er with the more valuable gifts.

The second surprise arrived as he dined with Professor Baumgarten. His
appetite had been effectually taken away by the scene of the morning,
and his spirits received another damper when a fellow student cheerfully
informed him that he was about to go to America, and should make it his
agreeable duty to call on the 'lieber Herr Professor Bhaer', to tell
him how gaily his protege was disporting himself at Leipzig. Nat's heart
died within him as he imagined the effect these glowing tales would have
at Plumfield--not that he had wilfully deceived them, but in his letters
many things were left untold; and when Carlsen added, with a friendly
wink, that he would merely hint at the coming betrothal of the fair
Minna and his 'heart's friend', Nat found himself devoutly hoping that
this other inconvenient heart's friend might go to the bottom of the sea
before he reached Plumfield to blast all his hopes by these tales of a
mis-spent winter. Collecting his wits, he cautioned Carlsen with what
he flattered himself was Mephistophelian art, and gave him such confused
directions that it would be a miracle if he ever found Professor Bhaer.
But the dinner was spoilt for Nat, and he got away as soon as possible,
to wander disconsolately about the streets, with no heart for the
theatre or the supper he was to share with some gay comrades afterwards.
He comforted himself a little by giving alms to sundry beggars, making
two children happy with gilded gingerbread, and drinking a lonely glass
of beer, in which he toasted his Daisy and wished himself a better year
than the last had been.

Going home at length, he found a third surprise awaiting him in the
shower of bills which had descended upon him like a snowstorm, burying
him in an avalanche of remorse, despair, and self-disgust. These bills
were so many and so large that he was startled and dismayed; for, as
Mr Bhaer wisely predicted, he knew little about the value of money.
It would take every dollar at the bankers to pay them all at once, and
leave him penniless for the next six months, unless he wrote home for
more. He would rather starve than do that; and his first impulse was to
seek help at the gaming-table, whither his new friends had often tempted
him. But he had promised Mr Bhaer to resist what then had seemed an
impossible temptation; and now he would not add another fault to the
list already so long. Borrow he would not, nor beg. What could he