art of the trouble came out and looked him in the face. It
was not that he could not be in their class, that he could not keep
pace with Allison Cloud and come and go in his company as freely as he
had done; it was that he loved the bright-haired Leslie, the
sweet-faced, eager, earnest, wonderful girl. She held his future
happiness in her little rosy hand, and if she really were a rich girl
he couldn't of course tell her now that he loved her, because he was a
poor man. He didn't expect to stay poor always, of course, but it
would be a great many years before he could ever hope to compete with
anything like wealth, and during those years who might not take her
from him? Was it conceivable that such a cad as that youth who had
boasted himself a playmate of her childhood could possibly win her?

Howard went out and sat on the campus under a great shadowing tree. He
watched a silver thread of a moon slip down between the branches and
dip behind the hill, and while he sat there he went through all the
desolation of a lonely life; the bitterness of having Leslie taken
from him by one who was unworthy!--He persuaded himself that he loved
her enough to be willing to step aside and give her up to a man who
was better than himself--but this little whiffet--ugh!

The chimes on the library pealed out nine o'clock, reminding him of
his work half done, yet the shadow of engulfing sorrow and loss hung
over him. With a jerk he drew himself up and tried to grasp at common
sense. How ridiculous of him to get up all this nightmare out of a few
minutes' talk with a fellow who used to be the Clouds' old neighbor.
He might not have been telling the truth. And anyhow it was a libel on
friendship to distrust them all this way, as though riches were some
kind of a disease like leprosy that set people apart. It wasn't his
night to go down to the village, but just to dispel this nonsense and
bring back his normal state of mind he would go and drop in on the
Clouds for a few minutes. A sight of them all would reassure him and
clear his brain for the work he must do before midnight. Leslie Cloud
was very young yet, and much can happen in a year or two. He might
even be in a fair way to make a fortune himself somewhere, who knew?
And as for that little cad, it was nonsense to suppose he was anything
to fear. Besides, it wasn't time yet to think about being married when
he wasn't even out of college. He would forget it and work the harder.
Of cours