It's wonderful. I never heard of anything so--so--all it
should be for--a girl like her," Hugh exclaimed, lamely enough, yet with
a certain eloquence of inflection which meant more than his choice of
words. He turned to Richard. "I can't tell you," he went on, flushing
with the effort to convey to his friend his deep feeling, "how fortunate
I think you are, and how I hope--oh, I hope you and she will be--the
happiest people in the world!"

"I'm sure you hope that, old fellow," Richard answered, more touched by
this difficult voicing of what he knew to be Hugh's genuine devotion
than he should have been by the most felicitous phrasing of another's
congratulations. "And I can tell you this. There's nobody else I know
whom I would have brought here to see my preparations--nobody else who
would have understood how I feel about--what I'm doing to-day. I never
should have believed it would have seemed so--well, so sacred a thing to
take a girl away from all the people who love her, and bring her to a
place like this. I wish--wish I were a thousand times more fit for her."

"Rich Kendrick--" Benson was taken out of himself now. His voice was
slightly tremulous, but he spoke with less difficulty than before. "You
are fitter than you know. You've developed as I never thought any man
could in so short a time. I've been watching you and I've seen it. There
was always more in you than people gave you credit for--it was your
inheritance from a father and grandfather who have meant a great deal in
their world. You've found out what you were meant for, and you're coming
up to new and finer standards every day. You _are_ fit to take this
girl--and that means much, because I know a little of what a--" Now _he_
was floundering again, and his fine, then face flamed more hotly than
before--"of what she is!" he ended, with a complete breakdown in the
style of his phraseology, but with none at all in the conveyance of his
meaning.

Richard flung out his hand, catching Hugh's, and gripping it. "Bless you
for a friend and a brother!" he cried, his eyes bright with sudden
moisture. "You're another whom I mustn't disappoint. Disappoint? I ought
to be flayed alive if I ever forget the people who believe in me--who
are trusting me with--Roberta!"

It was a pity she could not have heard him speak her name, have seen the
way he looked at his friend as he spoke it, and have seen the way his
friend looked back at him. There was a quality in their