the fool who doesn't change his
opinion--and change it frequently, too?" he bantered back at her.

"You must have changed a whole lot, Nelson Haley," she declared, with
sudden gravity. "Don't--don't you feel awfully _funny_ inside? It's a
terrible shock, I should think, for one to turn right square around----"

"I don't feel humorous--not a little bit," he interposed, seriously.
"I have been working toward an end. I expect my reward."

"Oh, Nelson! The college? Are they really going to invite you to go
there to teach?"

"That isn't the reward I mean," he said, shaking his head.

"For pity's sake! something bigger than _that_? My!" Janice cried, all
dimpling again, "but you are a person with great expectations, aren't
you?"

"I certainly am," he said, bowing gravely. "I have a great goal in
view. Let me tell you----"

But suddenly she jumped up and walked along the edge of the inlet away
from the dock. "Oh, do come along, Nelson. We don't want to sit there
all day."

Nelson, flushed and only half rose. Then he settled back again and
said, with some doggedness:

"I've got something to tell you myself. This is a good place to talk."

"Why, how serious!"

"It is serious business--for me," declared the young man.

"And you're a trifle ungallant," she accused, looking at him from under
lowered lashes.

"This is no time for gallantry. This is _business_."

"What business?" she asked, tentatively approaching.

"The business of living. The business of finding out what's going to
happen to me--to _us_."

"My goodness!" murmured Janice. "You talk almost like a soothsayer."

"Come and hear what the astrologer has to say," urged Nelson, yet
without his customary lightness of speech and look. He was still very
serious.

"I don't know," she said, slowly, hesitating in her approach. "I am
almost afraid of you in this mood. Daddy says when a young man begins
to act like he was really seriously grappling with life, look out for
him!"

"Your father is right. I am not to be trifled with, Miss Janice Day."

"Why, Nelson! is something really wrong?" she asked him, and came a
step nearer.

"As far as my future is concerned," said he, quietly, "it seems to be
quite all right."

"Then the college----?"

"I have a letter, too," he said, pulling it out of his pocket.

This bait brought her to him. He thrust the letter into her hand, but
he held onto that hand, too, and she could not easily pull