"Oh, yes, there is, every reason. If things go better, I'll have my turn in a year or two when I am really out, and if things go ill, why I shall bury myself in work. Really, I meant what I said to Carlotta. I do mean to try for college. It would be fun to pass the examinations with Priscilla, even if I couldn't go through. For, of course, if we are very poor, I shall have to work for a living." "Martine," cried Elinor, "you are very absurd. When I think of your cousin Mrs. Stanley at Bar Harbor--" "Yes, and my cousin Mrs. Blair, who has one of the handsomest places on the North Shore. But unluckily what is theirs is not mine, and I have never been a beggar." "Of course not, but from one extreme you have gone to the other, and I think that you ought to hope for the best." "If hoping were having," murmured Martine. Mr. Gamut was one of the guests whom Martine invited in Elinor's honor. "Where's your young conductor?" he asked, when he had a moment alone with her. "We invited him, but he wrote that he couldn't get off. Mamma felt pretty sure he wouldn't have come, even if he had time to spare. He is in this part of the world for business, not pleasure." "Just so, just so, he's a fine fellow, though, and I mean to keep an eye on him. I can offer him a good place when he's through studying. I have no prejudice against the college man in business, and he'll be none the worse for taking his degree. I liked the way he ran after that fellow the other night, and he's done some clever detective work since. You'll hear about it soon." "Martine," said Mrs. Stratford, when her daughter later told her what Mr. Gamut had said; "you may congratulate yourself on this one thing, if on nothing else this summer. By bringing Mr. Gamut and Balfour together you have accomplished more than you realize." "But it was the burglar and not I," said Martine, "who really had the most to do with it. It was the way Balfour ran that impressed Mr. Gamut the most." "However it came about, you have had a good share in bringing them together, and with Mr. Gamut's good will, Balfour is sure to prosper." "I'm glad of that, mamma. Sometimes I feel that I have been so useless this summer." "My dear--" and then Mrs. Stratford said no more. She was really afraid of spoiling Martine by praise, but she thought it better for the latter to find out certain things for herself. CHAPTER XXIII QUIET LIFE When Elinor left York for the mountains, she took the little trunk with her, after carefully removing the Belhaven label. The label itself she carried in her card-case. "I shall need it," she said, "to illustrate my tale of a trunk when I tell it. Every one who has heard it thus far thinks it the most amusing story that ever was--and if it hadn't happened no one could believe it. This label is a proof of its truth."