'They say a fool is not a perfect fool till he has studied Latin. No, I
thank you. Five years, did you say?'

'Five years,' repeated Paul, this time without sighing.

'Well, get the books I need. You know what they are. Bring the bill to
me. Have it made out in your name, though, I'll settle the account.
Mum's the word, Paul. I won't have snobs laughing at the learned
shoemaker. The secret is mine.'

Paul promised. Scheffer thereupon picked up the student's worn-out
shoes, and tossed them into a distant heap of rubbish, and the lad went
on his way rejoicing. He was a widow's son, and poor; and to be shod as
a gentleman should be was a serious matter to him.

II.

But, as to the secret, there was Josephine, who shared the family burden
of poverty and pride; Josephine, who was a beauty, and not spoiled at
that, but light of heart and cheerful, disposed to make the best of
things; laughing lightly over mishaps which made her mother weep;
Josephine, of whose fair womanhood as much was hoped in a worldly way as
of Paul's talents; Josephine, to whom Paul told everything: how could he
withhold from her August Scheffer's curious secret?

That afternoon, when he went home, Paul found her in the porch. She had
a book; of course, it was one of Cromwell's. Paul discovered that when
he had settled himself near her, with a book in his own hand. He had
come to her so conscious of his late bargain, and the immediate benefit
he had derived therefrom, that he expected an instant leaning toward
discovery on her part. But Josephine was absorbed in her occupation, and
though she looked up and smiled when she saw Paul coming, she looked
down again and sighed the next instant, and continued reading with a
gravity that soon attracted his notice. Her looks troubled him. Of late,
a shadow seemed to have fallen darkly over her; she was, though Paul
understood it not, in the struggle of youth with life. Do you know what
that struggle is? Not all who pass through it go on their way rejoicing,
over the everlasting blessedness won from the 'good and great angel.'
For then this earth more manifestly were the world of the redeemed ones.

Not long before, Paul had heard Josephine say that she would not live on
in this idle way. She must find some work to do. Perhaps, he thought,
the sense of a necessity her mother instantly and constantly denied when
Josephine spoke of it, is now again oppressing her. However occasioned,
Paul's face saddened wh