Hugh had owned that he felt
seriously inadequate for the role which was his to-night, being no
society man and unaccustomed to taking conspicuous parts anywhere but in
business. But Richard had assured him that it was all a very simple
matter, since it was just a question of standing by a friend in the
crisis of his life! And Hugh had responded that it would be a pity
indeed if he were unwilling to do that.
The next picture was that of the wide hall at the Gray home--as he came
into it a vivid memory flashed over Richard of his first entrance
there--less honoured than to-night! Soft lights shone upon him; the
spicy fragrance of the ropes and banks of Christmas "greens," bright
with holly, saluted his nostrils; and the glimpse of a great fire
burning, quite as usual, on the broad hearth of the living-room--a place
which had long since come to typify his ideal of a home--served to make
him feel that there could be no spot more suitable for the beginning of
a new home, because there could be nothing in the world finer or more
beautiful to model it upon.
Nothing seemed afterward clear in his memory until the moment when he
came from his room upstairs, with Hugh close behind him, and met the
rector of St.
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