A private letter from Professor Lee had communicated the news, joyful to all his friends at the college, that Charley would return fully restored to health and strength, wholly free from his old weaknesses, ready to take up his work where he had left it off, and earnest in his desire to reach up to the measure of sterling manhood.
A small party went down to New York from the college on Monday night to meet the Lees when they should land, and escort them home. Parmenter was among the number. When his friend Robinson heard that he was going, he said to him with great earnestness:
“Why, Fred, you’re crazy! You can’t get back here till Tuesday at midnight, at the very best; and how can you expect to go on the stage Wednesday morning all broken up with the journey, and be any credit to yourself or your friends? For your own sake, and the sake of your class, you ought not to do it. With all due deference to Sammy Lee, I repeat that you’re crazy.”
Robinson paced the floor in a high state of indignation, forgetting, in his unselfish zeal for his friend’s success, that he was himself a competitor for the same honors.
Parmenter smiled a little, and said quietly, “Don’t fret, Rob. I want to see the professor and Charley when they land; but I shall be back here all right on Wednesday morning, and all ready.”
So Parmenter went to New York. Some of Professor Lee’s enthusiastic admirers among the alumni there had chartered an excursion steamer to go down the bay, meet the incoming ocean vessel, take the professor and his family off at quarantine, and give them such a welcome home as they would not soon forget.
Invitations were sent to all the old Concord boys and their families to accompany the party, and quick messages were to notify them to hasten to the pier of the excursion boat as soon as the incoming vessel should be sighted.
But Tuesday morning went by and no call came. Noon passed, and the steamer had not yet been heard from. The party of undergraduates and alumni that had gathered at the office on the pier dwindled slowly as the afternoon slipped by, until at last only Parmenter and Delavan were left. Delavan had stepped from the place of tutor up to a professor’s chair; he filled it most worthily.
He pulled out his watch, glanced at it, and turned to Parmenter in surprise.