“Can’t be done, Rod! I’m under the solemnest, swearingest vow to keep that to myself. I’ll master it by to-morrow; I’m sure it will jump into my brain suddenly when it gets ready,” Cis answered, thanking him with a smile. “Something else is shading you,” Rodney reminded her. “Said you’d tell me here.” “It’s nothing to shade me, really; I ought to be glad: it’s Nan,” Cis said slowly. “Nan? Anything wrong with her?” Rodney asked; he knew Nan by repute. “No. But there is a youth, quite a nice youth, who has been tagging on after her for some time, and I’ve noticed that he was overhauling her, creeping right up on her. And she has written me that he has asked her to marry him, and she has told him that she would give him his answer in a week; she wants me to tell her which answer to give,” Cis spoke disconsolately. “Must be a great girl if she has to ask another girl whether she wants to marry a man or not!” exclaimed Rodney. “He’d be tickled pink if he knew it, probably! What shall you bid her say?” “Oh, as to that, she knows what she is going to say; that’s only a natural balking, natural to Nan, anyway!” Cis smiled. “I’ll tell her to say yes. She’s fond of him, and he truly is all right; ever so much better than most fellows.” “What do you know about ‘most fellows,’ Holly? Then, if it’s all right, why do you look downcast over it?” Rodney naturally inquired. “Silliness,” responded Cis promptly. “But I’m fond of Nannie; no girl likes to see her best friend marry. It isn’t grudging her happiness, it’s, it’s,--I don’t know what it is, but it hurts.” “Well, heaven knows, marriage is a bad thing to go into in half the cases, and at least half of the other half are dragging, defeating, miserable endurance. It isn’t the girl that needs all the pity and anxiety; believe me, marriage is rough on a man, too. The only comfort is that it’s easy enough to slough it off; you can usually get a divorce, luckily!” Rodney spoke so bitterly that Cis stared at him. “Is marriage so awful?” she asked. “It isn’t because I ever thought that it was such a fearful risk, that I’m sorry about Nan; it separates us more than my coming to Beaconhite does. But divorce is horrible, at least Nan would never think of it; she’s a devout Catholic, and so is Joe Hamilton, whom she’ll marry. Have you known marriages that turned out so bad as you say?” “Rather!” Rodney’s brevity made his answer more emphatic, and Cis wondered at the grim look upon his face. “Poor Rod, it must have been his mother! I’ve thought that he didn’t want to talk of her,” she told herself. Then, to banish that grimness, she jumped up and cried: “Let’s explore a little, Rod; then we must start back; already it gets dark early, and I’m going to be hungry in six and a half minutes, precisely!”