall go to your rest at once." +He turned to his grandson again. "Dick--" + +"I'll take them up," said that young man, eagerly. He offered his arm to +Aunt Ruth. + +Uncle Rufus looked about him for the hand-bag which his wife had so +hurriedly packed. "We had a little grip--" said he, uncertainly. + +"We'll find it upstairs, I think," Richard assured him, and led the way +with Aunt Ruth. "I'm sorry we have no lift," he said to her, "but the +stairs are rather easy, and we'll take them slowly." + +Aunt Ruth puzzled a little over this speech, but made nothing of it and +wisely let it go. The stairs were easy, extremely easy, and so heavily +padded that she seemed to herself merely to be walking up a slight, +velvet-floored incline. The whole house, it may be explained, was fitted +and furnished after the style of that period in the latter half of the +last century, when heavily carpeted floors, heavily shrouded windows, +heavily decorated walls, and heavily upholstered chairs were considered +the essentials of luxury and comfort. Old Matthew Kendrick had never +cared to make any changes, and his grandson had had too little interest +in the place to recommend them. The younger man's own private rooms he +had altered sufficiently to express his personal tastes, but the rest of +the house was to him outside the range of his concern. The whole place, +including his own quarters, was to him merely a sort of temporary +habitation. He had no plans in relation to it, no sense of +responsibility in regard to it. When he had ordered the finest suite of +rooms in the house to be put in readiness for the guests, it was +precisely as he would have requested the management of a great hotel to +place at his disposal the best they had to offer. To tell the truth, he +had no recollection at all of how the rooms looked or what their +dimensions were. + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, entering the first room of the series, a large +and elaborately furnished apartment with the effect of a drawing-room, +much gilt and brocade and many mirrors in evidence, looked at Richard in +some surprise, as he seated them. He himself went to the door of a +second room, glanced in, nodded, and returned to his guests. + +"I hope you will find everything you want in there," he said. "If you +don't, please ring. You will see your dressing-room on the left, Mr. +Gray. I will send you my man in the morning to see if he can do anything +for you." + +"I shan't need any man, thank you," protested Mr. Gray. + +When, after lingering a minute or two, their young host had bade them +good-night and left them, the elderly pair looked at each other. Uncle +Rufus's eyes were twinkling, but in his wife's showed a touch of soft +indignation. + +"It seems like making a joke of us," said she, "to put us in such a +place as this, when he can guess what we're used to." + +"He doesn't mean it as a joke," her husband protested good-humouredly. +"He wants to give us the best he's got. I don't mind a mite. To be sure, +I could get along with one looking-glass to shave myself in, but it's +kind of interesting to know how many some folks think necessary when +they aren't limited. Let's go look in our sleeping-room. Maybe that's a +little less princely." + +Aunt Ruth limped slowly across the Persian carpet, and stood still in +the doorway of the room Richard had designated as hers. Uncle Rufus +stared in over her small shoulder. + +"Well, well," he chuckled. "I reckon Napoleon Bonaparte wouldn't have +thought this any too fine for him, but it sort of dazzles me. I'm glad +somebody's got that bed ready to sleep in. I shouldn't have been sure +'twas meant for that, if they hadn't. There seems to be another room on +behind this one--what's that?" + +He marched across and looked in. "Now, if I was rich, I wouldn't mind +having one of these opening right out of my room. What there isn't in +here for keeping yourself clean can't be thought of." + +"Rufus," said his wife solemnly, following him into the white-tiled +bathroom, "I want you should look at these bath-towels. I never in my +life set eyes on anything like them. They must have cost--I don't know +what they cost--I didn't know there were such bath-towels made!" + +"I don't want to wrap myself in a blanket," asserted her husband. "I +want to know I've got a towel in my hand, that I can whisk round me and +slap myself with. Look here, let's get to bed. We could sit up all night +examining round into our accommodations. For my part, Eleanor's style of +living suits me a good deal better than this kind of elegance. Her house +is fine and comfortable, but no foolishness. There's one thing I do +like, though. This carpet feels mighty good to your bare feet, I'll make +sure!" + +He presently made sure, walking back and forth barefooted across the +soft floor, chuckling like a boy, and making his toes sink into the +heavy pile of the great rug. He surveyed his small wife, in her +dressing-gown, sitting before the wide mirror of an elaborate +dressing-table, putting her white locks into crimping pins. + +"Ruth," said he, with sudden solemnity, "I forgot to undress in my +dressing-room. Had I better put my clothes on and go take 'em off again +in there?" + +He pointed across to an adjoining room, brilliant with lights and +equipped with all manner of furnishings adapted to masculine uses. + +His wife turned about, laughing like a girl. "Maybe in there," she +suggested, "you could find a chair small enough to hang your coat across +the back of. I'm afraid it'll get all wrinkled, folded like that." + +Uncle Rufus explored. After a minute he came back. "There's a queer sort +of bureau-thing in there all filled with coat-and-pants hangers," he +announced. "I'm going to put my things in it. It'll keep 'em from +getting wrinkled, as you say." + +When he returned: "There's another bed in there," he said. "I don't know +what it's for. It's got the covers all turned back, too, just like this +one. Maybe we've made a mistake. Maybe there's somebody that has that +room, and he hasn't come in yet. Do you suppose I'd better shut the door +between?" + +"Maybe you had," agreed his wife anxiously. "It would be dreadful if he +should come in after a while. Still--young Mr. Kendrick called it your +dressing-room." + +"And my clothes are in there," added Uncle Rufus. "It's all right. +Probably the girl made a mistake when she fixed that bed--thought there +was a child with us, maybe." + +"You might just shut the door," Aunt Ruth suggested. "Then if anybody +did come in--" + +Uncle Rufus shook his head. "It's meant for us," he asserted with +conviction as he climbed into bed. "He said 'dressing-room' and pointed. +The girl's made a mistake, that's all. It's a good place for my clothes, +and I'm going to leave 'em there. Will you put out the lights?" + +Aunt Ruth looked around the wall. "I can never get used to electric +lights at Eleanor's," said she. "And I don't see the place here, at +all." + +She searched for the switches some time in vain, but at length +discovered them and succeeded in extinguishing the lights of the room +the pair were in. But the lights of the adjoining rooms still burned +with brilliancy. + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed softly. Then she appealed to her husband. + +Uncle Rufus, who had nearly fallen asleep while his wife had been +searching, spoke without opening his eyes. "Shut all the doors and leave +'em going," he advised, + +"Oh, no, I can't do that! Think of the cost, running all night so." + +"I reckon they can afford it," he commented drowsily. + +But Aunt Ruth continued to hunt, first in the large outer room which +looked like a drawing-room, and possessed an elaborate central +electrolier whose control, even after she discovered the switch, caused +the little lady considerable perplexity. When she had at length +succeeded in extinguishing the illumination she returned, guided by the +lights in the other rooms. The bathroom keys were soon found, and then +she applied herself to discovering those in the dressing-room. These +eluded her for some minutes, but at length, all lights being turned off, +Aunt Ruth found herself in total darkness. She groped about in it for +some time without success, for the heavy curtains had been closely +drawn, and not a ray of light penetrated the spacious rooms from any +quarter. After having followed the wall for what seemed an interminable +distance without reaching a recognizable position, she was forced to +call to her husband. He was asleep, and responded only after being many +times addressed. Then he sat up in bed. + +"Hey? What? What's the matter?" he inquired anxiously, peering into the +darkness. + +"Nothing, dear--only I couldn't find the bed after I turned the lights +out. Keep on talking, and I'll work my way to you," answered his wife's +voice from some distance. + +Guided by his voice--he found plenty to say on the subject of putting +people to bed in the midst of large, unfamiliar spaces--she groped her +way to his side. He put out a gentle hand to welcome her, and as she +took her place the two fell to laughing softly over the whole situation. + +"Why," said Uncle Rufus, "for all I've slept for forty years in the same +room--and a pretty sizable room I've always thought it--I've never got +so I could plough a straight furrow through it in the dark. I reckon a +lifetime would be too short to get to know my way round this +plantation." + +He could with difficulty be restrained from telling Richard about the +incident next morning, when that young man came to their rooms to escort +them down to breakfast. + +"I'm glad to have somebody pilot me," Uncle Rufus declared, his eyes +twinkling as he followed after his wife, who leaned on Richard's arm. "A +man must have a pretty good sense of direction to keep his bearings in a +house as big as this." + +Richard laughed. "It's rather a straight road to the dining-room. I +think I must have worn a path there since I came. Here we are--and +here's grandfather down before us. He's the first one in the house to be +up, always." + +Matthew Kendrick advanced to meet his guests, shaking hands with great +cordiality. + +"It seems very wonderful, Madam Gray," said he, "to have a lady in the +house on Christmas morning. Will you do me the honour to take this +seat?" He put her in a chair before a massive silver urn, under which +burned a spirit lamp. "And will you pour our coffee? It's many a year +since we've had coffee served from the table, poured by a woman's hand." + +"Why, I should be greatly pleased to pour the coffee," cried Aunt Ruth +happily. Her bright glance was fastened upon a mass of scarlet flowers +in the centre of the table, for which Richard had sent between dark and +daylight. He smiled across the table at her. + +"Are they real?" she breathed. + +"Absolutely! Splendid colour, aren't they? I can't remember the name, +but they look like Christmas." + +Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Rufus Gray had ever in their lives eaten such a +breakfast as was now served to them. Such extraordinary fruits, such +perfectly cooked game, such delicious food of various sorts--they could +only taste and wonder. Richard, with a young man's healthy appetite, +kept them company, but his grandfather made a frugal meal of toast, +coffee, and a single egg, quite as if he were more accustomed to such +simple fare than to any other. + +The breakfast over, Mr. Kendrick took them to his own private rooms, to +show them a painting of which he had been telling them. Richard +accompanied them, having constituted himself chief assistant to Mrs. +Gray, to whom he had taken a boyish liking which was steadily growing. +Establishing her in a comfortable armchair, he sat down beside her. + +"Now, Mr. Richard," said she, presently, while Mr. Matthew Kendrick and +her husband were discussing an interesting question over their cigars in +an adjoining room--Mr. Kendrick's adherence to the code of an earlier +day making it impossible for him to think of smoking in the presence of +a lady--"I wonder if there isn't something you would let me do for you. +You and your grandfather living alone, so, you must have things that +need a woman's hand. While I sit here I'd enjoy mending some socks or +gloves for you." + +Richard looked at her. The sincerity of her offer was so evident that he +could not turn it aside with an evasion or a refusal. But he had not an +article in the world that needed mending. When things of his reached +that stage they were invariably turned over to his man, Bliss. He +considered. + +"That's certainly awfully kind of you, Mrs. Gray," said he. "But--have +you--" + +She put her hand into a capacious pocket and produced therefrom a tiny +"housewife," stocked with thimble, needles, and all necessary +implements. + +"I never go without it," said she. "There's always somebody to be mended +up when you least expect it. My niece Roberta tripped on one of her +flounces last night, dancing--and not being used to dancing in such +full, old-fashioned skirts. Rosy was starting to pin it up, but I +whipped out my kit--and how they laughed, to see a pocket in a best +dress!" She laughed herself, at the recollection. "But I had Robby sewed +up in less time than it takes to tell it--much better than pinning!" + +"How beautifully she danced those old-fashioned dances," Richard +observed eagerly. "It was a great pleasure to see her." + +"Yes, it's generally a pleasure to see Robby do things," Roberta's aunt +agreed. "She goes into them with so much vim. When she comes out to +visit us on the farm it's the same way. She must have a hand in the +churning, or the sweeping, or something that'll keep her busy. Aren't +you going to get me the things, Mr. Richard?" + +The young man hastened away. Arrived before certain drawers and +receptacles, he turned over piles of hosiery with a thoughtful air. +Presently selecting a pair of black silk socks of particularly fine +texture, he deliberately forced his thumb through either heel, taking +care to make the edges rough as possible. Laughing to himself, he then +selected a pair of gray street gloves, eyed them speculatively for a +moment, then, taking out a penknife, cut the stitches in several places, +making one particularly long rent down the side of the left thumb. He +regarded these damages doubtfully, wondering if they looked entirely +natural and accidental; then, shaking his head, he gathered up the socks +and gloves and returned with them to Aunt Ruth. + +She looked them over. "For pity's sake," said she, "you wear out your +things in queer ways! How did you ever manage to get holes in your heels +right on the bottom, like that? All the folks I ever knew wear out their +heels on the back or side." + +Richard examined a sock. "That is rather odd," he admitted. "I must have +done it dancing." + +"I shall have to split my silk to darn these places," commented Aunt +Ruth. "These must be summer socks, so thin as this." She glanced at the +trimly shod foot of her companion and shook her head. "You young folks! +In my day we never thought silk cobwebs' warm enough for winter." + +"Tell me about your day, won't you, please?" the young man urged. "Those +must have been great days, to have produced such results." + +The little lady found it impossible to resist such interest, and was +presently talking away, as she mended, while her listener watched her +flying fingers and enjoyed every word of her entertaining discourse. He +artfully led her from the past to the present, brought out a tale or two +of Roberta's visits at the farm, and learned with outward gravity but +inward exultation that that young person had actually gone to the +lengths of begging to be allowed to learn to milk a cow, but had failed +to achieve success. + +"I can't imagine Miss Roberta's failing in anything she chose to +attempt," was his joyous comment. + +"She certainly failed in that." Aunt Ruth seemed rather pleased herself +at the thought. "But then she didn't really go into it seriously--it was +because Louis put her up to it--told her she couldn't do it. She only +really tried it once--and then spent the rest of the morning washing her +hair. Such a task--it's so heavy and curly--" Aunt Ruth suddenly stopped +talking about Roberta, as if it had occurred to her that this young man +looked altogether too interested in such trifles as the dressing of +certain thick, dark locks. + +Presently, the mending over, the Grays were taken, according to promise, +back to the Christmas celebrations in the other house, and Richard, +returning to his grandfather, proposed, with some unwonted diffidence of +manner, that the two attend service together at St. Luke's. + +The old man looked up at his grandson, astonishment in his face. + +"Church, Dick--with you?" he repeated. "Why, I--" He hesitated. "Did the +little lady we entertained last night put that into your head?" + +"She put several things into my head," Richard admitted, "but not that. +Will you go, sir? It's fully time now, I believe." + +Matthew Kendrick's keen eyes continued to search his grandson's face, to +Richard's inner confusion. Outwardly, the younger man maintained an +attitude of dignified questioning. + +"I am willing to go," said Mr. Kendrick, after a moment. + +At St. Luke's, that morning, from her place in the family pew, Ruth +Gray, remembering a certain promise, looked about her as searchingly as +was possible. Nowhere within her line of vision could she discern the +figure of Richard Kendrick, but she was none the less confident that +somewhere within the stately walls of the old church he was taking part +in the impressive Christmas service. When it ended and she turned to +make her way up the aisle, leading a bevy of young cousins, her eyes, +beneath a sheltering hat-brim, darted here and there until, unexpectedly +near-by, they encountered the half-amused but wholly respectful +recognition of those they sought. As Ruth made her slow progress toward +the door she was aware that the Kendricks, elder and younger, were close +behind her, and just before the open air was reached she was able to +exchange with Richard a low-spoken question and answer. + +"Wasn't it beautiful? Aren't you glad you came?" + +"It _was_ beautiful, Miss Ruth--and I'm more than glad I came." + + * * * * * + +Several hours earlier, on that same Christmas morning, Ruth had rushed +into Roberta's room, crying out happily: + +"Flowers--flowers--flowers! For you and Rosy and mother and me! They +just came. Mr. Richard Loring Kendrick's card is in ours; of course it's +in yours. Here are yours; do open the box and let me see! Mother's are +orchids, perfectly wonderful ones. Rosy's are mignonette, great +clusters, a whole armful--I didn't know florists grew such +richness--they smell like the summer kind. She's so pleased. Mine are +violets and lilies-of-the-valley. I'm perfectly crazy over them. +Yours--" + +Roberta had the cover off. Roses! Somehow she had known they would be +roses--after last night. But such roses! + +Ruth cried out in ecstasy, bending to bury her face in the glorious +mass. "They're exactly the colour of the old brocade frock, Robby," she +exulted. She picked up the card in its envelope. "May I look at it?" she +asked, with her fingers already in the flap. "Ours all have some +Christmas wish on, and Rosy's adds something about Gordon and Dorothy." + +"You might just let me see first," said Roberta carelessly, stretching +out her hand for the card. Ruth handed it over. Roberta turned her head. +"Who's calling?" she murmured, and ran to the door, card in hand. + +"I didn't hear any one," Ruth called after her. + +But Roberta disappeared. Around the turn of the hall she scanned her +card. + +"_Thorns to the thorny_," she read, and stood staring at the unexpected +words written in a firm, masculine hand. That was all. Did it sting? +Yet, curiously enough, Roberta rather liked that odd message. + +When she came back, Ruth, in the excitement of examining many other +Christmas offerings, had rushed on, leaving the box of roses on +Roberta's bed. The recipient took out a single rose and examined its +stem. Thorns! She had never seen sharper ones--and not one had been +removed. But the rose itself was perfection. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OPINIONS AND THEORIES + + +Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray were the last to leave the city, after the +house-party. They returned to their brother Robert's home for a day, +when the other guests had gone, and it was on the evening before their +departure that they related their experiences while at the house of +Matthew Kendrick. With most of the members of the Gray household, they +were sitting before the fire in the living-room when Aunt Ruth suddenly +spoke her mind. + +"I don't know when I've felt so sorry for the too rich as I felt in that +house," said she. She was knitting a gray silk mitten, and her needles +were flying. + +"Why, Aunt Ruth?" inquired her nephew Louis, who sat next her, revelling +in the comfort of home after a particularly harassing day at the office. +"Did they seem to lack anything in particular?" + +"I should say they did," she replied. "Nothing that money can buy, of +course, but about everything that it can't." + +"For instance?" he pursued, turning affectionate eyes upon his aunt's +small figure in its gray gown, as the firelight played upon it, touching +her abundant silvering locks and making her eyes seem to sparkle almost +as brilliantly as her swiftly moving needles. + +Aunt Ruth put down her knitting for an instant, looking at her nephew. +"Why, you know," said she. "You're sitting in the very middle of it this +minute!" + +Louis looked about him, smiling. He was, indeed, in the midst of an +accustomed scene of both home-likeness and beauty. The living-room was +of such generous proportions that even when the entire family were +gathered there they could not crowd it. On a wide couch, at one side of +the fireplace, sat his father and mother, talking in low tones +concerning some matter of evident interest, to judge by their intent +faces. Rosamond, like the girl she resembled, sat, girl fashion, on a +pile of cushions close by the fire; and Stephen, her husband, not far +away, by a table with a drop-light, was absorbed in a book. Uncle Rufus +was examining a pile of photographs on the other side of the table. Ted +sprawled on a couch at the far end of the room, deep in a boy's +magazine, a reading light at his elbow. At the opposite end of the room, +where the piano stood, Roberta, music rack before her, was drawing her +bow across nearly noiseless strings, while Ruth picked softly at her +harp: indications of intention to burst forth into musical strains when +a hush should chance to fall upon the company. + +Judge Calvin Gray alone was absent from the gathering, and even as +Louis's eyes wandered about the pleasant room, his uncle's figure +appeared in the doorway. As if he were answering his sister Ruth, Judge +Gray spoke his thought. + +"I wonder," said he, advancing toward the fireside, "if anywhere in this +wide world there is a happier family life than this!" + +Louis sprang up to offer Judge Gray the chair he had been occupying--a +favourite, luxuriously cushioned armchair, with a reading light beside +it ready to be switched on at will, which was Uncle Calvin's special +treasure, of an evening. Louis himself took up his position on the +hearth-rug, opposite Rosamond. + +Aunt Ruth answered her brother energetically: "None happier, Calvin, +I'll warrant, and few half as happy. I can't help wishing those two +people Rufus and I've been visiting could look in here just now." + +"Why make them envious?" suggested Louis, who loved to hear his Aunt +Ruth's crisp speeches. + +"The question is--would they be envious?" This came from Stephen, whose +absorption in his book evidently admitted of penetration from the +outside. + +"Why, of course they would!" declared Aunt Ruth. "You should have seen +the way they had me pour the coffee and tea, all the while I was there. +That young man Richard was always getting me to pour something--said he +liked to see me do it. And he was always sending a servant off and doing +things for me himself. If I'd been a young girl he couldn't have hovered +round any more devotedly." + +A general laugh greeted this, for Aunt Ruth's expression of face as she +told it was provocative. + +"We can readily believe that, Ruth," declared Judge Gray, and his +brother Robert nodded. The low-voiced talk between Mr. Robert Gray and +his wife had ceased; Stephen had laid down his book; Ruth had stopped +plucking at her harp strings; and only Roberta still seemed interested +in anything but Aunt Ruth and her experiences and opinions. + +"I mended his socks and gloves for him," announced Aunt Ruth +contentedly. "You needn't tell me they don't miss a woman's hand about +the house, over there." + +"She mended Rich Kendrick's socks and gloves!" murmured Louis, with a +laughing, incredulous glance at Rosamond, who lifted delighted eyes to +him. "I can't believe it. He must have made holes in them on purpose." + +"Why, not even a spendthrift would do that!" Aunt Ruth promptly denied +the possibility of such folly. "I don't say but they are lavish with +things there. Rufus and I were a good deal bothered by all their lights. +We couldn't seem to get them all put out. And every time we put them +out, anywhere, somebody'd turn them on again for us." + +Uncle Rufus broke in here, narrating their experience with the various +switch-buttons in the suite of rooms, and the company laughed until they +wept over his comments. + +"But all that's neither here nor there," said he, finally. "Of course we +weren't up to such elaborate arrangements, and it made us feel sort of +rustic. But I can tell you they didn't spare any pains to make us +comfortable and at home--if, as Ruth says, you can make anybody feel at +home in a great place like that. I feel, as she does, sorry for 'em +both. They're pretty fine gentlemen, if I'm any judge, and I don't know +which I like better, the older or the younger." + +"There can be no question about the older," said his brother, Robert +Gray, joining in the talk with evident interest. "Mr. Matthew Kendrick +made his place long ago in the business world as one of the great and +just. He has taught that world many fine lessons of truth and honour, as +well as of success." + +Judge Gray nodded. "I'm glad to hear that you appreciate him, Robert," +said he. "Few know better than I how deserved that is. And still fewer +recognize the fine and sensitive nature behind the impression of power +he has always given. He is the type of man, as sister Ruth here is quick +to discern, who must be lonely in the midst of his great wealth, for the +lack of just such a privilege as this we have here to-night, the close +association with people whom we love, and with whom we sympathize in all +that matters most. Matthew Kendrick was a devoted husband and father. In +spite of his grandson's presence, of late, he must sorely long for +companionship." + +"His grandson's going to give him more of that than he has," declared +Aunt Ruth, smiling over her knitting as if recalling a pleasant memory. +"He and I had quite a bit of talk while I was there, and he's beginning +to realize that he owes his grandfather more than he's given him. I had +a good chance to see what was in that boy's heart, and I know there's +plenty of warmth there. And there's real character in him, too. I've had +enough sons of my own to know the signs, and the fact that they were +poor in this world's goods, and he is rich--too rich--doesn't make a +mite of difference in the signs!" + +Mrs. Robert Gray, who had been listening with an intent expression in +eyes whose beauty was not more appealing than their power of observation +was keen, now spoke, and all turned to her. She was a woman whose +opinion on any subject of common interest was always waited for and +attended upon. Her voice was rich and low--her family did not fully know +how dear to their ears was the sound of that voice. + +"Young Mr. Kendrick," said she, "couldn't wish, Ruth, for a more +powerful advocate than you. To have you approve him, after seeing him +under more intimate circumstances than we are likely to do, must commend +him to our good will. To tell the frank truth, I have been rather afraid +to admit him to my good graces, lest there be really no great force of +character, or even promise of it, behind that handsome face and winning +manner. But if you see the signs--as you say--we must look more +hopefully upon him." + +"She's not the only one who sees signs," asserted Judge Gray. "He's +coming on--he's coming on well, in his work with me. He's learning +really to work. I admit he didn't know how when he came to me. Something +has waked him up. I'm inclined to think," he went on, with a mischievous +glance toward the end of the room where sat the noiseless musicians, "it +might have been my niece Roberta's shining example of industry when she +spent a day with us in my library, typing work for me back in October. +Never was such a sight to serve as an inspiration for a laggardly young +man!" + +There was a general laugh, and all eyes were turned toward that end of +the room devoted to the users of the musical instruments. In response +came a deep, resonant note from Roberta's 'cello, over which the silent +bow had been for some time suspended. There followed a minor scale, +descending well into the depths and vibrating dismally as it went. +Louis, a mocking light in his eye, strolled down the room to his +sisters. + +"That's the way you feel about it, eh?" he queried, regarding Roberta +with brotherly interest. "Consigning the poor, innocent chap to the +bottom of the ladder, when he's doing his best to climb up to the +sunshine of your smile. Have you no respect for the opinion of your +betters?" + +"Get out your fiddle and play the Grieg _Danse Caprice_, with us," was +her reply, and Louis obeyed, though not without a word or two more in +her ear which made her lift her bow threateningly. Presently the trio +were off, playing with a spirit and dash which drew all ears, and at the +close of the _Danse_ hearty applause called for more. After this +diversion, naturally enough, new subjects came up for discussion. + +Returning to the living-room in search of a dropped letter, after the +family had dispersed for the night, Roberta found her mother lingering +there alone. She had drawn a low chair close to the fire, and, having +extinguished all other lights, was sitting quietly looking into the +still glowing embers. Roberta, forgetting her quest, came close, and +flinging a cushion at her mother's knee dropped down there. This was a +frequent happening, and the most intimate hours the two spent together +were after this fashion. + +There was no speech for a little, though Mrs. Gray's hand wandered +caressingly about her daughter's neck in a way Roberta dearly loved, +drawing the loosened dark locks away from the small ears, or twisting a +curly strand about her fingers. Suddenly the girl burst out: + +"Mother, what are you to do when you find all your theories upset?" + +"_All_ upset?" repeated Mrs. Gray, in her rich and quiet voice. "That +would be a calamity indeed. Surely there must be one or two of yours +remaining stable?" + +"It seems not, just now. One disproved overturns another. They all hinge +on one another--at least mine do." + +"Perhaps not as closely as you think. What is it, dear? Can you tell me +anything about it?" + +"Not much, I'm afraid. Oh, it's nothing very real, I suppose--just a +sort of vague discomfort at feeling that certain ideals I thought were +as fixed as the stars in the heavens seem to be wobbling as if they +might shoot downward any minute, and--and leave only a trail of light +behind!" + +The last words came on a note of rather shaky laughter. Roberta's arm +lay across her mother's knee, her head upon it. She turned her head +downward for an instant, burying her face in the angle of her arm. Mrs. +Gray regarded the mass of dark locks beneath her hand with a look amused +yet sympathetic. + +"That sort of discomfort attacks us all, at times," she said. "Ideals +change and develop with our growth. One would not want the same ones to +serve her all her life." + +"I know. But when it's not a new and better ideal which displaces the +old one, but only--an attraction--" + +"An attraction not ideal?" + +Roberta shook her head. "I'm afraid not. And I don't see why it should +be an attraction at all. It ought not to be, if my ideals have been what +they should have been. And they have. Why, you gave them to me, mother, +many of them--or at least helped me to work them out for myself. And +I--I had confidence in them!" + +"And they're shaken?" + +"Not the ideals--they're all the same. Only--they don't seem to be proof +against--assault. Oh, I'm talking in riddles, I know. I don't want to +put any of it into words, it makes it seem more real. And it's only a +shadowy sort of difficulty. Maybe that's all it will be." + +Mothers are wonderful at divination; why should they not be, when all +their task is a training in understanding young natures which do not +understand themselves. From these halting phrases of mystery Mrs. Gray +gathered much more than her daughter would have imagined. But she did +not let that be seen. + +"If it is only a shadowy difficulty the rising of the sun will put it to +flight," she predicted. + +Roberta was silent for a space. Then suddenly she sat up. + +"I had a long letter from Forbes Westcott to-day," she said, in a tone +which tried to be casual. "He's staying on in London, getting material +for that difficult Letchworth case he's so anxious to win. It's a +wonderfully interesting letter, though he doesn't say much about the +case. He's one of the cleverest letter writers I ever knew--in the +flesh. It's really an art with him. If he hadn't made a lawyer of +himself he would have been a man of letters, his literary tastes are so +fine. It's quite an education in the use of delightfully spirited +English, a correspondence with him. I've appreciated that more with each +letter." + +She produced the letter. "Just listen to this account of an interview he +had with a distinguished Member of Parliament, the one who has just made +that daring speech in the House that set everybody on fire." And she +read aloud from several closely written pages, holding the sheets toward +the still bright embers, and giving the words the benefit of her own +clear and understanding interpretation. Her mother listened with +interest. + +"That is, indeed, a fine description," she agreed. "There is no question +that Forbes has a brilliant mind. The position he already occupies +testifies to that, and the older men all acknowledge that he is rising +more rapidly than could be expected of any ordinary man. He will be one +of the great men of the legal profession, your father and uncle think, I +know." + +"One of the great men," repeated Roberta, her face still bent over her +letter. "I suppose there's no doubt at all of that. And, mother--you may +imagine that when he sets himself to persuade--any one--to--any course, +he knows how to put it as irresistibly as words can." + +"Yes, I should imagine that, dear," said her mother, her eyes on the +down-bent profile, whose outlines, against the background of the +firelight, would have held a gaze less loving than her own. + +"His age makes him interesting, you know," pursued Roberta. "He's just +enough older--and maturer--than any of the men I know, to make him seem +immensely more worth while. His very looks--that thin, keen face of +his--it's plain, yet attractive, and his eyes look as if they could +see through stone walls. It flatters you to have him seem to find +the things you say worth listening to. I can't just explain his +peculiar--fascination--I really think it is that, except that it's his +splendid mind that grips yours, somehow. Oh, I sound like a, +schoolgirl," she burst out, "in spite of my twenty-four years. I wonder +if you see what I mean." + +"I think I do," said her mother, smiling a little. "You mean that your +judgment approves him, but that your heart lags a little behind?" + +"How did you know?" Roberta folded her arms upon her mother's lap, and +looked up eagerly into her face. "I didn't say anything about my heart." + +"But you did, dear. The very fact that you can discuss him so coolly +tells me that your heart isn't seriously involved as yet. Is it?" + +"That's what I don't know," said the girl. "When he writes like +this--the last two pages I can't read to you--I don't know what I think. +And I'm not used to not knowing what I think! It's disconcerting. It's +like being taken off your feet and--not set down again. Yet, when I'm +with him--I'm not at all sure I should ever want him nearer than--well, +than three feet away. And he's so insistent--persistent. He wants an +answer--now, by mail." + +"Are you ready to give it?" + +"No. I'm afraid to give it--at long distance." + +"Then do not. You are under no obligation to do that. The test of actual +presence is the only one to apply. Let him wait till he comes home. It +will not hurt him." + +She spoke with spirit, and her daughter responded to the tone. + +"I know that's the best advice," Roberta said, getting to her feet. +"Mother, you like him?" + +"Yes, I have always liked Forbes," said Mrs. Gray, with cordiality. +"Your father likes him, and trusts him, as a man of honour, in his +profession. That is much to say. Whether he is a man who would make you +happy--that is a different question. No one can answer that but +yourself." + +"I haven't wanted any one to make me happy." Roberta stood upon the +hearth-rug, a figure of charm among the lights and shadows. "I've been +absorbed in my work--and my play. I enjoy my men friends--and am glad +when they go away and leave me. Life is so full--and rich--just of +itself. There are so many wonderful people, of all sorts. The world is +so interesting--and home is so dear!" She lifted her arms, her head up. +"Mother, let's play the Bach _Air_," she said. "That always takes the +fever out of me, and makes me feel calm and rational. Is it very +late?--are you too tired? Nobody will be disturbed at this distance." + +"I should love to play it," said Mrs. Gray, and together the two went +down the room to the great piano which stood there in the darkness. +Roberta switched on one hooded light, produced the music for her mother, +and tuned her 'cello, sitting at one side away from the light, with no +notes before her. Presently the slow, deep, and majestic notes of the +"Air for the G String" were vibrating through the quiet room, the 'cello +player drawing her bow across and across the one string with affection +for each rich note in her very touch. The other string tones followed +her with exquisite sympathy, for Mrs. Gray was a musician from whom +three of her four children had inherited an intense love for harmonic +values. + +But a few bars had sounded when a tall figure came noiselessly into the +room, and Mr. Robert Gray dropped into the seat before the fire which +his wife had lately occupied. With head thrown back he listened, and +when silence fell at the close of the performance, his deep voice was +the first to break it. + +"To me," he said, "that is the slow flowing and receding of waves upon a +smooth and rocky shore. The sky is gray, but the atmosphere is warm and +friendly. It is all very restful, after a day of perturbation." + +"Oh, is it like that to you?" queried Roberta softly, out of the +darkness. "To me it's as if I were walking down the nave of a great +cathedral--Westminster, perhaps--big and bare and wonderful, with the +organ playing ever so far away. The sun is shining outside and so it's +not gloomy, only very peaceful, and one can't imagine the world at the +doors." She looked over at her mother, whose face was just visible in +the shaded light. "What is it to you, lovely lady?" + +"It is a prayer," said her mother slowly, "a prayer for peace and purity +in a restless world, yet a prayer for service, too. The one who prays +lies very low, with his face concealed, and his spirit is full of +worship." + +The light was put out; the three, father, mother, and daughter, came +together in the fading fire-glow. Roberta laid a warm young hand upon the +shoulder of each. "You dears," she said, "what fortunate and happy +children your four are, to be the children of you!" + +Her father placed his firm fingers under her chin, lifting her face. +"Your mother and I," said he, "consider ourselves fairly fortunate and +happy to be the parents of you. You are an interesting quartette. 'Age +cannot wither nor custom stale' your 'infinite variety.' But age will +wither you if you often sit up to play Bach at midnight, when you must +teach school next day. Therefore, good-night, Namesake!" + +Yet when she had gone, her father and mother lingered by the last embers +of the fire. + +"God give her wisdom!" said Roberta's mother. + +"He will--with you to ask Him," replied Roberta's father, with his arms +about his wife. "I think He never refuses you anything! I don't see how +He could!