.

"Yes; as far as you are able. I am told that you are used to laboratory
work. Would this suit you?"

Agatha's eyes sparkled. "It would realize my pet ambition."

"Very well. We had better talk about the salary. My notion is--"

Agatha thought the offer generous. She would be richer than she had been
yet and there was an object for which she needed money. She felt
flattered and almost overjoyed. The work she was asked to do might start
her well on the road she had long wished to take.

"There is another matter," the man resumed when she declared that she
was satisfied. "It will be necessary for you to come to Europe. My wife
will take care of you."

"Then you are going to Europe?" Agatha said with a curious sinking of
her heart.

"Yes. I must consult an eminent Frenchman and two or three Austrians.
They have studied some of the problems I am up against."

"When do you start?" Agatha asked with forced quietness.

"In about three weeks, if I can get ready."

Agatha tried to brace herself. The disappointment was hard to bear, and
for a few moments she engaged in a bitter struggle. If she took the post
and went to Europe, she could not go North for a year, and Thirlwell
might not be able to help her then. She knew that she had counted on his
help, and that without it she could not penetrate far into the wilds.
Indeed, it was possible that she could not start at all.

Yet, if she went North, she must refuse an alluring offer and throw away
an opportunity for making her mark. Her ambition must be abandoned, and
if she failed to find the silver, she would have to resume her
monotonous duties at the school. She was beginning to find them
strangely dreary. Then George had warned her against sacrificing her
youth, and perhaps all her life, to the pursuit of a shadow. Her friends
did not believe in the silver, and she doubted if she could find the
vein. Failure might leave her sour and the hardships break her health;
she would come back with her savings exhausted to toil and deny herself
again. Yet the lode was waiting to be found somewhere in the North, and
the duty she had accepted long since must come first.

"Then I'm sorry I cannot go," she said with an effort.

The man looked surprised. "The voyage is short and comfortable if one
travels by a big, fast boat. I expect to work hard, but you would have
some leisure and opportunities for seeing famous pictures, statues, and
laboratories. Then you would meet emin