ould deal a
stinging blow to Boller's self-complacency.

Boller announced to us in confidence that, having seen Washington, it
was now his intention to go abroad. I could not understand why we were
pledged to secrecy as to his plans, for the country would not be
entirely upset by his departure; but it was clear to my suspicious mind
that his revelations had a twofold purpose--to lift himself to greater
heights of superiority over the humble college boy and to make himself
a more desirable _parti_ for Gladys Todd. In his words, in the quiet
smile with which he was regarding her, I read his secret hope that when
he went abroad she would be with him as Mrs. Boller. Restless,
uncomfortable, and angry as I was, I had been at the point of leaving,
but this disclosure changed my purpose. I realized that I was in no
mere skirmish and I dared not give an inch of ground. I stayed.
Boller talked on. The clock on the mantel struck the hour, then the
half. He looked at me significantly, but I did not move. The clock
struck the hour again, and Boller rose with a sigh. He suggested that
I go with him, but I shook my head and stood with my hands behind my
back, tearing at my fingers. He smiled and stepped to the door, with
Gladys Todd following. They paused. He spoke in an undertone, and I
caught but two words, "At three." He raised his voice and bade me
good-night, calling me "Davy" as though I were a mere boy. Again he
said, "At three," jotting the hour indelibly in his mind.

Gladys Todd from the shaded lamplight looked at me with a face clouded
with displeasure. I, sitting on my spindly chair, very upright, heard
the cryptic number three ringing in my brain. What was going to happen
"at three"? At three to-morrow they would walk along the lane which
wound around the town and down to the river. I thought of it now as
"our lane," a sanctuary that would be desecrated by Boller's mere
presence. The plausible theory became a fact. I must act, and act at
once. For me to act was to avow my love. I must propose to Gladys
Todd. In that purpose all else was forgotten--even Boller. Over and
over again I declared to myself that I loved her, but the simple words
halted at my lips. A thousand protestations of my undying love pushed
and crowded and jostled one another until they were strangling me.
Without a tremor in my voice I could have told Gladys Todd that some
other man loved her to distraction, and yet, when it wa