im. Instead, she fixed her eyes steadily on the bulging root of an elm
in the garden. She must concentrate everything on that to keep from
being an utter fool. But what an hour it had been! First the dreadful
news about Furbush and that thing in the paper, and then Tom's
unexpected entrance. How wonderful he looked as he came into the room;
he had been so self-possessed, and she should have been such a ninny in
his place!

Tom took a step nearer. "Nancy," he said very tenderly.

The root was waving now; it _would_ become indistinct. How gentle he
was, and how different from Henry! "Nancy!" he repeated. Then the root
became altogether blurred and meaningless, and she felt him take her in
his arms and kiss her. "Darling Nancy," he was saying; and, somehow, to
her great relief, she found an apparently adequate reply.

* * * * *

It was decided that a long engagement was altogether unnecessary, a
decision which was without repeal, in view of the absence of parental
supervision. Why waste the perfectly good summer? Why indeed? And so the
wedding was set for a few days after Commencement.

"That will give me just about enough time to get ready," said Nancy,
"and I really think you must get a new cutaway."

Then at last Commencement was over. The electricians bore away for
another year the last of the class numeral signs which had hung from
their respective Headquarters. The Headquarters themselves had been
swept and cleaned and restored to their owners, and one by one the
dwellers, in Tutors' Lane prepared to board up their houses for the
summer and depart for the mountains or for the shore.

The wedding alone kept most of them in Woodbridge. Few there were that
had not some pleasant memory of Nancy, and the sacrifice of a day or two
of vacation was counted as little. Furbush's dramatic end had held the
centre of the Woodbridge stage, but it was now forced into the
background by the question: Was Tom good enough for Nancy? It was
generally agreed that he was getting the best of it, but not many
thought that she was altogether throwing herself away upon him. Nancy
might have married anyone, it was pointed out, and having had so much
responsibility, she could have graced the board of a much older man.
Instead, she had chosen a young instructor--a pleasant enough boy,
perhaps but still unproved. Well, Nancy would make the most of him,
there was no question of that, and of course he was a gre