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"THE TAMING OF THE SHREW" + + +"School again, Rob! Don't you hate it?" + +"No, of course I don't hate it. I'm much, much happier when I'm teaching +Ethel Revell to forget her important young self and remember the part +she is supposed to play, than I am when I am merely dusting my room or +driving downtown on errands." + +As she spoke Roberta pushed into place the last hairpin in the close and +trim arrangement of her dark hair, briefly surveyed the result with a +hand-glass, and rose from her dressing-table. Ruth, at a considerably +earlier stage of her dressing, regarded her sister's head with interest. + +"I can always tell the difference between a school day and another day, +just by looking at your hair," she observed, sagely. + +"How, Miss Big Eyes, if you please?" + +"You never leave a curl sticking out, on school days. They sometimes +work out before night, but that's not your fault. You look like one of +Jane Austen's heroines, now." + +Roberta laughed a laugh of derision. "Miss Austen's heroines undoubtedly +had ringlets hanging in profusion on either side of their oval faces." + +"Yes, but I mean every hair of theirs was in order, and so are yours." + +"Thank you. Only so can I command respect when I lecture my girls on +their frenzied coiffures. Oh, but I'm thankful I can live at home and +don't have to spend the nights with them! Some of them are dears, but to +be responsible for them day and night would harrow my soul. Hook me up, +will you, Rufus, please?" + +"You look just like a smooth feathered bluebird in this," commented +Ruth, as she obediently fastened the severely simple school dress of +dark blue, relieved only by its daintily fresh collar and cuffs of +embroidered white lawn. + +"I mean to. Miss Copeland wouldn't have a fluffy, frilly teacher in her +school--and I don't blame her. It's difficult enough to train fluffy, +frilly girls to like simplicity, even if one's self is a model of +plainness and repose." + +"And you're truly glad to go back, after this lovely vacation? Shouldn't +you sort of like to keep on typing for Uncle Calvin, with Mr. Richard +Kendrick sitting close by, looking at you over the top of his book?" + +Roberta wheeled, answering with vehemence: "I should say not, you +romantic infant! When I work I want to work with workers, not with +drones! A person who can only dawdle over his task is of no use at all. +How Uncle Calvin gets on with a mere imitation of a secretary, I can't +possibly see. Why, Ted himself could cover more ground in a morning!" + +"I don't think you do him justice," Ruth objected, with all the dignity +of her sixteen years in evidence. "Of course he couldn't work as well +with you in the room--he isn't used to it. And you are--you certainly +are, awfully nice to look at, Rob." + +"Nonsense! It's lucky you're going back to school yourself, child, to +get these sentimental notions out of your head. Come, vacation's over! +Let's not sigh for more dances; let's go at our work with a will. I've +plenty before me. The school play comes week after next, and I haven't +as good material this year as last. How I'm ever going to get Olivia +Cartwright to put sufficient backbone into her _Petruchio_, I don't +know. I only wish I could play him myself!" + +"Rob! Couldn't you?" + +"It's never done. My part is just to coach and coach, to go over the +lines a thousand times and the stage business ten thousand, and then to +stay behind the scenes and hiss at them: 'More spirit! More life! Throw +yourself into it!' and then to watch them walk it through like puppets! +Well, _The Taming of the Shrew_ is pretty stiff work for amateurs, no +doubt of that--there's that much to be said. Breakfast time, childie! +You must hurry, and I must be off." + +Half an hour later Ruth watched her sister walk away down the street +with Louis, her step as lithe and vigorous as her brother's. Ruth +herself was accustomed to drive with her father to the school which she +attended--a rival school, as it happened, of the fashionable one at +which Roberta taught. She was not so strong as her sister, and a +two-mile walk to school was apt to overtire her. But Roberta chose to +walk every day and all days, and the more stormy the weather the surer +was she to scorn all offers of a place beside Ruth in the brougham. + +Louis's comment on the return of his sister to her work at Miss +Copeland's school was much like that of Ruth. "Sorry vacation's over, +Rob? That's where I have the advantage of you. The office never closes +for more than a day; therefore I'm always in training." + +"That's an advantage, surely enough. But I'm ready to go back. As I was +telling Ruth this morning, I'm anxious to know whether Olivia Cartwright +has forgotten her lines, and whether she's going to be able to infuse a +bit of life into her _Petruchio_. This trying to make a schoolgirl play +a big man's part--" + +"You could do it, yourself," observed Louis, even as Ruth had done. + +"And shouldn't I love to! I'm just longing to stride about the stage in +_Petruchio's_ boots." + +"I'll wager you are. I'd like to see you do it. But the part of +_Katherine_ would be the thing for you--fascinating shrew that you could +be." + +"This--from a brother! Yes, I'd like to play _Katherine_, too. But give +me the boots, if you please. Do you happen to remember Olivia +Cartwright?" + +"Of course I do. And a mighty pretty and interesting girl she is. I +should think she might make a _Petruchio_ for you." + +"I thought she would. But the boots seem to have a devastating effect. +The minute she gets them on--even in imagination, for we haven't had a +dress rehearsal yet--her voice grows softer and her manner more +lady-like. It's the funniest thing I ever knew, to hear her say the +lines-- + +"'What is this? mutton?... +'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat. +What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook? + +"How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser, +And serve it thus to me that love it not? + There, take it to you, trenchers, cups and all, +You heedless joltheads and unmannered slaves!'" + +Passersby along the street beheld a young man consumed with mirth as +Louis Gray heard these stirring words issuing from his sister's pretty +mouth in a clever imitation of the schoolgirl _Petruchio's_ "lady-like" +tones. + +"Now speak those lines as you would if you wore the boots," he urged, +when he had recovered his gravity. + +Roberta waited till they were at a discreet distance from other +pedestrians, then delivered the lines as she had already spoken them for +her pupil twenty times or more, with a spirit and temper which gave them +their character as the assumed bluster they were meant to picture. + +"Good!" cried Louis. "Great! But you see, Sis, you have learned the +absolute control of your voice, and that's a thing few schoolgirls have +mastered. Besides, not every girl has a throat like yours." + +"I mean to be patient," said Roberta soberly. "And Olivia has really a +good speaking voice. It's the curious effect of the imaginary boots that +stirs my wonder. She actually speaks in a higher key with them on than +off. But we shall improve that, in the fortnight before the play. They +are really doing very well, and our _Katherine_--Ethel Revell--is going +to forget herself completely in her part, if I can manage it. In spite +of the hard work I thoroughly enjoy the rehearsing of the yearly +play--it's a relief from the routine work of the class. And the girls +appreciate the best there is, in the great writers and dramatists, as +you wouldn't imagine they could do." + +"On the whole, you would rather be a teacher than an office +stenographer?" suggested Louis, with a touch of mischief in his tone. +"You know, I've always been a bit disappointed that you didn't come into +our office, after working so hard to make an expert of yourself." + +"That training wasn't wasted," defended Roberta. "I'm able to make +friends with my working girls lots better on account of the stenography +and typewriting I know. And I may need that resource yet. I'm not at all +sure that I mean to be a teacher all my days." + +"I'm very sure you'll not," said her brother, with a laughing glance, +which Roberta ignored. It was a matter of considerable amusement to her +brothers the serious way in which she had set about being independent. +They fully approved of her decision to spend her time in a way worth the +while, but when it came to planning for a lifetime--there were plenty of +reasons for skepticism as to her needing to look far ahead. Indeed, it +was well known that Roberta might have abandoned all effort long ago, +and have given any one of several extremely eligible young men the +greatly desired opportunity of taking care of her in his own way. + +The pair separated at a street corner, and, as it happened, Louis heard +little more about the progress of the school rehearsals for _The Taming +of the Shrew_ until the day before its public performance--if a +performance could be called public which was to be given in so private a +place as the ballroom in the home of one of the wealthiest patrons of +the school, the audience composed wholly of invited guests, and +admission to the affair for others extremely difficult to procure on any +ground whatever. + +Appearing at the close of the final rehearsal to escort his sister +home--for the hour, like that of all final rehearsals, was late--Louis +found a flushed and highly wrought Roberta delivering last instructions +even as she put on her wraps. + +"Remember, Olivia," he heard her say to a tall girl wrapped in a long +cloak which evidently concealed male trappings, "I'm not going to tone +down my part one bit to fit yours. If I'm stormy you must be blustering; +if I'm furious you must be fierce. You can do it, I know." + +"I certainly hope so, Miss Gray," answered a none-too-confident voice. +"But I'm simply frightened to death to play opposite you." + +"Nonsense! I'll stick pins into you--metaphorically speaking," declared +Roberta. "I'll keep you up to it. Now go straight to bed--no sitting up +to talk it over with Ethel--poor child! Good-night, dear, and don't you +dare be afraid of me!" + +"Are you going to play the boots, after all?" Louis queried as he and +Roberta started toward home, walking at a rapid pace, as usual after +rehearsals. + +"I wish I were, if I must play some part. No, it's _Katherine_. Ethel +Revell has come down with tonsilitis, just at the last minute. It was to +be expected, of course--somebody always does it. But I did hope it +wouldn't be one of the principals. Of course there's nobody who could +possibly get up the part overnight except the coach, so I'm in for it. +And the worst of it is that unless I'm very careful I shall +over-_Katherine_ my _Petruchio_! If Olivia will only keep her voice +resonant! She can stride and gesture pretty well now, but highly +dramatic moments always cause her to raise her key--and then the boots +only serve to make the effect grotesque." + +"Never mind; unconscious humour is always interesting to the audience. +And we shall all be there to see your _Katherine_. I had thought of +cutting the performance for a rather important address, but nothing +would induce me to miss my sister as the _Shrew_." + +Roberta laughed. "Nobody will question my fitness for the part, I fear. +Well, if I teach expression, in a girls' school, I must take the +consequences, and be willing to express anything that comes along." + +If Roberta had expected any sympathy from her family in the exigency of +the hour, she was disappointed. Instead of condoling with her, the +breakfast-table hearers of the news, next morning, were able only to +congratulate themselves upon the augmented interest the school play +would now have for Roberta's friends, confident that the presence of one +clever actress of maturer powers would compensate for much +amateurishness in the others. Ruth, young devotee of her sister, was +delighted beyond measure with the prospect, and joyfully spent the day +taking necessary stitches in the apparel Roberta was to wear, +considerable alteration being necessary to adapt the garments intended +for the slim and girlish _Katherine_ of Ethel Revell's proportions to +the more perfectly rounded lines of her teacher. + +Late in the afternoon, something was needed to complete Roberta's +preparations which could be procured only in a downtown shop, and Ruth +volunteered to order the brougham--now on runners--and go down for it. +She left the house alone, but she did not complete her journey alone, +for halfway down the two-mile boulevard she passed a figure she knew, +and turned to bestow a girlish bow and smile. + +Richard Kendrick not only took off his hat but waved it with a gesture +of entreaty, as he quickened his steps, and Ruth, much excited by the +encounter, bade Thomas stop the horses. + +"Would you take a passenger?" he asked as he came up; "unless, of +course, you're going to stop for some one else?" + +"Do get in," she urged shyly. "No, I'm all alone--going on an errand." + +"I guessed it--not the errand, but the being alone. You looked so small, +wrapped up in all these furs, I felt you needed company," explained +Richard, smiling down into the animated young face, with its delicate +colour showing fresh and fair in the frosty air. There was something +very attractive to the young man in this girl, who seemed to him the +embodiment of sweetness and purity. He never saw her without feeling +that he would have liked just such a little sister. He would have done +much to please her, quite as he had followed her suggestion about the +church-going on Christmas Day. + +"I'm rushing down to find a scarf of a certain colour for Rob," +explained Ruth, too full of her commission to keep it to herself. "You +see, she's playing _Katherine_ to-night. The girl who was to have played +it--Ethel Revell--is ill. Do you know any of Miss Copeland's girls? +Olivia Cartwright plays _Petruchio_." + +"Olivia Cartwright? Is she to be in some play? She's a distant cousin of +mine." + +"It's a school play--Miss Copeland's school, where Rob teaches, you +know. The play is to be in the Stuart Hendersons' ballroom." And Ruth +made known the situation to a listener who gave her his undivided +attention. + +"Well, well,--seems to me I should have had an invitation for that +play," mused Richard, searching his memory. "I wish I'd had one. I +should like to see your sister act _Katherine_. I suppose it's quite +impossible to get one at this late hour?" + +"I'm afraid so. It's really not at all strange that any one is left out +of the list of invitations," Ruth hastened to make clear. "You see, each +girl is allowed only six, and that usually takes just her family or +nearest friends. And if you are only a distant cousin of Olivia's--" + +"It's not at all strange that she shouldn't ask me, for I'm afraid I've +neglected to avail myself of former invitations of hers," admitted +Richard, ruefully. "Too bad. Punishment for such neglect usually +follows--and I certainly have it now. I know the Stuart Hendersons, +though--I wonder--Never mind, Miss Ruth, don't look so sorry. You'll +tell me about it afterward, some time, won't you?" + +"Indeed I will. Oh, it's been such an exciting day. Rob's been +rehearsing her lines all day--when she wasn't trying on. She says she +could have played _Petruchio_ much better, because she's had to coach +Olivia Cartwright for that part so much more than she's had to coach +Ethel for _Katherine_. But, then, she knows the whole play--she could +take any part. She would have loved to play _Petruchio_, though, on +account of the boots and the slashing round the stage the way he does. +But I think it's just as well, for _Katherine_ certainly slashes, +too--and Rob's not quite tall enough for _Petruchio_." + +"I'm glad she plays _Katherine_," said Richard Kendrick decidedly. "I +can't imagine your sister in boots! I've no doubt, though, she'd make +them different from other boots--if she wore them!" + +"Of course she would," agreed Ruth. Then she began to talk about +something else, for a bit of fear had come into her mind that Rob +wouldn't enjoy all this discussion of herself, if she should know about +it. + +She was such an honest young person, however, that she had a good deal +of difficulty, when she had done her errand and was at home again, in +not telling Roberta of her meeting with Richard Kendrick. She did +venture to ask a question. + +"Is Mr. Kendrick invited for to-night, Rob?" + +"Not by me," Roberta responded promptly. + +"He might be, by one of the girls, I suppose?" + +"The girls invite whom they like. I haven't seen the list. I don't +imagine he would be on it. I hope not, certainly." + +"Why? Don't you think he would enjoy it?" + +"No, I do not. Musical comedies are probably more to his taste than +amateur productions of Shakespeare. But I'm not thinking about the +audience--the players are enough for me." Then, suddenly, an idea which +flashed into her mind caused her to turn and scan Ruth's ingenuous young +face. + +"You haven't been inviting Mr. Kendrick yourself, Rufus?" + +"Why, how could I?" But the girl flushed rosily in a way which betrayed +her interest. "I just--wondered." + +"How did you come to wonder? Have you seen him?" + +Ruth being Ruth, there was nothing to do but to tell Roberta of the +encounter with Richard. "He said he was glad you were to play +_Katherine_, because he couldn't imagine you in boots," she added, +hoping this news might appease her sister. But it did nothing of the +sort. + +"As if it made the slightest difference to him! But if he feels that +way, I wish I were to wear the boots, and I wish he might be there to +see me do it. As it is, I hope Mrs. Stuart Henderson will be deaf to his +audacity, if he dares to ask an invitation. It would be quite like him!" + +"I don't see why--" began Ruth. + +But Roberta interrupted her. "There are lots of things you don't see, +little sister," said she, with a swift and impetuous embrace of the +slender form beside her. Then she turned, frowned, flung out her arm, +and broke into one of _Katherine's_ flaming speeches: + +_"'Why, sir, I trust, I may have leave to speak: +And speak I will: I am no child, no babe: +Your betters have endured me say my mind +And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.'"_ + +"Oh, but you do have such a lovely voice!" cried Ruth. "You can't make +even the _Shrew_ sound shrewish--in her tone, I mean." + +"Can't I, indeed? Wait till to-night! If your friend Mr. Kendrick is to +be there I'll be more shrewish than you ever dreamed--it will be a real +stimulus!" + +Ruth shook her head in dumb wonder that any one could be so impervious +to the charms of the young man who so appealed to her youthful +imagination. Three hours afterward, when she turned in her chair, in the +Stuart Henderson ballroom, at the summons of a low voice in her ear, to +find Richard Kendrick in the row behind her, she wondered afresh what +there could possibly be about him to rouse her sister's antagonism. His +face was such an interesting one, his eyes so clear and their glance so +straightforward, his fresh colour so pleasant to note, his whole +personality so attractive, Ruth could only answer him in the happiest +way at her command with a subdued but eager: "Oh, I'm so glad you came!" + +"That's due to Mrs. Cartwright's wonderful kindness. She's the mother of +_Petruchio_, you know," explained Richard, with a smiling glance at the +gorgeously gowned woman beside him, who leaned forward also to say to +Ruth: + +"What is one to do with a sweetly apologetic young cousin who begs to be +allowed to come, at the last moment, to view his cousin in doublet and +hose? But I really didn't venture to tell Olivia. She would have fled +from the stage if she had guessed that cousin Richard, whom she greatly +admires, was to be here. I can only hope she will not hear of it till +the play is over." + +"If his being here is going to make _Petruchio_ tremble more, and +_Katherine_ act naughtier, I shall feel dreadfully guilty," thought +Ruth. But somehow when the curtain went up she could not help being glad +that he was there, behind her. + +Roberta had said much, in hours of relaxation after long and tense +rehearsals, of the difficulty of making schoolgirls forget themselves in +any part. It had been difficult, indeed, to train her pupils to speak +and act with naturalness in roles so foreign to their experience. But +she had been much more successful than she had dared to believe, and her +own enthusiasm, her tireless drilling, above all her inspiring example +as she spoke her girls' lines for them and demonstrated to them each +telling detail of stage business, had done the work with astonishing +effect. The hardest task of all had been to find and develop a +satisfactory delineator of the difficult part of the _Tamer of the +Shrew_, but Roberta had persevered, even taking a journey of some hours +with Olivia Cartwright to have her see and study one of the greatest of +_Petruchios_ at two successive performances. She had succeeded in +stimulating Olivia to a real determination to be worthy of her teacher's +expressed belief in her, even to the mastering of her girlish tendency +to let her voice revert to a high-keyed feminine quality just when it +needed to be deepest and most stern. + +The audience, as the play began, was in the customary benevolent mood of +audiences beholding amateur productions, ready to see good if possible, +anxious to show favour to all the young actors and to praise without +discrimination, aware of the proximity of proud fathers and mothers. But +this audience soon found itself genuinely interested and amused, and +with the first advent of the enchanting _Shrew_ herself became absorbed +in her personality and her fortunes quite as it might have been in those +of any talented actress of reputation. + +To Ruth, sitting wide eyed and hot cheeked, her sister seemed the most +spirited and bewitching _Katherine_ ever played. Her shrewishness was +that of the wilful madcap girl who has never been crossed rather than +that of the inherently ill-tempered woman, and her every word and +gesture, her every expression of face and tone of voice, were worth +noting and watching. By no means finished work--as how should it be, in +a young teacher but few years out of school herself--it yet had an +originality and freshness of interpretation all its own, and the +applause which praised it was very spontaneous and genuine. Roberta had +been the joy of her class in college dramatics, and several of her +former classmates, in her audience to-night, gleefully told one another +that she was surpassing anything she had formerly done. + +"It's simply superb, you know, don't you?--your sister's acting," said +Richard Kendrick's voice in Ruth's ear again at the end of the first +act, and she turned her burning cheek his way as she answered happily: + +"It seems so to me--but then I'm prejudiced, you know." + +"We're all prejudiced, when it comes to that--made so by this +performance. I'm pretty proud of my cousin _Petruchio_, too," he went +on, including Mrs. Cartwright at his side. "I'd no idea boots could be +so becoming to any girl--outside of a chorus. Olivia's splendid. Do you +suppose"--he was addressing Ruth again--"you and I might go behind the +scenes and tell them how we feel about it?" + +"Oh, no, indeed, Mr. Kendrick," Ruth replied, much shocked. "It's lots +different, a girls' play like this, from the regular theatre. They'd be +so astonished to see you. Rob's told me, heaps of times, how they go +perfectly crazy after every act, and she has all she can do to keep them +cool enough for the next. She'd never forgive us. And besides, Olivia +Cartwright's not to know you're here, you know." + +"That's true. I'd forgotten how disturbing my presence is supposed to +be," and Richard leaned back again to laugh with Mrs. Cartwright. + +But, behind the scenes, the news had penetrated, nobody knew just how. +Roberta learned, to her surprise and distraction, that Richard Kendrick +was somehow a particularly interesting figure in the eyes of her young +players, and she speedily discovered that they were all more or less +excited at the knowledge that he was somewhere below the footlights. +Olivia, indeed, was immediately in a flutter, quite as her mother had +predicted, at the thought of Cousin Richard's eyes upon her in her +masculine attire; and Roberta, in the brief interval she could spare for +the purpose, had to take her sternly in hand. An autocratic _Katherine_ +might, then, have been overheard addressing a flurried _Petruchio_, in a +corner: + +"For pity's sake, child, who is he that you need be afraid of him? He's +no critic, I'll wager, and if he's your cousin he'll be sure to think +you act like a veteran, anyhow. Forget him, and go ahead. You're doing +splendidly. Don't you dare slump just because you're remembering your +audience!" + +"Oh, of course I'll try, Miss Gray," replied an extremely feminine voice +from beneath _Petruchio's_ fierce mustachios. "But Richard Kendrick +really is awfully sort of upsetting, don't you know?" + +"Of course I don't know," denied Roberta promptly. "As long as Miss +Copeland herself is pleased with us, nobody else matters. And Miss +Copeland is delighted--she sent me special word just now. So stiffen +your backbone, _Petruchio_, and make this next dialogue with me as rapid +as you know. Come back at me like flash-fire--don't lag a breath--we'll +stir the house to laughter, or know the reason why. Ready?" + +Her firm hand on Olivia's arm, her bracing words in Olivia's ear, put +courage back into her temporarily stage-struck "leading man," and Olivia +returned to the charge determined to play up to her teacher without +lagging. In truth, Roberta's actual presence on the stage was proving a +distinct advantage to those of the players who had parts with her. She +warmed and held them to their tasks with the flash of her own eyes, not +to mention an occasional almost imperceptible but pregnant gesture, and +they found themselves somehow able to "forget the audience," as she had +so many times advised them to do, the better that she herself seemed so +completely to have forgotten it. + +The work of the young actors grew better with each act, and at the end +of the fourth, when the curtain went down upon a scene which had been +all storm on the part of the players and all laughter on the part of the +audience, the applause was long and hearty. There were calls for the +entire cast, and when they had several times responded there was a +special and persistent demand for _Katherine_ herself, in the character +of the producer of the play. She refused it until she could no longer do +so without discourtesy; then she came before the curtain and said a few +winsome words of gratitude on behalf of her "company." + +Ruth, staring up at her sister's face brilliant with the mingled +exertion and emotion of the hour, and thinking her the prettiest picture +there against the great dull-blue silk curtain of the stage she had ever +seen, had no notion that just behind her somebody was thinking the same +thing with a degree of fervour far beyond her own. Richard Kendrick's +heart was thumping vigorously away in his breast as he looked his fill +at the figure before the curtain, secure in the darkness of the house +from observation at the moment. + +When he had first met this girl he had told himself that he would soon +know her well, would soon call her by her name. He wondered at himself +that he could possibly have fancied conquest of her so easy. He was not +a whit nearer knowing her, he was obliged to acknowledge, than on that +first day, nor did he see any prospect of getting to know her--beyond a +certain point. Her chosen occupation seemed to place her beyond his +reach; she was not to be got at by the ordinary methods of approach. +Twice he had called and asked for her, to be told that she was busy with +school papers and must be excused. Once he had ventured to invite her to +go with Mrs. Stephen and himself to a carefully chosen play and a +supper, but she had declined, gracefully enough--but she had declined, +and Mrs. Stephen also. He could not make these people out, he told +himself. Did they and he live in such different worlds that they could +never meet on common ground? + +_The Taming of the Shrew_ came to a triumphant end; the curtain fell +upon the effective closing scene in which the lovely _Shrew_, become a +richly loving and tender wife, without, somehow, surrendering a particle +of her exquisite individuality, spoke her words of wisdom to other +wives. Richard smiled to himself as he heard the lines fall from +Roberta's lips. And beneath his breath he said: + +"I don't see how you can bring yourself to say them, you modern girl. +You'd never let a real husband feel his power that way, I'll wager. If +you did--well--it would go to his head, I'm sure of that. What an idiot +I am to think I could ever make her look at me the way she looked even +at that schoolgirl _Petruchio_--with a clever imitation of devotion. O +Roberta Gray! But I'd rather worship you across the footlights than take +any other girl in my arms. And somehow--somehow I've got to make you at +least respect me. At least that, Roberta! Then--perhaps--more!" + +At Ruth's side, when the play was ended, Richard hoped to attain at +least the chance to speak to Ruth's sister. The young players all +appeared upon the stage, the curtain being raised for the rest of the +evening, and the audience came up, group by group, to offer +congratulations and pour into gratified ears the praise which was the +reward of labour. Richard succeeded in getting by degrees into the +immediate vicinity of Roberta, who was continuously surrounded by happy +parents bent on presenting their felicitations. But just as he was about +to make his way to her side a diversion occurred which took her +completely away from him. A girl near by, who on account of physical +frailty had had a minor part, grew suddenly faint, and in a trice +Roberta had impressed into her service a strong pair of male arms, +nearer at hand than Richard's, and had had the slim little figure +carried behind the scenes, herself following. + +Ten minutes later he learned from Ruth that Roberta had gone back to +Miss Copeland's school with the girl, recovered but weak. + +"Couldn't anybody else have gone?" he inquired, considerable impatience +in his voice. + +"Of course--lots of people could, and would. Only it's just like Rob to +seize the chance to get away from this, and not come back. You'll +see--she won't. She hates being patted on the back, as she calls it. I +never can see why, when people mean it, as I'm sure they do to-night. +She's the queerest girl. She never wants what you'd think she would, or +wants it the way other people do. But she's awfully dear, just the +same," Ruth hastened to add, fearful lest she seem to criticise the +beloved sister. "And somehow you don't get tired of her, the way you do +of some people. Perhaps that's just because she's different." + +"I suspect it is," Richard agreed with conviction. Certainly, a girl who +would run away from such adulation as she had been receiving must be, he +considered, decidedly and interestingly "different." He only wished he +might hit upon some "different" way to pique her interest. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BLANKETS + + +There was destined to be a still longer break in the work which had been +going on in Judge Calvin Gray's library than was intended. He and his +assistant had barely resumed their labours after the Christmas +house-party when the Judge was called out of town for a period whose +limit when he left he was unable to fix. He could leave little for +Richard to do, so that young man found his time again upon his hands and +himself unable to dispose of it to advantage. + +His mind at this period was in a curious state of dissatisfaction. Ever +since the evening of the Christmas dance, when a girl's careless word +had struck home with such unexpected force he had been as restless and +uneasy as a fish out of water. His condition bore as much resemblance to +that of the gasping fish as this: in the old element of life about town, +as he had been in the habit of living it, he now had the sensation of +not being able to breathe freely. + +It was with the intention of getting into the open, both mentally and +physically, that on the second day following the Judge's departure +Richard started on a long drive in his car. Beyond a certain limit he +knew that the roads were likely to prove none too good, though the +winter had thus far been an open one and there was little chance of his +encountering blocking snowdrifts "up State." He took no one with him. He +could think of no one with whom he cared to go. + +As he drove his mind was busy with all sorts of speculations. In his +hurt pride he had said to a girl: "If I can't make you think differently +of me it won't be for lack of will." That meant--what did it mean? That +he had recognized the fact that she despised idlers--and that young rich +men who spent a few hours, on an average of five days of the week, in +assisting elderly gentlemen bereft of their eyesight in looking up old +records, did not thereby in her estimation remove themselves from the +class of those who do nothing in the world but attend to the spending of +their incomes. + +What should he do--how prove himself fit to deserve her approval? +Unquestionably he must devote himself seriously to some serious +occupation. All sorts of ideas chased one another through his mind in +response to this stimulus. What was he fitted to do? He had a certain +facility in the use of the pen, as he had proved in the service of Judge +Calvin Gray. Should he look for a job as reporter on one of the city +dailies? He certainly could not offer himself for any post higher than +that of the rawest scribe on the force; he had had no experience. The +thought of seeking such a post made his lip curl with the absurdity of +the notion. They would make a society reporter of him; it would be the +first idea that would occur to them. It was the only thing for which +they would think him fit! + +The thing he should like to do would be to travel on some interesting +commission for his grandfather. On what commission, for instance? The +purchasing of rare works of art for the picture-gallery of the great +store? No mean exhibition it was they had there. But he had not the +training for such a commission; he would be cheated out of hand when it +came to buying! They sent skilled buyers on such quests. + +He thought of rushing off to the far West and buying a ranch. That was a +fit and proper thing for a fellow like himself; plenty of rich men's +sons had done it. If she could see him in cowboy garb, rough-clad, +sunburnt, muscular, she would respect him then perhaps. There would be +no more flinging at him that he was a cotillion leader! How he hated the +term! + +The day was fair and cold, the roads rather better than he had expected, +and by luncheon-time he had reached a large town, seventy miles away +from his own city, where he knew of an exceptionally good place to +obtain a refreshing meal. With this end in view, he was making more than +ordinary village speed when disaster befell him in the shape of a break +in his electric connections. Two blocks away from the hotel he sought, +the car suddenly went dead. + +While he was investigating, fingers blue with cold, a voice he knew +hailed him. It came from a young man who advanced from the doorway of a +store, in front of which the car had chanced to stop. "Something wrong, +Rich?" + +Richard stood up. He gripped his friend's hand cordially, glancing up at +the sign above the store as he did so. + +"Mighty glad to see you, Benson," he responded. "I didn't realize I'd +stopped in front of your father's place of business." + +Hugh Benson was a college classmate. In spite of the difference between +their respective estates in the college world, the two had been rather +good friends during the four years of their being thrown together. Since +graduation, however, they had seldom met, and for the last two years +Richard Kendrick had known no more of his former friend than that the +good-sized dry-goods store, standing on a prominent corner in the large +town through which he often motored without stopping, still bore the +name of Hugh Benson's father. + +When the car was running again Benson climbed in and showed Richard the +way to his own home, where he prevailed on his friend to remain for +lunch with himself and his mother. Richard learned for the first time +that Benson's father had died within the last year. + +"And you're going on with the business?" questioned Richard, as the two +lingered alone together in Benson's hall before parting. The talk during +the meal had been mostly of old college days, of former classmates, and +of the recent history of nearly every mutual acquaintance except that of +the speakers themselves. + +"There was nothing else for me to do when father left us," Benson +responded in a low tone. "I'm not as well adapted to it as he was, but +I expect to learn." + +"I remember you thought of doing graduate work along scientific lines. +Did you give that up?" + +"Yes. I found father needed me at home; his health must have been +failing even then, though I didn't realize it. I've been in the store +with him ever since. I'm glad I have--now." + +"It's not been good for you," declared Richard, scrutinizing his +friend's pale and rather worn face critically. It would have seemed to +him still paler and more worn if he could have seen it in contrast with +his own fresh-tinted features, ruddy with his morning's drive. "Better +come with me for an afternoon spin farther up State, and a good dinner +at a place I know. Get you back by bedtime." + +"There's nothing I'd like better, Rich," said Benson longingly; "but--I +can't leave the store. I have rather a short force of clerks--and on a +sunny day--" + +"You'd sell more goods to-morrow," urged Richard, feeling increasingly +anxious to do something which might bring light into a face he had not +remembered as so sombre. + +But Benson shook his head again. Afterward, in front of the store to +which the two had returned in the car, Richard could only give his +friend a warm grip of the hand and an urgent invitation to visit him in +the city. + +"I suppose you come down often to buy goods," he suggested. "Or do you +send buyers? I don't know much about the conduct of business in a town +like this--or much about it at home, for that matter," he owned. "Though +I'm not sure I'm proud of my ignorance." + +"It doesn't matter whether you know anything about it or not, of +course," said Benson, looking up at him with a queer expression of +wistfulness. "No, I'm my own buyer. And I don't buy of a great, +high-grade firm like yours; I go to a different class of fellows for my +stuff." + +Richard drove on, thinking hard about Benson. What a pity for a fellow +of twenty-six or seven to look like that, careworn and weary. He +wondered whether it was the loss of his father and the probably +sorrowful atmosphere at home that accounted for the look in Benson's +eyes, or whether his business was not a particularly successful one. He +recalled that the one careless glance he had given the windows of +Benson's store had brought to his mind the fleeting impression that +village shopkeepers had not much art in the dressing of their windows as +a means of alluring the public. + +As he drove on he felt in his pockets for a cigar and found his case +unexpectedly empty. He turned back to a drugstore, went in and supplied +himself from the best in stock--none too good for his fastidious taste. + +"What's your best dry-goods shop here?" he inquired casually. + +"Artwell & Chatford's the best--now," responded the druggist, glancing +across the street, where a sign bearing those names met the eye. +"Chaffee Brothers has run 'em a close second since Benson's dropped out +of the competition. Benson's used to be the best, but it's fallen way +behind. Look at Artwell's window display over there and see the reason," +he added, pointing across the street with the citizen's pride in a +successful enterprise in no way his own rival. + +"Gorgeous!" responded Richard, eying an undoubtedly eye-catching +arrangement of blankets of every hue and quality piled about a centre +figure consisting of a handsome brass bed made up as if for occupancy, +the carefully folded-back covers revealing immaculate and downy blankets +with pink borders, the whole suggestive of warmth and comfort throughout +the most rigorous winter season. + +"Catchy--on a day like this!" suggested the druggist, with a chuckle. +"I'll admit they gave me the key for my own windows." + +Richard's gaze followed the other's glance and rested on piles of +scarlet flannel chest-protectors, flanked by small brass tea-kettles +with alcohol lamps beneath. + +"We carry a side line of spirit-lamp stuff," explained the dealer. "It +sells well this time of year. Got to keep track of the popular thing. +Afternoon teas are all the go among the women of this town now. The +hardware's the only other place they can get these--and they don't begin +to keep the variety we do." + +Richard congratulated the dealer on his window. Lingering by it, his +hand on the door, he said: + +"I noticed Benson's as I came by, and I see now the force of what you +say about window display. I'm not sure I can tell what was in their +windows." + +"Nor anybody else," declared the druggist, chuckling, "unless he went +with a notebook and made an inventory. Since the old man died last year +the windows have been a hodgepodge of stuff that attracts nobody. It's +merely an index to the way the place is running behind. Young Benson +doesn't know how to buy nor how to sell; he'll never succeed. The store +began to go down when the old man got too feeble to take the whole +responsibility. Hugh began to overstock some departments and understock +others. It's not so much lack of capital that'll be responsible for +Hugh's failure when it comes--and I guess it's not far off--as it is +lack of business experience. Why, he's got so little trade he's turned +off half his salespeople; and you know that talks!" + +It did indeed. It talked louder now in the light of the druggist's +shrewd commentaries than it had when Benson had spoken of his "short +force." Richard