"The four of us are all different enough to make just the combination we need. I'm tired of bunking alone. I want to rub up against some one else." "There's nothing I could have thought of better, Bob. You're right, we four ought to be friends--real friends--and stand together. Here's my hand on it." "Bully. I've spoken to Joe, and he's going to see Regan. I say, Dink, drop in soon." "Sure thing." "I mean at the house." "Oh, yes." A little constraint came to him, and then a flush of boyish hope. "I'm coming round." "Because--the family have been wondering." When Bob had gone, Stover stood a long while gazing at the excited groups about the fence, retailing the all-important news. "By George, I'll do it," he said at last. "I'll not leave it to Tommy Bain or Jim Hunter. It may be a fight, but I'm going out to lead because I can do it, and because I believe in the right things." Then he thought over all the incidents of Bob's visit, and he fell into a musing state with sudden wild jumps of the imagination. "I wonder--did he come of his own accord--I wonder if she knew!" With one of his old-time sudden resolves, he went that very night to the Storys'. The struggle he had come through in victory showed in a new, abrupt self-confidence. He felt older by a year than at his last visit. Jean Story was at the piano, Jim Hunter on the wide seat beside her, turning over the leaves of her music. He saw it from the hall in the first glance. The Judge, surprised, came to him, delighted. "Well, if here isn't Dink in the flesh. How are you? Thought you'd eloped somewhere. Glad to see you; tarnation if I'm not glad to shake your hand." Hungerford, Bain, Bob Story, and Stone were present; a little difference in their several greetings. "Well, we're holding a sort of wake here," said the Judge cheerily. "Bain seems the most afflicted." "It's a hard moment," said Stover calmly, knowing that any expression of opinion from him would be resisted in certain quarters. "I felt quite upset myself to-day when I heard the news, despite the stand I've taken." Hunter looked up and then down, but said nothing. "It's for the best," said Hungerford, not wishing him to stand alone. "Best for the college as a whole." "That remains to be seen," said Bain. "I passed Gimbel coming over, and his crowd. It wasn't very pleasant." "Well, it's over," said Dink in a matter-of-fact tone. "No post-mortem! The great thing now is to recognize what exists. The class to-day is shot to pieces. We want to get together again. One half our time's up, and, wherever the fault, we've done nothing but scrap and get apart." "I've been telling them a little about your scheme, yours and Brockhurst's," said Story. Stover launched into an enthusiastic argument in its support. Bain and Hunter followed, instinctive in their opposition, each perceiving all the superiority that would derive to Stover from its success.