the old man replied.
"Somehow it seems as if your grandmother would rest the sweeter for
feelin' you were near by. An' anyhow, it's a mark of respect to the
dead. You're bound to show that, no matter how you feel. I'm pretty
sure that if you an' your grandmother had had the chance to get better
acquainted, you would have loved one another dearly. It was only that
it all came too late for you to feel toward her the same as Bob does."

"Perhaps!" Delight returned with half-dazed seriousness.

So it was decided the two young persons would go with the Galbraiths to
New York, and the next day they joined the Belleport family and
followed the body of the fine, stately old Southern woman to its last
resting place. There were no outside friends among the small group of
mourners, and the two days of constant and intimate companionship drew
them together with a closeness very vital in its results. Delight was
received into the circle with a tact and affection that not only put
her at her ease but won her heart; and Robert Morton, as Madam Lee's
favorite, was as much a part of the family as if he had been born into
it. For the time being, the common grief banished from his mind every
other thought, and once again he and his old-time friends met without a
shadow of distrust between them. Even Cynthia was in her most
appealing mood, casting all caprice and artificiality aside and
centering most of her attention on her newly acquired cousin. The
silent benediction of peace the presence of the dead brought brooded
over them all, and it was with no perfunctory tenderness that Delight
bent and gently kissed her grandmother's cold forehead.

Then came the journey back to Belleport, and as Mr. Galbraith, Roger,
and Howard Snelling were all detained in New York, it was Bob who
brought the party home. In the meantime no opportunity had presented
itself for broaching to the financier the subject of Willie's
invention. The interval during the funeral rites was too inopportune,
and Robert Morton had lacked both the inclination and the courage to
break in upon such an occasion with an affair so sordid and unpleasant.
He had hoped that during the return to the Cape some chance for a talk
with the capitalist would be afforded him. But now there was no help
for it but to go back to Willie Spence's with the weight still heavy on
his heart. Mr. Galbraith, he learned, would have to remain in the city
two weeks or more; and an importan