"Thank you, sir," said Rupert. "I don't find many guests so liberal."
"Shall I tell you why I am so liberal? It is because when I was a boy, rather older than you, I was for four months a bell-boy in a Chicago hotel."
"Were you, indeed, sir?" said Rupert, with interest. "Did you retire on a fortune?"
"No; fees were few and far between. However, I saved a little and borrowed a little more, and made my way first to Nevada, and afterwards to Colorado. I have been pretty well prospered, and now I come home to see my old father and mother in Maine."
"I hope you will find them well."
"Thank you, my boy, I heartily hope so. It is seventeen years since I have seen their dear old faces, and it will be a good day for me when we meet again."
"Are your father and mother both living?"
"Both at last accounts."
"Then you are luckier than I am. My father is dead."