“I will see that you have the chance,” she assured him, and he went away feeling like a boy who has been promised a long-desired and despaired-of treat.

But it was not of the Virginia reel he was thinking as he went swinging away down the wintry street.

* * * * *

They were sitting, most of them, before the living-room fire, discussing the plans for the week of the house-party, when Rosamond broke the news.

“I’ve taken a great liberty,” said she serenely, “for which I hope you’ll all forgive me.  I’ve—­tentatively—­promised Mr. Kendrick an invitation to the Christmas dance.”

There was a shout from Louis and Ted together.  Ruth beamed with delight.  Across the fireplace Roberta shot at her sister-in-law one rebellious glance.

“I knew I had no right to do it,” admitted Rosamond gayly.  “But I knew we always asked a few young people to swell the company to the dancing size, and I was sure you couldn’t ask anybody who would appreciate it more.”

“Hasn’t the poor fellow a chance at any other merry-making?” mocked Louis.  “Poor little millionaire!  Won’t anybody invite him to lead a Christmas Eve cotillion?  I believe there’s to be a most gorgeous affair of the sort at Mrs. Van Tassel Grieve’s that night.  Has he been inadvertently overlooked?  Not with Miss Gladys Grieve to oversee the list of the lucky ones, I’ll wager.  It’s a wonder he hadn’t accepted that invitation before you got in yours.”

“I didn’t get mine in,” was Rosamond’s demure rejoinder.  “I laid it in an humbly beseeching hand.”

“How on earth did he know there was to be a dance here?” Stephen inquired.

“I mentioned it.”

“I had already told him of it,” put in Judge Gray from the background, where he was listening with interest.  “I’m glad you asked him, Rosamond, and I’ll answer for your forgiveness.  While you are inviting I should like to invite his grandfather also.  Christmas Eve is a lonely time for him, I’ll be bound, and it would do him good to meet Rufus and Phil, and the rest again.”

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to end by being,” murmured Louis to Roberta:—­“a ‘Discontented Millionaires’ Home.’”

* * * * *

On the stairs an hour afterward a brief but significant colloquy took place between Rosamond Gray and her sister-in-law, Roberta.

“Why do you mind having him come, Rob?  Haven’t you any charity for the poor at Christmas time?”

“Poor!  He’s poor enough, but he doesn’t know it.”

“Doesn’t he?  The night he was here at dinner he told me he felt poor.”  Rosamond’s look was triumphant.  “He feels it very much; he’s never known what family life meant.”

“Do you imagine he can adapt himself to the conditions of the Christmas party?  If I catch him laughing—­ever so covertly—­I’ll send him home!”

“You savage person!  You don’t expect to catch him laughing!  He’s a gentleman.  And I believe he’s enough of a man to appreciate the aunts and uncles and cousins, even those of them who don’t patronize city tailors and dressmakers.  Why, they’re perfectly delightful people, every one of them, and he will have the discernment to see it.”