imparted by his cordial hand-clasp, as he leaned close and asked in a low voice:
"You got the Wadham currency?"
"Yes," Rollie answered eagerly and in an excited whisper told how he had laid the foundation stone of his new character by his I. O. U. left in the place of the currency.
"That is good," agreed the minister, his face beaming. "The right start, my boy, exactly."
Then, with a replica of that smile, sweet as a woman's, with which he had two hours before passed over his vault key to Rollie, he now placed in his hands an envelope like that which had contained the Wadham currency, only thicker. The young man seized it gratefully, but with fingers trembling so he could hardly get behind the flap of the envelope.
"It is there," said the minister, a little gurgle of emotion in his own throat.
"It is here," mumbled Rollie woodenly, a surge of relief and gratitude rising so high in his breast that it felt like a tense hard pain, and for a moment stifled the power of speech so that for want of words he reached out and touched the hand of the minister caressingly with his clammy fingers.
Hampstead, happier, if possible, than Rollie, understood his emotion.
"It's all right," he whispered. "Courage, boy, courage!" At the same time he laid a hand upon the young man's arm, with a pressure almost of affection. With the word and touch came clarity both of thought and feeling.
"Will you excuse me three or four minutes, Brother Hampstead?" Rollie inquired, the sudden leap of joy in his heart that the embezzlement was now to be legitimately wiped out so great that he could not this time stop to send the money across by a messenger.
