ys I. 'It had to be cut, and has been as right as rain ever
since.' Just in that offhand way, Cicely. Quite brisk and cheerful.
'Tubercular, eh?' says he, very soft and thoughtful-like. And I knew it
was all up with me."

"You should have told him it wasn't!" Cicely said, tearfully impatient
of him. "Oh, if I'd been there----!"

"Don't you be afraid! I told him fast enough, or tried to, but he
stopped me. 'That'll do, thank you,' says he. 'I form my own opinion.'
He wouldn't listen."

"Did you stand like that?" Cicely demanded, with a condemning glance at
the stooping, shivering figure beneath the umbrella; "or did you hold
your head up and throw your shoulders back, and push out your chest as
I told you?"

"I stood up as brave as a lion," the young man assured her, his teeth
chattering. "I yarned to him about how fond I was of athletics and
swimming, how many miles I could walk at a stretch. Oh, I wasn't going
to lose the berth for the want of a little gas. Only--" he stopped and
sadly shook his head; "he'd made up his mind," he went on in a drooping
tone. "He'd made it up as soon as he looked at me. 'Keep on with your
walking; live in the open air,' he said. 'You're not fitted for the
office-stool. Stooping all day over a desk would be about the worst
thing you could do. Thank you. That's all. Good-morning.'"

"And you came away? You shouldn't have come away! You should have told
him what it is to you. What you will have to put up with if you can't
get the berth. You should have said, 'You're taking the bread out of my
mouth, you're stealing the coat off my back. It's life and death to
me.' You should have said that, and made him hear. And you came away!"

Peter looked back upon that action, sorrowfully considering it. "I
thought it very affable of him to shake hands," he said, "but he had a
very final way of doing it. And, besides, I didn't care to make a tale
of my private affairs, and seem to cringe. I didn't want him to
think----"

"What does it matter about _him_?" Cicely demanded, with scorn. "Do we
care what _he_ thinks? Oh, Peter, go back to him, dear; do--do go back.
Tell him he _must_ pass you. Tell him it's your chance, your only--only
one. And how you've tried and tried--and this is the only one; and how
cruel everyone is at home--just as if it was your fault that no one--no
one will give you work to do. And tell him you'd rather be dead than go
home and say you'd lost it. Oh, Peter, say that; it i