on life, and only when our eyes are closed again will they be opened
to us."

So it was that the Professor carried me again from my little valley! The
great Judge Bundy standing at the platform's edge, brusquely dismissing
us, had dwindled to pygmy height. He was a mere maker of nails. Life a
moment since had been very simple, very concrete, a mere game in which
the stake was food and clothes, a Queen Anne house, a clipped lawn and
trotting horses. Now it was a mysterious expedition into the unknown.
With the Professor's last word I rose, ready to march, not knowing
whither, but sure that it would not be to a conquest measured in kegs of
nails. In this exalted mood Gladys Todd could have no part, for I knew
that I could go faster and farther in light marching order, unhampered by
impedimenta of any kind. Gladys Todd suddenly took her place with
impedimenta. Her first act was to confirm this judgment of her, for as I
was forcing my way down the crowded aisle, intent on reaching my old
friend, she kept tugging at my sleeve and entreating me not to hurry.
Her remonstrances aroused my antagonism. Inwardly I was calling down
maledictions on her head, for I saw the Professor's tall form receding
through the door. I would have rushed after him; there were a thousand
things I wanted to know, a thousand questions I had to ask him. But I
was checked. I could not abandon Gladys Todd; nor had I the courage to
present myself to him after so many years in the light of a youth given
to sentimental dalliance. He would remember the boy who had come to him,
cold and wet, from the depths of a mountain stream, the boy who had run
miles in the early morning to warn him of the approach of the terrible
Lukens, the boy whom he had called his only friend. He would see me
dignified by a tail coat and beautified by a mauve tie, a white waistcoat
and gleaming patent-leather shoes. He would remember me as I stood by
the cabin door, a strong, rugged lad. He would see me a devotee of
fashion, a dawdler after a pretty face. So it was with a feeling of
relief that I saw the study door close after my friend. I intended to
find him, but not until I was as free as on that day when I first came
upon him in the clearing.

Gladys Todd was inclined to lag. There were a dozen persons to whom she
wished to speak, but with rude insistence I hurried her away. Outside
the rain fell heavily. I held my umbrella at arm's length now and
abandoned