"He hopes I can do better by Elinor than he has been able to do, because
he's never had a wife nor child to teach him," he continued, giving word
to his thought. "A fine time for me to begin! No wife nor child has ever
taught me anything. He says she is a good girl, a beautiful girl with
only two great faults. Only two! She's lucky. 'One'"--Fenneben glanced
more closely at the letter--"'is her self-will.' I never knew a Wream
that didn't have that fault. 'And the other'"--the frown drove back the
smile now--"'is her notion of wealth. Nobody but a rich man could ever
win her hand.' She who has been simply reared, with all the Wream creed
that higher education is the final end of man, is set with a Wream-like
firmness in her hatred of poverty, her eagerness for riches and luxury.
And to add to all this responsibility he must send me his pet Greek
scholar, Vincent Burgess, to try out as a professor in Sunrise. A
Burgess, of all men in the world, to be sent to me! Of course this
young man knows nothing of my affairs but is my brother too old and
too scholarly to remember what I've tried a thousand times to forget? I
thought the old wound had healed by this time."

A wave of sadness swept the strong man's face. "I've asked Burgess to
come up at three. I must find out what material is sent here for my
shaping. It is a president's business to shape well, and I must do my
best, God help me!"

A shadow darkened Lloyd Fenneben's face, and his black eyes held a
strange light. He stared vacantly at the landscape until he suddenly
noted the slender wavering pillar of smoke beyond the Walnut.

"There are no houses in those glens and hidden places," he thought. "I
wonder what fire is under that smoke on a day like this. It is a far cry
from the top of this ridge to the bottom of that half-tamed region down
there. One may see into three counties here, but it is rough traveling
across the river by day, and worse by night."

The bell above the south turret chimed the hour of three as Vincent
Burgess entered the study.

"Take this seat by the window," Dr. Fenneben said with a genial smile
and a handclasp worth remembering. "You can see an Empire from this
point, if you care to look out."

Vincent Burgess sat at ease in any presence. He had the face of a
scholar, and the manners of a gentleman. But he gave no sign that he
cared to view the empire that lay beyond the window.

"We are to be co-workers for some time, Burgess. May I ask