ck with some
curiosity. "I reckon you never took that sort of a ride, when you were a
boy?" he queried.

"Yes, yes, I have--many a time," Mr. Kendrick insisted. "And great times
we had. Boys and girls needed no electricity to keep them comfortable on
the coldest of nights. It's my grandson Richard who feels this sort of
thing a necessity. Until he came home a carriage and pair had been all
the equipage I needed."

"Grandfather is getting where a little extra warmth on a blustering
winter's day is essential to his comfort," Richard declared, feeling a
curious necessity, somehow, to justify the use of the expensive and
commodious equipage in the eyes of the country gentleman who seemed to
regard it so lightly.

"It's very nice," Mrs. Gray said quickly. "I should hardly know I was
outdoors at all. And how smoothly it runs along over the streets. The
young man out there in front must be a very good driver, I should think.
He doesn't seem to mind the car-tracks at all."

"No, Rogers doesn't bother much about car-tracks," Richard agreed
gravely. "His idea is to get home and to bed."

"It is pretty late--and I'm afraid waiting for us has made you a good
deal later than you would have been," said Mrs. Gray regretfully.

"Not a bit--no, no."

"We'll go right to our room as soon as we get there," said she, "and you
mustn't trouble to do a thing extra for us."

"It's going to be a great pleasure to have you under our roof," the
young man assured her, smiling.

Arrived at the great stone mansion which was the well-known residence of
Matthew Kendrick, as it had been of his family for several generations,
Richard stared up at it with a sense of strangeness. Except for the
halls and dining-room, his grandfather's quarters and his own, he could
not remember seeing it lighted as other homes were lighted, with rows of
gleaming windows here and there, denoting occupancy by many people. Now,
one whole wing, where lay the special suite of guest-rooms used at long
intervals for particularly distinguished persons, was brilliantly
shining out upon the December night.

The car drew up beneath a massive covered entrance-porch, and a great
door swung back. A heavy-eyed, elderly butler admitted the party, which
were ushered into an impressive but gloomy and inhospitable looking
reception-room. Matthew Kendrick glanced somewhat uncertainly at his
nephew, who promptly took things in charge.

"I thought perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Gray would h