firmly replying, and more entreaty, with brief, simple answers. Most
unexpectedly, before an hour passed Leslie heard the front door open
and the professor go out and pass slowly down the walk. Her heart was
in her throat, beating painfully. What had happened? A quick intuition
presented a possible solution. Cloudy would not leave them while they
were in college, and had bid him wait, or perhaps turned him down
altogether! How dear of her! And yet with quick revulsion of spirit
she began to pity the poor, lonely man who could not have Cloudy when
he loved her.

A moment later Julia Cloud came softly up the stairs and tiptoed into
her own room, and, horror of horrors! Leslie could hear her catch her
breath like soft sobbing! Did Cloudy care, then, and had she turned
down a man she loved in order to stick to them and keep her promise to
their guardian?

Quick as a flash she was out of bed and pattering barefoot into Julia
Cloud's room.

"Cloudy! Cloudy! You are crying! What is the matter? Quick! Tell me,
please!"

Julia Cloud drew the girl down beside her on the bed, and nestled her
lovingly and close.

"It's nothing, dear. It's only that I had to hurt a good man. It
always makes me sorry to have to hurt any one."

Leslie nestled closer, smoothed her aunt's hair, and tried to think
what to say; but nothing came. She felt shy about it. Finally she put
her lips up, and touched her aunt's cheek, and whispered, "Don't cry,
Cloudy dear!" and just then she heard Allison's key in the lock. She
sprang up, drew her bath-robe about her, and ran down to whisper to
him on the stairs what had happened.

"Well, it's plain she cares," whispered Allison sadly, gravely,
turning his face away from the light. "I say, Les, we ought to do
something. We ought to tell her it's all right for her to go ahead."

"I can't, Allison; I'd break down and cry, I know I would. I tried up
there just now, but the words wouldn't come."

"Well, then, let's write her a letter! And we'll both sign it."

"All right. You write it," choked Leslie. "I'll sign it."

They slipped over to the desk in the porch room, and Leslie cuddled
into a big willow cushioned chair, and shivered and sniffed while
Allison scratched away at a sheet of paper for a few minutes. Then he
handed it to her to read and sign. This was what he had written:

"DEAR CLOUDY: We see just how it is, and we want you to know that we
are willing. Of course it'll be awfully hard to los