.

Now the Olivers had only the merest notion of Edgar's college troubles;
they knew simply what the Nobles had told them, that he was in danger
of falling behind his class. This, they judged, was a contingency no
longer to be feared; as various remarks dropped by the students who
visited the house, and sundry bits of information contributed by Edgar
himself, in sudden bursts of high spirits, convinced them that he was
regaining his old rank, and certainly his old ambition.

"To be in debt," repeated Edgar doggedly, "and to see no possible way
out of it. Polly, I 'm in a peck of trouble! I 've lost money, and I
'm at my wits' end to get straight again!"

"Lost money? How much? Do you mean that you lost your pocket-book?"

"No, no; not in that way."

"You mean that you spent it," said Polly. "You mean you overdrew your
allowance."

"Of course I did. Good gracious, Polly! there are other ways of losing
money than by dropping it in the road. I believe girls don't know
anything more about the world than the geography tells them,--that it's
a round globe like a ball or an orange!"

"Don't be impolite. The less they know about the old world the better
they get on, I dare say. Your colossal fund of worldly knowledge does
n't seem to make you very happy, just now. How could you lose your
money, I ask? You 're nothing but a student, and you are not in any
business, are you?"

"Yes, I am in business, and pretty bad business it is, too."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I 've been winding myself up into a hard knot, the last
six months, and the more I try to disentangle myself, the worse the
thing gets. My allowance is n't half enough; nobody but a miser could
live on it. I 've been unlucky, too. I bought a dog, and some one
poisoned him before I could sell him; then I lamed a horse from the
livery-stable, and had to pay damages; and so it went. The fellows all
kept lending me money, rather than let me stay out of the little club
suppers, and since I 've shut down on expensive gayeties they've gone
back on me, and all want their money at once; so does the livery-stable
keeper, and the owner of the dog, and a dozen other individuals; in
fact, the debtors' prison yawns before me."

"Upon my word, I 'm ashamed of you!" said Polly, with considerable
heat. "To waste money in that way, when you knew perfectly well you
could n't afford it, was--well, it was downright dishonest, that's what
it was! To hea