estby, the humorist, had suddenly become the butt, a position which he
had rarely occupied before.

He was quite subdued through that meal. Once in the middle of it, Irving
looked at him and caught his eye, and on a sudden impulse leaned back
and laughed. Carroll joined in, Westby blushed once more, the Sixth
Formers at the next table looked over and began to laugh; the other boys
cast wondering glances.

"What's the joke, Mr. Upton?" asked Blake.

"Oh, don't ask _me_," said Irving. "Ask Westby."

"What is it, Wes?" said Blake, and could not understand why he received
such a vicious kick under the table, or why Carroll said in such a
jeering way, "Yes, Wes, what _is_ the joke, anyhow?"

When the meal was over, Westby's friends lay in wait for him outside in
the hall, crowded round, and began patting him on the back and offering
him their jocular sympathy. To have the joke turned on the professional
humorist appeared to be extremely popular; and the humorist did not take
it very well. "Oh, get out, get out!" he was saying, wrenching himself
from the grasp of first one and then another. And Irving came out just
as he exclaimed in desperation, "Just the same, I'll bet it's all a
fake; I'll bet he hasn't got a brother!"

He flung himself around, trying to escape from Collingwood's clutch,
and saw Irving. The smile faded from Irving's face; Westby looked at him
sullenly for a moment, then broke away and made a rush up the stairs.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HARVARD FRESHMAN

For two or three days the intercourse between Irving and Westby was of
the most formal sort. At table they held no communication with each
other; in the class-room Irving gave Westby every chance to recite and
conscientiously helped him through the recitation as much as he did any
one else; in the dormitory they exchanged a cold good-night. Irving did
not press Westby for a retraction of the charge which he had overheard
the boy make; it seemed to him unworthy to dignify it by taking such
notice of it. He knew that none of the boys really believed it and that
Westby himself did not believe it, but had been goaded into the
declaration in the desperate effort to maintain a false position. Irving
wondered if the boy would not have the fairness to make some
acknowledgment of the injustice into which his pride had provoked him.

And one day at luncheon, Westby turned to Irving and with an embarrassed
smile said,

"Mr. Upton, do you get any news fr