be glad to see whether our state
university might not have something for you. I have friends and
acquaintances who could help there."

"Oh, you are very kind! It is very good of you to offer to do that;
but--"

A slight embarrassment was manifest in the quick opening and closing of
her eyes, a slight turning of the head, but she smiled pleasantly,
happily. He liked her way of smiling, and smiled himself. He found it
agreeable to be talking to this young woman with the fine, candid eyes,
whose manner was so assured--without assurance! She smoothed the black
gloves in her lap quietly; they were capable hands; her whole appearance
and manner somehow betokened competence.

"The fact is, Mr. Bassett, that I have declined one or two college
positions. My own college offered to take me in; and I believe there
were one or two other chances. But it is kind of you to offer to help
me."

She had minimized the importance of the offers she had declined so that
he might not feel the meagreness of his proffered help; and he liked her
way of doing it; but it was incredible that a young woman should decline
an advantageous and promising position to accept a minor one. In the
world he knew there were many hands on all the rounds of all the
available ladders.

"Of course," he hastened to say, "I knew you were efficient; that's why
I thought the public schools were not quite--not quite--worthy of your
talents!"

Some explanation seemed necessary, and Sylvia hesitated for a moment.

"Do I really have to be serious, Mr. Bassett? So many people--the girls
at college and some of my instructors and Mrs. Owen even--have assured
me that I am not quite right in my mind; but I will make short work of
my reasons. Please believe that I really don't mean to take myself too
seriously. I want to teach in the public schools merely to continue my
education; there are things to learn there that I want to know. So, you
see, after all, it's neither important nor interesting; it's only--only
my woman's insatiable curiosity!"

He smiled, but he frowned too; it annoyed him not to comprehend her.
School-teaching could only be a matter of necessity; her plea of
curiosity must cover something deeper that she withheld.

"I know," she continued, "if I may say it, ever so much from books; but
I have only the faintest notions of life. Now, isn't that terribly
muggy? People--and their conditions and circumstances--can only be
learned by going to the origin