"Welcome home! I hope I didn't interrupt your work, but it seemed I couldn't _wait_! And, of course, I haven't _half_ thanked you yet, haven't begun to tell you how much--how much--I appreciate all you've done for me...." Once more, the fortunate Charles was brushing aside a lady's gratitude--rather generously, considering the infrequency of grounds of gratitude here. He laughed gaily into the receiver. "The real point is, why under the sun did you connect me right away with the remarkable outburst of popular admiration? Hartwell went gossiping about, I suppose?" "I didn't need Mr. Hartwell to tell me anything about that! But--" "Aha! So Fanny told you about the photographs--" "She never breathed a word--" "Good-evening, Miss Holmes!--old Watson speaking! Will you kindly explain your--!" "Why, of course there wasn't but one person on earth who could have done such a beautiful thing for me!" All alone in the hall, Charles felt himself coloring with pleasure. However, the unwonted flush was not for long. "I have to pinch myself," the girl's eager voice rushed on (did it sound just a thought more triumphant than even the author of the write-ups could have expected?),--"for every magazine I pick up is full of nothing but Me! I've just seen 'Willcox's'--oh, you don't know how much I liked that! You've simply taken my breath away! And then to come in and find _this_!--everything beautiful happening to me at once! I--" "What? _More_ honors, celebrity?" "The greatest!--the most wonderful! Mr. Garrott, what DO you suppose?" Mr. Garrott hardly liked the slant the conversation was taking. The understanding was that whatever beautiful things happened to the Career were to happen exclusively through him now. "Why!--I can't guess! Not--Has the School Board--" "Pish for the School Board," cried the voice that was wont to be so calm. "You're talking to _the new Secretary of the League_!" "I'm.... _What?_" "The person you're conversing with, if you please, is the General Secretary of the National League for Education Reform!" Her happy laugh rang on the wire: "Are you _staggered_? Well, I am, too! I simply can't begin to take it in...." Had Mrs. Herman's house fallen about his ears, the young man at the telephone-table could, indeed, scarcely have been staggered more. His sense was of one falling headlong through space. He gripped the edge of the table with a large left hand, and for the instant there was no speech in him. "I found the letter from Dr. Ames when I got in just now--oh, the nicest letter, explaining everything! And of course I wanted to tell you right away--you've been so good about wanting to help! Don't you remember, it was you who spoke of this as my brilliant revenge? We little thought then ..."