When he at last arrived at the foot of the court-house path, he saw
Janet sitting on the bench under the china-berry tree. How long had
she been waiting for him? As she caught sight of him she began dabbing
her eyes hastily with her handkerchief. Steve saw this. His stride
lengthened as he came up the path. Having reached the bench he dropped
down suddenly beside her, his arm extended along the top of the bench
at her back.

"How did you make out, Miss Janet?"

There was a lugubrious attempt at a smile as she turned her eyes toward
him. The tears had been put into her pocket; but still he could see
that her eyes were swimming. To him they looked more wonderfully
gentle, more wholly true than any eyes he had ever seen.

"Well--Mr. Brown--I failed," she said.

"What! Didn't he let you pass?"

"I already had a third-class certificate, you know."

"Yes; but that is n't any good to you."

"No," she said meditatively. "Even second-class would have got me that
school near Merrill. I think I would have passed, too, if he had only
been fair in Geography and History."

"What? Did he do anything that wasn't on the square?" he asked sternly.

"Oh, I did n't mean it that way. It is always possible to be unfair in
Geography and History, you know,--and besides there is a good deal of
luck about it, too. He said he would have let me pass, but he had
decided to raise the standard."

She felt his arm stiffen behind her like an iron bar. She thought he
was going to rise.

"But he was _perfectly_ fair," she added quickly.

Steve's muscle relaxed slowly; he resumed his former lax attitude and
fell to thinking.

"You deserve to get a certificate and you _did n't_," he said, suddenly
sitting up again. "It is n't _right_."

This last word came out as sharp as a challenge to fight. He seemed to
have stiffened up in the saddle with the straight look of indomitable
will. Janet's eyes opened wider with the impression she got of him.

"Oh, it is n't a great matter--except that--of course--it is a little
disappointing."

"Yes. And somebody that it doesn't make any difference about will come
along and pass." His eye still had fight in it. "You like Texas?" he
said suddenly. "Don't you think it is a pretty good state?"

"Oh, yes, indeed," answered Janet. "I was very much in hope of being
able to stay. If I had only had more time to study--more time--"

There was a quaver in her voice, and she let the sente