subject a great deal of
consideration I have come to the conclusion that it would be too painful
for me to revive those--those--unhappy emotions I was just beginning to
recover from!"

"I thought you loved her!" I exclaimed.

"That's why I've determined not to go," he said. "I have outlived one
refusal. How do I know I have the strength, the determination, the
hardihood to undergo the agonies of another?"

It seemed a feeble remark to say that faint heart never won fair lady. I
growled it out more like a swear than anything else. I was disgusted
with the chump.

"She's the star above me," he said; "and I am crushed by my own
presumption. Is there any such fool as the man that breaks his heart
twice for the impossible?"

"But it isn't impossible," I cried. "Hasn't she--as far as a woman
can--hasn't she called you back to her? What more do you expect her to
do? A woman's delicacy forbids her screaming for a man! I think Eleanor
has already gone a tremendous way in just hinting--"

"You may be right," he said pathetically; "but then you may also be
wrong. The risk is too terrible for me to run. It will comfort me all my
life to think that perhaps she does love me in secret!"

"Do you mean to say you're going to give it all up?" I roared.

"You needn't get so warm about it," he returned. "After all, I have some
justification in thinking she doesn't care."

"What on earth do you suppose she invited you for, then?"

"Well, it would be different," he said, "if I had a note from her--a
flower--some little tender reminder of those dear old dead days in the
Pullman!"

"She's saving up all that for Morristown," I said.

For the first time in our acquaintance Doctor Jones looked at me with
suspicion. His blue eyes clouded. He was growing a little restive under
my handling.

"You seem to make the matter a very personal one," he observed.

"Well, I love Freddy," I explained. "It naturally brings your own case
very close to me. And then I am so positive that you love Eleanor and
that Eleanor loves you. Put yourself in my place, Doctor! Do you mean
that you'd do nothing to bring two such noble hearts together?"

He seized my hand and wrung it effusively. He really _did_ love Eleanor,
you know. The only fault with him was his being so darned humble about
it. He was eaten up with a sense of his own inferiority. And yet I could
see he was just tingling to go to Morristown. Of course, I crowded him
all I could, but the