with my packing all
morning and then in the afternoon I thought I would hurry through a few
calls--they always take longer than one thinks--and before I knew it I
was late for dinner. I had not forgotten; I was thinking of you all day,
Jane."

"Were you, Larry?" said Jane, a gentle tenderness in her smile. "I am
glad."

Then a silence fell between them for some moments. They were both
thinking of the change that was coming to their lives. Larry was
wondering how he would ever do without this true-hearted friend whose
place in his life he was only discovering now to be so large. He glanced
at her. Her eyes were glowing with a soft radiance that seemed to
overflow from some inner spring.

"Jane," he cried with a sudden impulse, "you are lovely, you are
perfectly lovely."

A shy, startled, eager look leaped into her eyes. Then her face grew
pale. She waited, expectant, tremulous. But at that instant a noisy
group passed into the library.

"Larry," whispered Jane, turning swiftly to him and laying her hand upon
his arm, "you will take me home to-night."

"All right, Jane, of course," said Larry.

As they passed out from the library Helen Brookes met them. "Larry, come
here," she said in a voice of suppressed excitement. "Larry, don't you
want to do something for me? Scuddy wants to take me home tonight, and I
don't want him to."

"But why not, Helen? You ought to be good to Scuddy, poor chap. He's a
splendid fellow, and I won't have him abused."

"Not to-night, Larry; I can't have him to-night. You will take me home,
won't you? I am going very soon."

"You are, eh? Well, if you can go within ten minutes, I shall be ready."

"Say fifteen," said Helen, turning to meet Lloyd Rushbrook, the Beau
Brummel of the college, who came claiming a dance.

Larry at once went in search of Jane to tell her of his engagement with
Helen Brookes, but could find her nowhere, and after some time spent in
a vain search, he left a message for her with his hostess. At the head
of the stairs he found Helen waiting.

"Oh, hurry, Larry," she cried in a fever of excitement. "Let's get away
quickly."

"Two minutes will do me," said Larry, rushing into the dressing room.

There he found Scudamore pacing up and down in fierce, gloomy silence.

"You are taking her home, Larry?" he said.

"Who?" said Larry. Then glancing at his face, he added, "Yes, Scuddy, I
am taking Helen home. She is apparently in a great hurry."

"She need not