g."

Polly entered just then with the letter.

"Edgar is kind enough to stay all night with us, dear, and take you to
the Presidio on the pension business in the morning. If you will see
that his room is all right, I will say good-night now. Our
guest-chamber is downstairs, Edgar; I hope you will be very
comfortable. Breakfast at half past eight, please."

When the door of Mrs. Howe's bedroom closed on Edgar, Polly ran
upstairs, and sank exhausted on her own bed.

"Now, mamma, 'listen to my tale of woe!' I got off at the wrong
station,--yes, it was stupid; but wait: perhaps I was led to be stupid.
I lost my way, could n't find Professor Salazar's house, could n't find
anything else. As I was wandering about in a woodsy road, trying to
find a house of some kind, I heard a crowd of boys singing vociferously
as they came through the trees. I did n 't care to meet them, all
alone as I was, though of course there was nothing to be afraid of, so
I stepped off the road behind some trees and bushes until they should
pass. It turned out to be half a dozen university students, and at
first I did n't know that Edgar was among them. They were teasing
somebody to go over to San Francisco for a dinner, then to the
minstrels, and then to wind up with a game of billiards, and other
gayeties which were to be prolonged indefinitely. What dreadful things
may have been included I don't know. A wretch named 'Tony' did most of
the teasing, and he looked equal to planning any sort of mischief. All
at once I thought I recognized a familiar voice. I peeped out, and
sure enough it was Edgar Noble whom they were coaxing. He did n't want
to go a bit,--I 'll say that for him,--but they were determined that he
should. I didn't mind his going to dinners and minstrels, of course,
but when they spoke of being out until after midnight, or to-morrow
morning, and when one beetle-browed, vulgar-looking creature offered to
lend him a 'tenner,' I thought of the mortgage on the Noble ranch, and
the trouble there would be if Edgar should get into debt, and I felt I
must do something to stop him, especially as he said himself that
everything depended on his next examinations."

"But how did you accomplish it?" asked Mrs. Oliver, sitting up in bed
and glowing with interest.

"They sat down by the roadside, smoking and talking it over. There was
n't another well-born, well-bred looking young man in the group. Edgar
seemed a prince among the