"Didn't you notice that none of the other
boys got up when you spoke." His glance filled with merriment as he went
on: "I think, too, that I should have been a little--jealous if anyone
else had--helped you."

"And your hands are so strong," murmured Teola.

"You only wanted my hands," queried the boy, trying to catch a glimpse
of her face. "I wish you had wanted me for some other--"

Teola stood with the long wooden spoon twirling in her fingers.

"I did want you for yourself, Dan--"

And then she stopped and nothing could be heard but the click, click,
click, of the toffy as it snapped to and fro in the huge fingers of the
student.

"I'm mighty glad that I chose Cornell for my college," broke in the boy
presently. "I thought first of going to Yale.... And you're pleased,
too, Teola, that I came to Ithaca? Aren't you?"

"Very glad," came the low voice distinctly.

"And I've never been so ambitious in all my life as I have since I've
been here, and known you, and I was wondering to-day if--if--"

Frederick's voice broke off the words; his big form loomed in the
doorway before Dan could finish his sentence.

"Haven't you kids finished that toffy? Better let me help, too."

There was a noticeable tremor in Teola's voice as she replied:

"We've finished, Frederick, and you can carry the butter and those
plates."

"I've something important to tell you, Teola," whispered Dan.

The girl did not answer, but the student knew that she would listen to
him in some future time.

The drawing-room was festooned with evergreens and winter ferns, wound
here and there with streamers of various-colored ribbons. Two large
lamps, one in the window, and the other on a table near the dining-room
door, sent forth their light through red shades. Glass dishes filled
with apples and golden oranges decorated the top of the piano and
surrounded the lamps.

When Dan and Teola left the kitchen, both flushed with the first
emotions of their youthful hearts, there came to them gurgles of girlish
laughter, intermingled now and then with the loud voice of some merry,
happy boy.

After two hours of strenuous toffy-pulling the tired young revellers sat
down to plates heaped with goodies.

Just at this juncture a ring of the door-bell pealed through the house.
A silence fell over the company and a sound of altercation came to them
distinctly. Suddenly the drawing-room door burst violently open and a
spectacle, in strange contrast to