against the flapping curtain. This was as it should be.

But the breeze and the postman were not to be the only messengers of
happiness. Steps sounded down the long, empty hall, stopped at his
door, and Rex, a new joy of living pulsing through him, sprang again,
almost before the knock sounded, to meet gladly what might be coming.
His face looked out of the wide-open doorway with so bright a welcome to
the world, that the two men who stood across the threshold smiled an
involuntary answer.

"Carty! I'm awfully glad"--and Rex stopped to put his hand out
graciously, deferentially, to the gray-haired and distinguished man who
stood with Carter Reed.

"Judge Rush, this is my cousin, Mr. Fairfax," Reed presented him, and in
a moment Rex's friend, the breeze, was helping hospitality on with gay
little refreshing dashes at a warm, silvered head, as Judge Rush sat in
the biggest chair at the big open window. He beamed upon the young man
with interested, friendly eyes.

"That's all very well about the quadrangle, Mr. Reed. It certainly is
beautiful and like the English Universities," he broke into a sentence
genially. "But I wish to talk to Mr. Fairfax. I've come to bring you
the first news, Mr. Fairfax, of what you will hear officially within a
day or two--that the vestry of St. Eric's hope you will consider a call
to be our assistant rector." Rex's heart almost stopped beating, and his
smile faded as he stared breathless at this portly and beneficent
Mercury. Mercury went on "A vestry meeting was held last night in which
this was decided upon. Your brilliant record in this seminary and other
qualifications which have been mentioned to us by high authorities, were