“But I thought you and Roy were going to a meeting of your school society,” returned Jess.  “If it hadn’t been for that we could have stayed to dinner at the Minturns’.”

“Great Scott, I forgot all about the Stylus!” exclaimed Rex.  “Well, it don’t matter; we’ll have to give it up any way.”

The coming of night seemed to bring with it to Reginald a realizing sense of all that the new order of things would mean.  He relapsed into thoughtfulness, in the midst of which he half sprang from his seat with an inarticulate exclamation.

“What’s the matter, Rex?” inquired Eva.  “Oh, nothing,” he responded.  But the color deepened slightly in his cheek, and he looked furtively at Roy.

The cause of his start was the remembrance of what Sydney had said about the name Darley having caused him to determine to confess.

“If I had not gone off with Harrington that time,” was Rex’s inference, “Miles would not have come into my life, and we would not now be facing poverty.”

But the blush was the shame at the idea that he would be willing to enjoy the fruits of Sydney’s crime provided he did not know about it.

“I always feel sorry for Miles when he comes to see us,” remarked Eva.

“Why?” asked Rex quickly.

“Because he seems to feel embarrassed, as though he were out of place.  He isn’t in the least.  He has very nice manners, and I’m sure is a perfect gentleman.  But what he needs is a little more self assurance.”

“Oh, he’ll get that fast enough now,” said Rex, and then looked fixedly away from the scandalized glance he knew Roy was directing at him.

“I’ll go home with the girls if you’ll wait at the station for Miles, Rex,” and Reginald was glad to be left alone for a few minutes.

“It doesn’t seem as if it could be so,” he mused, as he walked up and down the pavement opposite the Public Buildings.  “Miles and I to change places!”

People hurrying to catch outgoing trains jostled him; the clang of the cable car bells sounded every few seconds; the noises of the city life he loved were all about him.

“Where shall I be a year from now?” he asked himself.

But it was nearly time for Miles’s train.  Rex turned and went up the stairway to the left of the station building.  As he did so, he passed a familiar face coming down.  It was the boy who got him into trouble with the Chinaman that July afternoon six months before.

But Rex felt no resentment now.

“If that was the only trouble I had to think about!” he told himself enviously.

Of such power is comparison.

Miles’s train was on time.  Rex saw Miles standing on the step of the forward car, ready to spring off at the first opportunity.  His face lighted up to a still greater radiance at sight of Rex waiting for him.

“I didn’t think you’d come to meet me,” he said, as he shook hands.  “It is awfully good of you.  I’m so glad to see you.”