t was for the opera."

"No, I know for a fact it wasn't that infernal old opera, though writing
it was one of the things, that pulled him down. But the debt's all paid
now and the good old boy is lying at death's door as a result. By the
way," he added, drawing a key from his pocket, "Sister wants me to get
something out of Edwin's office on the cloisters. Will you come with me,
Miss Molly? There are such a lot of girls always in the court on
Sunday."

"I only wish I could do more for you, Dodo," answered Molly, as the two
young people hastened across the campus.

"I guess you know as much about the old boy's office as I do, Miss
Molly," said Dodo opening the study door. "I'm glad you came along to
help me find what I am looking for."

"What are you looking for?"

"Did you ever see a blue paper weight on his desk?"

"Oh, yes. Lots of times."

"Well, that's just what he wants. He's got a sort of delirious notion in
his poor old head that he'd like that blue paper weight. It's enough to
make a strong man shed tears, and he's so weak he couldn't pick up a
straw. Alice Fern brought it to him from Italy."

"Oh," said Molly.

They found the blue paper weight in one of the drawers of the desk and
Dodo thrust it into his pocket. There was a strong smell of over-ripe
apples in the office and Molly presently discovered two disintegrated
wine saps in the Japanese basket on the table.

"We'd better take these," she said, seizing one in each hand and
following Dodo into the corridor.

The young people parted in the arcade and Molly went into the library
and hid herself in one of the deep window embrasures with a book she
only pretended to be reading. That afternoon the Reverend Gustavus
Larsen repeated the prayers for the sick, and Molly in a far back pew
hoped that Nance could not see the tears that trickled down her cheeks.

CHAPTER III.

GOSSIP OVER THE TEACUPS.

The gloom that had been hanging over Wellington since Professor Green's
illness gradually lifted as the young man steadily improved. Each
morning Molly received the latest news from one of the nurses. Miss
Grace was never visible. She was sitting up at night with her brother
and slept during the day. One morning Molly encountered not the day
nurse but Miss Alice Fern in the hall of the infirmary. She was dressed
in white linen and might have been taken for a post-graduate nurse
except that she wore no cap. Miss Fern had a cold greeting for Molly