wondered just how short it was, that the proprietor +could not venture to leave for even a few hours. + +He drove on thoughtfully. He wanted to go back and look those windows +over again, wanted to go through the whole store, but recognized that +though he could have done this when he first arrived, he could not go +back and do it now without exciting his friend's suspicion that sympathy +was his motive. + +He turned about at a point far short of the one he had intended to +reach, and made record time back to the city, impelled by an odd wish he +could hardly explain, to go by the windows of the great department +stores of Kendrick & Company and examine their window displays. Since he +was ordinarily accustomed to select any other streets than those upon +which these magnificent places of custom were situated, merely because +he not only had no interest in them but a positive distaste for seeing +his own name emblazoned--though ever so chastely--above their princely +portals, it may be understood that an entirely new idea was working in +his brain. + +Speed as he would, however, running the risk as he approached the city +streets of being stopped by some watchful authority for exceeding the +limits, he could not get back to the broad avenue upon which the stores +stood before six o'clock. There was all the better chance on that +account, nevertheless, for examining the windows before which belated +shoppers were still stopping to wonder and admire. + +Well, looking at them with Benson's forlorn windows in his mind as a +foil, he saw them as he never had before. What beauty, what originality, +what art they showed! And at a time of year when, the holiday season +past, it might seem as if there could be no real summons for anybody to +go shopping. They were fairly dazzling, some of them, although many of +them showed only white goods. His car came to a standstill before one +great plate-glass frame behind which was a representation of a +sewing-room with several people busily at work. So perfect were the +figures that it hardly seemed as if they could be of wax. One pretty +girl was sewing at a machine; another, on her knees, was fitting a frock +to a little girl who laughed over her shoulder at a second child who was +looking on. The mother of the family sewed by a drop-light on a +work-table. The whole scene was really charming, combining precisely the +element of domesticity with that of accomplishment which strikes the eye +of the average passer as "looking like home," no matter of what sort the +home might be. + +"By heavens! if poor Ben had something like that people wouldn't pass +him by for the blanket store," he said to himself; and drove on, still +thinking. + +The next day, at an hour before the morning tide of shopping at Kendrick +& Company's had reached the flood, two pretty glove clerks were suddenly +tempted into a furtive exchange of conversation at an unoccupied end of +their counter. + +"Look quick! See the young man coming this way? It's Rich Kendrick." + +"It is? They told me he never came here. Say, but he's the real thing!" + +"I should say. Never saw him so close myself. Wish he'd stop here." + +"Bet you couldn't keep your head if he spoke to you!" + +"Bet I could! Don't you worry; he don't buy his gloves in his own +department store. He--" + +"Sh! Granger's looking!" + +There was really nothing about Richard Kendrick to attract attention +except his wholesome good looks, for he dressed with exceptional +quietness, and his manner matched his clothes. A floorwalker recognized +him and bowed, but the elevator man did not know him, and on his way to +the offices he passed only one clerk who could lay claim to a speaking +acquaintance with the grandson of the owner. + +But at the office of the general manager he was met by an office boy who +knew and worshipped him from afar, and in five minutes he was closeted +with that official, who gave him his whole attention. + +"Mr. Henderson, I wish you could give me"--was the substance of +Richard's remarks--"somebody who would go up to Eastman with me and tell +me what's the matter with a dry-goods store there that's on the verge of +failure." + +The general manager was, to put it mildly, astonished. He was a mighty +man of valour himself, so mighty that his yearly salary would have been +to the average American citizen a small fortune. The office was one to +fill which similar houses had often scoured the country without avail. +Other business owners had been forced to remain at the helm long after +health and happiness demanded retirement. Among these, Henderson was +held to be so competent a man that Matthew Kendrick was considered +incredibly lucky to keep his hold upon him. + +To Matthew Kendrick's grandson Henderson put a number of pertinent +inquiries concerning the store in question which Richard found he could +not intelligently answer. He flushed a little under the fire. + +"I suppose you think I might have investigated a bit for myself," said +he. "But that's just what I don't want to do. I want to send a man up +there whom the owner doesn't know; then we can get at things without +giving ourselves away." + +The general manager inferred from this that philanthropy, not business +interest, was at the bottom of young Kendrick's quest and his surprise +vanished. The young man was known as kind-hearted and generous; he was +undoubtedly merely carrying out a careless impulse, though he certainly +seemed much in earnest in the doing of it. + +"You might take Carson, assistant buyer for the dress-goods department, +with you," suggested Henderson after a little consideration. "He could +probably give you a day just now. Alger, his head, is back from London +this week. Carson's a bright man--in line for promotion. He'll put his +finger on the trouble without hesitation--if it lies in the lack of +business experience, buying and selling, as you say. I'll send for him." + +In two minutes Richard Kendrick and Alfred Carson were face to face, +and an appointment had been made for the following day. Richard took +a liking to the assistant buyer on the spot. He felt as if he were +selecting a competent physician for his friend, and was glad to send +him a man whose personality was both prepossessing and inspiring of +confidence. + +As for Carson, it was an interesting experience for him, too. He +thoroughly enjoyed the seventy-mile drive at the side of the young +millionaire, who sent his powerful car flying over the frozen roads at a +pace which made his passenger's face sting. Carson was more accustomed +to travel in subways and sleeping-cars than by long motor drives, and by +the time Eastman was reached he was glad that the return drive would be +preceded by a hot luncheon. + +"We won't go past the store," Richard explained, making a detour from +the main street of the town, regardless of the fact that he forsook a +good road for a poor one. "I don't want him to see me to-day." + +He pressed upon his guest the best that the hotel afforded, then sent +him to the corner store with instructions to let nothing escape his +attention. "Though I don't need to tell you that," he added with a +laugh. "You'll see more in a minute than I should in a month." + +Then he lighted a cigar--from his own case this time, though he strolled +in to see his friend the druggist when he had finished it, and bought of +him various other sundries. He did not venture to mention Benson to-day, +but the druggist did. Evidently Benson's imminent failure was the talk +of the town, and the regret, as well, of those who were not his rivals. + +"Man can't succeed at a thing he picks up so late, and when he'd rather +do something else," volunteered the druggist. "Now I began in this shop +by sweeping out, mornings, and running errands, delivering goods. Got +interested--came to be a clerk after a while. Always saw myself making +up dope, compounding prescriptions. Went off to a school of +pharmacy--came back--showed the old man I could look after the +prescription business. Finally bought him out. Trained for the trade +from the cradle as you might say." + +"I wonder if I'm going to be useless," thought Richard, "because I'm +not trained from the cradle. Carson says he began as a wrapper at +fifteen. At my age--he looks my age--he's assistant buyer for one of +Kendrick & Company's biggest departments, and 'in line for promotion,' +as Henderson says. Rich Kendrick, do you think you're in line for +promotion--anywhere? I wonder!" + +He had gone back to the hotel and was impatiently awaiting Carson for +some time before the buyer appeared. Carson came in with a look of great +interest and eagerness on his face. The assistant buyer had, Richard +thought, one of the brightest faces he had ever seen. He was sure he had +asked the right man to diagnose the case of the invalid business, even +before Carson began to talk. As the talk progressed he was convinced of +it. + +Yet Carson began at the human, not the business, end of the matter. +Richard Kendrick, himself full of concern for his friend Hugh Benson, +liked that, too. + +"I never felt sorrier for a man in my life," said Carson. "He shows a +lot of pluck; he never once owned that the thing was too much for him. +But I got him to talking--a little. Didn't need to talk much; the whole +place was shouting at me--every counter, every showcase. Thunder!" + +"How did you get him to talking?" Richard asked eagerly. + +"Represented myself as an ex-travelling man--the dry-goods line. It's +true enough, if not just the way he took it. Of course he didn't give me +any facts about his business, but we discussed present conditions of the +trade pretty well, and he owned that a good many things puzzled him just +as much as when he was a little chap and used to listen to his father +giving orders. What's going to be wanted and how much? When to load up +and when to unload? How to catch the public fancy and not get caught +yourself? In short, how to turn over the stock in season and out of +season--turn it over and get out from under! He knows no more than a man +who can't swim how to keep his head above water. Nice fellow, too; I +could see it in every word he said. He'd be a success in, say, a +professorship in a college--and not a business college, either." + +"If the place were yours," Richard, alive with interest, put it to him, +"now, this minute, what would be the first thing you would do?" + +Carson laughed--not derisively, but like a boy who sees a chance at a +game he likes to play. "Have a bonfire, I'd like to say," he vowed. "But +that wouldn't be good business, and I wouldn't do it if I had the +chance--unless there was insurance to cover! And there's money in the +stock. Part of it could be got out. But it ought to be got out before +the moon is old. Then I'd like the fun of stocking up with new lines, +new departments, things the town never heard of. I'd make that blanket +window you told me about look sick. That is," he added modestly, "I +think I could. Any good general buyer could. I'm a dress-goods man +myself, only I've grown up under Kendrick & Company's roof and I've been +watching other lines than my own. It interests me--the possibilities of +that store. Why, the man ought not to fail! He has the best location in +town, the biggest windows, the best fixtures, judging by the outside of +the places I saw as I came along. I looked at the blanket-window place. +That's a dark store when you get back a dozen feet. Benson's, being on +the corner, is fairly light to the back door. That counts more than any +other thing about the building itself. And the fellow has his underwear +in the brightest spot in the shop and the dress goods in the darkest! +His heavy lines by the door and his notions and fancy stuff way back +where you've got to hunt for them! And his windows--oh, blazes! I wanted +to climb up and jump on the mess and then throw it out!" + +Richard drove Carson back to town, his heart afire with longing to do +something, he did not yet know what. He could not consult Carson about +the matter further than to find out from him what was wrong with the +business from the standpoint of the customer; why the place did not +attract the customer. Details of this phase of the question Carson had +given him in plenty, all leading back to the one trouble--Benson had not +understood how to appeal to the class of custom at his doors. He had not +the right goods, nor the right means of display; he had not the right +salespeople; in brief, he had nothing, according to Carson, that he +ought to have, and everything, poor fellow, that he ought not! It was a +hard case. + +As to actual business foundations and resources, neither of the young +men could judge. They had no means of knowing how deeply Benson was in +debt, nor what were his assets beyond the visible stock. Yet his fellow +shopkeepers considered him on the verge of bankruptcy; they must know. + +"I've enjoyed this trip, Mr. Kendrick," Carson said at parting, "in more +ways than I can tell you. If I can be of use to you in any way, call on +me, please. I'm honestly interested in your friend Mr. Benson. I'd like +to see him win out." + +"So should I." Richard shook hands heartily. "I've enjoyed the trip, +too, Mr. Carson. I never had better company. Thank you for going--and +for teaching me a lot of things I wanted to know." + +As he drove away he was thinking, "Carson's a success; I'm not. Odd +thing, that I should find myself envying a chap whose place I couldn't +be hired to take. I envy him--not exactly his knowledge and skill, but +his being a definite factor, his being a man who carries +responsibilities and makes good, so that--well, so that he's 'in line +for promotion.' That phrase takes hold of me somehow; I wonder why? +Well, the next thing is to see grandfather." + + * * * * * + +Old Matthew Kendrick was alone. His grandson had just left him. He was +marching up and down his private library. His hands were clasped tightly +behind his back; above his flushed brow his white hair stood erect from +frequent thrustings of his agitated fingers; even his cravat, slightly +awry, bore witness to his excitement. + +"Gad!" he was saying to himself. "The boy's alive after all! The boy's +waked up! He's taking notice! And the thing that's waked him up is a +country store--by cricky! a country store! I believe I'm dreaming yet!" + +If the citizens of the thriving town of Eastman, almost of a size to +call itself a young city and boast of a mayor, could have heard him they +might not have been flattered. Yet when they remembered that this was +the owner of a business so colossal that its immense buildings and +branches were to be found in three great cities, they might have +understood that to him the corner store of Hugh Benson looked like a toy +concern, indeed. But he liked the look of it, as it had been presented +to his mind's eye that night; no doubt but he liked the look of it! + +"Give him Carson to go up there and manage the business for those two +infants-in-arms? Gad! yes, go myself and make change at the desk for the +new firm," he chuckled, "if that would keep Dick interested. But I guess +he's interested enough or he wouldn't have agreed to my ruling that he +must go into the thing himself, not stand off and throw out a rope to +his drowning friend Benson. If young Benson's the man Dick makes him +out, it's as I told Dick: he wouldn't grasp the rope. But if Dick goes +in after him, that's business. Bless the rascal! I wish his father could +see him now. Sitting on the edge of my table and talking window-dressing +to me as if he'd been born to it, which he was, only he wouldn't accept +his birthright, the proud beggar! Talking about moving one of our +show-windows up there bodily for a white-goods sale in February; date a +trifle late for Kendrick & Company, but advance trade for Eastman, +undoubtedly. Says he knows they can start every mother's daughter of 'em +sewing for dear life, if they can get their eye on that sewing-room +scene. Well"--he paused to chuckle again--"he says Carson says that +window cost us five hundred dollars; but if it did it's cheap at the +price, and I'll make the new firm a present of it. Benson & Company--and +a grandson of Matthew Kendrick the Company!" + +He laughed heartily, then paused to stand staring down into the jewelled +shade of his electric drop-light as if in its softly blending colourings +he saw the outlines of a new future for "the boy." + +"I wonder what Cal will say to losing his literary assistant," he mused, +smiling to himself. "I doubt if Dick's proved himself invaluable, and I +presume the man he speaks of will give Cal much better service; but I +shall be sorry not to have him going to the Grays' every day; it seemed +like a safe harbour. Well, well, I never thought to find myself +interested again in the fortunes of a country store. Gad! I can't get +over that. The fellow's been too proud to walk down the aisles of +Kendrick & Company to buy his silk socks at cost--preferred to pay two +prices at an exclusive haberdasher's instead! And now--he's going to +have a share in the sale of socks that retail for a quarter, five pairs +for a dollar! O Dick, Dick, you rascal, your old grandfather hasn't been +so happy since you were left to him to bring up. If only you'll stick! +But you're your father's son, after all--and my grandson; I can't help +believing you'll stick!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LAVENDER LINEN + + +"I'm going to drive into town. Any of you girls want to go with me?" + +Mr. Rufus Gray addressed his wife and their two guests, his nieces, +Roberta and Ruth Gray. It was the midwinter vacation at the school where +Roberta taught and at the equally desirable establishment where Ruth was +taking a carefully selected course of study. Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth +had invited them to spend the four days of this vacation at their +country home, according to a custom they had of decoying one or another +of the young people of Rufus's brothers' families to come and visit the +aunt and uncle whose own children were all married and gone, sorely +missed by the young-hearted pair. Roberta and Ruth had accepted eagerly, +always delighted to spend a day or a month at the "Gray Farm," a most +attractive place even in winter, and in summer a veritable +pleasure-ground of enjoyment. + +They all wanted to go to town, the three "girls," including the +white-haired one whose face was almost as young as her nieces' as she +looked out from the rear seat of the comfortable double sleigh driven by +her husband and drawn by a pair of the handsomest horses the countryside +could boast. It was only two miles from the fine old country homestead +to the centre of the neighbouring village, and though the air was keen +nobody was cold among the robes and rugs with which the sleigh +overflowed. + +"You folks want to do any shopping?" inquired Uncle Rufus, as he drove +briskly along the lower end of Eastman's principal business street. "I +suppose there's no need of asking that. When doesn't a woman want to go +shopping?" + +"Of course we do," Ruth responded, without so much as consulting the +back seat. + +"I meant to bring some lavender linen with me to work on," said Roberta +to Aunt Ruth. "Where do you suppose I could find any, here?" + +"Why, I don't know, dearie," responded Aunt Ruth doubtfully. "White +linen you ought to get anywhere; but lavender--you might try at Artwell +& Chatford's. We'll go past Benson's, but it's no use looking there any +more. Everybody's expecting poor Hugh to fail any day." + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Roberta warmly. "I always liked Hugh Benson. Mr. +Westcott told me some time ago that he was afraid Hugh wasn't +succeeding." + +"The store's been closed to the public a fortnight now," explained Uncle +Rufus over his shoulder. "Hugh hasn't failed yet, and something's going +on there; nobody seems to know just what. Inventory, maybe, or getting +ready for a bankrupt sale. The Benson sign's still up just as it was +before Hugh's father died. Windows covered with white soap or whitewash. +Some say the store's going to open up under new parties--guess nobody +knows exactly. Hullo! who's that making signs?" + +He indicated a tall figure on the sidewalk coming toward them at a rapid +rate, face alight, hat waving in air. + +"It's Mr. Forbes Westcott," exulted Ruth, twisting around to look at her +sister. "Funny how he always happens to be visiting his father and +mother just as Rob is visiting you, isn't it, Aunt Ruth?" + +Uncle Rufus drew up to the sidewalk, and the whole party shook hands +with a tall man of dark, keen features, who bore an unmistakable air of +having come from a larger world than that of the town of Eastman. + +"Mrs. Gray--Miss Roberta--Miss Ruth--Mr. Gray--why, this is delightful. +When did you come? How long are you going to stay? It seems a thousand +years since I saw you last!" + +He was like an eager boy, though he was clearly no boy in years. He +included them all in this greeting, but his eyes were ardently on +Roberta as he ended. Ruth, screwed around upon the front seat and +watching interestedly, could hardly blame him. Roberta, in her furry +wrappings, was as vivid as a flower. Her eyes looked black beneath their +dusky lashes, and her cheeks were brilliant with the touch of the winter +wind. + +"When did you come? How did you find your father and mother?" inquired +Roberta demurely. + +"Well and hearty as ever, and apparently glad to see their son--as he +was to see them. I've been devoting myself to them for three days now, +and mean to give them the whole week. It's only fair--isn't it?--after +being away so long. How fortunate for me that I should meet you; I might +not have found it out till I had missed much time." + +"You've missed much time already," put in Uncle Rufus. "They came last +night." + +"Put your hat on, Forbes," was Aunt Ruth's admonition as Westcott +continued to stand beside Roberta, exchanging question and answer +concerning the long interval which had intervened since they last met. +"Come over to supper to-night, and then you young people can talk +without danger of catching your death of cold." + +Westcott laughed and accepted, but the hat was not replaced upon his +smooth, dark head until the sleigh had gone on. + +"Subjects always keep uncovered before their queen," whispered Ruth in +Uncle Rufus's ear, and he laughed and nodded. + +"Times have changed since I was a young man," said he. "A fellow would +have looked queer in my day unwinding his comforter and pulling off his +coonskin cap and standing holding those things while he talked on a +February morning. He'd have gone home and taken some pepper-tea to ward +off the effects of the chill!" + +"There's Benson's," Roberta interrupted, "and it's open. Why, look at +the people in front of the windows! Look at the windows themselves. +There must be a new firm. Poor Hugh!" + +"There's a new sign over the old one; a '_Successors to_,' I think; but +Benson's name is on it, '_Benson & Company_,'" announced Ruth, straining +her eyes to make it out. + +"Somebody must have come to the rescue," said Uncle Rufus with joyous +interest. "Well, well; the thing has been kept surprisingly still, and I +can't think who it can be, but I'm certainly glad. I hated to see the +boy fail. I suppose you all want to go in?" + +They unquestionably did, but they wanted first to sit still and look at +the windows from their vantage point above the passers-by on foot, who +were all stopping as they came along. It was small wonder that they +should stop. The town of Eastman had never in its experience seen within +its borders window displays like these. + +Benson's possessed the advantage of having larger fronts of clear +plate-glass than any store in town. As it was a corner store, there were +not only two big windows on the front but one equally large upon the +side. Each of these showed an artful arrangement of fresh and alluring +white goods, and in the centre of each was a special scheme arranged +with figures and furnishings to form a charming tableau. In one was the +sewing-room scene, adapted from that one which had first challenged +Richard's interest in his grandfather's store; in a second a children's +tea-party drew many admiring comments from the crowd; and in the side +window the figure of a pretty bride with veil and orange blossoms +suggested that the surrounding draperies were fit for uses such as hers. +The clever adaptability of Carson's art showed in the fact that the +figure wore no longer the costly French robe with which she had been +draped when she stood in a glass case at _Kendrick & Company's_, but a +delicate frock of simpler materials, such as any village girl might +afford, yet so cunningly fashioned that a princess might have worn it as +well, and not have been ashamed. + +Aunt Ruth and her nieces went enthusiastically in, and Uncle Rufus, +declaring that he must go also and congratulate Hugh on this +extraordinary transformation, tied his horses across the street where +they could not interfere with the view of passing sleighs. + +Entering, the visitors found inside the same atmosphere of successful, +timely display of fresh and attractive goods as had been promised by the +outside. The store did not look like a village store at all; its whole +air was metropolitan. The smallest counter carried out this effect; on +every hand were goods selected with rare skill, and this description +held good of the cheaper articles as well as of those more expensive. + +"Well, Hugh, we don't understand, but we are very glad," said Aunt Ruth +heartily, shaking hands with the young man who advanced to meet them. + +"That's kind of you. It goes without saying that I am very glad, too," +responded the proprietor of the place. His thin face flushed a little as +he greeted the others, and his eyes, like Westcott's, dwelt a trifle +longer on the face of one of the party than on any of the others. + +"Rob, I believe you'll find your lavender linen here," said Ruth in her +sister's ear, as Uncle Rufus came in and Benson began to show them all +about the store. "Look, there are all kinds of white linens; let's stop +and ask." + +With a word of explanation, Roberta delayed at the counter Ruth had +indicated, making inquiry for the goods she sought. It chanced that this +department was next to an inclosure which was partially of glass, the +new office of the firm. The old firm had had no office, only a desk in a +dark corner. In this place two men were talking. One was facing the +store, his glance even as he spoke upon the way things were going +outside; the other's back was turned. But Ruth, gazing interestedly +around as her sister examined linens, discovered something familiar +about the set of one of the heads just beyond the glass partition, +though she could not see the face. When this head was suddenly thrown +back with a peculiar motion she had noted when its owner was +particularly amused over something, Ruth said to herself: "Why, that's +Mr. Richard Kendrick! What in the world is he doing out here at +Eastman?" + +As if she had called him Richard turned about and his look encountered +Ruth's. The next instant he was out of the glass inclosure and at her +side. Roberta, hearing Ruth's low but eager, "Why, Mr. Kendrick, who +ever expected to see you in Eastman!" turned about with an expression of +astonishment, which was reflected in both the faces before her. + +An interested village salesgirl now looked on at a little scene the like +of which had never come within the range of her experience. That three +people, clearly so surprised to meet in this particular spot, should not +proceed voluminously to explain to each other within her hearing the +cause of their surprise, was to her an extraordinary thing. But after +the first moment's expression of wonder the three seemed to accept the +fact as a matter of course, and began to exchange observations +concerning the weather, the roads, and various other matters of +comparatively small importance. It was not until Uncle Rufus, rounding a +high-piled counter with his wife and Hugh Benson, came upon the group, +that anything was said of which the curious young person behind the +counter could make enough to guess at the situation. + +"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Kendrick!" he exclaimed, after one keen +look, and hastened forward, hand outstretched. So the group now became +doubled in size, and Uncle Rufus expressed great pleasure at seeing +again the young man whose hospitality he had enjoyed during the +Christmas house-party. + +"But I didn't suppose we should ever see you up here in our town," said +he, "especially in winter. Come by the morning train?" + +"I've been here for a month, most of the time," Richard told him. + +"You have? And didn't come to see us? Well, now--" + +"I didn't know this was your home, Mr. Gray," admitted the young man +frankly. "I don't remember your mentioning the name of Eastman while you +and Mrs. Gray were with us. Probably you did, and if I had realized you +were here--" + +"You'd have come? Well, you know now, and I hope you'll waste no time in +getting out to the 'Gray Farm.' Only two miles out, and the trolley runs +by within a few rods of our turn of the road--conductor'll tell you. +Better come to-night," he urged genially, "seeing my nieces are here and +can help make you feel at home. They'll be going back in a day or two." + +Richard, smiling, looked at Aunt Ruth, then at Roberta. "Do come," urged +Aunt Ruth as cordially as her husband, and Roberta gave a little nod of +acquiescence. + +"I shall be delighted to come," he agreed. + +"Putting up at the hotel?" inquired Uncle Rufus. + +"I'm staying for the present with my friend Mr. Benson," Richard +explained, with a glance toward Benson himself, who had moved aside to +speak to a clerk. "We were classmates at college. We have--gone into +business together here." + +It was out. As he spoke the words his face changed colour a little, but +his eyes remained steadily fixed on Uncle Rufus. + +"Well, well," exclaimed Mr. Rufus Gray. "So it's you who have come to +the rescue of--" + +But Richard interrupted him quickly. "I beg your pardon, not at all," +said he. "It is my friend who has come to my rescue--given me the +biggest interest I have yet discovered--the game of business. I'm having +the time of my life. With the help of our mutual friend, Mr. Carson, who +is to be the business manager of the new house, we hope to make a +success." + +Roberta was looking curiously at him, and his eyes suddenly met hers. +For an instant the encounter lasted, and it ended by her glance dropping +from his. There was something new to her in his face, something she +could not understand. Instead of its former rather studiedly impassive +expression there was an awakened look, a determined look, as if he had +something on hand he meant to do--and to do as soon as the present +interview should be over. Strangely enough, it was the first time she +had met him when he seemed not wholly occupied with herself, but rather +on his way to some affair of strong interest in which she had no concern +and from which she was detaining him. It was not that he was failing in +the extreme courtesy she had learned to expect from him under all +conditions. But--well, it struck her that he would return to his +companion in the glass-screened office and immediately forget her. This +was a change, indeed! + +"However you choose to put it," declared Uncle Rufus kindly, "it's a +mighty fine thing for Hugh, and we wish you both success." + +"You will have it. I have found my lavender linen," said Roberta, +turning back to the counter. + +Richard came around to her side. "Didn't you expect to find it?" he +inquired with interest. + +"I really didn't at all. We seldom find summer goods shown in a town +like this till spring is well along, least of all coloured dress linens. +But you have several shades, besides a beautiful lot of white." + +"That's Carson's buying," said he, fingering a corner of the +lilac-tinted goods she held up. "I shouldn't know it from gingham. I +didn't know what gingham was till the other day. But I can recognize it +now on sight, and am no end proud of my knowledge." + +"I suppose you are familiar with silk," said she with a quick glance. + +He returned it. "Aren't you?" + +"I'm not specially fond of it." + +"What fabrics do you like best?" + +"Thin, sheer things, fine but durable." + +"Linens?" + +"No, cottons, batistes, voiles--that sort of thing." + +"I'm afraid you've got me now," he owned, looking puzzled. "Perhaps I'd +know them if I saw them. If Benson has any--I mean, if we have any," he +amended quickly, "I'd like to have you see them. Let me go and ask +Carson." + +He was off to consult the man in the office and was back in a minute. +When Roberta had purchased the yard of lavender linen he led her into +another aisle and requested the clerk to show her his finest goods. +Roberta looked on, much amused, while the display was made, and praised +liberally. But suddenly she pounced upon a piece of white material with +a tiny white flower embroidered upon its delicate surface. + +"That's one of the prettiest pieces of Swiss muslin I ever saw," said +she. "And at such a reasonable price. It looks like one of the finest +imported Swisses. I'm going to have that pattern this minute." + +She gave the order without hesitation. + +"I didn't know women ever shopped like that," said Richard in her ear. + +"Like what?" + +"Why, bought the thing right off without asking to see everything in the +store. That's what--I've been told they did." + +"Not if they're wise--when they see a thing like that. There was only +the one pattern. Why, another woman might have walked up and said right +over my shoulder that she would take it." + +"If she had I'd have seen that you got it," declared Richard. + +He accompanied the party to the door when they went; he saw them to the +sleigh and tucked them in. + +"Bareheaded again," observed Uncle Rufus, regarding him with interest. + +"Again?" queried Richard. + +"All the young men we meet this morning insist on standing round +outdoors with their hats off," explained the elder man. "It looks +reckless to me." + +"It would be more reckless not to, I imagine," returned Richard, +laughing with Ruth and Roberta. + +"We'll see you to-night," Uncle Rufus reminded him as he drove off. +"Bring Hugh with you. I asked him in the store, but he seemed to +hesitate. It will do him good to get out." + +When the sleigh was a quarter of a mile up the road Ruth turned to her +uncle. "Do you imagine, Uncle Rufus," said she, "that all those men +you've asked for to-night will be grateful--when they see one another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RAPID FIRE + + +"Well, now, we're glad to see you at our place, Mr. Kendrick," was Mr. +Rufus Gray's hearty greeting. He had heard the sound of the motor-car as +it came to a standstill just outside his window, and was in the doorway +to receive his guests. "As for Hugh, he knows he's always welcome, +though it's a good while since he took advantage of it. Sit down here by +the fire and warm up before we send you out again. You see," he +explained enjoyingly, "we have instructions what to do with you." + +Richard Kendrick noted the pleasant room with its great fireplace +roaring with logs ablaze; he noted also its absence of occupants. Only +Aunt Ruth, coming forward with an expression of warm hospitality on her +face, was to be discovered. "They're all down at the river, skating," +she told the young men. "Forbes Westcott is just home again, and he and +Robby had so much to talk over we asked him out to supper. He and the +girls--and Anna Drummond, one of our neighbours' daughters," she +explained to Kendrick, "were taken with the idea of going skating. They +didn't wait for you, because they wanted to get a fire built. When +you're warmed up you can go down." + +"There'll be a girl apiece for you," observed Uncle Rufus. "Hugh knows +Anna--went to school with her. She's a fine girl, eh, Hugh?" + +"She certainly is," agreed Benson heartily. "But I don't see how either +of us is to skate with her or with anybody without--" + +"Oh, that's all right. Look there," and Uncle Rufus pointed to a long +row of skates lying on the floor in a corner. "All the nieces and +nephews leave their skates here to have 'em handy when they come." + +So presently the two young men were rushing down the winding, snowy road +which led through pasture and meadow for a quarter of a mile toward a +beckoning bonfire. + +"I don't know when I've gone skating," said Hugh Benson. + +"The last time I skated was two years ago on the Neva at St. Petersburg. +Jove! but it was a carnival!" And Richard's thoughts went back for a +minute to the face of the girl he had skated with. He had not cared much +for skating since that night. All other opportunities had seemed tame +after that. + +"You've travelled a great deal--had a lot of experiences," Benson said, +with a suppressed sigh. + +"A few. But they don't prevent my looking forward to a new one to-night. +I never went skating on a river in the country before. How far can you +go?" + +"Ten miles, if you like, down. Two miles up. There they are, coming +round the bend four abreast. Westcott has more than his share of girls." + +"More than he wants, probably. He'll cling to one and joyfully hand over +the others." + +"You'll like Anna Drummond; we're old school friends. Forbes and Miss +Roberta naturally seem to get together wherever they are. And Miss Ruth +is a mighty nice little girl." + +Across the blazing bonfire two men scrutinized each other: Forbes +Westcott, one of the cleverest attorneys of a large city, a man with a +rising reputation, who held himself as a man does who knows that every +day advances his success; Richard Kendrick, well-known young +millionaire, hitherto a travelled idler and spender of his income, now +a newly fledged business man with all his honours yet to be won. They +looked each other steadily in the eye as they grasped hands by the +bonfire, and in his inmost heart each man recognized in the other an +antagonist. + +Richard skated away with Miss Drummond, a wholesomely gay and attractive +girl who could skate as well as she could talk and laugh. He devoted +himself to her for half an hour; then, with a skill of which he was +master from long exercise, he brought about a change of partners. The +next time he rounded the bend into a path which led straight down the +moonlight it was in the company he longed for. + +Richard's heart leaped exultantly as he skated around the river bend in +the moonlight with Roberta. And when his hands gathered hers into his +close grasp it was somehow as if he had taken hold of an electric +battery. He distinctly felt the difference between her hands and those +of the other girl. It was very curious and he could not wholly +understand it. + +"What kind of gloves do you wear?" was his first inquiry. He held up the +hand which was not in Roberta's muff and tried to see it in the dim +light. + +"You _are_ deep in the new business, aren't you?" she mocked. "Whatever +they are, will you put them into your stock?" + +"Don't you dare make fun of my new business. I'm in it for scalps and +have no time for joking. Of course I want to put this make in stock. I +never took hold of so warm a hand on so cold a night. The warmth comes +right through your glove and mine to my hand, runs up my arm, and stirs +up my circulation generally. It was running a little cold with some of +the things Miss Drummond was telling me." + +"What could they be?" + +"About how all the rest of you know each other so well. She described +all sorts of good times you have all had together on this river in the +summer. It seems odd that Benson never told me about any of them while +we were together at college." + +"They have happened mostly in the last two summers, since Mr. Benson +left college. We always spend at least part of our summers here, and we +have had worlds of fun on the river and beside it--and in it." + +"I'm glad I'm a business man in Eastman. I can imagine what this river +is like in summer. It's wonderful to-night, isn't it? Let's skate on +down to the mouth and out to sea. What do you say?" + +"A beautiful plan. We have a good start; we must make time or it will be +moonset before we come to the sea." + +"This is a glorious stroke; let's hit it up a little, swing a little +farther--and make for the mouth of the river. No talking till we come in +sight. We're off!" + +It was ten miles to the mouth of the river, as they both understood, so +this was nonsense of the most obvious sort. But the imagination took +hold of them and they swung away on over the smooth, shining floor with +the long vigorous strokes which are so exhilarating to the accomplished +skater. In silence they flew, only the warm, clasped hands making a link +between them, their faces turned straight toward the great golden disk +in the eastern heavens. Richard was feeling that he could go on +indefinitely, and was exulting in his companion's untiring progress, +when he felt her slowing pull upon his hands. + +"Tired?" he asked, looking down at her. + +"Not much, but we've all the way back to go--and we ought not to be away +so long." + +"Oughtn't we? I'd like to be away forever--with you!" + +She looked straight up at him. His eyes were like black coals in the dim +light. His hands would have tightened on hers, but she drew them away. + +"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Mr. Richard Kendrick," said she, as quietly as +one can whose breath comes with some difficulty after long-sustained +exertion. "By the time we reached--even the mouth of the river, you'd be +tired of my company." + +"Should I? I think not. I've thought of nothing but you since the day I +saw you first." + +"Really? That's--how long? Was it November when you came to help Uncle +Calvin? This is February. And you've never spent so much as a whole hour +alone with me. You see, you don't even know me. What a foolish thing to +say to a girl you barely know!" + +"Foolish, is it?" He felt his heart racing now. What other girl he knew +would have answered him like that? "Then you shall hear something that +backs it up. I've loved you since that day I saw you first. What will +you do with that?" + +She was silent for a moment. Then she turned, striking out toward home. +He was instantly after her, reached for her hands, and took her along +with him. But he forced her to skate slowly. + +"You'll trample on that, too, will you?" said he, growing wrathful under +her silence. + +But she answered, quite gently, now: "No, Mr. Kendrick, I don't trample +on that. No girl would. I simply--know you are mistaken." + +"In what? My own feeling? Do you think I don't know--" + +"I _know_ you don't know. I'm not your kind of a girl, Mr. Kendrick. You +think I am, because--well, perhaps because my eyes are blue and my +eyelashes black; just such things as that do mislead people. I can dance +fairly well--" + +He smothered an angry exclamation. + +"And skate well--and play the 'cello a little--and--that's nearly all +you know about me. You don't even know whether I can teach well--or talk +well--or what is stored away in my mind. And I know just as little about +you." + +"I've learned one thing about you in this last minute," he muttered. +"You can keep your head." + +"Why not?" There was a note of laughter in her voice. "There needs to be +one who keeps her head when the other loses his--all because of a little +winter moonlight. What would the summer moonlight do to you, I wonder?" + +"Roberta Gray"--his voice was rough--"the moonlight does it no more than +the sunlight. Whatever you think, I'm not that kind of fellow. The day +I saw you first you had just come in out of the rain. You went back into +it and I saw you go--and wanted to go with you. I've been wanting it +ever since." + +They moved on in silence which lasted until they were within a +quarter-mile of the bonfire, whose flashing light they could see above +the banks which intervened. Then Roberta spoke: + +"Mr. Kendrick"--and her voice was low and rich with its kindest +inflections--"I don't want you to think me careless or hard because I +have treated what you have said to-night in a way that you don't like. +I'm only trying to be honest with you. I'm quite sure you didn't mean to +say it to me when you came to-night, and--we all do and say things on a +night like this that we should like to take back next day. It's quite +true--what I said--that you hardly know me, and whatever it is that +takes your fancy it can't be the real Roberta Gray, because you don't +know her!" + +"What you say is," he returned, staring straight ahead of him, "that I +can't possibly know what you really are, at all; but you know so well +what I am that you can tell me exactly what my own thoughts and feelings +are." + +"Oh, no, I didn't mean--" + +"That's precisely what you do mean. I'm so plainly labelled 'worthless' +that you don't have to stop to examine me. You--" + +"I didn't--" + +"I beg your pardon. I can tell you exactly what you think of me: A young +fool who runs after the latest sensation, to drop it when he finds a +newer one. His head turned by every pretty girl--to whom he says just +the sort of thing he has said to you to-night. Superficial and ordinary, +incapable of serious thought on any of the subjects that interest you. +As for this business affair in Eastman--that's just a caprice, a game to +be dropped when he tires of it. Everything in life will be like that to +him, including his very friends. Come, now--isn't that what you've been +thinking? There's no use denying it. Nearly every time I've seen you +you've said some little thing that has shown me your opinion of me. I +won't say there haven't been times in my life when I may have deserved +it, but on my honour I don't think I deserve it now." + +"Then I won't think it," said Roberta promptly, looking up. "I truly +don't want to do you an injustice. But you are so different from the +other men I have known--my brothers, my friends--that I can hardly +imagine your seeing things from my point of view--" + +"But you can see things from mine without any difficulty!" + +"It isn't fair, is it?" Her tone was that of the comrade, now. "But you +know women are credited with a sort of instinct--even intuition--that +leads them safely where men's reasoning can't always follow." + +"It never leads them astray, by any chance?" + +"Yes, I think it does sometimes," she owned frankly. "But it's as well +for the woman to be on her guard, isn't it? Because, sometimes, you +know, she loses her head. And when that happens--" + +"All is lost? Or does a man's reasoning, slower and not so infallible, +but sometimes based on greater knowledge, step in and save the day?" + +"It often does. But, in this case--well, it's not just a case of +reasoning, is it?" + +"The case of my falling in love with a girl I've only +known--slightly--for four months? It has seemed to me all along it was +just that. It's been a case of the head sanctioning the heart--and you +probably know it's not always that way with a young man's experiences. +Every ideal I've ever known--and I've had a few, though you might not +think it--every good thought and purpose, have been stimulated by my +contact with the people of your father's house. And since I have met you +some new ideals have been born. They have become very dear to me, those +new ideals, Miss Roberta, though they've had only a short time to grow. +It hurts to have you treat me as if you thought me incapable of them." + +"I'm sorry," she said simply, and her hands gave his a little quick +pressure which meant apology and regret. His heart warmed a very little, +for he had been sure she was capable of great generosity if appealed to +in the right way. But justice and generosity were not all he craved, and +he could see quite clearly that they were all he was likely to get from +her as yet. + +"You think," he said, pursuing his advantage, "we know too little of +each other to be even friends. You are confident my tastes and pleasures +are entirely different from yours; especially that my notions of real +work are so different that we could never measure things with the same +footrule." + +He looked down at her searchingly. + +She nodded. "Something like that," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean +that either tastes or notions in either case are necessarily unworthy, +only that they are different." + +"I wonder if they are? What if we should try to find out? I'm going to +stick pretty closely to Eastman this winter, but of course I shall be in +town more or less. May I come to see you, now and then, if I promise not +to become bothersome?" + +It was her turn to look up searchingly at him. If he had expected the +usual answer to such a request, he began, before she spoke, to realize +that it was by no means a foregone conclusion that he should receive +usual answers from her to any questioning whatsoever. But her reply +surprised him more than he had ever been surprised by any girl in his +life. + +"Mr. Kendrick," said she slowly, "I wish that you need not see me again +till--suppose we say Midsummer Day,[A] the twenty-fourth of June, you +know." + +[Footnote A: Midsummer comes at the time of the summer solstice, about +June 21st, but Midsummer Day, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, is the +24th of June.] + +He stared at her. "If you put it that way," he began stiffly, "you +certainly need not--" + +"But I didn't put it that way. I said I wished that you need not see me. +That is quite different from wishing I need not see you. I don't mind +seeing you in the least--" + +"That's good of you!" + +"Don't be angry. I'm going to be quite frank with you--" + +"I'm prepared for that. I can't remember that you've ever been anything +else." + +"Please listen to me, Mr. Kendrick. When I say that I wish you would not +see me--" + +"You said 'need not.'" + +"I shall have to put it 'would not' to make you understand. When I say I +wish you would not see me until Midsummer I am saying the very kindest +thing I can. Just now you are under the impression--hallucination--that +you want to see much of me. To prove that you are mistaken I'm going to +ask this of you--not to have anything whatever to do with me until at +least Midsummer. If you carry out my wish you will find out for yourself +what I mean--and will thank me for my wisdom." + +"It's a wish, is it? It sounds to me more like a decree." + +"It's not a decree. I'll not refuse to see you if you come. But if you +will do as I ask I shall appreciate it more than I can tell you." + +"It is certainly one of the cleverest schemes of getting rid of a fellow +I ever heard. Hang it all! do you expect me not to understand that you +are simply letting me down easy? It's not in reason to suppose that +you're forbidding all other men the house. I beg your pardon; I know +that's none of my business; but it's not in human nature to keep from +saying it, because of course that's bound to be the thing that cuts. If +you were going into a convent, and all other fellows were cooling their +heels outside with me, I could stand it." + +"My dear Mr. Kendrick, you can stand it in any case. You're going to put +all this out of mind and work at building up this business here in +Eastman with Mr. Benson. You will find it a much more interesting game +than the old one of--" + +"Of what? Running after every pretty girl? For of course that's what you +think I've done." + +She did not answer that. He said something under his breath, and his +hands tightened on hers savagely. They were rounding the last bend but +one in the river, and the bonfire was close at hand. + +"Can't you understand," he ground out, "that every other thought and +feeling and experience I've ever had melts away before this? You can put +me under ban for a year if you like; but if at the end of that time +you're not married to another man you'll find me at your elbow. I told +you I'd make you respect me; I'll do more, I'll make you listen to me. +And--if I promise not to come where you have to look at me till +Midsummer, till the twenty-fourth of June--heaven knows why you pick out +that day--I'll not promise not to make you think of me!" + +"Oh, but that's part of what I mean. You mustn't send me letters and +books and flowers--" + +"Oh--thunder!" + +"Because those things will help to keep this idea before your mind. I +want you to forget me, Mr. Kendrick--do you realize that?--forget me +absolutely all the rest of the winter and spring. By that time--" + +"I'll wonder who you are when we do meet, I suppose?" + +"Exactly. You--" + +"All right. I agree to the terms. No letters, no books, no--ye gods! if +I could only send the flowers now! Who would expect to win a girl +without orchids? You do, you certainly do, rate me with the +light-minded, don't you? Music also is proscribed, of course; that's the +one other offering allowed at the shrine of the fair one. All right--all +right--I'll vanish, like a fairy prince in a child's story. But before I +go I--" + +With a dig of his steel-shod heel he brought himself and Roberta to a +standstill. He bent over her till his face was rather close to hers. She +looked back at him without fear, though she both saw and felt the +tenseness with which he was making his farewell speech. + +"Before I go, I say, I'm going to tell you that if you were any other +girl on the old footstool I'd have one kiss from you before I let go of +you if I knew it meant I'd never have another. I could take it--" + +She did not shrink from him by a hair's breadth, but he felt her +suddenly tremble as if with the cold. + +"--but I want you to know that I'm going to wait for it till--Midsummer +Day. Then"--he bent still closer--"you will give it to me yourself. I'm +saying this foolhardy sort of thing to give you something to remember +all these months--I've got to. You'll have so many other people saying +things to you when I can't that I've got to startle you in order to make +an impression that will stick. That one will, won't it?" + +A reluctant smile touched her lips. "It's quite possible that it may," +she conceded. "It probably would, whoever had the audacity to say it. +But--to know a fate that threatens is to be forewarned. +And--fortunately--a girl can always run away." + +"You can't run so far that I can't follow. Meanwhile, tell me just one +thing--" + +"I'll tell you nothing more. We've been gone for ages now--there come +the others--please start on." + +"Good-bye, dear," said he, under his breath. "Good-bye--till Midsummer. +But then--" + +"No, no, you must _not_ say it--or think it." + +"I'm going to think it, and so are you. I defy you to forget it. You may +see that lawyer Westcott every day, and no matter what you're saying to +him, every once in a while will bob up the thought--Midsummer Day!" + +"Hush! I won't listen! Please skate faster!" + +"You _shall_ listen--to just one thing more. Just halfway between now +and Midsummer may I come to see you--just once?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"Because--I shall not want to see you." + +"That's good," said he steadily. "Then let me tell you that I should not +come even if you would let me. I wanted you to know that." + +A little, half-smothered laugh came from her in spite of herself, in +which he rather grimly joined. Then the others, calling questions and +reproaches, bore down upon them, and the evening for Richard Kendrick +was over. But the fight he meant to win was just begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MAKING MEN + + +"Grandfather, have you a good courage for adventure?" + +Matthew Kendrick looked up from his letters. His grandson Richard stood +before him, his face lighted by that new look of expectancy and +enthusiasm which the older man so often noted now. It was early in the +day, Mr. Kendrick having but just partaken of his frugal breakfast. He +had eaten alone this morning, having learned to his surprise that +Richard was already off. + +"Why, Dick? What do you want of me?" his grandfather asked, laying down +his letters. They were important, but not so important, to his mind, as +the giving ear to his grandson. It was something about the business, he +had no doubt. The boy was always talking about the business these days, +and he found always a ready listener in the old man who was such a +pastmaster in the whole difficult subject. + +"It's the mildest sort of weather--bright sun, good roads most of the +way, and something worth seeing at the other end. Put on your fur-lined +coat, sir, will you? and come with me up to Eastman. I want to show you +the new shop." + +Mr. Kendrick's eye brightened. So the boy wanted him, did he? Wanted to +take him off for the day, the whole day, with himself. It was pleasant +news. But he hesitated a little, looking toward the window, where the +late March sun was, surely enough, streaming in warmly. The bare +branches outside were motionless; moreover, there was no wind, such as +had prevailed of late. + +"I can keep you perfectly warm," Richard added, seeing the hesitation. +"There's an electric foot-warmer in the car, and you shall have a heavy +rug. I'll have you there in a couple of hours, and you'll not be even +chilled. If the weather changes, you can come back by train. Please +come--will you?" + +"I believe I will, Dick, if you'll not drive too fast. I should like to +see this wonderful new store, to be sure." + +"We'll go any pace you like, sir. I've been looking for a day when you +could make the trip safely, and this is it." He glanced at the letters. +"Could you be ready in--half an hour?" + +"As soon as I can dictate four short replies. Ring for Mr. Stanton, +please, and I'll soon be with you." + +Richard went out as his grandfather's private secretary came in. +Although Matthew Kendrick no longer felt it necessary to go to his +office in the great store every day, he was accustomed to attend to a +certain amount of selected correspondence, and ordinarily spent an hour +after breakfast in dictation to a young stenographer who came to him for +the purpose. + +Within a half hour the two were off, Mr. Kendrick being quite as alert +in the matter of dispatching business and getting under way toward fresh +affairs as he had ever been. It was with an expression of interested +anticipation that the old man, wrapped from head to foot, took his place +in the long, low-hung roadster, beneath the broad hood which Richard had +raised, that his passenger might be as snug as possible. + +For many miles the road was of macadam, and they bowled along at a rate +which consumed the distance swiftly, though not too fast for Mr. +Kendrick's comfort. Richard artfully increased his speed by fractional +degrees, so that his grandfather, accustomed to being conveyed at a very +moderate mileage about the city in his closed car, should not be +startled by the sense of flight which he might have had if the young man +had started at his usual break-neck pace. + +They did not talk much, for Matthew Kendrick was habitually cautious +about using his voice in winter air, and Richard was too engaged with +the car and with his own thoughts to attempt to keep up a one-sided +conversation. More than once, however, a brief colloquy took place. One +of the last of these, before approaching their destination, was as +follows: + +"Keeping warm, grandfather?" + +"Perfectly, Dick, thanks to your foot-warmer." + +"Tired, at all?" + +"Not a particle. On the contrary, I find the air very stimulating." + +"I thought you would. Wonderful day for March, isn't it?" + +"Unusually fine." + +"We'll be there before you know it. There's one bad stretch of a couple +of miles, beyond the turn ahead, and another just this side of Eastman, +but Old Faithful here will make light work of 'em. She could plough +through a quicksand if she had to, not to mention spring mud to the +hubs." + +"The car seems powerful," said the old man, smiling behind his upturned +fur collar. "I suppose a young fellow like you wouldn't be content with +anything that couldn't pull at least ten times as heavy a load as it +needed to." + +"I suppose not," laughed Richard. "Though it's not so much a question of +a heavy load as of plenty of power when you want it, and of speed--all +the time. Suppose we were being chased by wild Indians right now, +grandfather. Wouldn't it be a satisfaction to walk away from them +like--this?" + +The car shot ahead with a long, lithe spring, as if she had been using +only a fraction of her power, and had reserves greater than could be +reckoned. Her gait increased as she flew down the long straightaway +ahead until her speedometer on the dash recorded a pace with which the +fastest locomotive on the track which ran parallel with the road would +have had to race with wide-open throttle to keep neck to neck. Richard +had not meant to treat his grandfather to an exhibition of this sort, +being well aware of the older man's distaste for modern high speed, but +the sight of the place where he was in the habit of racing with any +passing train was too much for his young blood and love of swift flight, +and he had covered the full two-mile stretch before he could bring +himself to slow down to a more moderate gait. + +Then he turned to look at as much of his grandfather's face as he could +discern between cap-brim and collar. The eagle eyes beneath their heavy +brows were gazing straight ahead, the firmly moulded lips were +close-set, the whole profile, with its large but well-cut nose, +suggested grim endurance. Matthew Kendrick had made no remonstrance, +nor did he now complain, but Richard understood. + +"You didn't like that, did you, grandfather? I had no business to do it, +when I said I wouldn't. Did I chill you, sir? I'm sorry," was his quick +apology. + +"You didn't chill my body, Dick," was the response. "You did make me +realize the difference between--youth and age." + +"That's not what I ever want to do," declared the young man, with swift +compunction. "Not when your age is worth a million times my youth, in +knowledge and power. And of course I'm showing up a particularly +unfortunate trait of youth--to lose its head! Somehow all the boy in me +comes to the top when I see that track over there, even when there's no +competing train. Did you ever know a boy who didn't want to be an engine +driver?" + +"I was a boy once," said Matthew Kendrick. "Trains in my day were doing +well when they made twenty-five miles an hour. I shouldn't mind your +racing with one of those." + +"I'm racing with one of the fastest engines ever built when I set up a +store in Eastman and try to appropriate some of your methods. I wonder +what you'll think of it?" said Richard gayly. "Well, here's the bad +stretch. Sit tight, grandfather. I'll pick out the best footing there +is, but we may jolt about a good bit. I'm going to try what can be done +to get these fellows to put a bottom under their spring mud!" + +When the town was reached Richard convoyed his companion straight to the +best hotel, saw that he had a comfortable chair and as appetizing a meal +as the house could afford, and let him rest for as long a time afterward +as he himself could brook waiting. When Mr. Kendrick professed himself +in trim for whatever might come next Richard set out with him for the +short walk to the store of Benson & Company. + +The young man's heart was beating with surprising rapidity as the two +approached the front of the brick building which represented his present +venture into the business world. He knew just how keen an eye was to +inspect the place, and what thorough knowledge was to pass judgment upon +it. + +"Here we are," he said abruptly, with an effort to speak lightly. "These +are our front windows. Carson dresses them himself. He seems a wonder to +me--I can't get hold of it at all. Rather a good effect, don't you +think?" + +He was distinctly nervous, and he could not conceal it, as Matthew +Kendrick turned to look at the front of the building, taking it all in, +it seemed, with one sweeping glance which dwelt only for a minute apiece +on the two big windows, and then turned to the entrance, above which +hung the signs, old and new. The visitor made no comment, only nodded, +and made straight for the door. + +As it swung open under Richard's hand, the young man's first glance was +for the general effect. He himself was looking at everything as if for +the first time, intensely alive to the impression it was to make upon +his judge. He found that the general effect was considerably obscured by +the number of people at the counters and in the aisles, more, it seemed +to him, than he had ever seen there before. His second observation was +that the class of shoppers seemed particularly good, and he tried to +recall the special feature of Carson's advertisement of the evening +before. There were several different lines, he remembered, to which +Carson had called special attention, with the assertion that the values +were absolute and the quality guaranteed. + +But his attention was very quickly diverted from any study of the store +itself to the even more interesting and instructive study of the old man +who accompanied him. He had invited an expert to look the situation +over, there could be no possible doubt of that. And the expert was +looking it over--there could be no doubt of that, either. As they passed +down one aisle and up another, Richard could see how the eagle eyes +noted one point after another, yet without any disturbing effect of +searching scrutiny. Here and there Mr. Kendrick's gaze lingered a trifle +longer, and more than once he came close to a counter and brought an +eyeglass to bear on the goods there displayed, nodding pleasantly at the +salespeople as he did so. And everywhere he went glances followed him. + +It seemed to Richard that he had never realized before what a +distinguished looking old man his grandfather was. He was not of more +than average height; he was dressed, though scrupulously, as +unobtrusively as is any quiet gentleman of his years and position; but +none the less was there something about him which spoke of the man of +affairs, of the leader, the organizer, the general. + +Alfred Carson came hurrying out of the little office as the two +Kendricks came in sight. Matthew Kendrick greeted him with distinct +evidence of pleasure. + +"Ah, Mr. Carson," he said, "I am very glad to see you again. I have +missed you from your department. How do you find the new business? More +interesting than the old, eh?" + +"It is always interesting, sir," responded Carson, "to enlarge one's +field of operations." + +Mr. Kendrick laughed heartily at this, turning to Richard as he did so. +"That's a great compliment to you, Dick," he said, "that Mr. Carson +feels he has enlarged his field by coming up here to you, and leaving +me." + +"Don't you think it's true, grandfather?" challenged Richard boldly. + +"To be sure it's true," agreed Mr. Kendrick. "But it sometimes takes a +wise man to see that a swing from the centre of things to the rim is the +way to swing back to the centre finally. Well, I've looked about quite a +bit,--what next, Dick?" + +"Won't you come into the office, sir, and ask us any questions that you +like? We want your criticism and your suggestions," declared Richard. +"Where's Mr. Benson, Mr. Carson? I'd like him to meet my grandfather +right away. I thought we'd find him somewhere about the place before +now." + +"He's just come into the office," said Carson, leading the way. "He'll +be mightily pleased to see Mr. Kendrick." + +This prophecy proved true. Hugh Benson, who had not known of his +partner's intention to bring Mr. Kendrick, Senior, to visit the store, +flushed with pleasure and a little nervousness when he saw him, and gave +evidence of the latter as he cleared a chair for his guest and knocked +down a pile of small pasteboard boxes as he did so. + +"We don't usually keep such things in here," he apologized, and sent +post-haste for a boy to take the offending objects away. Then the party +settled down for a talk, Richard carefully closing the door, after +notifying a clerk outside to prevent interruption for so long as it +should remain closed. + +"Now, grandfather, talk business to us, will you?" he begged. "Tell us +what you think of us, and don't spare us. That's what we want, isn't +it?" And he appealed to his two associates with a look which bade them +speak out. + +"We certainly do, Mr. Kendrick," Hugh Benson assured the visitor +eagerly. "It's our chance to have an expert opinion." + +"It will be even more than that," said Alfred Carson. "It will be the +opinion of the master of all experts in the business world." + +"Fie, Mr. Carson," said the old man, with, however, a kind look at the +young man, who, he knew, did not mean to flatter him but to speak the +undeniable truth, "you must remember the old saying about praise to the +face. Still, I must break that rule myself when I tell you all that I am +greatly pleased with the appearance of the place, and with all that +meets the eye in a brief visit." + +Richard glowed with satisfaction at this, but both Benson and Carson +appeared to be waiting for more. The old man looked at them and nodded. + +"You have both had much more experience than this boy of mine," said he, +"and you know that all has not been said when due acknowledgment has +been made of the appearance of a place of business. What I want to know, +gentlemen, is--does the appearance tell the absolute truth about the +integrity of the business?" + +Richard looked at him quickly, for with the last words his grandfather's +tone had changed from mere suavity to a sudden suggestion of sternness. +Instinctively he straightened in his chair, and his glance at the other +two young men showed that they had quite as involuntarily straightened +in theirs. As the head of the firm, Hugh Benson, after a moment's pause, +answered, in a quietly firm tone which made Richard regard him with +fresh respect: + +"If it didn't, Mr. Kendrick, I shouldn't want to be my father's +successor. He may have been a failure in business, but it was not for +want of absolute integrity." + +The keen eyes softened as they rested on the young man's face, and Mr. +Kendrick bent his head, as if he would do honour to the memory of a +father who, however unsuccessful as the world judges success, could make +a son speak as this son had spoken. "I am sure that is true, Mr. +Benson," he said, and paused for a moment before he went on: + +"It is the foundation principle of business--that a reputation for +trustworthiness can be built only on the rock of real merit. The +appearance of the store must not tell one lie--not one--from front door +to back--not even the shadow of a lie. Nothing must be left to the +customer's discretion. If he pays so much money he must get so much +value, whether he knows it or not." He stopped abruptly, waited for a +little, his eyes searching the faces before him. Then he said, with a +change of tone: + +"Do you want to tell me something about the management of the business, +gentlemen?" + +"We want to do just that, Mr. Kendrick," Benson answered. + +So they set it before him, he and Alfred Carson, as they had worked it +out, Richard remaining silent, even when appealed to, merely saying +quietly: "I'm only the crudest kind of a beginner--you fellows will have +to do the talking," and so leaving it all to the others. They showed Mr. +Kendrick the books of the firm, they explained to him their system of +buying, of analyzing their sales that they might learn how to buy at +best advantage and sell at greatest profit; of getting rid of goods +quickly by attractive advertising; of all manner of details large and +small, such as pertain to the conduct of a business of the character of +theirs. + +They grew eager, enthusiastic, as they talked, for they found their +listener ready of understanding, quick of appreciation, kindly of +criticism, yet so skilful at putting a finger on their weak places that +they could only wonder and take earnest heed of every word he said. As +Richard watched him, he found himself understanding a little Matthew +Kendrick's extraordinary success. If his personality was still one to +make a powerful impression on all who came in contact with him, what +must it have been, Richard speculated, in his prime, in those wonderful +years when he was building the great business, expanding it with a +daring of conception and a rapidity of execution which had fairly taken +away the breath of his contemporaries. He had introduced new methods, +laid down new principles, defied old systems, and created better ones +having no precedent anywhere but in his own productive brain. It might +justly be said that he had virtually revolutionized the mercantile +world, for when the bridges that he built were found to hold, in spite +of all dire prophecy to the contrary, others had crossed them, too, and +profited by his bridge building. + +The three young men did their best to lead Mr. Kendrick to talk of +himself, but of that he would do little. Constantly he spoke of the work +of his associates, and when it became necessary to allude to himself it +was always as if they had been identified with every move of his own. It +was Alfred Carson who best recognized this trait of peculiar modesty in +the old man, and who understood most fully how often the more impersonal +"we" of his speech really stood for the "I" who had been the mainspring +of all action in the growth of the great affairs he spoke of. Carson was +the son of a man who had been one of the early heads of a newly created +department, in the days when departments were just being tried, and he +had heard many a time of the way in which Matthew Kendrick had held to +his course of introducing innovations which had startled the men most +closely associated with him, and had made them wonder if he were not +going too far for safety or success. + +"Well, well, gentlemen," said Mr. Kendrick, rising abruptly at last, +"you have beguiled me into long speech. It takes me back to old days to +sit and discuss a young business like this one with young men like you. +It has been very interesting, and it delights me to find you so ready to +take counsel, while at the same time you show a healthy belief in your +own judgment. You will come along--you will come along. You will make +mistakes, but you will profit by them. And you will remember always, I +hope, a motto I am going to give you." + +He paused and looked searchingly into each face before him: Hugh +Benson's, serious and sincere; Alfred Carson's, energy and purpose +showing in every line; his own boy's, Richard's, keen interest and a +certain proud wonder looking out of his fine eyes as he watched the old +man who seemed to him to-day, somehow, almost a stranger in his +unwontedly aroused speech. + +"The most important thing a business can do," said Matthew Kendrick +slowly, "is to make men of those who make the business." + +He let the words sink in. He saw, after an instant, the response in each +face, and he nodded, satisfied. He held out his hand to each in turn, +including his grandson, and received three hearty grips of gratitude and +understanding. + +As he drove away with Richard his eyes were bright under their heavy +brows. It had done him good, this visit to the place where his thoughts +had often been of late, and he was pleased with the way Richard had +borne himself throughout the interview. He could not have asked better +of the heir to the Kendrick millions than the unassuming and yet quietly +assured manner Richard had shown. It had a certain quality, the old man +proudly considered, which was lacking in that of both Benson and Carson, +fine fellows though they were, and well-mannered in every way. It +reminded Matthew Kendrick of the boy's own father, who had been a man +among men, and a gentleman besides. + +"Grandfather, we shall pass Mr. Rufus Gray's farm in a minute. Don't you +want to stop and see them?" + +"Rufus Gray?" questioned Mr. Kendrick. "The people we entertained at +Christmas? I should like to stop, if it will not delay us too long. It +seems a colder air than it did this morning." + +"There's a bit of wind, and it's usually colder, facing this way. If you +prefer, after the call, I'll take you back to the station and run down +alone." + +"We'll see. Is this the place we're coming to? A pleasant old place +enough, and it looks like the right home for such a pair," commented Mr. +Kendrick, gazing interestedly ahead as the car swung in at a stone +gateway, and followed a winding roadway toward a low-lying, hospitable +looking white house, with long porches beyond masses of bare shrubbery. + +It seemed that the welcoming look of the house was justified in the +attitude of its inmates, for the car had but stopped when the door flew +open, and Rufus Gray, his face beaming, bade them enter. Inside, his +wife came forward with her well-remembered sunny smile, and in a trice +Matthew Kendrick and his grandson found themselves sitting in front of a +blazing fire upon a wide hearth, receiving every evidence that their +presence brought delight. + +Richard looked on with inward amusement and satisfaction at the unwonted +sight of his grandfather partaking of a cup of steaming coffee rich with +country cream, and eating with the appetite of a boy a huge, +sugar-coated doughnut which his hostess assured him could not possibly +hurt him. + +"They're the real old-fashioned kind, Mr. Kendrick," said she. "Raised +like bread, you know, and fried in lard we make ourselves in a way I +have so that not a bit of grease gets inside. My husband thinks they're +the only fit food to go with coffee." + +"They are the most delicious food I ever ate, certainly, Madam Gray, and +I find myself agreeing with him, now that I taste them," declared Mr. +Kendrick, and Richard, disposing with zest of a particularly huge, light +specimen of Mrs. Gray's art, seconded his grandfather's appreciation. + +They made a long call, Mr. Kendrick appearing to enjoy himself as +Richard could not remember seeing him do before. He and Mr. Gray found +many subjects to discuss with mutual interest, and the nodding of the +two heads in assent at frequent intervals proved how well they found +themselves agreeing. + +Richard, as at the time of the Grays' brief visit at his own home, +devoted himself to the lady whom he always thought of as "Aunt Ruth," +secretly dwelling on the hope that he might some day acquire the right +to call her by that pleasant title. He led her, by artful +circumlocutions, always tending toward one object, to speak of her +nieces and nephews, and when he succeeded in drawing from her certain +all too meagre news of Roberta, he exulted in his ardent soul, though he +did his best not to betray himself. + +"Maybe," said she, quite suddenly, "you'd enjoy looking at the family +album. Robby and Ruth always get it out when they come here--they like +to see their father and mother the way they used to look. There's some +of themselves, too, though the photographs folks have now are too big to +go in an old-fashioned album like this, and the ones they've sent me +lately aren't in here." + +Never did a modern young man accept so eagerly the chance to scan the +collection of curious old likenesses such as is found between the covers +of the now despised "album" of the days of their grandfathers. Richard +turned the pages eagerly, scanning them for faces he knew, and +discovered much satisfaction in one charming picture of Roberta's mother +at eighteen, because of its suggestion of the daughter. + +"Eleanor was the beauty of the family, and is yet, I always say," +asserted Aunt Ruth. "Robby's like her, they all think, but she can't +hold a candle to her mother. She's got more spirit in her face, maybe, +but her features aren't equal to Eleanor's." + +Richard did not venture to disagree with this opinion, but he privately +considered that, enchanting as was the face of Mrs. Robert Gray at +eighteen, that of her daughter Roberta, at twenty-four, dangerously +rivalled it. + +"I could tell better about the likeness if I saw a late picture of Miss +Roberta," he observed, his eyes and mouth grave, but his voice +expectant. Aunt Ruth promptly took the suggestion, and limping daintily +away, returned after a minute with a framed photograph of Roberta and +Ruth, taken by one of those masters of the art who understand how to +bring out the values of the human face, yet to leave provocative shadows +which make for mystery and charm. Richard received it with a respectful +hand, and then had much ado to keep from showing how the sight of her +pictured face made his heart throb. + +When the two visitors rose to go Aunt Ruth put in a plea for their +remaining overnight. + +"It's turned colder since you came up this morning, Mr. Kendrick," said +she. "Why not stay with us and go back in the morning? We'd be so +pleased to entertain you, and we've plenty of room--too much room for us +two old folks, now the children are all married and gone." + +To Richard's surprise his grandfather did not immediately decline. He +looked at Aunt Ruth, her rosy, smiling face beaming with hospitality, +then he glanced at Richard. + +"Do stay," urged Uncle Rufus. "Remember how you took us in at midnight, +and what a good time you gave us the two days we stayed? It would make +us mighty happy to have you sleep under our roof, you and your grandson +both, if he'll stay, too." + +"I confess I should like to sleep under this roof," admitted Matthew +Kendrick. "It reminds me of my father's old home. It's very good of you, +Madam Gray, to ask us, and I believe I shall remain. As to Richard--" + +"I'd like nothing better," declared that young man promptly. + +So it was settled. Richard drove back to the store and gathered together +various articles for his own and his grandfather's use, and returned to +the Gray fireside. The long and pleasant evening which followed the +hearty country supper gave him one more new experience in the long list +of them he was acquiring. Somehow he had seldom been happier than when +he followed his hostess into the comfortable room upstairs she assigned +him, opening from that she had given the elder man. Cheerful fires +burned in old-fashioned, open-hearthed Franklin stoves, in both rooms, +and the atmosphere was fragrant with the mingled breath of crackling +apple-wood, and lavender from the fine old linen with which both beds +had been freshly made. + +"Sleep well, my dear friends," said Aunt Ruth, in her quaintly friendly +way, as she bade her guests good-night and shook hands with them, +receiving warm responses. + +"One must find sweet repose under your roof," said Matthew Kendrick, and +Richard, attending his hostess to the door, murmured, "You look as if +you'd put two small boys to bed and tucked them in!" at which Aunt Ruth +laughed with pleasure, nodding at him over her shoulder as she went +away. + +Presently, as Matthew Kendrick lay down in the soft bed, his face toward +the glow of his fire that he might watch it, Richard knocked and came in +from his own room and, crossing to the bed, stood leaning on the +foot-board. + +"Too sleepy to talk, grandfather?" he asked. + +"Not at all, my boy," responded the old man, his heart stirring in his +breast at this unwonted approach at an hour when the two were usually +far apart. Never that he could remember had Richard come into his room +after he had retired. + +"I wanted to tell you," said the young man, speaking very gently, "that +you've been awfully kind, and have done us all a lot of good to-day. And +you've done me most of all." + +"Why, that's pleasant news, Dick," answered old Matthew Kendrick, his +eyes fixed on the shadowy outlines of the face at the foot of the bed. +"Sit down and tell me about it." + +So Richard sat down, and the two had such a talk as they had had never +before in their lives--a long, intimate talk, with the barriers +down--the barriers which both felt now never should have existed. Lying +there in the soft bed of Aunt Ruth's best feathers, with the odour of +her lavender in his nostrils, and the sound of the voice he loved in his +ears, the old man drank in the delight of his grandson's confidence, and +the wonder of something new--the consciousness of Richard's real +affection, and his heart beat with slow, heavy throbs of joy, such as he +had never expected to feel again in this world. + +"Altogether," said Richard, rising reluctantly at last, as the tall old +clock on the landing near-by slowly boomed out the hour of midnight, +"it's been a great day for me. I'd been looking forward with quite a bit +of dread to bringing you up, I knew you'd see so plainly wherever we +were lacking; but you were so splendidly kind about it--" + +"And why shouldn't I be kind, Dick?" spoke his grandfather eagerly. +"What have I in the world to interest me as you and your affairs +interest me? Can any possible stroke of fortune seem so great to me as +your development into a manhood of accomplishment? And when it is in the +very world I know so well and have so near my heart--" + +Richard interrupted him, not realizing that he was doing so, but full of +longing to make all still further clear between them. "Grandfather, I +want to make a confession. This world of yours--I didn't want to enter +it." + +"I know you didn't, Dick. And I know why. But you are getting over that, +aren't you? You are beginning to realize that it isn't what a man does, +but the way he does it, that matters." + +"Yes," said Richard slowly. "Yes, I'm beginning to realize that. And do +you want to know what made me realize it to-day, as never before?" + +The old man waited. + +"It was the sight of you, sir--and--the recognition of the power you +have been all your life;--and the--sudden appreciation of the"--he +stumbled a little, but he brought the words out forcefully at the +end--"of the very great gentleman you are!" + +He could not see the hot tears spring into the old eyes which had not +known such a sign of emotion for many years. But he could feel the throb +in the low voice which answered him after a moment. + +"I may not deserve that, Dick, but--it touches me, coming from you." + +When Richard had gone back to his own room, Matthew Kendrick lay for a +long time, wide awake, too happy to sleep. In the next room his +grandson, before he slept, had formulated one more new idea: + +"There's something in the association with people like these that makes +a fellow feel like being absolutely honest with them, with +everybody--most of all with himself. What is it?" + +And pondering this, he was lost in the world of dreams. