out being finished up in any. He was taken somewhat at a
disadvantage, too: somehow he fancied, if he had met Fred alone in a
stray walk, there would have been less formality.

They talked about college. Fred was doing well, for he was by nature a
student. Society's arts and airs would never entirely uproot that love.
He meant to distinguish himself, and have one of the prize essays. Jack
was rather grave and quiet, hard to get on with, Fred thought; and he
was relieved when the duty was ended, and he could go with a good grace.

Jack lingered on the porch, clinching his fingers, and listening to the
jaunty retreating footstep. There was something different in Fred's walk
even, a buoyancy as if he could override any little difficulties that
fate might have in store for him. Jack smiled grimly. Fortune had
showered every good gift upon him. He would go proudly, successfully,
through life. He would be praised and honored--and for what?

For a moment Jack felt like wrestling with him, shoulder to shoulder, to
distance him, to defeat him, to lower his complacent pride. His
half-patronizing manner had stung keenly. Then the real nobility of his
nature cropped out, and he laughed at his own sudden heat and passion.

"It would be folly," he said softly to himself. "I could not distinguish
myself in any line he will be likely to follow. He must work his way: I
must work mine. He knows what he means to do; and there he has gone
ahead of me, for I really do not know my own mind. No, there's no
further basis for a friendship: the boy-love has had its day, and died.
After all, isn't that the history of every thing?" and Jack looked up to
the stars, still with a little wordless pain at his heart.

He heard during the next week that Fred had gone West with one of his
friends, who was nephew to a great railway magnate. It would be only a
flying trip, to be sure, but here Jack was tempted to envy him. That
boundless West, the land of his own dreams!

Grandmother grew a trifle less energetic, still it could not be said
that her health began to fail. Mrs. Darcy remained about the same. Every
day Jack realized how much he was to the two women. To leave them would
be absolute cruelty.

At Christmas of this year Miss Gertrude Lawrence was married. The
wedding was rather quieter, from the fact that it was winter, and the
bride was to leave for Europe the next day. Irene was shooting up into a
tall girl, and being educated at a fashiona