the boy was not lavish with
money and never talked about it at all. Hugh was therefore surprised and
a little startled to see Norry walk up to an expensive limousine with a
uniformed chauffeur at the wheel. He wondered if the Parkers weren't too
high-hat for him?

"We'll go right home, Martin," Norry said to the chauffeur. "Get in,
Hugh."

The Parker cottage was a short distance from New Rochelle. It was a
beautiful place, hardly in the style of a Newport "cottage" but roomy
and very comfortable. It was not far from the water, and the Parkers
owned their own boat-house.

Mrs. Parker was on the veranda when the car drew up at the steps.

"Hello, Mother," Norry called.

She got up and ran lightly down the steps, her hand held out in welcome
to Hugh.

"I know that you are Hugh Carver," she said in a beautifully modulated
voice, "and I am really delighted to meet you. Norry has talked so much
about you that I should have felt cheated if you hadn't come."

Hugh's fears immediately departed. "I should have myself," he replied.
"It was awfully good of you to invite me."

After meeting Norry's father and mother, Hugh understood the boy
better. Mrs. Parker was both charming and pretty, a delightful woman who
played the piano with professional skill. Mr. Parker was an artist, a
portrait-painter, and he got prices for his pictures that staggered Hugh
when Norry mentioned them casually. He was a quiet, grave man with gray
eyes like his son's.

When he had a minute alone with Hugh, he said to him with simple
sincerity: "You have been very kind to Norry, and we are grateful. He is
a strange, poetic lad who needs the kind of understanding friendship you
have given him. We should have been deeply disappointed if you hadn't
been able to visit us."

The expressions of gratitude embarrassed Hugh, but they made him feel
sure of his welcome; and once he was sure of that he began to enjoy
himself as he never had before. Before the month was out, he had made
many visits to New York and was able to talk about both the Ritz and
Macdougal Alley with elaborate casualness when he returned to college.
He and Norry went swimming nearly every day and spent hours sailing on
the Sound.

Norry introduced him to the many girls who had summer homes near the
Parker cottage. They were a new type to him, boarding-school products,
sure of themselves, "finished" with a high polish that glittered
effectively, daringly frank both in their speech a