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ENCOUNTERS + + +"By the way, Rob, I saw Rich Kendrick to-day." Louis Gray detained his +sister Roberta on the stairs as they stopped to exchange greetings on a +certain evening in March. "It struck me suddenly that I hadn't seen him +for a blue moon, and I asked him why he didn't come round when he was in +town. He said he was sticking tight to that new business of his up in +Eastman, but he admitted he was to be here over Sunday. I invited him +round to-night, but to my surprise he wouldn't come. Said he had another +engagement, of course--thanked me fervently and all that--but there was +no getting him. It made me a bit suspicious of you, Bobby." + +"I can't imagine why." But, in spite of herself, Roberta coloured. "He +came here when he was helping Uncle Calvin. There's no reason for his +coming now." + +Her brother regarded her with the observing eye which sisters find it +difficult to evade. "He would have taken a job as nursemaid for Rosy, if +it would have given him a chance to go in and out of this old house, I +imagine. Rosy stuck to it, it was his infatuation for the home and the +members thereof, particularly Gordon and Dorothy. He undoubtedly was +struck with them--it would have been a hard heart that wasn't touched by +the sight of the boy--but if it was the kiddies he wanted, why didn't he +keep coming? Steve and Rosy would have welcomed him." + +"You had better ask him his reasons, next time you see him," Roberta +suggested, and escaped. + +It was two months since she had seen Richard Kendrick. He seemed never +so much as to pass the house, although it stood directly on his course +when he drove back and forth from Eastman in his car. She wondered if he +really did make a detour each time, to avoid the very chance of meeting +her. It was impossible not to think of him, rather disturbingly often, +and to wonder how he was getting on. + +The month of March in the year of this tale was on the whole an +extraordinarily mild and springlike piece of substitution for the +rigorous, wind-swept season it should by all rights have been. On one +of its most beguiling days Roberta Gray was walking home from Miss +Copeland's school. Usually she came by way of the broad avenue which led +straight home. To-day, out of sheer unwillingness to reach that home and +end the walk, she took a quite different course. This led her up a +somewhat similar street, parallel to her own but several blocks beyond, +a street of more than ordinary attractiveness in that it was less of a +thoroughfare than any other of equal beauty in the residential portion +of the city. + +She was walking slowly, drawing in the balmy air and noting with delight +the beds of crocuses which were beginning to show here and there on +lawns and beside paths, when a peculiar sound far up the avenue caught +her ear. She recognized it instantly, for she had heard it often and she +had never heard another quite like it. It was the warning song of a +coming motor-car and it was of unusual and striking musical quality. So +Roberta knew, even before she caught sight of the long, low, powerful +car which had stood many times before her own door during certain weeks +of the last year, that she was about to meet for the first time in two +months the person upon whom she had put a ban. + +Would he see her? He could hardly help it, for there was not another +pedestrian in sight upon the whole length of the block, and the March +sunshine was full upon her. As the car came on the girl who walked +sedately to meet it found that her pulses had somehow curiously +accelerated. So this was the route he took, not to go by her home. + +Did he see her? Evidently as far away as half a block, for at that +distance his motor-cap was suddenly pulled off, and it was with bared +head that he passed her. At the moment the car was certainly not running +as fast as it had been doing twenty rods back; it went by at a pace +moderate enough to show the pair to each other with distinctness. +Roberta saw clearly Richard Kendrick's intent eyes upon her, saw the +flash of his smile and the grace of his bow, and saw--as if written upon +the blue spring sky--the word he had left with her, "Midsummer." If he +had shouted it at her as he passed, it could not have challenged her +more definitely. + +He was obeying her literally--more literally than she could have +demanded. Not to slow down, come to a standstill beside her, exchange at +least a few words of greeting--this was indeed a strict interpretation +of her edict. Evidently he meant to play the game rigorously. Still, he +had been a compellingly attractive figure as he passed; that instant's +glimpse of him was likely to remain with her quite as long as a more +protracted interview. Did he guess that? + +"I wonder how I looked?" was her first thought as she walked on--a +purely feminine one, it must be admitted. When she reached home she +glanced at herself in the hall mirror on her way upstairs--a thing she +seldom took the trouble to do. + +A figure got hastily to its feet and came out into the hall to meet her +as she passed the door of the reception-room. "Miss Roberta!" said an +eager voice. + +"Why, Mr. Westcott! I didn't know you were in town!" + +"I didn't intend to be until next month, as you knew. But this wonderful +weather was too much for me." + +He held her hand and looked down into her face from his tall height. He +told her what he thought of her appearance--in detail with his eyes, in +modified form with his lips. + +"In my old school clothes?" laughed Roberta. "How draggy winter things +seem the first warm days. This velvet hat weighs like lead on my head +to-day." She took it off. "I'll run up and make myself presentable," +said she. + +"Please don't. You're exactly right as you are. And--I want you to go +for a walk if you're not too tired. The road that leads out by the West +Wood marshes--it will be sheer spring out there to-day. I want to share +it with you." + +So Roberta put on her hat again and went to walk with Forbes Westcott +out the road that led by the West Wood marshes. There was not a more +romantic road to be found in a long way. + +When they were well out into the country he began to press a question +which she had heard before, and to which he had had as yet no answer. + +"Still undecided?" said he, with a very sober face. "You can't make up +your mind as to my qualifications?" + +"Your qualifications are undoubted," said she, with a face as sober as +his. "They are more than any girl could ask. But I--how can I know? I +care so much for you--as a friend. Why can't we keep on being just good +friends and let things develop naturally?" + +"If I thought they would ever develop the way I want them," he said +earnestly, "I would wait patiently a great while longer. But I don't +seem to be making any progress. In fact, I seem to have gone backward a +bit in your good graces. Since I saw that young prince of shopkeepers in +your company over at Eastman, I've been wondering--" + +"Prince of shopkeepers! What an extraordinary characterization! I +thought he was a most amateurish shopkeeper. He didn't even know the +name of his own batiste, much less where it was kept." + +"He knew how to skate and to take you along with him. I beg your pardon! +But ever since that night I've been experiencing a most disconcerting +sense of jealousy whenever I think of that young man. He was such a +magnificent figure there in the firelight; he made me feel as old as the +Pyramids. And when you two were gone so long and came back with such an +odd look, both of you--oh, I beg your pardon again! This is most +unworthy of me, I know. But--set me straight if you can! Have you seen +much of him since that night?" + +"Absolutely nothing," said Roberta quickly, with a sense of great +relief. "To-day he passed me in his car, on my way home from school, +over on Egerton Avenue, and didn't even stop." + +He scanned her face closely. "And you are not even interested in him?" + +"Mr. Forbes Westcott," said Roberta desperately, "I have told you often +and often that I'm not interested in any man except as one or two are my +very good friends. Why can't all girls be allowed to live along in peace +and comfort until they are at least thirty years old? You didn't have +anybody besieging you to marry before you were thirty. If anybody had +you'd have said 'No' quickly enough. You had that much of your life +comfortably to yourself." + +He bit his lip, but he was obliged to laugh. His thin, keen face was +more attractive when he laughed, but there was an odd, tense expression +on it which did not leave it even then. + +"I can see you are still hopeless," he owned. "But so long as you are +hopeless for other men I can endure it, I suppose. I really meant not to +speak again for a long time, as I promised you. But the thought of that +embryo plutocrat making after you, as he has after so many girls--" + +"How many girls, I wonder?" queried Roberta quite carelessly. "Do you +happen to know? Has his fame spread so far?" + +"I know nothing about him, of course, except that he's a gay young +spendthrift. It goes without saying that he's made love to every pretty +face, for that kind invariably do." + +"If it goes without saying, why say it?--particularly as you don't know +it. I dare say he has--what serious harm? I presume it's quite as likely +they've run after him. I'm sure it's a matter of no concern to me, for I +know him very little and am likely to know him much less now that he +doesn't come to work with Uncle Calvin any more. Let's go back, Mr. +Westcott. I came out to look for pussy-willows, not for +Robby-will-you's!" + +With which piece of audacity she dismissed the subject. It certainly was +not a subject which harmonized well with that of Midsummer Day, and the +thought of Midsummer Day, quickened into active life by the unexpected +sight of the person who had made a certain preposterous prophecy +concerning it, was a thought which was refusing to down. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +INTRIGUE + + +"Hi!--Mr. Kendrick!--I say, Mr. Kendrick! Wait a minute!" + +The car, about to leave the curb in front of one of Kendrick & Company's +great city stores, halted. Its driver turned to see young Ted Gray +tearing across the sidewalk in hot pursuit. + +"Well, well--glad to see you, Ted, boy. Jump in and I'll take you +along." + +Ted jumped in. He gave Richard Kendrick's welcoming hand a hard squeeze. +"I haven't seen you for an awful while," said he reproachfully. "Aren't +you ever coming to our house any more?" + +"I hope so, Ted. But, you see," explained Richard carefully, "I'm a man +of business now and I can't have much time for calls. I'm in Eastman +most of the time. How are you, Ted? Tell me all about it. Can you go for +a spin with me? I had to come into town in a hurry, but there's no great +hurry about getting back. I'll take you out into the country and show +you the prettiest lot of apple trees in full bloom you ever saw in May." + +"I'd like to first-rate, but could you take me home first? I have to let +mother know where I am after school." + +"All right." And away they flew. But Richard turned off the avenue three +blocks below the corner upon which stood Ted's home and ran up the +street behind it. "Run in the back way, will you, Ted?" he requested. "I +want to do a bit of work on the car while you're in." + +So while Ted dashed up through the garden to the back of the house +Richard got out and unscrewed a nut or two, which he screwed again into +place without having accomplished anything visible to the eye, and was +replacing his wrench when the boy returned. + +"This is jolly," Ted declared. "I'll bet Rob envies me. This is her +Wednesday off from teaching, and she was just going for a walk. She +wanted me to go with her, but of course she let me go with you instead. +I--I suppose I could ride on the running board and let you take her if +you want to," he proposed with some reluctance. + +"I'd like nothing better, but she wouldn't go." + +"Maybe not. Perhaps Mr. Westcott is coming for her. They walk a lot +together." + +"I thought Mr. Westcott practised law with consuming zeal." + +"With what? Anyhow, he's here a lot this spring. About every Wednesday, +I think. I say, this is a bully car! If I were Rob I'd a lot rather ride +with you than go walking with old Westcott--especially when it's so +warm." + +"I'm afraid," said Richard soberly, "that walking in the woods in May +has its advantages over bowling along the main highway in any kind of a +car." + +Nevertheless he managed to make the drive a fascinating experience to +Ted and a diverting one to himself. And on the way home they stopped at +the West Wood marshes to gather a great bunch of trilliums as big as +Ted's head. + +"I'll take 'em to Rob," said her younger brother. "She likes 'em better +than any spring flower." + +"Take my bunch to Mrs. Stephen Gray then. And be sure you don't get them +mixed." + +"What if I did? They're exactly the same size." Ted held up the two +nosegays side by side as the car sped on toward home. + +"I know, but it's of the greatest importance that you keep them +straight. That left-hand one is yours; be sure and remember that." + +Ted looked piercingly at his friend, but Richard's face was perfectly +grave. + +"Must be you don't like Rob, if you're so afraid your flowers will get +to her," he reflected. "Or else you think so much of Rosy you can't bear +to let anybody else have the flowers you picked for her. I'll have to +tell Steve that." + +"Do, by all means. Mere words could never express my admiration for Mrs. +Stephen." + +"She is pretty nice," agreed Ted. "I like her myself. But she isn't in +it with Rob. Why, Rosy's afraid of lots of things, regularly afraid, you +know, so Steve has to laugh her out of them. But Rob--she isn't afraid +of a thing in the world." + +"Except one." + +"One?" Ted pricked up his ears. "What's that? I'll bet she isn't really +afraid of it--just shamming. She does that sometimes. What is it? Tell +me, and I'll tell you if she's shamming." + +"I'd give a good deal to know, but I'm afraid I can't tell you what it +is." + +"Why not? If she isn't really afraid of it she won't mind my knowing. +And if she is maybe I can laugh her out of it, the way Steve does Rosy." + +"I don't believe you're competent to treat the case, Ted. It's not a +thing to be laughed out of, you see. The thing for you to remember is +which bunch of trilliums you are to give Mrs. Stephen Gray from me." + +"This one." Ted waved his left arm. + +"Not a bit of it. The left one is yours." + +"No, because mine was a little the biggest, and you see this right one +is." + +"You are mistaken," Richard assured him positively. "You give Mrs. +Stephen the right one, and I'll take the consequences." + +"Did yours have a red one in?" + +"Has that right one?" + +"No, the left one has. I remember seeing you pick it." + +"But afterward I threw it out. You picked one and left it in. The right +is mine." + +"You've got me all mixed up," vowed Ted discontentedly, at which his +companion laughed, delight in his eye. The left-hand bunch was +unquestionably his own, but if he could only convince Ted of the +contrary he should at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the +flowers he had plucked had reached his lady, though they would have no +significance to her. When the lad jumped out of the car at his own rear +gate he had agreed that the bunch with the one deep red trillium was to +go to Roberta. + +Ted turned to wave both white clusters at his friend as the car went on, +then he proceeded straight to his sister's room. Finding her absent, he +laid one great white-and-green mass in a heap upon her bed and went his +way with the other to Mrs. Stephen's room. Here he found both Roberta +and Rosamond playing with little Gordon and Dorothy, whom their nurse +had just brought in from an airing. + +"Here's some trilliums for you, Rosy," announced Ted. "Mr. Kendrick sent +'em to you. I left yours on your bed, Rob. I picked yours; at least I +think I did. He was awfully particular that his went to Rosy, but we got +sort of mixed up about which picked which, so I can't be sure. I don't +see any use of making such a fuss about a lot of trilliums, anyhow." + +Roberta and Rosamond looked at each other. "I think you are decidedly +mixed, Ted," said Rosamond. "It was Rob Mr. Kendrick meant to send his +to." + +Ted shook his head positively. "No, it wasn't. He said something about +you that I told him I was going to tell Steve, only--I don't know as I +can remember it. Something about his admiring you a whole lot." + +"Delightful! And he didn't say anything about Rob?" + +"Not very much. Said she was afraid of something. I said she wasn't +afraid of anything, and he said she was--of one thing. I tried to make +him say what it was, because I knew he was all off about that, but he +wouldn't tell." + +"Evidently you and Mr. Kendrick talked a good deal of nonsense," was +Roberta's comment, on her way from the room. + +She found the mass of green and white upon her bed and stood +contemplating it for a moment. The one deep red trillium glowed richly +against its snowy brethren, and she picked it out and examined it +thoughtfully, as if she expected it to tell her whereof Richard Kendrick +thought she was afraid. But as it vouchsafed no information she gathered +up the whole mass and disposed it in a big crystal bowl which she set +upon a small table by an open window. + +"If I thought that really was the bunch he picked," said she to herself, +"I should consider he had broken his promise and I should feel obliged +to throw it away. Perhaps I'd better do it anyhow. Yet--it seems a pity +to throw away such a beautiful bowlful of white and green, and--very +likely they were of Ted's picking after all. But I don't like that one +red one against all the white." + +She laid fingers upon it to draw it out. But she did not draw it out. "I +wonder if that represents the one thing I'm afraid of?" she considered +whimsically. "What does his majesty mean--himself? Or--myself? +Or--of--of--Yes, I suppose that's it! Am I afraid of it?" + +She stood staring down at the one deep red flower, the biggest, finest +bloom of them all. It really did not belong there with the others in +their cool, chaste whiteness. Quite suddenly she drew it out. She made +the motion of throwing it out the window, but it seemed to cling to her +fingers. + +"Poor little flower," said she softly, "why should you have to go? +Perhaps you're sorry because you're not white like the rest. But you +can't help it; you were made that way." + +If Richard Kendrick could have seen her standing there, staring down at +the flower he had picked, he would have found it harder than ever to go +on his appointed course. For this was what she was thinking: + +"I ought--I ought--to like best the white flowers of intellect--and +ability--and training--and every sort of fitness. I try and try to like +them best. But, oh!--they are so white--compared with this red, red one. +I like the white ones; they are pure and cool and beautiful. But--the +red one is warm, warm! Oh, I don't know--I don't know. And how am I +going to know? Tell me that, red flower. Did he pick you? Shall I keep +you--on the doubt? Well--but not where you will show. Yes, I'll keep +you, but away down in the middle, where no one will see you, and where +you won't distract my attention from the beautiful white flowers that +are so different from you." + +She bent over the bowlful of snowy spring blossoms, drew them apart, and +sunk the red flower deep among them, drawing them together again so that +not a hint of their alien brother should show against their whiteness. + +"There," said she, turning away with a little laugh, but speaking over +her shoulder, "you ought to be satisfied with that. That's certainly +much better than being thrown out of the window, to wilt in the sun!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE NAILING OF A FLAG + + +"Well--well--well!" drawled a voice at Richard Kendrick's elbow. "How +are you, old man? Haven't seen you since before the days of Noah! Off to +that country shop of yours? I say, take me along, will you? Time hangs +heavy on my hands just now, and I want to see you anyhow, about a plan +of mine." + +"Hop in, Lorimer. Mighty glad to see you. Want to go all the way to +Eastman? That's fine! This is great weather, eh?" + +Belden Lorimer hopped in, if that word may be used to express his eager +acceptance rather than the alacrity of his movements, for he was +accustomed to act with as much deliberation as he spoke. He was one of +Richard's college friends, also one of his late intimate companions at +clubs and in social affairs. Lorimer possessed as much money in his own +right as Richard himself, though his expectations were hardly as great. + +"To tell the truth," said Lorimer, when the car had left the city and +was bowling along the main travelled highway "up the State," "I wanted +to see you as much as anything to get a good look at you. Fellows say +you've changed. Say you have that 'captain-of-industry' expression now. +Say you've acquired that broad brow--alert eye--stern mouth--dominant +chin--and so forth, that goes with indomitable determination to 'get +there.' To be sure, I'd have thought you'd arrived, or your family +before you, but they say you've started out to arrive some more. It's a +wonderful example for a chap like me--fellows say. Think so myself. Mind +imparting--" + +Richard broke in on Lorimer's drawl. It was rather an engaging drawl, by +the way, and he had always enjoyed hearing it, but it struck upon his +ears now with a certain futility. In a world of pressing affairs why +should a man cultivate a tone like that? But he liked Lorimer too much +to mind how he talked. + +"I'm delighted if I've acquired that expression," said he, letting out +the car another notch, although it was already in swift flight. "It's +been a lot of trouble. I've had to practise before a mirror a good deal. +It was the chin bothered me most. It sticks out pretty well, but not as +far as my grandfather's. Could you advise any method of--" + +"What I want to know is," proceeded Lorimer calmly, "how you came to go +into it. Understand you wanted to help fellow out of the ditch--good old +Benson--most worthy. Couldn't help him out without getting in yourself? +But going to get out soon as possible, of course? Unthinkable for Rich +Kendrick to be a country shopkeeper!" + +"Unthinkable, is it? Wait till you see the shop. It's the most fun I +ever had. Get out? Not by a long shot. I'm in for keeps." + +"Not you. With the Kendrick establishments waiting for you to come into +your own? Which will mean, in your case, becoming the nominal head of a +great system, while it continues to be run for you, as now, by a lot of +trained heads under salary--big salary." + +"Great idea of my future you have, Lorry, haven't you? Well, I can't +wonder. I've been doing my best for all the years of my life to implant +that idea in your mind. But, what about you? What are you at, yourself? +You said you had a plan." + +"He asks what I'm 'at,'" remarked Belden Lorimer to the rural landscape +through which the car was passing. "Ever know me to be 'at' anything? +It's as much as I can do to support life until I can be off on my next +little travel-plan. It's me for a leisurely cruise around the world, in +the governor's little old boat--the _Ariel_--painted up within an inch +of her life, brass all shining, lockers filled, a first-class cook +engaged, and a brand-new skipper and crew--picked men. Sounds pretty +good to me. How about you? Shop keeping in it with that, me lord?" + +His usually languid glance was sharp, as he eyed his friend. + +"Jove!" ejaculated Richard Kendrick, under his breath. + +"I thought so. 'Jove!' it is, too--and also Jupiter! You've always said +you'd be ready when I was. Well, I'm ready." + +Richard was silent for a long minute, while his friend waited +confidently. Then, "Good luck to you, old Lorry," he said. "It's mighty +fine of you to remember our ancient vow to do that trick some day. And +I'd like to go--you know that. But--I've a previous engagement." + +"Not with that fool store up in the backwoods? Can't make me believe +that, you know." + +Richard's face was a study. + +"Believe it or not, it's a fact. That store is the joint property of +Benson & Company. I'm the Company. I can't desert my partner just as +we're getting the ground under our feet." + +"Well--I'll--be--hanged," drawled Lorimer, more heavily than ever, as +was his custom when opposed, "if I see it. You go and help a fellow out +with capital and set him on his feet. You save his pride, I suppose, by +making yourself a partner. Fine, sporty thing to do. But you've done it. +You've contributed the capital. Can't reasonably suppose you +contribute anything else. If you don't mind my saying it, +your--previous--training--" + +"Doesn't make me indispensable to the success of the business? Hardly, +as yet. But for the very reason that I lack training, I've got to stay +and get it." + +"Take lessons in shopkeeping from Hugh Benson?" + +"Exactly. And from Alf Carson. He's our manager." + +"Don't know him. But from the way you allude to him I judge +he has the details at his fingers-ends. That's all right. +Leave--him--on--the--job." + +"I will--and stay myself." + +Richard's eyes were straight ahead, as the eyes of a man must be whose +powerful car is running at high speed along a none too smoothly surfaced +portion of state road. Therefore the glances of the two young men could +not meet. But Lorimer's eyes could silently scan the well-cut profile +presented to his view against the green of the fields beyond. + +"Never observed," said he, with a peculiar inflection, "just +how--rock-like--that chin of yours is, Rich. Reminds me of your +grandfather's, for fair." + +"Glad to hear it." + +"You know," pursued Lorimer presently, "you gave me your promise, once, +that you'd be with me on this cruise, whenever it came off. That's where +the chin ought to come in. Man of your word, you know, and all that." + +"I'm mighty sorry, my dear fellow. Let's not talk about it." + +And clearly he was sorry. It had been a pleasant plan, and he had not +forgotten the circumstances of the laughing yet serious pledge the two +had given each other one evening less than two years ago. + +They kept on their way with a change of conversation, and at the rate of +speed which Richard maintained were running into Eastman before they +were half done with asking each other questions concerning the months +during which they had seldom met. + +"This the busy mart?" queried Lorimer, as the car came to a standstill +before the corner store. "Well, beside Kendrick & Company's massive +edifices of stone and marble--" + +"Luckily, it's not beside them," retorted Richard, maintaining his good +humour. "Will you come in?" + +"Thanks, I will. That's what I came for. Curiosity leads me to want to +view you behind the--No, no, of course it's behind the office glass +partition that I'll view you, my boy. I want to hear Rich Kendrick +talking business--with a big B." + +"I'll talk business to you, if you don't let up," declared his friend. +"You've got to be cured of the idea that this is some kind of a joke, +Lorry. Will you be kind enough to take me seriously?" + +"Find--that--impossible," drawled Lorimer, under his breath, as he +followed Richard into the store. + +But once there, of course, his manner changed to the most courteous of +which he was master. He was taken to the office and there shook hands +with Hugh Benson with cordiality, having known him at college as a man +who commanded respect for high scholarship and modest but assured +manners, though of a quite different class of comradeship from his own. +He talked pleasantly with Alfred Carson, and listened with evident +interest to a business discussion between Richard and his associates, in +the course of which he discovered that however much or little Richard +had learned, he could speak intelligently concerning the matters then in +hand. He went to lunch with Richard and Hugh Benson at a hotel, and +listened again, for a decision was to be made which called for haste, +and no time could be lost in the consideration of it. + +He spent the afternoon driving Richard's car on up the state, returning +in time to pick up his friend at the appointed hour, late in the +afternoon, at which they were to start back to the city. Up to the last +moment of their departure business still had the upper hand, and it was +not until Benson and Kendrick parted at the curb that it ended for the +day, as far as Richard's part in it was concerned. + +"Six hours you've been at it," remarked Lorimer, as the car swung away +under Richard's hand. "It makes me fatigued all over to contemplate such +zeal." + +"Tell that to the men who really work. I'm getting off easy, to cut and +run at the end of six hours." + +"Rich--" began his friend, then he paused. "By the Lord Harry, I'd like +to know what's got you. I can't make you and the old Rich fit together +at all. You and your books--you and your music--and your pictures--your +polo--your 'wine, women, and song'--" + +"Take that last back," commanded Richard Kendrick, with sudden heat. +"You know I've never gone in for that sort of thing, except as all our +old crowd went in together. Personally, I haven't cared for it, and you +know it. It's travel and adventure I've cared for--" + +"And that you're throwing over now for a country shop." + +"That I'm throwing over now to learn the ABC in the training school of +responsibility for the big load that's to come on my shoulders. I've +been asleep all these years. Thank Heaven I've waked up in time. It's no +merit of mine--" + +"Mind telling me whose it is, then?" + +"I should mind, very much--if you'll excuse me." + +"Oh--beg pardon," drawled Lorimer. + +Silence followed for a brief space, broken by Richard's voice, in its +old, genial tone. + +"Tell me more about the cruise. It's great that you can have your +father's yacht. I thought he always used it through the summer." + +"He's gone daffy on monoplanes--absolutely daffy. Can't see anything +else." + +"I don't blame him. I might have gone in for aviation myself, if I +hadn't got this bigger game on my hands." + +"Bigger--there you go again! Well, every man to his taste. The +governor's lost interest in the _Ariel_--let me have her without a +reservation as to time limit. Don't care for flying myself. Necessary +to sit up. Like to lie on my back too well for that." + +"You do yourself injustice." + +"Now, now--don't preach. I've been expecting it." + +"You needn't. I'm too busy with my own case to attend to yours." + +"Lucky for me. I feel you'd be a zealous preacher if you ever got +started." + +"What route do you expect to take?" pursued Richard, steering away from +dangerous ground. + +Lorimer outlined it, in his most languid manner. One would have thought +he had little real interest in his plan, after all. + +"It's great! You'll have the time of your life!" + +"I might have had." + +"You will have--you can't help it." + +"Not without the man I want in the bunk next mine," said Belden Lorimer, +gazing through half-shut eyes at nothing in particular. + +Richard experienced the severest pang of regret he had yet known. + +"If that's true, old Lorry," said he slowly, "I'm sorrier than I can +tell you." + +"Then--_come along_!" Lorimer looked waked up at last. He laid a +persuasive hand on Richard's arm. + +There was a moment of tensity. Then: + +"If I should do it," said Richard, regarding steadily a dog in the road +some hundred yards ahead, "would you feel any respect whatever for me?" + +"Dead loads of it, I assure you." + +"Sure of that?" + +"Why not?" + +"Be honest. Would you?" + +"You promised me first," said Lorimer. + +"I know I did. Such idle promises to play don't count when real life +asks for work--it's no good reminding me of that promise. Answer me +straight, now, Lorry--on your honour. If I should give in and go with +you, you'd rejoice for a little, perhaps. Then, some day, when you and +I were lying on deck, you'd look at me and think of me--against your +will--I don't say it wouldn't be against your will--you'd think of me as +a quitter. And you wouldn't like me quite as well as you do now. Eh? Be +honest." + +Lorimer was silent for a minute. Then, to Richard's surprise, he gave an +assenting grunt, and followed it up with a reluctant, "Hang it all, I +suppose you're right. But I'm badly disappointed, just the same. We'll +let that go." + +And let it go they did, parting, when they reached town, with the +friendliest of grips, and a new, if not wholly comprehended, interest +between them. As for Richard, he felt, somehow, as if he had nailed his +flag to the mast! