A Good Samaritan

A Good Samaritan, by Mary
Raymond Shipman

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Shipman Andrews, Illustrated by Charlotte Harding
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Title: A Good Samaritan
Author: Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews
Release Date: May 26, 2005 [eBook #15906]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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SAMARITAN***
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A GOOD SAMARITAN
by
MARY RAYMOND SHIPMAN ANDREWS
Illustrated by Charlotte Harding
New York McClure, Phillips & Co.
Second Impression MCMVI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"That'll get even Webster's Union for chargin' me two cents for 'soon,'"
he chuckled
"Recky," he bubbled, "good old Recky--bes' fren' ev' had"
"Who's your friend, Billy?"
"Thank you--thank you very much--very, very much--old rhinoceros"
"So tired," he remarked. "Go'n have good nap now"
"Could he--couldn't he?"
At every station the conductor and Rex had to reason with him

A GOOD SAMARITAN
The little District Telegraph boy, with a dirty face, stood at the edge of

the desk, and, rubbing his sleeve across his cheek, made it
unnecessarily dirtier.
"Answer, sir?"
"No--yes--wait a minute." Reed tore the yellow envelope and spread
the telegram. It read:
"Do I meet you at your office or at Martin's and what time?"
"The devil!" Reed commented, and the boy blinked indifferently. He
was used to stronger. "The casual Rex all over! Yes, boy, there's an
answer." He scribbled rapidly, and the two lines of writing said this:
"Waiting for you at office now. Hurry up. C. Reed."
He fumbled in his pocket and gave the youngster a coin. "See that it's
sent instantly--like lightning. Run!" and the sharp little son of New
York was off before the last word was well out.
Half an hour later, to Reed waiting at his office in Broadway
impatiently, there strolled in a good-looking and leisurely young man
with black clothes on his back and peace and good-will on his face.
"Hope I haven't kept you waiting, Carty," he remarked in friendly tones.
"Plenty of time, isn't there?"
"No, there isn't," his cousin answered, and there was a touch of snap in
the accent. "Really, Rex, you ought to grow up and be responsible. It
was distinctly arranged that you should call here for me at six, and now
it's a quarter before seven."
"Couldn't remember the hour or the place to save my life," the younger
man asserted earnestly. "I'm just as sorry as I can be, Carty. You see I
did remember we were to dine at Martin's. So much I got all right--and
that was something, wasn't it, Carty?" he inquired with an air of wistful
pride, and the frown on the face of the other dissolved in laughter.
"Rex, there's no making you over--worse luck. Come along. I've got to

go home to dress after dinner you see, before we make our call. You'll
do, on the strength of being a theological student."
The situation was this: Reginald Fairfax, in his last year at the
Theological Seminary, in this month of May, and lately ordained, had
been seriously spoken of as assistant to the Rector of the great church
of St. Eric's. It was a remarkable position to come the way of an
undergraduate, and his brilliant record at the seminary was one of the
two things which made it possible. The other was the friendship and
interest of his cousin, Carter Reed, head clerk in the law firm of Rush,
Walden, Lee and Lee, whose leading member, Judge Rush, was also
senior warden at St. Eric's. Reed had called Judge Rush's attention to
his young cousin's career, and, after some inquiry, the vestryman had
asked that the young man should be brought to see him, to discuss
certain questions bearing on the work. It was almost equivalent to a call
coming from such a man, and Reed was delighted; but here his troubles
began. In vain did he hopefully fix date after date with the slippery
Rex--something always interfered. Twice, to his knowledge, it had
been the chance of seeing a girl from Orange which had thrown over
the chance of seeing the man of influence and power. Once the evening
had been definitely arranged with Judge Rush himself, and Reed was
obliged to go alone and report that the candidate had disappeared into a
tenement district and no