“I mended his socks and gloves for him,” announced Aunt Ruth contentedly.  “You needn’t tell me they don’t miss a woman’s hand about the house, over there.”

“She mended Rich Kendrick’s socks and gloves!” murmured Louis, with a laughing, incredulous glance at Rosamond, who lifted delighted eyes to him.  “I can’t believe it.  He must have made holes in them on purpose.”

“Why, not even a spendthrift would do that!” Aunt Ruth promptly denied the possibility of such folly.  “I don’t say but they are lavish with things there.  Rufus and I were a good deal bothered by all their lights.  We couldn’t seem to get them all put out.  And every time we put them out, anywhere, somebody’d turn them on again for us.”

Uncle Rufus broke in here, narrating their experience with the various switch-buttons in the suite of rooms, and the company laughed until they wept over his comments.

“But all that’s neither here nor there,” said he, finally.  “Of course we weren’t up to such elaborate arrangements, and it made us feel sort of rustic.  But I can tell you they didn’t spare any pains to make us comfortable and at home—­if, as Ruth says, you can make anybody feel at home in a great place like that.  I feel, as she does, sorry for ’em both.  They’re pretty fine gentlemen, if I’m any judge, and I don’t know which I like better, the older or the younger.”

“There can be no question about the older,” said his brother, Robert Gray, joining in the talk with evident interest.  “Mr. Matthew Kendrick made his place long ago in the business world as one of the great and just.  He has taught that world many fine lessons of truth and honour, as well as of success.”

Judge Gray nodded.  “I’m glad to hear that you appreciate him, Robert,” said he.  “Few know better than I how deserved that is.  And still fewer recognize the fine and sensitive nature behind the impression of power he has always given.  He is the type of man, as sister Ruth here is quick to discern, who must be lonely in the midst of his great wealth, for the lack of just such a privilege as this we have here to-night, the close association with people whom we love, and with whom we sympathize in all that matters most.  Matthew Kendrick was a devoted husband and father.  In spite of his grandson’s presence, of late, he must sorely long for companionship.”

“His grandson’s going to give him more of that than he has,” declared Aunt Ruth, smiling over her knitting as if recalling a pleasant memory.  “He and I had quite a bit of talk while I was there, and he’s beginning to realize that he owes his grandfather more than he’s given him.  I had a good chance to see what was in that boy’s heart, and I know there’s plenty of warmth there.  And there’s real character in him, too.  I’ve had enough sons of my own to know the signs, and the fact that they were poor in this world’s goods, and he is rich—­too rich—­doesn’t make a mite of difference in the signs!”