It was here that he became conscious again of the family—­Roberta’s family, and of what it meant to have such people as these welcome him into their circle.  When he looked into the face of Roberta’s mother and felt her tender welcoming kiss upon his lips, his heart beat hard with joy.  When Roberta’s father, his voice deep with feeling, said to him, “Welcome to our hearts, my son,” he could only grasp the firm hand with an answering, passionate pressure which meant that he had at last that which he had consciously or unconsciously longed for all his life.  All down the line his overcharged spirit responded to the warmth of their reception of him—­Stephen and Rosamond, Louis and Ruth and young Ted, smiling at him, saying the kindest things to him, making him one of them as only those can who are blessed with understanding natures.  To be sure, it was all more or less confused in his memory, when he tried to recall it afterward, but enough of it remained vivid to assure him that it had been all he could have asked or hoped—­and that it was far, far more than he deserved!

“The boy bears up pretty well, eh?” observed old Matthew Kendrick to his lifelong friend, Judge Calvin Gray, as the two stood aside, having gone through their own part in the greeting of the bridal pair.  Mr. Kendrick’s hand was still tingling with the wringing grip of his grandson’s; his heart was warm with the remembrance of the way Richard’s brilliant eyes had looked into his as he had said, low in the old man’s ear—­“I’m not less yours, grandfather—­and she’s yours, too.”  Roberta had put both arms about his neck, whispering:  “Indeed I am, dear grandfather—­if you’ll have me.”  Well, it had been happiness enough, and it was good to watch them as they went on with their joyous task, knowing that he had a large share in their lives, and would continue to have it.

“Bears up?  I should say he did.  He looks as if he could assist in steadying the world upon the shoulders of old Atlas,” answered Judge Gray happily.  “It’s a trying position for any man, and some of them only just escape looking craven.”

“The man who could stand beside that young woman and look craven would deserve to be hamstrung,” was the other’s verdict.  “Cal, she’s enough to turn an old man’s head; we can’t wonder that a young one’s is swimming.  And the best of it is that it isn’t all looks, it’s real beauty to the core.  She’s rich in the qualities that stand wear in a wearing world—­and her goodness isn’t the sort that will ever pall on her husband.  She’ll keep him guessing to the end of time, but the answer will always give him fresh delight in her.”

“You analyze her well,” admitted Roberta’s uncle.  “But that’s to be expected of a man who’s been a pastmaster all his life in understanding and dealing with human nature.”

“When it was not too near me, Cal.  When it came to the dearest thing I had in the world, I made a mistake with it.  It was only when the boy came under this roof that he received the stimulus that has made him what he is.  That was sure to tell in the end.”