hard on Westby."

The rector smiled; he was not displeased at this trace of stubbornness.

"Well, I won't advise you any further about that. Use your own judgment.
It takes time for a young man to get his bearings in a place like
this.--If you don't mind my saying it," added the rector mildly,
"couldn't you be a little more objective in your interests?"

"You mean," said Irving, "less--less self-centred?"

"That's it." The rector smiled.

"I'll try," said Irving humbly.

"All right; good luck." The rector shook hands with him and turned to
his desk.

There was no disturbance in the Mathematics class that day. Irving hoped
that after the hour Westby and Collingwood might approach him to discuss
the justice of the reports which he had given them, and so offer him an
opportunity of lightening the punishment. But in this he was
disappointed. Nor did they come to him in the noon recess--the usual time
for boys who felt themselves wronged to seek out the masters who had
wronged them.

Irving debated with himself the advisability of going to the two boys
and voluntarily remitting part of their task. But he decided against
this; to make the advances and the concession both would be to concede
too much.

At luncheon there was an unpleasant moment. No sooner had the boys sat
down than Blake, a Fifth Former, called across the table to Westby,--

"Say, Westby, who was it that gave you three sheets?"

Westby scowled and replied,--

"Mr. Upton."

"What for?"

"Oh, ask him."

Irving reddened, aware of the glancing, curious gaze of every boy at the
table. There was an interesting silence, relieved at last by the
appearance of the boy with the mail. Among the letters, Irving found one
from Lawrence; he opened it with a sense that it afforded him a
momentary refuge. The unintended irony of the first words drew a bitter
smile to his lips.

"You are certainly a star teacher," Lawrence wrote, "and I know now what
a success you must be making with your new job. I have just learned that
I passed all the examinations--which is more than you or I ever dreamed I
could do--so I am now a freshman at Harvard without conditions. And it's
all due to you; I don't believe there's another man on earth that could
have got me through with such a record and in so short a time."

Irving forgot the irony, forgot Westby and Collingwood and the amused,
whispering boys. Happiness had suddenly flashed down and caught him up
and borne him