ls. So he
waited.

"Oh, Elinor, you mercenary creature!"

"What if he is a bit crude?"

"I don't blame you. I'm daffy about Professor Burgess myself."

"He's got the grandest voice, Vic has!"

"I just adore Greek!"

"I think Vic is splendid!"

So the exclamations ran.

"Now, Norrie Wream, cross your heart, hope you may die, if big, handsome
Victor Burleigh had his corners knocked off, and he was sandpapered down
a little, and had money, wouldn't you feel a whole lot different about
him, Norrie?"

"I certainly would. I couldn't help it."

Norrie's eyes were shining and her cheeks were pink as peach blossoms.
To Vic she seemed exquisitely beautiful.

"But now?" somebody queried.

"Oh, now, she'll be sensible, and the Professor will take advantage
of 'now.' He won't wait till it's too late. Great hat! there goes the
bell."

And the girls scuttled away.

Vic came in and sat down by the window through which one may find an
empire for the looking.

"Burgess was right," he said to himself.

"I'm not only ill-bred on the outside, I'm that way clear through. A
disreputable eavesdropper! That's my size. But I didn't mean it. Fine
excuse!" He frowned in disgust, and turned to the window.

The Thanksgiving weather was still blessing the Walnut Valley. Wide away
beyond Lagonda Ledge rolled the free open prairies, swept by the free
air of heaven under a beneficent sky.

As Vic gazed his stern face softened, and the bulldog look, that he had
worn since the night of the storm, relaxed before some gentler mood. The
brown eyes held a strange glow under the long black lashes, as if a new
purpose were growing up in the soul behind them.

"No limit out there. It's a FREE LAND," he murmured. "There shall be
no limit in here." Unconsciously he struck his breast with his fist.
"There's freedom for such as I am somewhere."

"Hello, Burleigh, what can I do for you?" As Dr. Fenneben came into the
study he recalled how awkwardly the same boy had filled the same chair
only a few months before.

"I've come in to be sentenced," Vic replied.

"Well, plead your case first."

If ever a father-heart beat in a bachelor's breast, Lloyd Fenneben had
such a heart.

"I want to settle about Thanksgiving Day," Vic said. "I had a moral
right to play on the team in that game, but I had to get the legal right
by force. Professor Burgess refused to permit me to play until I MADE
him do it."

Fenneben's eyes were smiling. "Why did