en Father Boone entered his room, he found several letters on his
desk. They were mostly Church matters. But one was different. It was on
better quality of stationery than the ordinary. The envelope and the
paper bore a monogram. Opening it, he found these lines:

Dear Father Boone:

I want to thank you for all your kindness to John.
Enclosed is a little contribution for the Club.
Hereafter, it will be impossible for John to
attend the Club meetings, and so I request you to
drop his name from membership.

Sincerely yours,
Julia Harkins.
(Mrs. John Harkins.)

To Rev. Jerome Boone, S. J.

John Harkins resigned from the Club!... Anyone who knew Father Boone's
ideas about the Club would have understood at once what this resignation
meant to him. Mrs. Harkins' letter didn't explain why it was "impossible
for John to attend the Club" but it was clearly written between the
lines. John Harkins was a boy enjoying exceptional home advantages and
his refinement, manliness and social standards made him just the type to
give "tone" to the Club.

Mrs. Harkins was rightly very careful of the associations her son
formed, and Father Boone had been her guarantee that in the Club John
would mingle with perhaps poor, but good and manly boys. Evidently
rumors of the affair had reached her.

"The Club is discredited! The director has been asleep. Cockle in the
field. And here I am sitting and allowing the weeds to grow and the
wheat to be choked. I will get to the bottom of this at once. With the
Club's name in question, I am certainly justified in drastic action--in
probing the matter directly. I will send for Mulvy right away. I should
have done it long ago."

In answer to his summons, Frank was on hand a half hour ahead of time
that evening, but not ahead of Father Boone. He went straight to the
director's office and found him engaged at his desk.

"Sit down, Frank," the priest began, as he stopped work. "I am going to
get right down to business. I am speaking to you as an official of the
Club. The Club is being discredited. The parish is filled with reports
and rumors. I am being discredited. Look at that letter. Things have
gone too far. Heretofore, I have not asked you any questions on this
matter because your duty was plain. I wanted you to perform it like a