d.

"Hello, Phil!" said Lincoln, in cheery surprise. "Well, you are a
stranger! Been keeping pretty close to your office, haven't you?"

"Yes," answered Williamson, without going into particulars.

"I haven't happened to get a detail out in your direction and my health
has been unfortunately good, so I haven't seen you for moons, not since
the night at the Zink, last Thanksgiving."

"You newspaper men see more of the fellows than a man in my profession
can hope to do," said the physician. "It isn't ethics for me to hunt
them up, you know."

"How is the practice, so far?"

"Well," answered Williamson, hiding the bitterness of it with a laugh;
"the practice is about all I have got out of it."

"Not so bad as that, I'll bet," protested Lincoln. "Are you going down
for Commencement, or the Ball, or anything?"

"No, I shan't be able to get down," answered the other, turning in his
fingers the lonely dollar in his pocket. "That's the worst of the
medical profession," he added, equivocally.

His thoughts came fast as they stood there in the fading daylight before
the picture-shop. It was entirely probable that Lincoln would lend him
the money he needed, and would lend it gladly. Their college friendship
had been sincere, and a few years do not change a thing like that. He
knew that the man had a good position on the _Chronicle_ and that he
saved a large portion of his money--he had been economical at the
University. Fortune could never smile upon Lincoln sufficiently to work
any material change in his dress; he had always looked like a pauper;
to-day, poverty showed in the journalist rather than in the
carefully-dressed physician.

Williamson's heart grew lighter. This Stanford man, rising before him in
his hour of desperation, should tide him over his temporary trouble. Of
all the men at the University there had been none who had spoken so
often and so sincerely of the Stanford spirit as Lincoln. Here was a
chance to put it to a test. He knew his man. Williamson felt himself
filled with a faith in Divine Providence.

But it was not easy to ask the loan. To suggest such a thing is less
difficult to some people than to others. To Williamson it was anything
but a simple thing. He could never broach the subject there on the
sidewalk. The matter must be led up to in some way; to brace in cold
blood was impossible. He moved his fingers in nervous irresolution, and
the dollar touched them significantly.

"Say, Lew, le