d 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 Ke