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN THE MORNING + + +"By George, Carson, what do you think's happened now?" + +Richard Kendrick had come into the store's little office like a +thunderbolt. + +"Well, Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Benson's down with typhoid. Came back with it from the trip to Chicago. +What do you think of that?" + +"I thought he was looking a little seedy before he went. Well, well, +that's too bad. Right in the May trade, too. Is he pretty sick?" + +"So the doctor says. He's been keeping up on that trip when he ought to +have been in bed. He's in bed now, all right. I took him in with a nurse +to the City Hospital on the 10:40 Limited; stretcher in the +baggage-car." + +"Don't see where he got typhoid around here at this time of year," mused +Carson. + +"Nobody sees, but that doesn't matter. He has it, and it's up to us to +pull him through--and to get along without him." + +They sat down to talk it over. While they were at it the telephone came +into the discussion with a summons of Richard to a long-distance +connection. To his amazement, when communication was established between +himself and his distant interlocutor, clear and vibrant came to him over +the wire a voice he had dreamed of but had not heard for four months: + +"Mr. Kendrick?" + +"Yes. Is it--it isn't--" + +"This is Miss Gray. Mr. Kendrick, your grandfather wants you very much, +at our home. He has had an accident." + +"An accident? What sort of an accident? Is he much hurt, Miss Gray?" + +"We can't tell yet. He fell down the porch steps; he had been calling on +Uncle Calvin. He--is quite helpless, but the doctor thinks there are no +bones broken. Doctor Thomas wouldn't allow Mr. Kendrick to be moved, so +we have him here with a nurse. He is very anxious to see you." + +"I'll be there as soon as I can get there in the car. I think I can make +it quicker than by train at this hour. Thank you for calling me, Miss +Gray. Please--give my love to grandfather and tell him I'm coming." + +"I will, Mr. Kendrick. I--we are all--so sorry. Good-bye." + +Richard turned back to Carson with an anxious face. The manager was on +his feet, concern in his manner. + +"Something happened to old Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Richard?" + +"A fall--can't move--wants me right away. It never rains but it pours, +Carson--even in May. I thought Benson's illness was the worst thing that +could happen to us, but this is worse yet. I'll have to leave everything +to you to settle while I run down to the old gentleman. A fall, +Carson--isn't that likely to be pretty serious at his age?" + +"Depends on what caused it, I should say," Carson answered cautiously. +"If it was any kind of shock--" + +"Oh--it can't be that!" Richard Kendrick's voice showed his alarm at the +thought. "Grandfather's been such an active old chap--no superfluous +fat--he's not at all a high liver--takes his cold plunge just as he +always has. It can't be that! But I'm off to see. Good-bye, Carson. I'll +'phone you when I know the situation. Meanwhile--wish grandfather safely +out of it, will you?" + +"Of course I will; I think a great deal of Mr. Kendrick. Good-bye--and +don't worry about things here." Carson wrung his employer's hand, then +went out with him to the curb, where the car stood, and saw him off. "He +really cares," he was thinking. "Nobody could fake that anxiety. He +doesn't want the old man to die--and he's his heir--to millions. Well, +I like him better than ever for it. I believe if I got typhoid he'd +personally carry me to the hospital or do any other thing that came into +his head. Well, now it's for me to find a competent salesman for this +May sale that's on with such a rush. It's going to be hard to manage +without Benson." + +The long, low car had never made faster time to the city, and it was in +the early dusk that it came to a standstill before the porch of the Gray +home. Doors and windows were wide open, lights gleamed everywhere, but +the house was very quiet. The car had stolen up as silently as a car of +fine workmanship may in these days of motor perfection, but it had been +heard, and Mrs. Robert Gray came out to meet Richard before he could +ring. + +"My dear Mr. Richard," she said, pressing his hand, her face very grave +and sweet, "you have come quickly. I am glad, for we are anxious. Your +grandfather has dropped into a strange, drowsy state, from which it +seems impossible to rouse him. But I hope you may be able to do so. He +has wanted you from the first moment." + +"Tell me which way to go," cried Richard, under his breath. "Is he +upstairs?" + +She kept her hold upon his hand, and he gripped it tight as she led him +up the stairs. It was as if he felt a mother's clasp for the first time +since his babyhood and could not let it go. + +"In here," she indicated softly, and the young man went in, his head +bent, his lips set. + + * * * * * + +Two hours afterward he came out. She was waiting for him, though it was +midnight. Louis and Stephen were waiting, too, and they in turn grasped +his hand, their faces pitiful for the keen grief they saw in his. Then +Mrs. Gray took him down to the porch, where the warm May night folded +them softly about. She sat down beside him on a wide settle. + +"He is all I have in the world!" cried Richard Kendrick. "If he goes--" +He could not say more, and, turning, put his arms down upon the back of +the seat and his head upon them. Great, tearless sobs shook him. Mrs. +Gray laid her kind hand upon his shoulder, and spoke gentle, motherly +words--a few words, not many--and kept her hand there until he had +himself under control again. + +By and by Mrs. Stephen Gray came out with a little tray upon which was +set forth a simple lunch, daintily served. The young man tried to eat, +to show her how much this touched him, but succeeded in swallowing only +a portion of the delicate food. Then he got up. "You are all so good," +said he gratefully. "You have helped me more than I can tell you. I will +go back now. I want to stay with him to-night, if you will allow me." + +They gave him a room across the hall from that in which his grandfather +lay, but he did not occupy it. All night he sat, a silent figure on the +opposite side of the bed from that where the nurse was on guard. His +grandfather's regular physician was in attendance the greater part of +the night at his request, though there seemed nothing to do but await +the issue. Another distinguished member of the profession had seen the +case in consultation early in the evening, and the two had found +themselves unable between them to discover a remote possibility of hope. + +In the early morning the watcher stole downstairs, feeling as if he must +for at least a few moments get into the outer world. His eyes were heavy +with his vigil, yet there was no sleep behind them, and he could not +bear to be long away lest a change come suddenly. The old man had not +roused when he had first spoken to him, and the nurse had said that his +last conscious words had been a call for his grandson. Goaded by this +thought, Richard turned back before he had so much as reached the foot +of the garden, where he had thought he should spend at least a quarter +of an hour. + +As he came in at the door he was met by Roberta, cool and fresh in blue. +It was but five in the morning; surely she did not commonly rise at this +hour, even in May. The thought made his heart leap. She came straight to +him and put both hands in his, saying in her friendly, low voice: "Mr. +Kendrick, I'm sorry--sorry!" + +He looked long and hungrily into her face, holding her hands with such a +fierce grasp that he hurt her cruelly, though she made no sign. He did +not even thank her--only held her until every detail of her face had +been studied. She let him do it, and only dropped her eyes and stood +colouring warmly under the inquisition. It was as if she understood that +the sight of her was a moment's sedative for an aching heart, and she +must yield it or be more unkind than it was in the heart of woman to be. +When he released her it was with a sigh that came up from the depths, +and as she left him he stood and watched her until she was out of sight. + + * * * * * + +When Matthew Kendrick opened his eyes at ten o'clock on the morning +after his fall the first thing they rested upon was the face he loved +best in the world. It came instantly nearer, the eyes meeting his +imploringly, as if begging him to speak. So with some little effort he +did speak. "Well, Dick," he said slowly, "I'm glad you came, boy. I +wanted you; I didn't know but I was about getting through. But--I +believe I'm still here, after all." + +Then he saw a strange sight. Great tears leaped into the eyes he was +looking at, tears that rolled unheeded down the fresh-coloured cheeks of +his boy. Richard tried to speak, but could not. He could only gently +grasp his grandfather's hand and press it tightly in both his own. + +"I feel pretty well battered up," the old man continued, his voice +growing stronger, "but I think I can move a little." He stirred slightly +under his blanket, a fact the nurse noted with joyful intentness. "So I +think I'm all here. Are you so glad, Dick, that you can cry about it?" + +The smile came then upon his grandson's lighting face. "Glad, +grandfather?" said he, with some difficulty. "Why, you're all I have in +the world! I shouldn't know how to face it without you." + +The old man dropped off to sleep again, his hand contentedly resting in +his grandson's. Presently the doctor looked in, studied the situation in +silence, held a minute's whispered colloquy with the nurse, then moved +to Richard's side. The young man looked up at him and he nodded. He bent +to Richard's ear. + +"Things look different," he whispered succinctly. At the slight +sibilance of the whisper the old man opened his eyes again. His glance +travelled up the distinguished physician's body to his face. He smiled +in quite his own whimsical way. + +"Fooled even a noted person like you, did I, Winston?" he chuckled +feebly. "Just because I chose to go to sleep and didn't fidget round +much you thought I'd got my quietus, did you?" + +"I think you're a pretty vigorous personality," responded the physician, +"and I'm quite willing to be fooled by you. Now I want you to take a +little nourishment and go to sleep again. If you think so much of this +young man of yours you can have him again in an hour, but I'm going to +send him away now. You see, he's been sitting right there all night." + +Matthew Kendrick's eyes rested fondly again upon Richard's smiling face. +"You rascal!" he sighed. "You always did give me trouble about being up +o' nights!" + + * * * * * + +Richard Kendrick ran downstairs three steps at a bound. At the bottom he +met Judge Calvin Gray. He seized the hand of his grandfather's old-time +friend and wrung it. The expression of heavy sadness on the Judge's face +changed to one of bewilderment, and as he scanned the radiant +countenance of Matthew Kendrick's grandson he turned suddenly pale with +joy. + +"You don't mean--" + +Then he comprehended that Richard was finding it as hard to speak good +news as if it had been bad. But in an instant the young man was in +command of himself again. + +"It wasn't apoplexy--it wasn't paralysis--it was only the shock of the +fall and the bruises. He's been talking to me; he's been twitting the +doctor on having been fooled. Oh, he's as alive as possible, and +I--Judge Gray, I never was so happy in my life!" + +With congratulations in his heart for his old friend on the possession +of this young love which was as genuine as it was strong, the Judge +said: "Well, my dear fellow, let us thank God and breathe again. This +has been the darkest night I've spent in many a year--and this is the +brightest morning." + +Everybody in the house was presently rejoicing in the news. But if +Richard expected Roberta to be as generous with him in his joy as she +had been in his grief he found himself disappointed. She did not fail +to express to him her sympathy with his relief, but she did it with +reinforcements of her family at hand, and with Ruth's arm about her +waist. She had trusted him when torn with anxiety; clearly she did not +trust him now in the reaction from that anxiety. He was in wild spirits, +no doubt of that; she could see it in his brilliant eyes. + +It still lacked six weeks of Midsummer. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SIDE LIGHTS + + +Louis Gray sat in a capacious willow easy-chair beside the high white +iron hospital bed upon which lay Hugh Benson, convalescing from his +attack of fever. "Pretty comfortable they make you here," Louis +observed, glancing about. "I didn't know their private rooms were as big +and airy as this one." + +Benson smiled. "I don't imagine they all are. I didn't realize what sort +of quarters I was in till I began to get better and mother told me. +According to her I have the best in the place. That's Rich. Whatever he +looks after is sure to be gilt-edged. I wonder if you know what a prince +of good fellows he is, anyway." + +"I always knew he was a good fellow," Louis agreed. "He has that +reputation, you know--kind-hearted and open-handed. I should know he +would be a substantial friend to his college classmate and business +partner." + +"He's much more than that." Benson's slow and languid speech took on a +more earnest tone. "Do you know, I think if any young man in this city +has been misjudged and underrated it's Rich. I know the reputation you +speak of; it's another way of calling a man a spendthrift, to say he's +free with his money among his friends. But I don't believe anybody knows +how free Rich Kendrick is with it among people who have no claim on him. +I never should have known if I hadn't come here. One of my nurses has +told me a lot of things she wasn't supposed ever to tell; but once she +had let a word drop I got it out of her. Why, Louis, for three years +Rich has paid the expenses of every sick child that came into this +hospital, where the family was too poor to pay. He's paid for several +big operations, too, on children that he wanted to see have the best. +There are four special private rooms he keeps for those they call his +patients, and he sees that whoever occupies them has everything they +need--and plenty of things they may not just need, but are bound to +enjoy--including flowers like those." + +He pointed to a splendid bowlful of blossoms on a stand behind Louis, +such blossoms as even in June grow only in the choicest of gardens. + +"All this is news to me," declared Louis; "mighty good news, too. But +how has he been able to keep it so quiet?" + +"Hospital people all pledged not to tell; so of course you and I mustn't +be responsible for letting it out, since he doesn't want it known. I'm +glad I know it, though, and I felt somehow that you ought to know. I +used to think a lot of Rich at college, but now that he's my partner I +think so much more I can't be happy unless other people appreciate him. +And in the business--I can't tell you what he is. He's more like a +brother than a partner." + +His thin cheeks flushed, and Louis suddenly bethought himself. +"I'm letting you talk too much, Hugh," he said self-accusingly. +"Convalescents mustn't overexert themselves. Suppose you lie still +and let me read the morning paper to you." + +"Thank you, my nurse has done it. Talking is really a great luxury and +it does me good, a little of it. I want to tell you this about Rich--" + +The door opened quietly as he spoke and Richard Kendrick himself came +in. Quite as usual, he looked as if he had that moment left the hands of +a most scrupulous valet. No wonder Louis's first thought was, as he +looked at him, that people gave him credit for caring only for +externals. One would not have said at first glance that he had ever +soiled his hands with any labour more tiring than that of putting on +his gloves. And yet, studying him more closely in the light of the +revelations his friend had made, was there not in his attractive face +more strength and force than Louis had ever observed before? + +"How goes it this morning, Hugh?" was the new-comer's greeting. He +grasped the thin hand of the convalescent, smiling down at him. Then he +shook hands with Louis, saying, "It's good of such a busy man to come in +and cheer up this idle one," and sat down as if he had come to stay. But +he had no proprietary air, and when a nurse looked in he only bowed +gravely, as if he had not often seen her before. If Louis had not known +he would not have imagined that Richard's hand in the affair of Benson's +illness had been other than that of a casual caller. + +Louis Gray went away presently, thinking it over. He was thinking of it +again that evening as he sat upon the big rear porch of the Gray home, +which looked out upon the lawn and tennis court where he and Roberta had +just been having a bout lasting into the twilight. + +"I heard something to-day that surprised me more than anything for a +long time," he began, and when his sister inquired what the strange news +might be he repeated to her as he could remember it Hugh Benson's +outline of the extraordinary story about Richard Kendrick. When she had +heard it she observed: + +"I suppose there is much more of that sort of thing done by the very +rich than we dream of." + +"By old men, yes--and widows, and a few other classes of people. But I +don't imagine it's so common as to be noticeable among the young men of +his class, do you?" + +"Perhaps not. Though you do hear of wonderful things the bachelors do at +Christmas for the poor children." + +"At Christmas--that's another story. Hearts get warmed up at Christmas, +that, like old Scrooge's, are cold and careless the rest of the year. +But for a fellow like Rich Kendrick to keep it up all the year +round--you'll find that's not so commonplace a tale." + +"I don't know much about rich young men." + +"You've certainly kept this one at a distance," Louis observed, eying +his sister curiously in the twilight. She was sitting in a boyish +attitude, racket on lap, elbows on knees, chin on clasped hands, eyes on +the shadowy garden. "He's been coming here evening after evening until +now that his grandfather has gone home, and never once has anybody seen +you so much as standing on the porch with him, to say nothing of +strolling into the garden. What's the matter with you, Rob? Any other +girl would be following him round and getting into his path. Not that +you would need to, judging by the way I've seen him look at you once or +twice. Have you drawn an imaginary circle around yourself and pointed +out to him the danger of crossing it? I should take him for a fellow who +would cross it then anyhow!" + +"Imaginary circles are sometimes bigger barriers than stone walls," she +admitted, smiling to herself, "Besides, Lou, I thought somebody else was +the person you wanted to see walking in the garden with me." + +"Forbes? The person I expected to see, you mean. Well, I don't know +about Forbes Westcott. He's a mighty clever chap, but I sometimes think +his blood is a little thin--like his body. I can't imagine his bothering +about a sick child at a hospital, can you? I've never seen him take a +minute's notice of Steve's pair; and they're little trumps, if ever +children were. Corporations are more in his line than children." + + * * * * * + +One thing leads to another in this interesting world. It was not two +days after this talk that Roberta herself had a private view of a little +affair which proved more illuminating to her understanding of a certain +fellow mortal than might have been all the evidence of other witnesses +than her own eyes. + +Returning from school on one of the last days of the term, weary of +walls and longing for the soothing stillness and refreshment of +outdoors, Roberta turned aside some distance from her regular course to +pass through a large botanical park, originally part of a great estate, +and newly thrown open to the public. It was, as yet, less frequented +than any other of the city parks. Much of it, according to the decree of +its donor, a nature lover of discrimination, had been left in a state +not far removed from wildness, and it was toward this portion that +Roberta took her way; experiencing, with each step along a winding, +secluded path she had recently discovered, that sense of escape into +luxurious freedom which comes only after enforced confinement when the +world outside is at its most alluring. + +At a point where the path swept high above a long, descending slope, at +the foot of which lay a tiny pool surrounded by thick and beautifully +kept turf, Roberta paused, and after looking about her for a minute to +make sure that there was no one near, turned aside from the path and +threw herself down beside a great clump of ferns, breathing a deep sigh +of restful relief. She sat gazing dreamily down at the pool, in which +was mirrored an exquisite reflection of tree and sky, the scene as +silent and still as though drawn upon canvas. She had many things to +think of, in these days, and a place like this was an ideal one in which +to think. + +Was it? Far below her she heard the low hum of a motor. None could come +near her, but the road beneath wound near the pool, though out of sight +except at one point. In spite of this, the girl drew back further into +the shelter of the tall ferns, thinking as she did so that it was the +first time she had seen this remoter part of the park invaded by either +motorist or pedestrian. Watching the point at which the car must appear +she saw it come slowly into sight and stop. There were two occupants, a +man and a boy, but at the distance she could not discern their faces. +The man stepped out, and coming around to the other side of the car put +out his arms and lifted the boy. He did not set him down, but carried +him, seeming to hold him with peculiar care, and brought him through the +surrounding trees and shrubbery to the pool itself, coming, as he did +so, into full view of the unseen eyes above. + +Roberta experienced a sudden strange leap of the heart as she saw that +the supple figure of the man was Richard Kendrick's own, and that the +slight frame he bore was that of a crippled child. She could see now the +iron braces on the legs, like pipe stems, which stuck straight out from +the embrace of the strong young arm which held them. She could discern +clearly the pallor and emaciation of the small face, in pitiful contrast +to the ruggedly healthy one of the child's bearer. Fascinatedly she +watched as Richard set his burden carefully down upon the grass, close +to the edge of the pool, the boy's back against a big white birch trunk. +The two were not so far below her but that she could see the expression +on their faces, though she could not hear their words. + +Richard ran back to the car, returning with a rug and something in a +long and slender case. He arranged a cushion behind the little back. +Roberta judged the boy to be about eight or nine years old, though small +for his age, as such children are. Richard undid the case and produced a +small fishing-rod, which he fell to preparing for use, talking gayly as +he did so, watched eagerly by his youthful companion. Evidently the boy +was to have a great and unaccustomed pleasure. + +Well, it was certainly in line with that which Roberta had heard of this +young man, but somehow to see something of it with her own eyes was +singularly more convincing. She could not bring herself to get up and go +away--surely there could be no need to feel that she was spying if she +stayed to watch the interesting scene. If Richard had chosen a spot +which he fancied entirely secluded from observation, it was undoubtedly +wholly on the boy's own account. She could easily imagine how such a +child as this one would shrink from observation in a public place, +particularly when he was to try the dearly imagined but wholly unknown +delight of fishing. It was plain that he was very shy, even with this +kind friend, for it was only now and then that he replied in words to +Richard's talk, though the response in the white face and big black eyes +was eloquent enough. + +It seemed in every way remarkable that a young man of Richard Kendrick's +sort should devote himself to a poor and crippled child as he was doing +now. Not a gesture or act of his was lost upon the girl who watched. +Clearly he was taking all possible pains to please and interest his +little protege, and he was doing it in a way which showed much skill, +suggesting previous practice in the art. This was no such interest as he +had shown in Gordon and Dorothy Gray, whose beauty had been so powerful +an appeal to his fancy. There was nothing about this child to take hold +upon any one except his helplessness and need. But Richard was as gentle +with him, as patient with his awkward attempts at holding the light rod +in the proper position for fishing, and as full of resources for +entertaining him when the fish--if there were any--failed to bite, as he +could have been with a small brother of his own. + +There was another thing which it was impossible not to note: Never had +Roberta seen this young man in circumstances so calculated to impress +upon her the potency of his personality. Unconscious of the scrutiny of +any other human being, wholly absorbed in the task of making a small boy +happy, he was naturally showing her himself precisely as he was. In +place of his usual careful manners when in her presence was entire +freedom from restraint and therefore an effect uncoloured by +conventional environment. The tones of his voice, the frank smile upon +his lips, the touch of his hand upon the little lad's--all these +combined to set him before Roberta in a light so different from any she +had seen him in before that she must needs admit she had been far from +knowing him. + +She stole away at length, feeling suddenly that she had seen enough, and +that her defences against the siege being made upon her heart and +judgment were weakening perilously. If she were to hold out before it +she must hear of no more affairs to Richard Kendrick's credit, +especially such affairs as these. Not all his efforts at establishing a +successful career in the world of achievement could touch her +imagination as did the knowledge of his brotherly kindness toward the +unfortunate. That was what meant most to Roberta, in a world which she +had early discovered to be a hard place for the greater part of its +inhabitants. Forgetfulness of self, devotion to the need of +others--these were the qualities she most strove to cultivate in +herself, and most rejoiced at seeing developed in those for whom she +cared. + +Unluckily for his cause, if there had been a possible chance for its +success, Forbes Westcott chose the evening of this same day to come +again to Roberta Gray with his question burning on his lips. He arrived +at a moment when, to his temporary satisfaction, Roberta was said to be +playing a set of singles in the court with Ruth by the light of a +fast-fading afterglow; and he took his way thither without delay. It was +a simple matter, of course, to a man of his resource, to dispose of the +young sister, in spite of the elder's attempt to foil him at his own +game. So presently he had Roberta to himself, with every advantage of +time and place and summer beauty all about. + +Louis Gray, looking down the lawn from the rear porch, upon whose steps +he sat with Rosamond and Stephen, descried the tall figure strolling by +their sister's side along a stretch of closely shaven turf between rows +of slim young birches. + +"Forbes is persistent, eh?" he observed. "Think he has a fighting +chance?" + +"Oh, I hope not!" cried Rosamond impulsively. + +Stephen's grave eyes followed the others, to dwell upon the distant +pair. "Forbes stands to win a big place among men," was his comment. + +"Oh, really big?" Rosamond's tender eyes came to meet her husband's. +"Stephen, do you think he is quite--scrupulous?--wholly honourable?" + +"I have no reason to think otherwise, Rosy." + +She shook her head. "Somehow I--could never quite trust him. He would +live strictly by the letter of the law--but the spirit--" + +"Expect people to live by the spirit--these days, little girl?" inquired +Louis, with an affectionate glance at her. + +She gazed straight back. "Yes. You do it--and so does Stephen--and +Father Gray--and Uncle Calvin." + +The eyes of the brothers met above her fair head, and they smiled. + +"That's high distinction, from you, dear," said her husband. "But you +must not do Westcott injustice. He has the reputation of being sharp as +a knife blade, and of outwitting men in fair contest in court and out of +it, but no shadow has ever touched his character." + +Still she shook her head. "I can't help it. I don't want Rob to marry +him." + +The young men laughed together, and Rosamond smiled with them. + +"There you have it," said Louis. "There's no going behind those returns. +The county votes no, and the candidate is defeated. Let him console +himself with the vote from other counties--if he can." + +The three were still upon the porch half an hour later, with others of +the family, when the two figures came again up the stretch of lawn +between the slim white birches, showing ghostlike now in the June +moonlight. They came in silence, as far as any sound of their voices +reached the porch, and they disappeared like two shades toward the front +of the house. + +"He's not coming even to speak to us," whispered Rosamond to Stephen. +"That's very unlike him. Do you suppose--" + +"It may be a case of the voice sticking in the throat," returned her +husband, under his breath. "I fancy he'll take it hard when Rob disposes +of him--as she certainly ought to do by this time, if she's not going to +take him. But she'd better think twice. He's a brilliant fellow, and he +has no rivals within hailing distance, in his line." + +But Rosamond shook her head again. "He would never make her happy," she +breathed, with conviction. "Oh, I hope--I hope!" + +Her hopes grew with Roberta's absence. Westcott had gone, for Ruth, +appearing at Rosamond's side, announced that Roberta was in her own +room, and would not be down again to-night. + +"I think she has a headache," said the little sister. "Queer, for I +never knew Rob to have a headache before." + +"The headache," murmured Louis, in Rosamond's ear, "is the feminine +defence against the world. A timely headache, now and then, is suffered +by the best of men--and women. Well--let her rest, Rufus. She'll be all +right in the morning." + +Above them, by her open window, sat Roberta, for a little while, elbows +on sill, chin in hands. Then, presently, she stole downstairs again, out +by a side entrance, and away among the shrubbery, to the furthest point +of the grounds--not far, in point of actual distance, but quite removed +by its environment from contact with the world around. Here, stretched +upon the warm turf, her arms outflung, her eyes gazing up at the +star-set heavens above her, the girl rested from her encounter with a +desperate besieging force. + +For a time, the last words she had heard that evening were ringing in +her ears--sombre words, uttered in a deep tone of melancholy, by a voice +which commanded cadences that had often reached the minds and hearts of +men and swayed them. "Is that all--_all_, Roberta? Must I go away with +_that_?" + +She had sent him away, and her heart ached for him, for she could not +doubt the depth and sincerity of his feeling for her. Being a woman, +with a warm and kindly nature, she was sad with the disquieting thought +that anywhere under that starry sky was one whose spirit was heavy +to-night because of her. But--there had been no help for it. She knew +now, beyond a doubt, that there had been no help. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +PORTRAITS + + +Revelations were in order in these days. Another of a quite different +sort came to Roberta within the week. On a morning when she knew Richard +Kendrick to be in Eastman she consented to drive with Mrs. Stephen to +make a call upon Mr. Matthew Kendrick, now at home and recovering +satisfactorily from his fall, but still confined to his room. With a +basketful of splendid garden roses upon her arm she followed Rosamond +into the great stone pile. + +They seemed to have left the sunlight and the summer day itself outside +as they sat waiting in the stiff and formal reception-room, which looked +as if no woman's hand or foot had touched it for a decade. As they were +conducted to Mr. Kendrick's room upon the floor above they noted with +observant eyes the cheerless character of every foot of the way--lofty +hall, sombre staircase, gloomy corridor. Even Mr. Kendrick's own room, +filled though it was with costly furniture, its walls hung with +portraits and heavy oil paintings, after the fashion of the rich man who +wants his home comfortable and attractive but does not know how to make +it so, was by no means homelike. + +"This is good of you--this is good of you," the old man said happily, as +they approached his couch. He held out his hands to them, and when +Roberta presented her roses, exclaimed over them like a pleased child, +and sent his man hurrying about to find receptacles for them. He lay +looking from the flowers to the faces while he talked, as if he did not +know which were the more refreshing to his eyes, weary of the +surroundings to which they had been so long accustomed. + +"These will be the first thing Dick will spy when he comes to-morrow," +he prophesied. "I never saw a fellow so fond of roses. The last time he +was down he found time to tell me about somebody's old garden up there +in Eastman, where they have some kind of wonderful, old-fashioned rose +with the sweetest fragrance he ever knew. He had one in his coat; the +sight of it took me back to my boyhood. But he wasn't all roses and +gardens, not a bit of it! I never thought to see him so absorbed in such +a subject as the management of a business. But he's full of it--he's +full of it! You can't imagine how it delights me." + +He was full of it himself. Though he more than once apologized for +talking of his grandson and his pleasure in the way "the boy" was +throwing himself into the real merits of the problems presented to the +new firm in Eastman, he kept returning to this fascinating subject. It +was not of interest to himself alone, and though Roberta only listened, +Mrs. Stephen led him on, asking questions which he answered with eager +readiness. But all at once he pulled himself up short. + +"Dick would be the first person to hush my garrulous old tongue," said +he. "But I feel like father and mother and grandfather all combined, in +the matter of his success. I wouldn't have you think his making good--as +they say in these days--in the world I am used to is my only idea of +success. No, no, he has a world of his own besides. I should like you to +see--there are several things I should like you to see. Last winter Dick +begged from me a portrait of his mother which I had done when he was a +year old; she lived only six months after that. He has it now over his +desk. His father's portrait is on the opposite wall. Should you care to +step across the hall into my grandson's rooms? The portraits I speak of +are in the second room of the suite. Stop and examine anything else that +interests you; I am sure he would be proud; and he has brought back many +interesting things, principally pictures, from his travels. I should +like to go with you, but if you will be so kind--" + +There was no refusing the enthusiastic old man. He sent his housekeeper +to see that the rooms were open of window and ready for inspection, then +waved his guests away. Mrs. Stephen went with alacrity; Roberta followed +more slowly, as if she somehow feared to go. Of all the odd +happenings!--that she should be walking into Richard Kendrick's own +habitation, with all the intimate revelations it was bound to make to +her. She wondered what he would say if he knew. + +The first room was precisely what she might have expected, quite +obviously the apartment of a modern young man whose wishes lacked no +opportunity to satisfy themselves. The room was not in bad taste; on the +contrary, its somewhat heavy furnishings had an air of dignity in +harmony with an earlier day than that more ostentatious period in which +the rest of the house had been fitted. Upon its walls was a choice +collection of pictures of various styles and schools of art, some of +them unquestionably of much value. At one end of the room stood a closed +grand piano. But, like the grandfather's room, the place could not by +any stretch of the imagination be called homelike, and to this fact +Rosamond called her companion's attention. + +"It's really very interesting," said she, "and quite impressive, but I +don't wonder in the least at his saying that he had no home. This might +be a room in a fine hotel; there's nothing to make you feel as if +anybody really lives here, in spite of the beautiful paintings. But Mr. +Kendrick said the portraits were in the second room." + +On her way into the second room, however, Rosamond's attention was +attracted by a picture beside the door opening thereto, and with an +exclamation, "Oh, this looks like Gordon! Where did he get it?" she +paused. Roberta glanced that way, but a quite different object in the +inner room had caught her eye, and leaving Rosamond to her wonder over a +rather remarkable resemblance to her own little son in the rarely +exquisite colour-drawing of a child of similar age, she went on, to +stand still in the doorway, surprised out of all restraint as to the use +of her interested eyes. + +For this, contrary to all possible expectations, was either the room of +a man of literary tastes, and of one who also preferred simplicity and +utility to display of any sort, or it was an extremely clever imitation +of such a room. And there were certain rather trustworthy evidences of +the former. + +The room, although smaller than the outer one, was a place of good size, +with several large windows. Its walls to a height of several feet were +lined with bookshelves filled to overflowing, the whole representing no +less than three or four thousand books; Roberta could hardly guess at +their number. Several comfortable easy-chairs and a massive desk were +almost the only other furnishings, unless one included a few framed +foreign photographs and the two portraits which hung on opposite walls. +These presently called for study. + +Rosamond came in and stood beside her sister, regarding the portraits +with curiosity. "The father has a remarkably fine face, hasn't he?" she +observed, turning from one to the other. "Unusually fine; and I think +his son resembles him. But he is more like his mother. Isn't she +beautiful? And he never knew her; she died when he was such a little +fellow. Isn't it touching to see how he has her there above his desk as +if he wanted to know her? How many books! I didn't know he cared for +books, did you? Perhaps they were his father's; though his father was a +business man. Yet I don't know why we never credit business men with any +interest in books. Perhaps they study them more than we imagine; they +must study something. Rob, did you see the picture in the other room +that looks so like Gordon? It seems almost as if it must have been +painted from him." + +She flitted back into the outer room. Roberta stood still before the +desk, above which hung the portrait of the lovely young woman who had +been Richard's mother. Younger than Roberta herself she looked; such a +girl to pass away and leave her baby, her first-born! And he had her +here in the place of honour above his desk, where he sat to write and +read. For he did read, she grew sure of it as she looked about her. +Though the room was obviously looked after by a servant, it was probable +that there were orders not to touch the contents of the desk-top itself, +for this was as if it had been lately used. Books, a foreign review or +two, a pile of letters, various desk furnishings in a curious design of +wrought copper, and--what was this?--a little photograph in a frame! +Horses, three of them, saddled and tied to a fence; at one side, in an +attitude of arrested attention, a girl's figure in riding dress. + +A wave of colour surged over Roberta's face as she picked up the picture +to examine it. She had never thought again of the shot he had snapped; +he had never brought it to her. Instead he had put it into this +frame--she noted the frame, of carved ivory and choice beyond +question--and had placed it upon his desk. There were no other +photograph's of people in the room, not one. If she had found herself +one among many she might have had more--or less--reason for displeasure; +it was hard to say which. But to be the only one! Yet doubtless--in his +bedroom, the most intimate place of all, which she was not to see, would +be found his real treasures--photographs of beauties he had known, +married women, girls, actresses--She caught herself up! + +Rosamond, eager over the colour-drawing, had taken it from its place on +the wall and gone with it across the hall to discuss its extraordinary +likeness with the old man, who had sent for little Gordon several times +during his stay at the Gray home and would be sure to appreciate the +resemblance. Roberta, again engaged with the portrait above the desk, +had not noticed her sister's departure. There was something peculiarly +fascinating about this pictured face of Richard Kendrick's mother. +Whether it was the illusive likeness to the son, showing first in the +eyes, then in the mouth, which was one of extraordinary sweetness, it +was hard to tell. But the attempt to _analyze_ it was absorbing. + +The sound of a quick step in the outer room, as it struck a bit of bare +floor between the costly rugs which lay thickly upon it, arrested her +attention. That was not Rosy's step! Roberta turned, a sudden fear upon +her, and saw the owner of the room standing, as if surprised out of +power to proceed, in the doorway. + +Now, it was manifestly impossible for Roberta to know just how she +looked, standing there, as he had seen her for the instant before she +turned. From her head to her feet she was dressed in white, therefore +against the dull background of books and heavy, plain panelling above, +her figure stood out with the effect of a cameo. Her dusky hair under +her white hat-brim was the only shadowing in a picture which was to his +gaze all light and radiance. He stood staring at it, his own face +glowing. Then: + +"Oh--_Roberta_!" he exclaimed, under his breath. Then he came forward, +both hands outstretched. She let him have one of hers for an instant, +but drew it away again--with some difficulty. + +"You must be surprised to find me here." Roberta strove for her usual +cool control. "Rosy and I came to see your grandfather. He sent us in +here to look at these portraits. Rosy has gone back to him with a +picture she thought looked like Gordon. I--was staying a minute to see +this; it is very beautiful." + +He laughed happily. "You have explained it all away. I wish you had let +me go on thinking I was dreaming. To find you--_here_!" He smothered an +exultant breath and went on hastily:--"I'm glad you find my mother +beautiful. I never knew how beautiful she was till I brought her up here +and put her where I could look at her. Such a little, girlish mother for +such a strapping son! But she has the look--somehow she has the look! +Don't you think she has? I was a year old when that was painted--just in +time, for she died six months afterward. But she had had time to get the +look, hadn't she?" + +"Indeed she had. I can imagine her holding her little son. Is there no +picture of her with you?" + +"None at all that I can find. I don't know why. There's one of me on my +father's knee, four years old--just before he went, too. I am lucky to +have it. I can just remember him, but not my mother at all. Do you mind +my telling you that it was after I saw your mother I brought this +portrait of mine up from the drawing-room and put it here? It seemed to +me I must have one somehow, if only the picture of one." His voice +lowered. "I can't tell you what it has done for me, the having her +here." + +"I can guess," said Roberta softly, studying the young, gently smiling, +picture face. Somehow her former manner with this young man had +temporarily deserted her. The appeal of the portrait seemed to have +extended to its owner. "You--don't want to disappoint her," she added +thoughtfully. + +"That's it--that's just it," he agreed eagerly. "How did you know?" + +"Because that's the way I feel about mine. They care so much, you know." +She moved slowly toward the door. "I must go back to your grandfather." + +"Why? He has Mrs. Stephen, you say. And I--like to see you here. There +are a lot of things I want to show you." His eager gaze dropped to the +desk-top and fell upon the ivory-framed photograph. He looked quickly at +her. Her cheeks were of a rich rose hue, her eyes--he could not tell +what her eyes were like. But she moved on toward the door. He followed +her into the other room. + +"Won't you stay a minute here, then? I don't care for it as I do the +other, but--it's a place to talk in. And I haven't talked to you +for--four months. It's the middle of June.... Let me show you this +picture over here." + +He succeeded in detaining her for a few minutes, which raced by on wings +for him. He did it only by keeping his speech strictly upon the subject +of art, and presently, in spite of his endeavours, she was off across +the room and out of the door, through the hall and in the company of +Mrs. Stephen and Mr. Matthew Kendrick. The pair, the old man and the +girlish young mother, looked up from a collection of miniatures, brought +out in continuance of the discussion over child faces begun by +Rosamond's interest in the colour-drawing found upon Richard's walls. +They saw a flushed and heart-disturbing face under a drooping white +hat-brim, and eyes which looked anywhere but at them, though Roberta's +voice said quite steadily: "Rosy, do you know how long we are staying?" + +In explanation of this sudden haste another face appeared, seen over +Roberta's shoulder. This face was also of a somewhat warm colouring, but +these eyes did not hide; they looked as if they were seeing visions and +noted nothing earthly. + +"Why, Dick!" exclaimed Mr. Kendrick. "I didn't expect you till +to-morrow." Gladness was in his voice. He held out welcoming hands, and +his grandson came to him and took the hands and held them while he +explained the errand which had brought him and upon which he must +immediately depart. But he would come again upon the morrow, he +promised. It was clear that the closest relations existed between the +two; it was a pleasant thing to see. And when Richard turned out again +toward the visitors he had his face in order. + +Some imperceptible signalling had been exchanged between Roberta and +Rosamond, and the call came shortly to an end, in spite of the old man's +urgent invitation to them to remain. + +"Do you see the roses they brought me, Dick?" He indicated the bowls and +vases which stood about the room. "I told them you would notice them +directly you came in. Where are your eyes, boy?" + +"Do you really blame me for not seeing them, grandfather?" retorted his +grandson audaciously. "But I recognize them now; they are wonderful. I +suppose they have thorns?" His eyes met Roberta's for one daring +instant. + +"You wouldn't like them if they didn't," said she. + +"Shouldn't I? I'd like to find one with the thorns off; I'd wear it--if +I might. May I have one, grandfather?" + +"Of course, Dick. They're mine now to give away, Miss Roberta? Perhaps +you'll put it on for him." + +Since the suggestion was made by an old man, who might or might not have +been wholly innocent of taking sides in a game in which his boy was +playing for high stakes, Roberta could do no less than hurriedly to +select a splendid crimson bud without regard to thorns--she was aware of +more than one as she handled it--and fasten it upon a gray coat, +intensely conscious of the momentary nearness of a personality whose +influence upon her was the strangest, most perturbing thing she had ever +experienced. + +The flower in place, she could not get away too fast. Rosamond, +understanding now that the air was electric and that her sister wanted +nothing so much as to escape to a safer atmosphere, aided her by taking +the lead and engaging Richard Kendrick in conversation all the way +downstairs to the door and out to the waiting carriage. As they drove +away Rosamond looked back at the figure leaping up the steps, with the +crimson rose showing brilliantly in the June sunshine. + +"Rob, he's splendid, simply splendid," she whispered, so that the old +family coachman in front, driving the old family horses, could not hear. +"I don't wonder his grandfather is so proud of him. One can see that +he's going to go right on now and make himself a man worth anybody's +while. He's that now, but he's going to be more." + +"I don't see how you can tell so much from hearing him make a few +foolish remarks about some roses!" Roberta's face was carefully averted. + +"Oh, it wasn't what he said, it's what he is! It shows in his face. I +never saw purpose come out so in a face as it has in his in the time +that we've known him. Besides, we began by taking him for nothing but a +society man, and we were mistaken in that from the beginning. Stephen +has been telling me some things Louis told him." + +"I know. About the hospital and the children." + +"Yes. Isn't it interesting? And that's been going on for years; it's not +a new pose for our benefit. I've no doubt there are lots of other +things, if we knew them. But--oh, Rob, his grandfather says he bought +the little head in colour because he thought it looked like Gordon. I'm +going to send him the last photograph right away. Rob, there's Forbes +Westcott!" + +"Where?" + +"Right ahead. Shall we stop and take him in? Of course he's on his way +to see you, as usual. How he does anything in his own office--" + +"James!" Roberta leaned forward and spoke to the coachman. "Turn down +this street--quickly, please. Don't look, Rosy--don't! Let's not go +straight home; let's drive a while. It--it's such a lovely day!" + +"Why, Rob! I thought--" + +"Please don't think anything. I'm trying not to." + +Rosamond impulsively put her white-gloved hand on Roberta's. "I don't +believe you are succeeding," she whispered daringly. "Particularly +since--this morning!