Then,
with the grace and dignity of an ambassador quitting a salon, he
passed out into the night.
Breen found his breath first: "And you know him?"
"Know him!" cried the Magnate--"of course I know him! One of the
most delightful men in New York; and I'm glad that you do--you're
luckier than I--try as I may I can hardly ever get him inside my
house."
I was sitting up for the old fellow when he entered his cosey red
room and dropped into a chair before the fire. I had seen the
impression the young man had made upon him at the dinner and was
anxious to learn the result of his visit. I had studied the boy
somewhat myself, noting his bright smile, clear, open face without
a trace of guile, and the enthusiasm that took possession of him
when his friend won the prize That he was outside the class of
young men about him I could see from a certain timidity of glance
and gesture--as if he wanted to be kept in the background. Would
the old fellow, I wondered, burden his soul with still another
charge?
Peter was laughing when he entered; he had laughed all the way
down-town, he told me.
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