o 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, ye