o Europe together. No young fellow in this world ever had
brighter prospects than I had on the day when I went back to college to
begin my senior year, Jimmie." He paused for a moment and then went on
with a deeper note in his voice. "The lights all went out, blink,
between two days, as you might say. The treasurer of the company of
which my father was the president became an embezzler, and the crash
ruined us financially and practically killed my father--though the
doctors called it heart failure. And I had been at home less than a
month, trying to save something out of the wreck for my mother and
sister, when I lost the girl."

"She couldn't stand the change in circumstances?" I offered.

"She was drowned in a yachting accident, and they never found her body."

"Oh, good heavens!" I exclaimed, suddenly and acutely distressed and
remorseful for the cynical suggestion I had thrust in.

He shook his head slowly. "It came near smashing me, Jimmie. It
seemed so unnecessary; so hideously out of tune with everything. I
thought at the time that I should never get over it and be myself
again, and I still think so, though the passing years have dulled the
sharp edges of the hurt. There never was another girl like her, and
there never will be another--for me."

"But you will marry, some day, Bob," I ventured.

"Possibly--quite probably. Sentiment, of the sort our fathers and
mothers knew, has gone out of fashion, and the money chase has made new
men and women of the present generation. But some of the old longings
persist for a few of us. I want a home, Jimmie, and at least a few of
the things that the word stands for. Some day I hope to be able to
find a woman who will take what there is left of me and give me what
she can in return. I shan't ask much because I can't give much."

"I guess you have already found her," I said, with a dull pain at my
heart.

"Not Polly," he denied quickly. "I couldn't get my own consent to
cheat a woman like Polly Everton. She has a right to demand the best
that a man can give, and all of it. Besides, it doesn't lie altogether
with me or my possible leanings, in Polly's case--as no man knows
better than yourself."

"Oh, you are wrong there, entirely wrong!" I hastened to say. "Polly
and I are the best of good friends--nothing more."

His smile was a deal more than half sad.

"If there is 'nothing more,' Jimmie, it is very pointedly your own
fault," he returned. "I'v