"Let's go back to the beginning," he suggested. "That's somewhere toward the middle of my senior year. I'd known Frances before that, but about that time she came on to Boston, and we went to a whole lot of dances and things together." He paused a moment. "I wish I'd brought a picture of her with me," he resumed thoughtfully, "because she's really a peach." Miss Winthrop looked up quickly. He was apparently serious. "She's tall and dark and slender," he went on, "and when she's all togged up she certainly looks like a queen. She had a lot of friends in town, and we kept going about four nights a week. Then came the ball games, and then Class Day. You ever been to Class Day?" Miss Winthrop shook her head with a quick little jerk. "It's all music and Japanese lanterns, and if you're sure of your degree it's a sort of fairyland where nothing is quite real. You just feel at the time that it's always going to be like that. It was then I asked her to marry me." Miss Winthrop was sitting with her chin in her hands, looking intently at the brick path leading to the house. "You listening?" She nodded jerkily. "It seemed all right then. And it seemed all right after that. Stuyvesant was agreeable enough, and so I came on to New York. Then followed Dad's death. Dad was a queer sort, but he was square as a die. I'm sorry he went before he had a chance to meet you. I didn't realize what good pals we were until afterward. But, anyway, he died, and he tied the property all up as I've told you. Maybe he thought if he didn't I'd blow it in, because I see now I'd been getting rid of a good many dollars. I went to Frances and told her all about it, and offered to cancel the engagement. But she was a good sport and said she'd wait until I earned ten thousand a year. You listening?" She nodded. "Because it's right here you come in. I was going to get it inside a year, and you know just about how much chance I stood. But it looked easy to her, because her father was pulling down about that much a month, and not killing himself either. I didn't know any more about it than she did; but the difference between us was that as soon as I was on the inside I learned a lot she didn't learn. I learned how hard it is to get ten thousand a year; more than that, I learned how unnecessary it is to get it. That's what you taught me." "I--I didn't mean to," she interrupted. "You're talking," he reminded her. She closed her lips firmly together.