Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/224

196 place, but I've got to play this half through myself, I've got to play this half through myself.' He dropped off to sleep still murmuring it."

Harry winked sudden tears from his eyes; Rupert had received his message.

"That will please Herrick," he said. "I'll tell him."

"I wish I could remember all he's said about you, Harry. They were very nice things." Mrs. Onnsby smiled. "He seemed so afraid you would n't understand why he was refusing to do something—to join some society, I think. He was afraid he'd hurt your feelings."

"He never did that. I—I guess I know what he meant."

Afterward, when they went away, Harry said to Frank Windsor, "That was the Crown Rupert was talking about." Frank nodded and made no answer. It was three mornings after this, on Saturday, that Harry, trying to solve a neglected geometry problem in the few minutes between breakfast and chapel, found himself with too