The college messenger came into the room with a note for me which was marked "urgent," and I asked if I might read it. Jack Ward was the only man who ever wanted me in a hurry, and so confident was I in the infallibility of my chemist that I was not thinking of Owen. When I had finished reading the note I found that the conversation had taken a more lively turn. "It is so fortunate I brought something fit to wear," Mrs. Faulkner was saying. "I have only got four tickets, I wish I had got one for you," Fred said to Jack Ward, and then I remembered that Fred had promised to get tickets for the Brasenose ball which was taking place that evening. "You can have mine," I told Jack Ward. "Of course I can't do that," Jack answered; "I expect I can get one all right, if I may join you." Nina, who was nothing if not expeditious, said that he had better go at once and see if he could get a ticket, but I stopped him by repeating that he could have mine. "It won't be used unless you take it," I added. Every one except Fred, who saw that something had happened, led me to believe that I was very disagreeable and foolish. "We arranged last night that we should go if Fred could get the tickets," Nina said, and then by way of propitiating me she told me that I knew how well I danced. "You will spoil Nina's evening," Mrs. Faulkner declared, and Nina, I must say, was pouting most magnificently. "Why can't you come?" she asked. "Has it got anything to do with that wretched note?" "Not another row?" Jack Ward put in most inconsiderately. "Fred never said anything about it till too late," I answered; "he kept the whole thing so dark." "I knew before luncheon," Nina replied, as if she had settled me completely. I managed to let Fred know that I wanted him to read the note, and having opened the Oxford "Mag" no one saw that he had got the letter inside the pages. For a minute I persuaded Jack steadfastly to take my ticket and he refused with determination. If it had not been that Nina was upset very easily, and Mrs. Faulkner had been known to have hysteria without giving any one a moment's notice, I would have brandished the note in their faces instead of standing first on one leg and then on the other and looking a most hopeless fool. I did not know what to say next, when Fred put down the magazine and joined us by the window. "If you can't well manage to come to-night," he said, "and it was most awfully stupid of me not to tell you at once that we were going, I am sure Ward will have this ticket," and he pulled it out of his pocket and simply made Jack take it.