what to its destined
uses.

Again, Vincent Burgess sat in the chair by the west study window,
acting-dean, now seeking neither types, nor geographical breadth, nor
seclusion amid barren prairie lands for profound research in preparing
for a Master's Degree.

With no effort to conceal matters, except the fact that the trust funds
had first belonged to his own sister and brother-in-law, he explained to
Fenneben the line of events connecting him with Victor Burleigh.

"And, Dr. Fenneben, I must speak of a matter I have never touched upon
with you before. It was agreed between Dr. Wream and myself that I
should become his nephew by marriage. I want to go to Miss Elinor
and ask her to release me. You will pardon my frankness, for I cannot
honorably continue in this relationship since I have restored the
property to Victor Burleigh."

"He thinks she will not care for him now," Fenneben said to himself.
Aloud he said:

"Have you ever spoken directly to Elinor on this matter?"

"N-no. It was an understanding between her and her uncle and between him
and me," Burgess replied.

"Well, I don't pretend to know girls very well, being a confirmed
bachelor"--the Dean's eyes were smiling--"but my advice at this distance
is not to ask Norrie to release you from what she herself has never yet
bound you. I'll vouch for her peace of mind; and your sense of honor is
fully vindicated now. To be equally frank with you, Burgess, now that
Norrie is entirely in my charge, I have put this sort of thing for
her absolutely into the after-commencement years. The best wife is not
always the girl who wears a diamond ring through three or four years
of her college life. I want my niece to be a girl now, not a
bride-in-waiting."

As Burgess rose to go his eye caught sight of the pigeons above the bend
in the river.

"By the way, Doctor, have you ever found out anything about the woman
who used to live in that deserted place up north?"

"Nothing yet," Fenneben replied. "But, remember, I have not spent a
week--that is, a sane week--in Lagonda Ledge since the night you, and
she, and Saxon, and the dog saved my life. I shall take up her case
soon."

"She is gone away and nobody knows where, Saxon tells me," Burgess said.
"For many reasons I wish we could find her, but she has dropped out of
sight."

Lloyd Fenneben wondered at the sorrowful expression on the younger man's
face when he said this.

As he left the study Victor Burleigh came