"And what about John?" asked Peter. "Is he going to be a bigger man with
Eileen than he would have been with Marian?"

"No," said Linda, "he is not. He didn't do right and he'll have penalty
to pay. Eileen is developing into a lovable and truly beautiful woman,
but she has not the intellect, nor the education, nor the impulse to
stimulate a man's mental processes and make him outdo himself the way
Marian will. John will probably never know it, but he will have to do
his own stimulating; he will have to vision life for himself. He will
have to find his high hill and climb it with Eileen riding securely on
his shoulders. It isn't really the pleasantest thing in the world, it
isn't truly the thing I wanted to do this summer--helping them out--but
it has seemed to be the work at hand, the thing Daddy probably would
have wanted me to do, so it's up to me to do all I can for them, just
as I did all I could for Donald. One thing I shall always be delighted
about. With my own ears I heard the pronouncement: Donald had the Jap
beaten; he was at the head of his class before Oka Sayye was eliminated.
The Jap knew it. His only chance lay in getting rid of his rival. Donald
can take the excellent record he has made in this race to start on this
fall when he commences another battle against some other man's brain for
top honors in his college."

"Will he start with the idea that he wants to be an honor man?"

Linda laughed outright.

"I think," she said, "his idea was that if he were one of fifty or one
hundred leading men it would be sufficient, but I insisted that if he
wanted to be first with me, he would have to be first in his school
work."

"I see," said Peter. "Linda, have you definitely decided that when you
come to your home-making hour, Donald is the man with whom you want to
spend the remainder of your life?"

"Oh, good gracious!" said Linda. "Who's talking about 'homes' and
'spending the remainder of lives'? Donald and I are school friends, and
we are good companions. You're as bad as Eileen. She's always trying
to suggest things that nobody else ever thought of, and now Katy's
beginning it too."

"Sapheads, all!" said Peter. "Well, allow me to congratulate you on
having given Donald his spurs. I think it's a very fine thing for him
to start to college with the honor idea in his head. What about your
Saturday excursions?"

"They have died an unnatural death," said Linda. "Don and I fought for
them, but the J