t. He had, perhaps, lost a little of his interest
in his friend, Ponsonby, since the incident at the tea table.

Deena, with a woman's instinct, guessed at his feelings, and made no
effort to detain him. She was tired and discouraged, and would gladly
have gone to bed when their guest departed, except for a suspicion
that Simeon would want to talk things over with her, in spite of his
seeming indifference. She was not mistaken. In ten minutes he came
into the parlor and threw himself wearily on the sofa.

"Deena," he said, and his tone was kind, "if I should go away for six
months, do you think you could manage without me?"

"I am sure I could," she answered, cheerfully, "and I want to say to
you, now that you have opened the subject, that you must not let my
expenses stand in your way. I know, of course, if you give up your
college work, part of your salary would naturally pass to the person
who, for the time, undertakes your duties, and I have been thinking
that a simple plan would be to rent this house."

The idea was not quite agreeable to Simeon--the old house was part of
himself; he had been born there; his love for his mother overflowed
into every rickety chair; but the common-sense commercial value of the
scheme made him regard Deena with revived respect.

"It is hardly practicable," he said. "In the first place, it is too
old-fashioned to attract, and, in the second, there is no market for
furnished houses at Harmouth."

"Mrs. Barnes would take it, I fancy," said Deena. "She is the mother
of the student who was hurt last week in the football match. She is
trying everywhere to find a furnished house so that she can take care
of him and yet let him stay on here. I think we could rent it, Simeon,
and I should need so little--so very little to keep me while you are
gone."

He took off his spectacles and sat up.

"It isn't a bad idea," he said, almost gayly. "The rent would pay the
taxes and give you a small income besides, and leave me practically
free. You have relieved my mind of a serious worry. Thank you, Deena."

"You will see the president to-morrow?" she asked.

He hesitated before admitting that such was his intention; it was one
thing for his wife to meet his difficulties with practical
suggestions, and quite another for her to put intrusive questions.

"You shall be informed when things take a definite shape," he said,
pompously. "Good-night, my dear; I shall be at work on my galley proof
til