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ROBERTA WAKES EARLY + + +Midsummer Day! Roberta woke with the thought in her mind, as it had been +the last in her mind when she had gone to sleep. She had lain awake for +a long time the night before, watching a strip of moonlight which lay +like flickering silver across her wall. Who would have found it easy to +sleep, with the consciousness beating at her brain that on the morrow +something momentous was as surely going to happen as that the sun would +rise? Did she want it to happen? Would she rather not run away and +prevent its happening? There was no doubt that, being a woman, she +wanted to run away. At the same time--being a woman--she knew that she +would not run. Something would stay her feet. + +With wide-open eyes on this Midsummer morning she lay, as she had lain +the night before, regarding without attention the early sunlight +flooding the room where moonlight had lain a few hours ago. Her bare, +round arms, from which picturesque apologies for sleeves fell back, were +thrown wide upon her pillows, her white throat and shoulders gleamed +below the loose masses of her hair, her heart was beating a trifle more +rapidly than was natural after a night of repose. + +It was very early, as a little clock upon a desk announced--half after +five. Yet some one in the house was up, for Roberta heard a light +footfall outside her door. There followed a soft sound which drew her +eyes that way; she saw something white appear beneath the door--in the +old house the sills were not tight. The white rectangle was obviously a +letter. + +Her curiosity alive, she lay looking at this apparition for some time, +unwilling to be heard to move even by a maidservant. But at length she +arose, stole across the floor, picked up the missive, and went back to +her bed. She examined the envelope--it was of a heavy plain paper; the +address--it was in a hand she had seen but once, on the day when she had +copied many pages of material upon the typewriter for her Uncle +Calvin--a rather compact, very regular and positive hand, unmistakably +that of a person of education and character. + +She opened the letter with fingers that hesitated. Midsummer Day was at +hand; it had begun early! Two closely written sheets appeared. Sitting +among her pillows, her curly, dusky locks tumbling all about her face, +her pulses beating now so fast they shook the paper in her fingers, she +read his letter: + + * * * * * + +My Roberta: I can't begin any other way, for, even though you should +never let me use the words again, you have become such a part of me, both +of the man I am and of the man I want and mean to become, that in some +degree you will always belong to me in spite of yourself. + +Why do I write to you to-day? Because there are things I want to say to +you which I could never wait to say when I see you, but which I want you +to know before you answer me. I don't want to tell you "the story of my +life," but I do feel that you must understand a few of my thoughts, for +only so can I be sure that you know me at all. + +Before I came to your home, one night last October, I had unconsciously +settled into a way of living which as a rule seemed to me all-sufficient. +My friends, my clubs, my books--yes, I care for my books more than you +have ever discovered--my plans for travel, made up a life which satisfied +me--a part of the time. Deep down somewhere was a sense of unrest, a +knowledge that I was neither getting nor giving all that I was meant +to. But this I was accustomed to stifle--except at unhappy hours when +stifling would not work, and then I was frankly miserable. Mostly, +however, my time was so filled with diversion of one sort or another +that I managed to keep such hours from over-whelming me; I worried +through them somehow and forgot them as soon as I could. + +From the first day that I came through your door my point of view was +gradually and strangely altered. I saw for the first time in my life what +a home might be. It attracted me; more, it showed me how empty my own +life was, that I had thought so full. The sight of your mother, of your +brothers, of your sisters, of your brother's little children--each of +these had its effect on me. As for yourself--Roberta, I don't know how to +tell you that; at least I don't know how to tell you on paper. I can +imagine finding words to tell you, if--you were very much nearer to me +than you are now. I hardly dare think of that! + +Yet I must try, for it's part of the story; it's all of it. With my first +sight of you, I realized that here was what I had dreamed of but never +hoped to find: beauty and charm and--character. I had seen many women who +possessed two of these attributes; it seemed impossible to discover one +who had all three. Many women I had admired--and despised; many I had +respected--and disliked. I am not good at analysis, but perhaps you can +guess at what I mean. I may have been unfortunate; I don't know. There +may be many women who are both beautiful and good. No, that is not what I +mean! The combination I am trying to describe as impossibly desirable is +that not only of beauty and goodness--I suppose there are really many who +have those; but--goodness and fascination! That's what a man wants. Can +you possibly understand? + +I wonder if I had better stop writing? I am showing myself up as +hopelessly awkward at expression; probably because my heart is pounding +so as I write that it is taking the blood from my brain. But--I'll make +one more try at it. + +I had no special purpose in life last October. I meant to do a little +good in the world if I could--without too much trouble. Some time or +other I supposed I should marry--intended to put it off as long as I +could. I saw no reason why I shouldn't travel all I wanted to; it was the +one thing I really cared for with enthusiasm. I didn't appreciate much +what a selfish life I was leading, how I was neglecting the one person in +the world who loved me and was anxious about me. Your little sister, +Ruth, opened my eyes to that, by the way. I shall always thank her for +it. I hadn't known what I was missing. + +I don't know how the change came about. You charmed me, yet you made me +realize every time I was with you that I was not the sort of man you +either admired or respected. I felt it whenever I looked at any of the +people in your home. Every one of them was busy and happy; every one of +them was leading a life worth while. Slowly I waked up. I believe I'm +wide awake now. What's more, nothing could ever tempt me to go to sleep +again. I've learned to _like_ being awake! + +You decreed that I should keep away from you all these months. I agreed, +and I have kept my word. All the while has been the fear bothering me +beyond endurance that you did it to be rid of me. I said some bold words +to you--to make you remember me. Roberta, I am humbler to-day than I was +then. I shouldn't dare say them to you now. I was madly in love with you +then; I dared say anything. I am not less in love now--great heavens! not +less--but I have grown to worship you so that I have become afraid. When +I saw you in my room before my mother's portrait I could have knelt at +your feet. From the beginning I have felt that I was not worthy of you, +but I feel it so much more deeply now that I don't know how to offer +myself to you. I have written as if I wanted to persuade you that I am +more of a man than when you knew me first, and therefore more worthy of +you. I _am_ more of a man, but by just so much more do I realize my own +unworthiness. + +And yet--it is Midsummer Day; this is the twenty-fourth of June--and I am +on fire with love and longing for you, and I must know whether you care. +If I were strong enough I would offer to wait longer before asking you to +tell me--but I'm not strong enough for that. + +I have a plan which I am hoping you will let me carry out, whatever +answer you are going to give me. If you will allow it I will ask Mr. and +Mrs. Stephen Gray to go with us on a long horseback ride this afternoon, +to have supper at a place I know. I could take you all in my car if you +prefer, but I hope you will not prefer it. You have never seemed like a +motoring girl to me every other one I know is--and ever since I saw you +on Colonel last November I've been hoping to have a ride with you. If I +can have it to-day--Midsummer--it will be a dream fulfilled. If only I +dared hope my other--and dearer--dream were to come true! Roberta, are we +really so different? I have thought a thousand times of your "_stout +little cabin on the hilltop_," where you would like to spend "_the worst +night of the winter_." All alone? "_Well, with a fire for company, +and--perhaps--a dog_." But not with a good comrade? "_There are so +few good comrades--who can be tolerant of one's every mood_." You were +right; there are few. And--this one might not be so clever as to +understand every mood of yours, but--Roberta, Roberta--he would love you +so much that you wouldn't mind if he didn't always understand. That +is--you wouldn't mind if, in return, you--But I dare not say it--I can +only hope--hope! + +Unless you send me word to the contrary by ten o'clock, I will then ask +Mr. and Mrs. Stephen, and arrange to come for you at four this afternoon. +You are committed to nothing by agreeing to this arrangement. But I--am +committed to everything for as long as I live. RICHARD. + + * * * * * + +It was well that it was not yet six o'clock in the morning and that +Roberta had two long hours to herself before she need come forth from +her room. She needed them, every minute of them, to get herself in hand. + +It was a good letter, no doubt of that. It was neither clever nor +eloquent, but it was better: it was manly and sincere. It showed +self-respect; it showed also humility, a proud humility which rejoiced +that it could feel its own unworthiness and know thereby that it would +strive to be more fit. And it showed--oh, unquestionably it showed!--the +depth of his feeling. Quite clearly he had restrained a pen that longed +to pour forth his heart, yet there were phrases in which his tenderness +had been more than he could hold back, and it was those phrases which +made the recipient hold her breath a little as she read them, wondering +how, if the written words were almost more than she could bear, she +could face the spoken ones. + +And now she really wanted to run away! If she could have had a week, a +month, between the reading of this letter and the meeting of its writer, +it seemed to her that it would have been the happiest month of her life. +To take the letter with her into exile, to read it every day, but to +wait--wait--for the real crisis till she could quiet her racing +emotions. One sweet at a time--not an armful of them. But the man--true +to his nature--the man wanted the armful, and at once. And she had made +him wait all these months; she could not, knowing her own heart, put him +off longer now. The cool composure with which, last winter, she had +answered his first declaration that he loved her was all gone; the +months, of waiting had done more than show him whether his love was +real: they had shown her that she wanted it to be real. + +The day was a hard one to get through. The hours lagged--yet they flew. +At eight o'clock she went down, feeling as if it were all in her face; +but apparently nobody saw anything beyond the undoubted fact that in her +white frock she looked as fresh and as vivid as a flower. At half after +ten Rosamond came to her to know if she had received an invitation from +Richard Kendrick to go for a horseback ride, adding that she herself was +delighted at the thought and had telephoned Stephen, to find that he +also was pleased and would be up in time. + +"I wonder where he's going to take us," speculated Rosamond, in a +flutter of anticipation. "Without doubt it will be somewhere that's +perfectly charming; he knows how to do such things. Of course it's all +for you, but I shall love to play chaperon, and Stevie and I shall have +a lovely time out of it. I haven't been on a horse since Dorothy came; I +hope I haven't grown too stout for my habit. What are you going to wear, +Rob? The blue cloth? You are perfectly irresistible in that! Do wear +that rakish-looking soft hat with the scarf; it's wonderfully becoming, +if it isn't quite so correct; and I'm sure Richard Kendrick won't take +us to any stupid fashionable hotel. He'll arrange an outdoor affair, I'm +confident, with the Kendrick chef to prepare it and the Kendrick +servants to see that it is served. Oh, it's such a glorious June day! +Aren't you happy, Rob?" + +"If I weren't it would make me happy to look at you, you dear married +child," and Roberta kissed her pretty sister-in-law, who could be as +womanly as she was girlish, and whose companionship, with that of +Stephen's, she felt to be the most discriminating choice of chaperonage +Richard could have made. Stephen and Rosamond, off upon a holiday like +this, would be celebrating a little honeymoon anniversary of their own, +she knew, for they had been married in June and could never get over +congratulating themselves on their own happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +RICHARD HAS WAKED EARLIER + + +Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock. Roberta wondered afterward +what she had done with the hours! At three she had her bath; at half +after she put up her hair, hardly venturing to look at her own face in +her mirror, so flushed and shy was it. Roberta shy?--she who, according +to Ted, "wasn't afraid of anything in the world!" But she _had_ been +afraid of one thing, even as Richard Kendrick had averred. Was she not +afraid of it now? She could not tell. But she knew that her hands shook +as she put up her hair, and that it tumbled down twice and had to be +done over again. Afraid! She was afraid, as every girl worth winning is, +of the sight of her lover! + +Yet when she heard hoofbeats on the driveway could have kept her from +peeping out. The rear porch, from which the riding party would start, +was just below her window, the great pillars rising past her. She had +closed one of her blinds an hour before; she now made use of its +sheltering interstices. She saw Richard on a splendid black horse coming +up the drive, looking, as she had foreseen he would look, at home in the +saddle and at his best. She saw the colour in his cheeks, the brightness +in his eyes, caught his one quick glance upward--did he know her window? +He could not possibly see her, but she drew back, happiness and fear +fighting within her for the ascendency. Could she ever go down and face +him out there in the strong June light, where he could see every curving +hair of eyelash? note the slightest ebb and flow of blood in cheek? + +Rosamond was calling: "Come, Rob! Mr. Kendrick is here and Joe is +bringing round the horses. Can I help you?" + +Roberta opened her door. "I couldn't do my hair at all; does it look a +fright under this hat?" + +Rosamond surveyed her. "Of course it doesn't. You're the most bewitching +thing I ever saw in that blue habit, and your hair is lovely, as it +always is. Rob, I have grown stout; I had to let out two bands before I +could get this on; it was made before I was married. Steve's been +laughing at me. Here he is; now do let's hurry. I want every bit of this +good time, don't you?" + +There was no delaying longer. Rosamond, all eagerness, was leading the +way downstairs, her little riding-boots tapping her departure. Stephen +was waiting for Roberta; she had to precede him. The next she knew she +was down and out upon the porch, and Richard Kendrick, hat and crop in +hand, was meeting her halfway, his expectant eyes upon her face. One +glance at him was all she was giving him, and he was mercifully making +no sign that any one looking on could have recognized beyond his eager +scrutiny as his hand clasped hers. And then in two minutes they were +off, and Roberta, feeling the saddle beneath her and Colonel's familiar +tug on the bit at the start-off--he was always impatient to get +away--was realizing that the worst, at least for the present, was over. + +"Which way?" called Stephen, who was leading with Rosamond. + +"Out the road past the West Wood marshes, please--straight out. Take it +moderately; we're going about twelve miles and it's pretty warm yet." + +There was not much talking while they were within the city limits--nor +after they were past, for that matter. Rosamond, ahead with her husband, +kept up a more or less fitful conversation with him, but the pair behind +said little. Richard made no allusion to his letter of the morning +beyond a declaration of his gratitude to the whole party for falling in +with his plans. But the silence was somehow more suggestive of the great +subject waiting for expression than any exchange of words could have +been, out here in the open. Only once did the man's impatience to begin +overcome his resolution to await the fitting hour. + +Turning in his saddle as Colonel fell momentarily behind, passing the +West Wood marshes, Richard allowed his eyes to rest upon horse and rider +with full intent to take in the picture they made. + +"I haven't ventured to let myself find out just how you look," he said. +"The atmosphere seems to swim around you; I see you through a sort of +haze. Do you suppose there can be anything the matter with my eyesight?" + +"I should think there must be," she replied demurely. "It seems a +serious symptom. Hadn't you better turn back?" + +"While you go on? Not if I fall off my horse. I have a suspicion that +it's made up of a curious compound of feelings which I don't dare to +describe. But--may I tell you?--I _must_ tell you--I never saw anything +so beautiful in my life as--yourself, to-day. I--" He broke off +abruptly. "Do you see that old rosebush there by those burnt ruins of a +house? Amber-white roses, and sweet as--I saw them there yesterday when +I went by. Let me get them for you." + +He rode away into the deserted yard and up to a tangle of neglected +shrubbery. He had some difficulty in getting Thunderbolt--who was as +restless a beast as his name implied--to stand still long enough to +allow him to pick a bunch of the buds; he would have nothing but buds +just breaking into bloom. These he presently brought back to Roberta. +She fancied that he had planned to stop here for this very purpose. +Clearly he had the artist's eye for finishing touches. He watched her +fasten the roses upon the breast of the blue-cloth habit, then he turned +determinedly away. + +"If I don't look at you again," said he, his eyes straight before him, +"it's because I can't do it--and keep my head. You accused me once of +losing it under a winter moon; this is a summer sun--more dangerous +yet.... Shall we talk about the crops? This is fine weather for growing +things, isn't it?" + +"Wonderful. I haven't been out this road this season--as far as this. +I'm beginning to wonder where you are taking us." + +"To the hill where you and Miss Ruth and Ted and I toasted sandwiches +last November. Could there be a better place for the end--of our ride? +You haven't been out here this season--are you sure?" + +"No, indeed. I've been too busy with the close of school to ride +anywhere--much less away out here." + +"You like my choice, then? I hoped you would." + +"Very much." + +It was a queer, breathless sort of talking; Roberta hardly knew what she +was saying. She much preferred to ride along in silence. The hour was at +hand--so close at hand! And there was now no getting away. She knew +perfectly that her agreeing to come at all had told him his answer; none +but the most cruel of women would allow a man to bring her upon such a +ride, in the company of other interested people, only to refuse him at +the end of it. But she had to admit to herself that if he were now +exulting in the sure hope of possessing her he was keeping it well out +of sight. There was now none of the arrogant self-confidence in his +manner toward her which there had been on the February night when he had +made a certain prophecy concerning Midsummer. Instead there was that in +his every word and look which indicated a fine humility--almost a boyish +sort of shyness, as if even while he knew the treasure to be within his +grasp he could neither quite believe it nor feel himself fit to take it. +From a young man of the world such as he had been it was the most +exquisite tribute to her power to rouse the best in him that he could +have given and she felt it to the inmost soul of her. + +"Here are the forks," said Richard suddenly, and Roberta recognized with +a start that they were nearly at the end of their journey. + +"Which way?" Stephen was shouting back, and Richard was waving toward +the road at the left, which led up the steep hill. + +"Here is where you dropped the bunch of rose haws," said he, with a +quick glance as they began the ascent. "I have them yet--brown and dry. +Did you know you dropped them?" + +"I remember. But I didn't suppose anybody--" + +"Found them? By the greatest luck--and stopped my car in a hurry. They +were bright on my desk for a month after that; I cared more for them +than for anything I owned. I had the greatest difficulty in keeping my +man from throwing them away, though. You see, he hadn't my point of +view! Roberta--here we are! Will you forgive what will seem like a piece +of the most unwarrantable audacity?" He was speaking fast as they came +up over the crown of the hill: "I didn't do it because I was sure of +anything at all, but because--it was something to make myself think I +could carry out a wish of yours. Do you remember the '_stout little +cabin on the hilltop_', Roberta? Could you--_could_ you care for it, as +I do?" + +The last words were almost a whisper, but she heard them. Her eyes were +riveted on the outlines, two hundred feet away through the trees, of a +small brown building at the very crest of the hill over-looking the +valley. Very small, very rough, with its unhewn logs--the "stout little +cabin" stood there waiting. + +Well! What was she to think? He _had_ been sure, to build this and bring +her to it! And yet--it was no house for a home; no expensive bungalow; +not even a summer cottage. Only a "stout little cabin," such as might +house a hunter on a winter's night; the only thing about it which looked +like luxury the chimney of cobblestones taken from the hillside below, +which meant the possibility of the fire inside without which one could +hardly spend an hour in the small shelter on any but a summer day. +Suddenly she understood. It was the sheer romance of the thing which had +appealed to him; there was no audacity about it. + +He was watching her anxiously as she stared at the cabin; she came +suddenly to the realization of that. Then he threw himself off his horse +as they neared the rail fence, fastened him, and came back to Roberta. +Near-by, Stephen was taking Rosamond down and she was exclaiming over +the charm of the place. + +Richard came close, looking straight up into Roberta's face, which was +like a wild-rose for colouring, but very sober. Her eyes would not meet +his. His own face had paled a little, in spite of all its healthy, +outdoor hues. + +"Oh, don't misunderstand me," he whispered. "Wait--till I can tell you +all about it. I was wild to do something--anything--that would make you +seem nearer. Don't misunderstand--_dear_!" + +Stephen's voice, calling a question about the horses, brought him back +to a realization of the fact that his time was not yet, and that he must +continue to act the part of the sane and responsible host. He turned, +summoning all his social training, and replied to the question in his +usual quiet tone. But, as he took her from her horse, Roberta recognized +the surge of his feeling, though he controlled his very touch of her, +and said not another word in her ear. She had all she could do, herself, +to maintain an appearance of coolness under the shock of this +extraordinary surprise. She had no doubt that Rosamond and Stephen +comprehended the situation, more or less. Let them not be able to guess +just how far things had developed, as yet. + +Rosamond came to her aid with her own freely manifested pleasure in the +place. Clever Rosy! her sister-in-law was grateful to her for expressing +that which Roberta could not trust herself to speak. + +"What a dear little house, a real log cabin!" cried Rosamond as the four +drew near. "It's evidently just finished; see the chips. It opens the +other way, doesn't it? Isn't that delightful! Not even a window on this +side toward the road, though it's back so far. I suppose it looks toward +the valley. A window on this end; see the solid shutters; it looks as if +one could fortify one's self in it. Oh, and here's a porch! What a +view--oh, what a view!" + +They came around the end of the cabin together and stood at the front, +surveying the wide porch, its thick pillars of untrimmed logs, its +balustrade solid and sheltering, its roof low and overhanging. From the +road everything was concealed; from this aspect it was open to the +skies; its door and two front windows wide, yet showing, door as well as +windows, the heavy shutters which would make the place a stronghold +through what winter blasts might assault it. From the porch one could +see for miles in every direction; at the sides, only the woods. + +"It's an ideal spot for a camp," declared Stephen with enthusiasm. "Is +it yours, Kendrick? I congratulate you. Invite me up here in the hunting +season, will you? I can't imagine anything snugger. May we look inside?" + +"By all means! It's barely finished--it's entirely rough inside--but I +thought it would do for our supper to-night." + +"Do!" Rosamond gave a little cry of delight as she looked in at the open +door. "Rough! You don't want it smoother. Does he, Rob? Look at the +rustic table and benches! And will you behold that splendid fireplace? +Oh, all you want here is the right company!" + +"And that I surely have." Richard made her a little bow, his face +emphasizing his words. He went over to a cupboard in the wall, of which +there were two, one on either side of the fireplace. He threw it open, +disclosing hampers. "Here is our supper, I expect. Are you hungry? It's +up to us to serve it. I didn't have the man stay; I thought it would be +more fun to see to things ourselves." + +"A thousand times more," Rosamond assured him, looking to Roberta for +confirmation, who nodded, smiling. + +They fell to work. Hats were removed, riding skirts were fastened out of +the way, hampers were opened and the contents set forth. Everything that +could possibly be needed was found in the hampers, even to coffee, +steaming hot in the vacuum bottles as it had been poured into them. + +"Some other time we'll come up and rough it," Richard explained, when +Stephen told him he was no true camper to have everything prepared for +him in detail like this; "but to-night I thought we'd spend as little +time in preparations as possible and have the more of the evening. It +will be a Midsummer Night's Dream on this hill to-night," said he, with +a glance at Roberta which she would not see. + +Presently they sat down, Roberta finding herself opposite their host, +with the necessity upon her of eating and drinking like a common mortal, +though she was dwelling in a world where it seemed as if she did not +know how to do the everyday things and do them properly. It was a +delicious meal, no doubt of that, and at least Stephen and Rosamond did +justice to it. + +"But you're not eating anything yourself, man," remonstrated Stephen, +as Richard pressed upon him more cold fowl and delicate sandwiches +supplemented by a salad such as connoisseurs partake of with sighs of +appreciation, and with fruit which one must marvel to look upon. + +"You haven't been watching me, that's evident," returned Richard, +demonstrating his ability to consume food with relish by seizing upon a +sandwich and making away with it in short order. + +Roberta rose. "I can eat no more," she said, "with that wonderful sky +before me out there." She escaped to the porch. + +They all turned to exclaim at a gorgeous colouring beginning in the +west, heralding the sunset which was coming. Rosamond ran out also, +Stephen following. Richard produced cigars. + +"Have a smoke out here, Gray," said he, "while I put away the stuff. No, +no help, thank you. James will be here, by and by, to pack it properly." + +"Stephen"--Rosamond stood at the edge of the hill below the +porch--"bring your cigar down here; it's simply perfect. You can lie on +your side here among the pine needles and watch the sky." + +They went around a clump of trees to a spot where the pine needles were +thick, just out of sight of the cabin door. No doubt but Rosamond and +Stephen liked to have things to themselves; there was no pretence about +that. It was almost the anniversary of their marriage--their most happy +marriage. + +Roberta stood still upon the porch, looking, or appearing to look, off +at the sunset. Once again she would have liked to run away. But--where +to go? Rosamond and Stephen did not want her; it would have been absurd +to insist on following them. If she herself should stroll away among the +pine trees, she would, of course, be instantly pursued. The porch was +undoubtedly the most open and therefore the safest spot she could be in. +So she leaned against the pillar and waited, her heart behaving +disturbingly meanwhile. She could hear Richard, within the cabin +hurriedly clearing the table and stuffing everything away into the +cupboards on either side of the fireplace--he was making short work of +it. Before she could have much time to think, his step was upon the +porch behind her; he was standing by her shoulder. + +"It's a wonderful effect, isn't it? Must we talk about it?" he inquired +softly. + +"Don't you think it deserves to be talked about?" she answered, trying +to speak naturally. + +"No. There's only one thing in the world I want to talk about. I can't +even see that sky, for looking at--you. I've stood at the top of this +slope more times than I can tell you, wondering if I should dare to +build this little cabin. The idea possessed me, I couldn't get away from +it. I bought the land--and still I was afraid. I gave the order to the +builder--and all but took it back. I knew I ran every kind of risk that +you wouldn't understand me--that you would think I still had that +abominable confidence that I was fool enough to express to you +last--February. Does it look so?" + +She nodded slowly without turning her head. + +His voice grew even more solicitous; she could hear a little tremble in +it, such as surely had not been there last February, such as she had +never heard there before. "But it isn't so! With every log that's gone +in, a fresh fear has gone in with it. Even on the way here to-day I had +all I could do not to turn off some other way. The only thing that kept +me coming on to meet my fate here, and nowhere else, was the hope that +you loved the spot itself so well that you--that your heart would be a +bit softer here than--somewhere else. O Roberta--I'm not half good +enough for you, but--I love you--love you--" + +His voice broke on the words. It surely was a very far from confident +suitor who pleaded his case in such phrases as these. He did not so much +as take her hand, only waited there, a little behind her, his head bent +so that he might see as much as he could of the face turned away from +him. + +She did not answer; something seemed to hold her from speech. One of her +arms was twined about the rough, untrimmed pillar of the porch; her +clasp tightened until she held it as if it were a bulwark against the +human approach ready to take her from it at a word from her lips. + +"I told you in my letter all I knew I couldn't say now. You know what +you mean to me. I'm going to make all I can out of what there is in me +whether you help me or not. But--if I could do it for you--" + +Still she could not speak. She clung to the pillar, her breath +quickening. He was silent until he could withstand no longer, then he +spoke so urgently in her ear that he broke in upon that queer, choking +reserve of hers which had kept her from yielding to him: + +"Roberta--I _must_ know--I can't bear it." + +She turned, then, and put out her hand. He grasped it in both his own. + +"What does that mean, dear? May I--may I have the rest of you?" + +It was only a tiny nod she gave, this strange girl, Roberta, who had +been so afraid of love, and was so afraid of it yet. And as if he +understood and appreciated her fear, he was very gentle with her. His +arms came about her as they might have come about a frightened child, +and drew her away from the pillar with a tender insistence which all at +once produced an extraordinary effect. When she found that she was not +to be seized with that devastating grasp of possession which she had +dreaded, she was suddenly moved to desire it. His humbleness touched and +melted her--his humbleness, in him who had been at first so +arrogant--and with the first exquisite rush of response she was taken +out of herself. She gave herself to his embrace as one who welcomes it, +and let him have his way--all his way--a way in which he quite forgot to +be gentle at all. + +When this had happened, Roberta remembered, entirely too late, that it +was this which, whatever else she gave him, she had meant to refuse +him--at least until to-morrow. Because to-day was undeniably the +twenty-fourth of June--Midsummer's Day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE PILLARS OF HOME + + +"Listen, grandfather--they're playing! We'll catch them at it. Here's an +open window." + +Matthew Kendrick followed his grandson across the wide porch to a French +window opening into the living-room of the Gray home, at the opposite +end from that where stood the piano, and from which the strains of +'cello and harp were proceeding. The two advanced cautiously to take up +their position just within that far window, gazing down the room at the +pair at the other end. + +Roberta, in hot-weather white, with a bunch of blue corn-flowers thrust +into her girdle, sat with her 'cello at her knee, her dark head bent as +she played. Ruth, a gay little figure in pink, was fingering her harp, +and the poignantly rich harmonies of Saint-Saeens' _Mon coeur s'ouvre a +ta voix_ were filling the room. Upon the great piano stood an enormous +bowl of summer bloom; the air was fragrant with the breath of it. The +room was as cool and fresh with its summer draperies and shaded windows +as if it were not fervid July weather outside. + +Richard flung one exulting glance at his grandfather, for the sight was +one to please the eyes of any man even if he had no such interest in the +performers as these two had. The elder man smiled, for he was very happy +in these days, happier than he had been for a quarter of a century. + +The music ceased with the last slow harp-tones, the 'cello's earlier +upflung bow waving in a gesture of triumph. + +"Splendid, Rufus!" she commended. "You never did it half so well." + +"She never did," agreed a familiar voice from the other end of the room, +and the sisters turned with a start. Richard advanced down the room, Mr. +Kendrick following more slowly. + +"You look as cool as a pond-lily, love," said Richard, "in spite of this +July weather." His approving eyes regarded Roberta's cheek at close +range. "Is it as cool as it looks?" he inquired, and placed his own +cheek against it for an instant, regardless of the others present. + +Roberta laid her hand in Mr. Kendrick's, and the old man raised it to +his lips, in a stately fashion he sometimes used. + +"That was very beautiful music you were making," he said. "It seems a +pity to bring it to an end. Richard and I want you for a little drive, +to show you something which interests us very much. Will you go--and +will Ruth go, too?" + +"Oh, do you really want me?" cried Ruth eagerly. + +"Of course we want you, little sister," Richard told her. + +"I'll get our hats," offered Ruth, and was off. + +So presently the four had taken their places in Mr. Kendrick's car, its +windows open, its luxurious winter cushioning covered with dust-proof, +cool-feeling materials. Richard sat opposite Roberta, and it was easy +for her to see by the peculiar light in his eyes that there was +something afoot which was giving him more than ordinary joy in her +companionship. His lips could hardly keep themselves in order, the tones +of his voice were vibrant, his glance would have met hers every other +minute if she would have allowed it. + +The car rolled along a certain aristocratic boulevard leading out of the +city, past one stately residence after another. As the distance became +greater from the centre of affairs, the places took on a more and more +comfortable aspect, with less majesty of outline, and more home-likeness. +Surrounding grounds grew more extensive, the houses themselves lower +spreading and more picturesque. It was a favourite drive, but there were +comparatively few abroad on this July morning. Nearly every residence +was closed, and the inhabitants away, though the beauty of the +environment was as carefully preserved as if the owners were there to +observe and enjoy. + +"We're the only people in the city this summer," observed Richard, +"except ninety-nine-hundredths of the population, which fails to count, +of course, in the eyes of these residents. Curious custom, isn't it? to +close such homes as these, just when they're at their most attractive, +and go off to a country house. They'd be twice as comfortable at home, +in this weather--just as we are. And this is the first summer I ever +tried it! Robin, that's a pleasant place, isn't it?" + +He indicated one of the houses they were passing, an unusually +interesting combination of wood and stone, half hidden beneath spreading +vines. + +"Yes, that's charming," she agreed. "And I like the next even better, +don't you?" + +The next was of a different style entirely, less ambitious and more +friendly of appearance, with long reaches of porch and pergola, and more +than usually well-arranged masses of shrubbery enhancing the whole +effect of withdrawal from the public gaze. + +"I do, I think, for some reasons. You choose the least pretentious +houses, every time, don't you? Don't care a bit for show places?" + +"Not a bit," owned the girl. + +"Here's one, now," Richard pointed it out. "The owner spent a lot of +money on that. Would you live in it?" + +"Not--willingly." + +Richard glanced at his grandfather. "I wonder just how much she would +suffer," he suggested, with sparkling eyes. "Suppose we should drive in +there and tell her we'd bought it!" + +Mr. Kendrick turned to the figure in white at his side. The eyes of the +old man and the young woman met with understanding, and the two smiled +affectionately before the meeting was over. Richard looked on +approvingly. But he complained. + +"I'd