"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 a.s.sisted 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 k.n.o.bby 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.