leave me cut off from the world. As I
told you, always before I have gloried in it. To-morrow--"

"We shall be waving to you to-morrow, Philip, and wishing you were with
us."

"It won't be long," Huntington added, "before you will be on one of
those same steamers on your way to us."

"I hope so," was the non-committal reply.

"We do want you, all of us," Merry smiled persuadingly. "We have come to
know each other so well here that we shall miss not being where we can
run in to disturb you in your work."

"I shall miss those interruptions too, and the work will be all I
shall have to fall back upon. Somehow," he added, turning to
Huntington,--"somehow I haven't been able to do the same work since you
have been here. I don't understand it. I have been happier during these
weeks than in all the years which preceded them, yet my work has not
been so good. Why is it?"

"The reason is obvious," Huntington answered quietly, but with a degree
of satisfaction in his tone. "In what you say I find a pledge that you
will come to us. Our visit, Hamlen, has disturbed the equilibrium of
your life; it can never be the same again. Your work now is not so good
because your mind has found a new horizon, and refuses to confine itself
within the narrow compass which it had before. You can't do as good work
again until your life finds new anchorage. Then you will reach heights
beyond your dreams; but it will be through your friends that the new
anchorage will come. We can afford to be patient, Hamlen, for you must
surely turn to us; you cannot avoid it no matter how hard you try."

Huntington's magnetic voice affected Hamlen as deeply as his words. His
vision seemed so clear, his domination so complete that it startled the
weaker man. Mrs. Thatcher and Merry knew at that moment that, if he
chose, Huntington could have compelled Hamlen to follow him to the ends
of the earth; and the response their host made showed that he recognized
it too.

"You won't force me, Huntington?" he appealed.

"It must come only when you wish it," was the reassuring reply; "but
when that moment does arrive, know well, dear friend, how hearty a
welcome awaits you."

Hamlen took his hand in both his own and gazed for a long moment into
Huntington's face. "Classmate--friend," was all he said, but those who
heard the words knew them to be enough.

As they mixed again with the others, and the conversation became more
general, the seriousness of Hamlen's