So it was settled. Richard drove back to the store and gathered together
various articles for his own and his grandfather's use, and returned to
the Gray fireside. The long and pleasant evening which followed the
hearty country supper gave him one more new experience in the long list
of them he was acquiring. Somehow he had seldom been happier than when
he followed his hostess into the comfortable room upstairs she assigned
him, opening from that she had given the elder man. Cheerful fires
burned in old-fashioned, open-hearthed Franklin stoves, in both rooms,
and the atmosphere was fragrant with the mingled breath of crackling
apple-wood, and lavender from the fine old linen with which both beds
had been freshly made.
"Sleep well, my dear friends," said Aunt Ruth, in her quaintly friendly
way, as she bade her guests good-night and shook hands with them,
receiving warm responses.
"One must find sweet repose under your roof," said Matthew Kendrick, and
Richard, attending his hostess to the door, murmured, "You look as if
you'd put two small boys to bed and tucked them in!" at which Aunt Ruth
laughed with pleasure, nodding at him over her shoulder as she went
away.
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