assistant. On other days he would waken with a severe headache, the
result of the overstrain he was constantly tempted to give his eyes, in
spite of all the aid that was offered him. On such days Richard could
not always find enough to do to occupy his time, and would be obliged to
leave the house so early that many hours were on his hands. When this
happened, he would take the opportunity to drop in at one or two of his
clubs, and so convey the impression that only caprice kept him away on
other days. Curiously enough, this still seemed to him an object; he
might have found it difficult to explain just why, for he assuredly was
not ashamed of his new occupation.

Rather unexplainably to Richard, nearly the first fortnight of his new
experience went by without his meeting any members of the family except
the heads thereof and the younger son, Edgar, familiarly called by every
one "Ted." With this youthful scion of the house he was destined to form
the first real acquaintance. It came about upon a particularly rainy
November day. Richard had found Judge Gray suffering from one of his
frequent headaches, as a result of the overwork he had not been able
wholly to avoid. Therefore a long day's work of research in various
ancient volumes had been turned over to his assistant by an employer who
left him to return to a seclusion he should not have forsaken.

Richard was accustomed to run down to an excellent hotel for his
luncheon, and was preparing to leave the house for this purpose when Ted
leaped at him from the stairs, tumbling down them in great haste.

"Mr. Kendrick, won't you stay and have lunch with me? It's pouring
'great horn spoons' and I'm all alone."

"Alone, Ted? Nobody here at all?"