Would he?  Such a radiant smile shone through the little bare room that the May breeze, catching its light at the window, clapped gay applause 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 the reasons for this action which appeared upon the surface, but I want you to know the inner workings—­I asked your cousin to bring me here that I might have the pleasure of telling you.”

It was rather warm, and the old gentleman had climbed stairs, and his conversation had been weighty and steady.  He arrested its flow for a moment and took a long breath.  “Don’t stop,” said Rex earnestly, and the others broke into sudden laughter.

“I like that,” Judge Rush sputtered, chuckling.  “You’re ready to let me kill myself, if needs be, to get the facts.  All right, young man—­I like impetuosity—­it means energy.  I’ll go on.  The facts not known to the public, which I wish to tell you, are as follows.  After your failure to keep your appointment on the evening of the 7th, I was about through with you.  I considered you careless both of your own interests and ours, and we began to look for another assistant.  A man who fitted the place as you did seemed hard to find and the case was in statu quo when, two nights ago, my son brought home young William Strong to dinner.  Our families are old friends and Billy’s father and I were chums in college, so the boy is at home in our house.  As you probably know, he has the gift of telling a good story, so when he began on the events of an evening which you will remember——­”