"It's not gossip this time; worse luck, it's solid, abominable fact. You'll be disappointed, Darsie. I'm sorry! I _have_ tried. Beastly bad luck being caught just at the end. I was sent down, Darsie! It was just at the end of the term, so they sent me down for the last week. A week is neither here nor there, but the parents took it hard. I'm afraid you, too--" Yes! Darsie "took it hard." One look at her face proved as much, and among many contending feelings, disappointment was predominant--bitter, intense, most humiliating disappointment. "Oh, Ralph! What for? I hoped, I thought--you _promised_ me to be careful!" "And so I was, Darsie! Give you my word, I was. For the first half of the term I never got anything worse than three penny fines. It isn't a deadly thing to stay out after ten. And I was so jolly careful--never was so careful in my life. But just the night when it was most important I must needs be caught. You can't expect a fellow to get away from a big evening before twelve. But that's what it ended in--a big jaw, throwing up all my past misdeeds, and being sent down. Now you can slang away." But Darsie made no attempt to "slang." With every word that had been uttered her feelings of helplessness had increased. Ralph had apparently made little difference in his ways; he had only been more careful not to be found out! At the very moment when she had been congratulating herself, and boasting of the good results of her friendship, this crowning disgrace had fallen upon him. No wonder Dan had been silent; no wonder that he had looked upon her with that long, questioning gaze! The thought of Dan was singularly comforting at this moment--strong, silent, loyal Dan, going forth valiantly to the battle of life. Darsie's little face took on a pinched look; she shivered, and drew the thin scarf more tightly round her. Her silence, the suffering written on her face, hit Ralph more hardly than any anger; for the first time something deeper than embarrassment showed itself in face and voice. "For pity's sake, Darsie, speak! Say something! Don't sit there and look at me like that." "But, Ralph, what is there to say?" Darsie threw out her arms with a gesture of hopelessness. "I've talked so often, been so eloquent, believed so much! If this is the outcome, what more can be said?" "I _have_ tried! I _did_ want to please you!" "By not being found out! It's not much comfort, Ralph, to feel that I've encouraged you in deception. And all those nights when you stayed out late, were you betting as usual--getting into debt?" Ralph frowned. "I've been beastly unlucky, never knew such a persistent run. That's the dickens of it, Darsie. I haven't dared to tell the Governor yet, but I positively must get hold of the money before the tenth. I'm bound to pay up by then. It's a debt of honour."