like one like that, myself," said he. "Robin has looked at me only +three times this morning, and once was when we met, for purposes of +identification!" + +He had a glance of his own, then, and apparently it went to his head, +for he became more animated than ever in calling the party's attention +to each piece, of property passed by. + +"These are all modern," he commented presently. "There's something about +your really old house that can't be copied. Your own home, Robin--that's +the type of antique beauty that's come to seem to me more desirable than +any other. Isn't there one along here somewhere that reminds one of it?" + +"There's the General Armitage place," Roberta said. "That must be close +by, now. It used to be far out in the country. It was built by the same +architect who built ours. General Armitage and my great-grandfather were +intimate friends--they were in the Civil War together." + +"Here it is." Ruth pointed it out eagerly. "I always like to go by it, +because it looks quite a little like ours, only the grounds are much +larger, and it has a wonderful old garden behind it. Mother has often +said she wished she could transplant the Armitage garden bodily, now +that the house has been closed so long. She says the old gardener is +still here, and looks after the garden--or his grandsons do." + +"Shall we drive in and see it?" proposed Richard. "A garden like that +ought to have some one to admire it now and then." + +He gave the order, and the car rolled in through the old stone gateway. +The place, though of a noble old type, was far from a pretentious one, +and there was no lodge at the gate, as with most of its neighbours. The +house was no larger than the comfortable home of the Gray family, but +its closed blinds and empty white-pillared portico gave it a deserted +air. The grounds about it were not indicative of present day, fastidious +landscape gardening, but suggested an old-time country gentleman's +estate, sufficiently kept up to prevent wild and alien growth, though +needing the supervision of an interested owner to suggest beneficial +changes here and there. + +"It's a beautiful old place, isn't it?" Richard looked to Roberta for +confirmation, and saw it in her kindling eyes. + +"It has always been our whole family's ideal of a home," she said. "Ours +is so much nearer the centre of things, we haven't the acres we should +like, and whenever we have driven past this place we have looked +longingly at it. Since General and Mrs. Armitage died, and their family +became scattered, father has often said that he was watching anxiously +to see it come on the market, for there was no place he more coveted the +right ownership for, even though he couldn't think of living here +himself. It seems such a pity when homes like this go to people who +don't appreciate them, and alter and spoil them." + +"So it does," agreed Richard, and now he had much ado to keep his +soaring spirits from betraying the happy secret which he saw his +betrothed did not remotely suspect. He knew she expected to dwell +hereafter in the "stone pile" which had been the home of the Kendricks +for many years, and she had never by a word or look made him feel that +such a prospect tried her spirit. That it was not to her a wholly happy +prospect he had divined, as he might have divined that a wild bird would +not be happy in a cage, nor a deer in a close corral. + +"Oh, the garden!" breathed Roberta, and clasped her hands with an +unconscious gesture of pleasure, as the car swept round the house and +past the tall box borders of what was, indeed, such an old-time +memorial, tended by faithful and loving hands, as must stir the interest +of any admirer of the stately conceptions of an earlier day. A bowed +figure, at work in a great bed of rosy phlox, straightened painfully as +the car stopped, and the visitors looked into the seamed, tanned face of +the presiding spirit of the place, the old gardener who had served +General Armitage all his life. + +All four alighted, and walked through the winding paths, talked with old +Symonds, and studied the charming spot with growing delight. Richard, +managing to get Roberta to himself for a brief space, eagerly questioned +her. + +"You find this prettier than any picture in any gallery, don't you?" + +"Oh, it has great charm for me. I can hardly express the curious content +it gives me, to wander about such an old garden. The fragrance of the +box is particularly pleasant to me, and I love the old-fashioned flowers +better than any of the wonders the modern gardeners show. Just look at +that mass of larkspur--did you ever see such a satisfying blue?" + +"I have. The first time I came to your house to dinner you wore blue, +the softest, richest blue imaginable, and you sat where the shaded light +made a picture of you I shall never forget. I've never seen that +peculiar blue since without thinking of you. It's one of the shades of +that larkspur, isn't it?" + +"I made fun of you, afterward, for telling Rosy you noticed the colours +we wore," confessed Roberta, with a mischievous glance. + +"You did--you rascal! Look up at me a minute--please. The blue of your +eyes, with those black lashes, is another larkspur shade, in this light. +I've called it sea-blue. Rob--dearest--the nights I've dreamed about +those eyes of yours!" + +He got no further chance to observe them just then, as he might have +expected, for Roberta immediately turned their light on the garden and +away from his worshipful regard. She engaged the old gardener in +conversation, and made his dull gaze brighten with her praise. Meanwhile +Richard went off to the house, and presently returning, drew his party +into a group and put a question, striving to maintain an appearance of +indifference. + +"It occurred to me you might care to look into the house itself. It's +rather interesting inside, I believe. There seems to be a caretaker +there, and she says we may come in. She'll meet us at the front. Shall +we take a minute to do it?" + +"I should like it very much," agreed Roberta promptly. "I've heard +mother speak of the fine old hall with its staircase--a different type +from ours, and very interesting." + +"There certainly is a remarkable attraction to me in this place," said +Matthew Kendrick, walking beside Roberta with hands clasped behind his +back and head well up. "It has a homelike look, in spite of its deserted +state, which appeals to me. I wonder that the remnant of the family does +not care to retain it." + +"I hear the remnant is all but gone," his grandson informed him, with +sober lips but dancing eyes. He was delighted with his grandfather for +his assistance in playing the part of the casual observer. He led the +way up the steps of the white-pillared portico, and wheeled to see the +others ascending. He watched Roberta as she preceded him over the +threshold of the opened door. + +"Shall I see you coming in that door, you beautiful thing, years and +years from now?" he asked her in his heart, and smiled happily to +himself. + +And now, indeed, old Matthew Kendrick played his part nobly and with +skill. When the party had admired the distinction of the hall, and the +stately sweep of its staircase, he led Ruth into a room on the left at +the same moment that Richard summoned Roberta to look at something he +had described in the room on the right. A question drew the caretaker +after Mr. Kendrick, senior, and the younger man had the moment he was +playing for. + +"This fireplace, Robin--isn't it the very counter-part of the one in +your own living-room?" He asked it with his hand on the chimney-piece, +and his glowing eyes studying hers. + +Roberta looked, and nodded delightedly. "It certainly is, only still +wider and higher. What a splendid one! And what a room! Oh, how could +they leave it? Imagine it furnished, and lived in." + +"Imagine it! And a great fire on this hearth. It would take in an +immense log, wouldn't it?" + +"Poor hearth!" She turned again to it, and her glance sobered. "So cold +now, even on a July day, after having been warmed with so many fires." + +"Shall we warm it?" He took an eager step toward her. "Shall we build +our own home fires upon it?" + +Startled, she stared at him, the blue of her eyes growing deep. He +smiled into them, his own gleaming with satisfaction. + +"Richard! What do you--mean?" + +"What I say, darling. Could you be happy here? Should you like it better +than the Kendrick house?--gloomy old place that that is!" + +"But--your grandfather! We--we couldn't possibly leave him lonely!" + +"Bless your kind heart, dear--we couldn't. Shall we make a home for him +here?" + +"Would he be content?" + +"So content that he's only waiting to know that you like it, and he'll +tell you so. The plan is this, Robin--if you approve it. Three months of +the year grandfather will stay in the old home, the hard, winter months, +and if you are willing, we'll stay with him. The rest of the year--here, +in our own home. Eh? Do you like it?" + +She stood a moment, staring into the empty fireplace, her eyes shining +with a sudden hint of most unwonted tears. Then she turned to him. + +"Oh, you dear!" she whispered, and was swept into his arms. + +"Then you do like it?" he insisted, presently. + +"Like it! Oh, I can't tell you. To have such a home as this, so like the +old one, yet so wonderful of itself. To make it ours--to put our own +individuality into it, yet never hurt it. And that garden! What will +mother say? Oh, Richard--I was never so happy in my life!" + +He knew that was true of himself, for his heart was full to bursting, +with the success of his scheming. They walked the length of the long +room, looked out of each window, returned to the fireplace. He held her +fast and whispered in her ear: + +"Robin, I can see all sorts of things in this room. I saw them the +minute I came into it first, a month ago. I've stood here, dreaming, +more than once since then. I see ourselves, living here, and--I +see--Robin--I see--little figures!" + +She nodded, with her face against his breast. He lifted her face, and +his lips met hers in such a meeting as they had not yet known. Richard's +heart beat hard with the sure knowledge of that which he had only dared +before to believe would be true--that his wife would rejoice to be the +mother of his children. Not in vain had this young man looked into child +faces and brought joy to their eyes; he had learned that life would +never be complete without children of his own. And now he knew, +certainly, that this woman whom he loved would gladly join her superb +young life with his in the bringing of other lives into the world, with +their full heritage, and not a drop withheld. It was a wondrous moment. + +They went out together, in search of Mr. Kendrick and Ruth, and then the +party proceeded over the house. With a word and a fee Richard dismissed +the caretaker, and the four were free to talk of their affairs. Ruth was +wild with delight at the news; Mr. Kendrick quietly happy at Roberta's +words to him, and her clasp of his hand. + +"Richard was sure you would be pleased, my dear," he said, "and I myself +could not doubt that, brought up in the atmosphere you have been, you +must prefer such a home as this, so like your own. And if you would +really care to have me here with you, a part of the year, I could but be +gratified and contented." + +They assured him of their joy at this: they mounted the stairs with him +and searched for the apartments which should be his. In spite of his +protests they insisted on his occupying those which were obviously the +choicest of the house, declaring that nothing could be too good for him. +He was deeply touched at their devotion, and they were as glad as he. +The time passed rapidly in these momentous affairs. + +"I suppose we must be off," admitted Richard reluctantly, discovering +the hour. "Robin, how can you bear to leave it so long untenanted? From +July to Christmas--what an interminable stretch of time!" + +"Not with all you have planned to do," Roberta reminded him. "Think what +it will mean to get it all in order." + +"I do think what it will mean. Don't I, though! It will mean--shopping +with my love, choosing rugs and furniture--and plates and cups, +Robin--plates and cups to eat and drink from. The fun of that! Will you +help us, Rufus?" He turned, laughing, to the young girl beside him. +"Will you come and eat and drink from our plates and cups? Ah, but this +is a great old world--yes? you three dear people! And I'm the happiest +fellow in it!" + +There seemed small doubt that there could be few happier, just then, as +standing at the top of his own staircase and gazing down into the wide +and empty hall toward the open door which led out upon the +white-pillared portico of his home-that-was-to-be, Richard Kendrick +flung up one arm, lifting an imaginary cup high in the air, and calling +joyously: + +_"Here's hoping!"_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A STOUT LITTLE CABIN + +Christmas morning! and the bells in St. Luke's pealing the great old +hymn, dear for scores of years to those who had heard it chiming from +the ivy-grown towers--"_Adeste, Fideles_." + +_"Oh, come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!"_ + +Joyful and triumphant, indeed, though yet subdued and humble, since this +paradox may be at times in human hearts, was Richard Kendrick, as he +stood waiting in the vestibule of St. Luke's, on Christmas morning, for +a tryst he had made. Not with Roberta, for it was not possible for her +to be present to-day, but with Ruth Gray, that young sister who had +become so like a sister by blood to Richard that, at her suggestion, it +had seemed to him the happiest thing in the world to go to church with +her on Christmas morning--the morning of the day which was to see his +marriage. + +The Gray homestead was full of wedding guests, the usual family guests +of the Christmas house-party. On the evening before had occurred the +Christmas dance, and Richard had led the festivities, with his +bride-elect at his side. It had been a glorious merry-making and his +pulses had thrilled wildly to the rapture of it. But to-day--to-day was +another story. + +A slender young figure, in brown velvet with a tiny twig of holly +perched among furry trimmings, hurried up the steps and into the +vestibule. Richard met Ruth halfway, his face alight, his hand clasping +hers eagerly. + +"I'm so sorry I am late," she whispered. "Oh, it's so fine of you to +come. Isn't it a lovely, lovely way to begin this Day--your and Rob's +day, too?" + +He nodded, smiling down at her with eyes full of brotherly affection for +a most lovable girl. He followed her into the church and took his place +beside her, feeling that he would rather be here, just now, than +anywhere in the world. + +It must be admitted that he hardly heard the service, except for the +music, which was of a sort to make its own way into the most abstracted +consciousness. But the quiet spirit of the place had its effect upon +him, and when he knelt beside Ruth it seemed the most natural thing in +the world to form a prayer in his heart that he might be a fit husband +for the wife he was so soon to take to himself. Once, during a long +period of kneeling, Ruth's hand slipped shyly into his, and he held it +fast, with a quickening perception of what it meant to have a pure young +spirit like hers beside him in this sacred hour. His soul was full of +high resolve to be a son and brother to this rare family into which he +was entering such as might do them honour. For it was a very significant +fact that to him the people who stood nearest to Roberta were of great +consequence; and that a source of extraordinary satisfaction to him, +from the first, had been his connection with a family which seemed to +him ideal, and association with which made up to him for much of which +his life had been empty. + +A proof of this had been his invitation, through his grandfather, who +had warmly seconded his wish, to Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Gray, to come and +stay with the Kendricks throughout this Christmas party, precisely as +they had done the year before. To have Aunt Ruth preside at breakfast on +this auspicious morning had given Richard the greatest pleasure, and the +kiss he had bestowed upon her had been one which she recognized as very +like the tribute of a son. From her side he had gone to St. Luke's. + +"Good-bye, dear, for a few hours," he whispered to Ruth, as he put her +into the brougham, driven by the old family coachman, in which she had +come alone to church. "When I see you next I'll be almost your brother. +And in just a few minutes after that--" + +"Oh, Richard--are you happy?" she whispered back, scanning his face with +brimming eyes. + +"So happy I can't tell even you. Give my love, my dearest love, to--" + +"I will--" as he paused on the name, as if he could not speak it just +then. "She was so glad to have us go to church together. She wanted to +come herself--so much." + +He pressed the small gloved hand held out to him. He knew that Ruth +idealized him far beyond his worth--he could read it in her gaze, which +was all but reverential. He said to himself, as he turned away, that a +man never had so many motives to be true to the girl he was to marry. To +bring the first shade of distrust into this little sister's tender eyes +would be punishment enough for any disloyalty, no matter what the cause +might be. + +The wedding was to be at six o'clock. There was nothing about the whole +affair, as it had been planned by Roberta, with his full assent, to make +it resemble any event of the sort in which he had ever taken part. Not +one consideration of custom or of vogue had had weight with her, if it +differed from her carefully wrought-out views of what should be. Her +ruling idea had been to make it all as simple and sincere as possible, +to invite no guests outside her large family and his small one except +such personal friends as were peculiarly dear to both. When Richard had +been asked to submit his list of these, he had been taken aback to find +how pitifully few people he could put upon it. Half a dozen college +classmates, a small number of fellow clubmen--these painstakingly +considered from more than one standpoint--the Cartwrights, his cousins, +whom he really knew but indifferently well; two score easily covered the +number of those whom by any stretch of the imagination he could call +friends. The long roll of his fashionable acquaintance he dismissed as +out of the question. If he had been married in church there would have +been several hundreds of these who must unquestionably have been bidden; +but since Roberta wanted as she put it, "only those who truly care for +us," he could but choose those who seemed to come somewhere near that +ideal. To be quite honest, he was aware that his real friends were among +those who could not be bidden to his marriage. The crippled children in +the hospitals; the suffering poor who would send him their blessing when +they read in to-morrow's paper that he was married; the shop-people in +Eastman who knew him for the kindest employer they had ever had:--these +were they who "truly cared"; and the knowledge was warm at his heart, as +with a ruthless hand he scored off names of the mighty in the world of +society and finance. + +"Dick, my boy, you've grown--you've grown!" was his grandfather's +comment, when Richard, with a rueful laugh, had shown the old man the +finished list, upon which, well toward the top, had been the names of +Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Carson. Of Hugh Benson, as best man, Matthew +Kendrick heartily approved. "You've chosen the nugget of pure gold, +Dick," he said, "where you might have been expected to take one with +considerable alloy. He's worth all the others put together." + +Richard had never realized this more thoroughly than when, on Christmas +afternoon, he invited Benson to drive with him for a last inspection of +a certain spot which had been prepared for the reception of the bridal +pair at the first stage of their journey. He could not, as Hugh took his +place beside him and the two whirled away down the frost-covered avenue, +imagine asking any other man in the world to go with him on such a +visit. There was no other man he knew who would not have made it the +occasion for more or less distasteful raillery; but Hugh Benson was of +the rarely few, he felt, who would understand what that "stout little +cabin" meant to him. + +They came upon it presently, standing bleak and bare as to exterior upon +its hilltop, with only a streaming pillar of smoke from its big chimney +to suggest that it might be habitable within. But when the heavy door +was thrown open, an interior of warmth and comfort presented itself such +as brought an exclamation of wonder from the guest, and made Richard's +eyes shine with satisfaction. + +The long, low room had been furnished simply but fittingly with such +hangings, rugs, and few articles of furniture as should suggest +home-likeness and service. Before the wide hearth stood two big winged +chairs, and a set of bookshelves was filled with a carefully chosen +collection of favourite books. The colourings were warm but harmonious, +and upon a heavy table, now covered with a rich, dull red cloth, stood a +lamp of generous proportions and beauty of design. + +"I've tried to steer a line between luxury and austerity," Richard +explained, as Hugh looked about him with pleased observation. "We shall +not be equipped for real roughing it--not this time, though sometimes we +may like to come here dressed as hunters and try living on bare boards. +I just wanted it to seem like a bit of home, when she comes in to-night. +There'll be some flowers here then, of course--lots of them, and that +ought to give it the last touch. There are always flowers in her home, +bowls of them, everywhere--it was one of the first things I noticed. Do +you think she will like it here?" he ended, with a hint of almost boyish +diffidence in his tone. + +"Like it? It's wonderful. I never heard of anything so--so--all it +should be for--a girl like her," Hugh exclaimed, lamely enough, yet with +a certain eloquence of inflection which meant more than his choice of +words. He turned to Richard. "I can't tell you," he went on, flushing +with the effort to convey to his friend his deep feeling, "how fortunate +I think you are, and how I hope--oh, I hope you and she will be--the +happiest people in the world!" + +"I'm sure you hope that, old fellow," Richard answered, more touched by +this difficult voicing of what he knew to be Hugh's genuine devotion +than he should have been by the most felicitous phrasing of another's +congratulations. "And I can tell you this. There's nobody else I know +whom I would have brought here to see my preparations--nobody else who +would have understood how I feel about--what I'm doing to-day. I never +should have believed it would have seemed so--well, so sacred a thing to +take a girl away from all the people who love her, and bring her to a +place like this. I wish--wish I were a thousand times more fit for her." + +"Rich Kendrick--" Benson was taken out of himself now. His voice was +slightly tremulous, but he spoke with less difficulty than before. "You +are fitter than you know. You've developed as I never thought any man +could in so short a time. I've been watching you and I've seen it. There +was always more in you than people gave you credit for--it was your +inheritance from a father and grandfather who have meant a great deal in +their world. You've found out what you were meant for, and you're coming +up to new and finer standards every day. You _are_ fit to take this +girl--and that means much, because I know a little of what a--" Now _he_ +was floundering again, and his fine, then face flamed more hotly than +before--"of what she is!" he ended, with a complete breakdown in the +style of his phraseology, but with none at all in the conveyance of his +meaning. + +Richard flung out his hand, catching Hugh's, and gripping it. "Bless you +for a friend and a brother!" he cried, his eyes bright with sudden +moisture. "You're another whom I mustn't disappoint. Disappoint? I ought +to be flayed alive if I ever forget the people who believe in me--who +are trusting me with--Roberta!" + +It was a pity she could not have heard him speak her name, have seen the +way he looked at his friend as he spoke it, and have seen the way his +friend looked back at him. There was a quality in their mentioning of +her, here in this place where she was soon to be, which was its own +tribute to the young womanhood she so radiantly imaged. + +In spite of all these devices to make the hours pass rapidly, they +seemed to Richard to crawl. That one came, at last, however, which saw +him knocking at the door of his grandfather's suite, dressed for his +marriage, and eager to depart. Bidden by Mr. Kendrick's man to enter, he +presented himself in the old gentleman's dressing-room, where its +occupant, as scrupulously attired as himself, stood ready to descend to +the waiting car. Richard closed the door behind him, and stood looking +at his grandfather with a smile. + +"Well, Dick, boy--ready? Ah, but you look fresh and fine! Clean in body +and mind and heart for her--eh? That's how you look, sir--as a man +should look--and feel--on his wedding day. Well, she's worth it, +Dick--worth the best you can give." + +"Worth far better than I can give, grandfather," Richard responded, the +glow in his smooth cheek deepening. + +"Well, I don't mean to overrate you," said the old man, smiling, "but +you seem to me pretty well worth while any girl's taking. Not that you +can't become more so--and will, I thoroughly believe. It's not so much +what you've done this last year as what you show promise of doing--great +promise. That's all one can ask at your age. Ten years later--but we +won't go into that. To-night's enough--eh, my dear boy? My dear boy!" +he repeated, with a sudden access of tenderness in his voice. Then, as +if afraid of emotion for them both, he pressed his grandson's hand and +abruptly led the way into the outer room, where Thompson stood waiting +with his fur-lined coat and muffler. + +From this point on it seemed to Richard more or less like a rapidly +shifting series of pictures, all wonderfully coloured. The first was +that of the electric light of the big car's interior shining on the +faces of Uncle Rufus and Aunt Ruth, on Mr. Kendrick and Hugh Benson--the +latter a little pale but quite composed. Hugh had owned that he felt +seriously inadequate for the role which was his to-night, being no +society man and unaccustomed to taking conspicuous parts anywhere but in +business. But Richard had assured him that it was all a very simple +matter, since it was just a question of standing by a friend in the +crisis of his life! And Hugh had responded that it would be a pity +indeed if he were unwilling to do that. + +The next picture was that of the wide hall at the Gray home--as he came +into it a vivid memory flashed over Richard of his first entrance +there--less honoured than to-night! Soft lights shone upon him; the +spicy fragrance of the ropes and banks of Christmas "greens," bright +with holly, saluted his nostrils; and the glimpse of a great fire +burning, quite as usual, on the broad hearth of the living-room--a place +which had long since come to typify his ideal of a home--served to make +him feel that there could be no spot more suitable for the beginning of +a new home, because there could be nothing in the world finer or more +beautiful to model it upon. + +Nothing seemed afterward clear in his memory until the moment when he +came from his room upstairs, with Hugh close behind him, and met the +rector of St. Luke's, who was to marry him. There followed a hazy +impression of a descent of the staircase, of coming from a detour +through the library out into the full lights and of standing +interminably facing a large gathering of people, the only face at which +he could venture to glance that of Judge Calvin. Gray, standing +dignified and stately beside another figure of equal dignity and +stateliness--probably that of Mr. Matthew Kendrick. Then, at last--there +was Roberta, coming toward him down a silken lane, her eyes fixed on +his--such eyes, in such a face! He fixed his own gaze upon it, and held +it--and forgot everything else, as he had hoped he should. Then there +were the grave words of the clergyman, and his own voice responding--and +sounding curiously unlike his own, of course, as the voice of the +bridegroom has sounded in his own ears since time began. Then +Roberta's--how clearly she spoke, bless her! Then, before he knew it, it +was done, and he and she were rising from their knees, and there were +smiles and pleasant murmurings all about them--and little Ruth was +sobbing softly with her cheek against his! + +It was here that he became conscious again of the family--Roberta's +family, and of what it meant to have such people as these welcome him +into their circle. When he looked into the face of Roberta's mother and +felt her tender welcoming kiss upon his lips, his heart beat hard with +joy. When Roberta's father, his voice deep with feeling, said to him, +"Welcome to our hearts, my son," he could only grasp the firm hand with +an answering, passionate pressure which meant that he had at last that +which he had consciously or unconsciously longed for all his life. All +down the line his overcharged spirit responded to the warmth of their +reception of him--Stephen and Rosamond, Louis and Ruth and young Ted, +smiling at him, saying the kindest things to him, making him one of them +as only those can who are blessed with understanding natures. To be +sure, it was all more or less confused in his memory, when he tried to +recall it afterward, but enough of it remained vivid to assure him that +it had been all he could have asked or hoped--and that it was far, far +more than he deserved! + +"The boy bears up pretty well, eh?" observed old Matthew Kendrick to his +lifelong friend, Judge Calvin Gray, as the two stood aside, having gone +through their own part in the greeting of the bridal pair. Mr. +Kendrick's hand was still tingling with the wringing grip of his +grandson's; his heart was warm with the remembrance of the way Richard's +brilliant eyes had looked into his as he had said, low in the old man's +ear--"I'm not less yours, grandfather--and she's yours, too." Roberta +had put both arms about his neck, whispering: "Indeed I am, dear +grandfather--if you'll have me." Well, it had been happiness enough, +and it was good to watch them as they went on with their joyous task, +knowing that he had a large share in their lives, and would continue to +have it. + +"Bears up? I should say he did. He looks as if he could assist in +steadying the world upon the shoulders of old Atlas," answered Judge +Gray happily. "It's a trying position for any man, and some of them only +just escape looking craven." + +"The man who could stand beside that young woman and look craven would +deserve to be hamstrung," was the other's verdict. "Cal, she's enough to +turn an old man's head; we can't wonder that a young one's is swimming. +And the best of it is that it isn't all looks, it's real beauty to the +core. She's rich in the qualities that stand wear in a wearing +world--and her goodness isn't the sort that will ever pall on her +husband. She'll keep him guessing to the end of time, but the answer +will always give him fresh delight in her." + +"You analyze her well," admitted Roberta's uncle. "But that's to be +expected of a man who's been a pastmaster all his life in understanding +and dealing with human nature." + +"When it was not too near me, Cal. When it came to the dearest thing +I had in the world, I made a mistake with it. It was only when the boy +came under this roof that he received the stimulus that has made him +what he is. That was sure to tell in the end." + +"Ah, but he had your blood in him," declared Calvin Gray heartily. + +Thus, all about them, in many quarters, were the young pair +affectionately discussed. Not the least eloquent in their praise were +the youngest members of the company. + +"I say, but I'm proud of my new brother," declared Ted Gray, the picture +of youthful elegance, with every hair in place, and a white rose on the +lapel of his short evening-jacket. He was playing escort to the +prettiest of his girl cousins. "Isn't he a stunner to-night?" + +"He always was--that is, since I've known him," responded Esther, Uncle +Philip's daughter. "I can't help laughing when I think of the Christmas +party last year, and how Rob made us all think he was a poor young man, +and she didn't like him at all. All of us girls thought she was so queer +not to want to dance with him, when he was so handsome and danced so +beautifully. I suppose she was just pretending she didn't care for him." + +"Nobody ever'll know when Rob did change her mind about him," Ted +assured her. "She can make you think black's green when she wants to." + +"Isn't she perfectly wonderful to-night?" sighed the pretty cousin, with +a glance from her own home-made frock--in which, however, she looked +like a freshly picked rose--to Roberta's bridal gown, shimmering through +mistiness, simplicity itself, yet, as the little cousin well knew, the +product of such art as she herself might never hope to command. "I +always thought she was perfectly beautiful, but she's absolutely +fascinating to-night." + +"Tell that to Rich. I'm afraid he doesn't appreciate her," laughed Ted, +indicating his new brother-in-law, who, at the moment being temporarily +unemployed, was to be observed following his bride with his eyes with a +wistful gaze indicating helplessness without her even for a fraction of +time. + +Roberta had been drawn a little away by her husband's best man, who had +something to tell her which he had reserved for this hour. + +"Mrs. Kendrick," he was beginning--at which he was bidden to remember +that he had known the girl Roberta for many years; and so began again, +smiling with gratitude: + +"Roberta, have you any idea what is happening in Eastman to-night?" + +"Indeed I haven't, Hugh. Anything I ought to know of?" + +"I think it's time you did. Every employee in our store is sitting down +to a great dinner, served by a caterer from this city, with a Christmas +favour at every plate. The place cards have a K and G on them in +monogram. There are such flowers for decorations as most of those people +never saw. I don't need to tell you whose doing this is." + +He had the reward he had anticipated for the telling of this +news--Roberta's cheek coloured richly, and her eyes fell for a moment +to hide the surprise and happiness in them. + +"That may seem like enough," he went on gently, "but it wasn't enough +for him. At every children's hospital in this city, and in every +children's ward, there is a Christmas tree to-night, loaded with gifts. +And I want you to know that, busy as he has been until to-day, he picked +out every gift himself, and wrote the name on the card with his own +hand." + +It was too much to tell her all at once, and he knew it when he saw her +eyes fill, though she smiled through the shining tears as she murmured: + +"And he didn't tell me!" + +"No, nor meant to. When I remonstrated with him he said you might think +it a posing to impress you, whereas it simply meant the overflow of his +own happiness. He said if he didn't have some such outlet he should +burst with the pressure of it!" + +Her moved laughter provided some sort of outlet for her own pressure of +feeling about these tidings. When she had recovered control of herself +she turned to glance toward her husband, and Hugh's heart stirred within +him at the starry radiance of that look, which she could not veil +successfully from him, who knew the cause of it. + +It was the Alfred Carsons who came to her last; the young manager +beaming with pleasure in the honour done him by his invitation to this +family wedding, to which the great of the city were mostly intentionally +unbidden; his pretty young wife, in effective modishness of attire by no +means ill-chosen, glowing with pride and rosy with the effort to +comport herself in keeping with the standards of these "democratically +aristocratic" people, as her husband had shrewdly characterized them. As +they stood talking with the bride, two of Richard's friends standing +near by, former close associates in the life of the clubs he was now too +busy to pursue, exchanged a brief colloquy which would mightily have +interested the subject of it if he could have heard it. + +"Who are these?" demanded one of the other, gazing elsewhere as he +spoke. + +"Partner or manager or something, in that business of Rich's up in +Eastman. So Belden Lorimer says." + +"Bright looking chap--might be anybody, except for the wife. A bit too +conscious, she." + +"You might not notice that except in contrast with the new Mrs. +Kendrick. There's the real thing, yes? Rich knew what he was doing when +he picked her out." + +"Undoubtedly he did. The whole family's pretty fine--not the usual sort. +Watch Mrs. Clifford Cartwright. Even she's impressed. Odd, eh?--with all +the country cousins about, too." + +"I know. It's in the air. And of course everybody knows the family blood +is of the bluest. Unostentatious but sure of itself. The Cartwrights +couldn't get that air, not in a thousand years." + +"Rich himself has it, though--and the grandfather." + +"True enough. I'm wondering which class we belong in!" + +The two laughed and moved closer. Neither could afford to miss a chance +of observing their old friend under these new conditions, for he had +been a subject of their speculations ever since the change in him had +begun. And though they had deplored the loss of him from their favourite +haunts, they had been some time since forced to admit that he had never +been so well worth knowing as now that he was virtually lost to them. + +"Oh, Robby, darling--I can never, never let you go!" + +So softly wailed Ruth, her slim young form clinging to her sister's, +regardless of her bridesmaid's crushed finery, daintily cherished till +this moment. Over her head Roberta's eyes looked into her mother's. +There were no tears in the fine eyes which met hers, but somehow Roberta +knew that Ruth's heartache was a tiny pain beside that other's. + +Richard, looking on, standing ready to take his bride away, wondered +once more within himself how he could have the heart to do it. But it +was done, and he and Roberta were off together down the steps; and he +was putting her into Mr. Kendrick's closed car; and she was leaning past +him to wave and wave again at the dear faces on the porch. Under the +lights here and there one stood out more clearly than the rest--Louis's, +flushed and virile; Rosamond's, lovely as a child's; old Mr. Kendrick's, +intent and grave, forgetting to smile. The father and the mother were in +the shadow--but little Gordon, Stephen's boy, made of himself a central +figure by running forward at the last to fling up a sturdy arm and cry: + +"Good-bye, Auntie Wob--come back soon!" + +It had been a white Christmas, and the snow had fallen lightly all day +long. It was coming faster now, and the wind was rising, to Richard's +intense satisfaction. He had been fairly praying for a gale, improbable +though that seemed. There was a considerable semblance of a storm, +however, through which to drive the twelve miles to the waiting cabin on +the hilltop, and when the car stopped and the door was opened, a heavy +gust came swirling in. The absence of lights everywhere made the +darkness seem blacker, out here in the country, and the general effect +of outer desolation was as near this strange young man's desire as could +have been hoped. + +"Good driving, Rogers. It was a quick trip, in spite of the heavy roads +at the last. Thank you--and good-night." + +"Thank you, sir. Good-night, Mr. Kendrick--and Mrs. Kendrick, if I may." + +"Good-night, Rogers," called the voice Rogers had learned greatly to +admire, and he saw her face smiling at him as the lights of the car +streamed out upon it. + +Then the great car was gone, and Richard was throwing open the door of +the cabin, letting all the warmth and glow and fragrance of the snug +interior greet his bride, as he led her in and shut the door with a +resounding force against the winter night and storm. + +It had been a dream of his that he should put her into one of the big, +cushioned, winged chairs, and take his own place on the hearth-rug at +her feet. Together they should sit and look into the fire, and be as +silent or as full of happy speech as might seem to befit the hour. Now, +when he had bereft her of her furry wraps and welcomed her as he saw +fit, he made his dream come true. He told her of it as he put her in her +chair, and saw her lean back against the comfortable cushioning with a +long breath of inevitable weariness after many hours of tension. + +"And you wondered which it would be, speech or silence?" queried +Roberta, as he took that place he had meant to take, at her knee, and +looked up, smiling, into her down-bent face. + +"I did wonder, but I don't wonder now. I know. There aren't any words, +are there?" + +"No," she answered, looking now into the fire, yet seeing, as clearly as +before, his fine and ardent, yet reverent face, "I think there are no +words." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF JUNE*** + + +******* This file should be named 14491.txt or 14491.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/4/9/14491 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/old/14491.zip b/old/old/14491.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b9543c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/14491.zip |