"

"Well, not exactly shirking, perhaps, but the most observant person
would never suspect that you and Gertrude were anything more than
civilly tolerant cousins. I know her better than you do, my boy, and I
can assure you that she's not to be so lightly won. Ours is a fairly
practical family. I think I may say, but there is a streak of romance in
it which comes to the surface now and then in the women, and Gertrude
has her full share of it. Moreover, she doesn't care a pin for the
provisions of the will."

"Confound the will!" said the collegian. "I don't see why the old
gentleman had to fall back on a medieval dodge that always defeats
itself."

"Nor I; the matter would have been very much simplified if he had not.
But, unfortunately, we have to do with the fact."

"It strikes me that we've had to do with it all along. I used to think
Gertrude was rather fond of me, but since this money affair has come up,
I'm not so sure of it."

"Have you ever asked her?" inquired the President, with an apparent lack
of interest which was no index to his anxiety.

"Why--no; not in so many words, I believe. But how the deuce is a fellow
to make love to a girl when his grandfather has done it for him?"

"That, my dear Chester, is a question you ought to be able to answer for
yourself. You can hardly expect Gertrude to beg you to save her little
patrimony for her."

It was an unfortunate way of putting it, and Mr. Vennor regretted his
unwisdom when Fleetwell carried the thought to its legitimate
conclusion.

"There it is again, you see. That cursed legacy tangles the thing every
time you make a rush at it. I can understand just how she feels about
it. If she refuses me it will cost her something; if she doesn't there
will be plenty of the clan who will say that she had an eye to the
money."

"What difference will that make, so long as you know better?"

The question was so deliberate and matter-of-fact that Fleetwell forgot
himself and let frankness run away with him.

"That's just it; how the deuce is a fellow going to know----" but at
this point the cold eyes checked him, and he suddenly remembered that he
was speaking to Gertrude's father. Whereupon he stultified himself and
made a promise.

"Perhaps you are right, after all," he added. "Anyway, I'll have it out
with her to-night, after she comes back."

"'Have it out with her' doesn't sound very lover-like," suggested the
President, mildly. "I can assure you befo