He went straight up to her and put his arm affectionately about her neck.

“Moms,” he said in his winning way, “I want to run up to the city for this afternoon.  I’m a quarter short to buy my ticket.  Won’t you please let me have it?  I can pay you back out of my allowance.”

“What do you want to go to the city for, Rex?”

“Oh, I can’t stay here in uncertainty.  I want to see Syd to know for sure about things.  Besides, it will keep me from shocking you here if I go.”

“But Sydney is sure to be very busy.  You will bother him by going to the office.”

“No, I won’t.  He never lets me bother him.  Besides, I only want to see him for a minute.  You know I haven’t been in town since school closed.  The train goes in twenty minutes, and I’ll come back with Syd.  Please, moms.”

“All right, Rex, you may go, but remember I trust you not to annoy Sydney.  You will find my purse in my top bureau drawer, left hand corner.”

“You are the best mother a boy ever had.”  With a hasty kiss Rex was off, secured his quarter, and then with a wave of his hand toward the family, struck out across the pasture for the path that led up over the hill in a short cut to the station.

There was nobody so easy to get along with as Rex—­ as long as you allowed him to have his own way.

“That is a crazy notion of his, wanting to go in to town just because he can’t wait till Syd comes out,” remarked Roy when he heard of it.  At the same time he felt a sensation of relief to think that his impulsive brother was out of Marley and away from the temptation to disquiet the family by telling his fellow townsmen what he meant to do with their money when they came into it.

Rex meanwhile was enjoying himself hugely.  He saw nobody he knew at this unusual hour of going to town, but he lay back in his seat while the breeze, created by the swift motion of the cars, rushed refreshingly past him, and built air castles of the most luxurious description.

“It must be so,” he told himself, whenever the doubts suggested by Jess arose in his mind to trouble him.  “Dr. Martin congratulated Roy.  Everybody has known that Mr. Tyler had lots of money somewhere.”

When the train reached Philadelphia, Rex hurried off to the law office where Syd had his desk.  It was some distance from the station, but having spent all his money for his excursion ticket, he had none left for car fare.

“This will be the last time I’ll be so short,” he mused, a smile which he could not repress playing about the corners of his mouth.

Buoyed up by this reflection he did not so much mind the distance, nor the heat, which he found much more oppressive here in the city than it was in Marley.  He reached Syd’s place at last only to find that his brother was out and that the boy was not just sure when he would be back.

“But he’ll be here before he goes to the train, won’t he?” asked Rex.