text: From the church, Grit took a cab to Gridleigh's mansion, paid the driver and turned around to admire the building. He stepped up to the front door and pulled the red velvet cord and heard the bell ring inside.
  
  A servant showed him into the library and within half a minute, Gridleigh appeared through a side door. The two men looked at each other and Gridleigh said, "I'm not sure what to say at a time like this, but please have a seat on the sofa. I'd love to have a long talk with you."
  
  Grit smiled and said, "That's why I'm here, and I hope our conversation will be most cordial."
  
  "Oh, it will be," Gridleigh said. "First, I'd like to show you some photos of my father as a young man." Gridleigh handed Grit the first photo, and Grit stared open-mouthed. It was almost as if he were looking at a photo of himself.
  
  "Very interesting," Grit said. Gridleigh handed him another photograph of the same man a few years later with a beard and mustache, and again it was as if Grit were looking at himself with the beard and mustache he'd shaved off before leaving home.
  
  "Incredible likeness, don't you think?" Gridleigh asked.
  
  "Yes, it's like I'm looking at photographs of myself," Grit said. "The resemblance is stunning."
  
  "Does that convince you we're related?" Gridleigh asked.
  
  "It's persuasive but not convincing," Grit said. "Only my mother, whom I don't remember at all, could tell us for sure. And I don't know if she's still alive."
  
  "Sarah Sloan is looking for her right now," Gridleigh said. "I'd like to see her too. If I'd known she was so destitute, I would've helped. Really I would have."
  
  "I'm sure that's true, but I'm like my mother in that regard," Grit said. "If I'd been turned away once, I wouldn't have asked."
  
  "Yes, well, you can't know how much I regret that," Gridleigh said.
  
  "I'm not blaming you at all," Grit said. "You didn't know you'd fathered a child, and quite frankly, I wouldn't change anything knowing what I know now."
  
  "I could have given you so many advantages in life," Gridleigh said.
  
  "But I wouldn't be the same person I am now," Grit said. "I wouldn't have met my wife, or my little adopted girl, both of whom I love with my whole heart, and I wouldn't have met my best friend. And I might not have the same character I have now."
  
  "What does that mean?" Gridleigh asked.
  
  "I don't know exactly, but I like who I am," Grit said. "I'm honest, faithful to my family and obsessive about creating a good life for my family and myself. If I'd had a life given to me, I doubt I'd have those qualities and the satisfaction of achieving my own goals. Maybe you can understand what I mean."
  
  "Yes, yes indeed," Gridleigh said. "I do understand. If you had all the money in the world, would you live in a house like this?"
  
  Grit laughed. "No offense, Mister Gridleigh, but no, I wouldn't. I like a smaller house where there's activity and closeness among family members. I love my wife and child so much that I want to be near them. I wouldn't mind having a baby crawling around at my feet. This kind of house doesn't suit me, and again, no offense, but it's far too ostentatious for me."
  
  Gridleigh smiled. "You've grown up to be the kind of man I wish I'd been."
  
  The two men had lunch together and Grit left in the afternoon after shaking hands with Gridleigh and wishing him well.
  
  "Thank you for coming," Gridleigh said. "If you're ever in Chicago, please come back and visit me. I'd love to meet your wife and daughter."
  
  As he left the mansion on South Prairie Avenue, Grit was almost sure that Gridleigh was his father. He asked the cab driver to take him to an address on the south side of the city. It was a two-story in a workingmen's section of town. He walked up the steps and knocked loudly on the door.
  
  A woman came to the door and said, "Yes?"
  
  "My name is Grit Milburn, Colleen's husband, and I'm visiting in Chicago. Colleen asked me to come by and introduce myself. She couldn't come because of her classes."
  
  "Oh, come in, come in," the woman said. "I'm Alice Byrne, and my husband will be coming home shortly, but we can talk until he comes. Would you like a cup of coffee?"
  
  "I would," Grit said. "That would be very nice."
  
  As she brought the coffee, Alice asked, "So how is Colleen?"
  
  "She's doing very well, goin' to college, ya know."
  
  "College? What college?"
  
  "The University of Nebraska," Grit said. "She's getting a degree in education."
  
  "How's she payin' for all that?"
  
  "Oh, we've got two of our family goin' to the university," Grit said.
  
  "Two? And you're payin' for it?"
  
  Grit laughed. "Well, sort of. Colleen is much happier when she's learning, so I suggested she go to college."
  
  "Imagine that!" Alice said. "She never wrote me about it!"
  
  "She's pretty busy. We have the four-year-old girl we adopted. Her name is Astrid, and then Colleen's carrying our first child and studying for all the courses she's taking."
  
  "Oh, my land sakes," Alice said. "So Colleen's expecting."
  
  Later Pat Byrne came in from his work with the city, and they all chatted amiably for about an hour until Grit said, "Well, it's a real pleasure to meet both of you. I hope to get Colleen and our daughter out here to visit when Colleen's got time off from college. Tonight, I have a meeting that I have to attend, so I'll say my goodbyes."