"Pray do not ask your man to do that, Mrs. Vanderbeck; I can take a car just as well," the young man exclaimed.
"No, indeed," she returned, with a brilliant smile, "I am sure it would be very uncourteous in me to allow you to do so after your kindness in coming with me."
She rang the bell, and the door was almost immediately opened by a colored servant, when the beautiful woman led the way to a small reception room on the right of the hall, where she invited her companion to be seated, while she went to arrange for the interview with her husband.
She glided gracefully from the room, and Ray, depositing upon the table the packages he held, began to remove his gloves, while he glanced about the elegant apartment, noticing its hangings and decorations and many beautiful pictures.
Presently a gentleman of very prepossessing appearance entered, and Ray, arising, was astonished to behold, instead of the invalid he had pictured to himself, a man in the prime of life and apparently in perfect health.
He bowed politely.
"Mr. Vanderbeck, I presume?" he remarked, inquiringly.
The gentleman smilingly returned his salute, without responding to the name, then courteously asked him to take a seat.
Ray took the proffered chair, and then observed, although he wondered why
Mrs. Vanderbeck did not return:
"As I suppose you know, I have called, at the request of Mrs. Vanderbeck, to have you examine some—Good heavens!"