Rex was not certain that he would do any town painting.  He would be quite content to be in Harrington’s company.

“I can go if it doesn’t cost too much,” he replied, thinking it best to be frank on that point on the start.  “You see, my allowance isn’t a big one as yet, and I don’t dare ask for any more.”

“Oh, ten dollars will squeeze through easy enough.”

Harrington said this as though ten dollars was no harder to get than ten cents.  Rex’s heart sank.  Where was he to obtain the two dollars and forty cents he still lacked?

“Won’t you come in?” Harrington asked, as Rex stopped in front of the Pells’.

“No; not to-night, I’ll meet you at the station to-morrow at a quarter to five.”

“What’s the matter with my calling here for you and our going up together?”

“Oh, I’ll have to go down town first and start from there.”  Rex felt that this was a very lame excuse.  He was not accustomed to telling untruths.

But Harrington seemed not to notice.

“All right, just as you say,” he replied.  “But I’ll see you in the morning any way.”

“Good night,” Rex called after him.

He felt that his not going home with Harrington was a good stroke of policy.  He decided to add another to it by sitting with the family a while before he went up to his room.

“Scott wanted to know if you can’t come down and see him to-morrow, Rex,” began Roy, as his brother seated himself on the top step and began fanning himself with his hat.  “He told me to tell you to come down on the 5:30 prepared to stay all night.”

Rex’s heart gave a sudden leap.  Circumstances seemed to favor his plan.  If he only had three dollars more now!

“I guess I’ll go” he said.  “Are you going, Roy?”

“No, I’m going to that ratification meeting with Syd to-morrow night, you know.  If you don’t go down to Marley, Rex, you’d better come with us.  There are to be some fine speeches.”

“Perhaps I will,” responded Rex.

He was turning over in his mind how he was going to get that money.  The matter of his getting off to the station was simple enough now.  He could even go with Harrington without exciting suspicion.  It would be supposed he was bound for Marley.

What a web of deceit he was planning to wind about himself.  But he forcibly put this thought out of his mind whenever it obtruded itself.  He would have time enough to repent when he came back.

CHAPTER XVII

 Rex arrives in new York

“I say, Roy, can you lend me three dollars?”

Rex had crossed the hall to his brother’s room some time after the family had come up stairs.

“Why, where’s all your money gone to, Rex?  I thought you were saving up to get mother a present.”

“So I was, but—­ but I’ve bought it and now I haven’t got enough left to take me down to Marley to-morrow night.  Just let me have three dollars.  I’ll pay you back when I get my next allowance on Monday,”