“Yes, I’ve always felt that,” Ronald murmured, flushing.

“Your father’s son, and no mistake.”  Mr. Grew leaned forward.  “You’re the son of as big a fool as yourself.  And here he sits, Ronald Grew.”

The young man’s flush deepened to crimson; but Mr. Grew checked his reply with a decisive gesture.  “Here he sits, with all your young nonsense still alive in him.  Don’t you see the likeness?  If you don’t, I’ll tell you the story of those letters.”

Ronald stared.  “What do you mean?  Don’t they tell their own story?”

“I supposed they did when I gave them to you; but you’ve given it a twist that needs straightening out.”  Mr. Grew squared his elbows on the table, and looked at the young man across the gift-books and the dyed pampas grass.  “I wrote all the letters that Dolbrowski answered.”

Ronald gave back his look in frowning perplexity.  “You wrote them?  I don’t understand.  His letters are all addressed to my mother.”

“Yes.  And he thought he was corresponding with her.”

“But my mother—­what did she think?”

Mr. Grew hesitated, puckering his thick lids.  “Well, I guess she kinder thought it was a joke.  Your mother didn’t think about things much.”

Ronald continued to bend a puzzled frown on the question.  “I don’t understand,” he reiterated.

Mr. Grew cleared his throat with a nervous laugh.  “Well, I don’t know as you ever will—­quite.  But this is the way it came about.  I had a toughish time of it when I was young.  Oh, I don’t mean so much the fight I had to put up to make my way—­there was always plenty of fight in me.  But inside of myself it was kinder lonesome.  And the outside didn’t attract callers.”  He laughed again, with an apologetic gesture toward his broad blinking face.  “When I went round with the other young fellows I was always the forlorn hope—­the one that had to eat the drumsticks and dance with the left-overs.  As sure as there was a blighter at a picnic I had to swing her, and feed her, and drive her home.  And all the time I was mad after all the things you’ve got—­poetry and music and all the joy-forever business.  So there were the pair of us—­my face and my imagination—­chained together, and fighting, and hating each other like poison.

“Then your mother came along and took pity on me.  It sets up a gawky fellow to find a girl who ain’t ashamed to be seen walking with him Sundays.  And I was grateful to your mother, and we got along first-rate.  Only I couldn’t say things to her—­and she couldn’t answer.  Well—­one day, a few months after we were married, Dolbrowski came to New York, and the whole place went wild about him.  I’d never heard any good music, but I’d always had an inkling of what it must be like, though I couldn’t tell you to this day how I knew.  Well, your mother read about him in the papers too, and she thought it’d be the swagger thing to go to New York and hear him play—­so we went...  I’ll never forget that evening.  Your mother wasn’t easily stirred up—­she never seemed to need to let off steam.  But that night she seemed to understand the way I felt.  And when we got back to the hotel she said suddenly:  ’I’d like to tell him how I feel.  I’d like to sit right down and write to him.’