"I know they do. I know it. I don't see how I ever got him. You know all the men in his classes simply adore him! His courses are awfully popular. He's going to have juniors and seniors next year. The President stopped Bob the other day in the street and complimented him on his work. Oh, Bob is going to go right to the top! And he isn't a bit spoiled. His dear old silver-haired mother worships him just like everybody else. Do you know, Bob was afraid I wouldn't want her to live with us--she's the loveliest old lady--of course I do! And he thought, besides, I'd hate an apartment and one maid. But he didn't know me. My nature isn't the kind that requires 'Things.' If it didn't have sympathy and understanding and inspiration, it's the kind that would simply shrivel up and die. But Bob, he responds in just the right way, to every side of my temperament. It's wonderful!" "Isn't it?" I agreed. "Why, we're all happy to-night! Will because of the little boy, and you because of Bob, and I because--" I hesitated just a moment, and then in the pitch-dark of the back stairs I confided to Ruth, "because the southeast chamber has a waiting-list." "A waiting-list?" queried Ruth. "Yes, I was upstairs when you called, seeing if Will's little old-fashioned mahogany cradle would do." "Oh, really!" said Ruth not very much impressed after all. "Of course. My room _was_ meant to be the nursery. I remember now. Well, I suppose you're glad, and there'll be a vacancy all right for some one to fill in June. We're going to be married right after Commencement. We've got it all planned. Isn't it exciting?" she exclaimed, eager on the trail of her own happiness. "We're not going to Europe, or anything grand like that. We're going to begin by saving. With my eight hundred a year and Bob's salary, and a little he has besides, our income will be about four thousand. We're going to have a lovely honeymoon! Bob likes the word 'honeymoon' though no one uses it now. Bob's so funny! We're going to camp out all alone for a whole month on a little lake we know about in the Adirondacks and I'm going to cook while he cuts wood. Bob didn't know I could cook. Why, he was awfully surprised when he discovered how practical I am, and that I trim all my own hats even now. Lucy, don't you think that Bob's _awfully_ nice-looking?" she asked and pressed my hand. "Yes I do. I've always told Will that Bob was the best-looking man on the faculty," I replied and pressed back. An hour later we groped down the stairs together. It was two o'clock in the morning. The light in the study was still going and I went in and turned it off. At my door Ruth begged, "Come on into my bed, Lucy. I shall never be able to get to sleep to-night." "All right. In five minutes," I agreed. When I went into Ruth's room she was sitting by the window ready for bed, her long hair braided, and a knitted worsted shawl wrapped around her white shoulders. "Well, Ruth, it's half-past two," I said.