"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, d.i.c.k," 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, d.i.c.k?"
"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 a.s.sociates with a look which bade them speak out.
"We certainly do, Mr. Kendrick," Hugh Benson a.s.sured 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 a.n.a.lyzing 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 a.s.sociates, 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 a.s.sociated 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 grat.i.tude 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 una.s.suming and yet quietly a.s.sured 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 pa.s.s 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 ma.s.ses of bare shrubbery.
It seemed that the welcoming look of the house was justified in the att.i.tude 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 amus.e.m.e.nt and satisfaction at the unwonted sight of his grandfather partaking of a cup of steaming coffee rich with country cream, and eating with the appet.i.te of a boy a huge, sugar-coated doughnut which his hostess a.s.sured 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 a.s.sent 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 t.i.tle. He led her, by artful circ.u.mlocutions, 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 alb.u.m. 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 alb.u.m 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 "alb.u.m" 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,"
a.s.serted 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.