d to check your ambition or destroy your
courage. So, if you please, I think you ought to have this chance to work
with Bascombe. A year is a short time to a chap of your age and
experience, and it may be the most valuable one in a long and successful
life."

"If I can ever grow to be half as wise and half as successful as you,
grandfather, I shall have achieved more than--"

"My boy, I inherited my success and I've been more of a fool than you
suspect. My father left me with two or three millions of dollars, and the
little wisdom that I have acquired I would pass on to you instead of money
if it were possible to do so. A man cannot bequeath his wisdom. He may
inherit it, but he can't give it away, for the simple reason that no one
will take it as a gift. It is like advice to the young: something to
disregard. My father left me a great deal of money, and I was too much of
a coward to become a failure. Only the brave men are failures. They are
the ones who take the risks. If you are going to be a surgeon, be a great
one. Now, when do you think you can go to London?"

Braden, his face aglow, was not long in answering. "I'll speak to Anne
about it to-night. If she is willing to marry me at once, we'll start
immediately. By Jove, sir, it is wonderful! It is the greatest thing that
ever happened to a fellow. I--"

"Ah, but I'm afraid that doesn't fit in with my plan," interrupted the old
man, knitting his brows. "It is my idea that you should devote yourself to
observation and not to experimentation,--to study instead of honeymooning.
A bride is out of the question, Braden. This is to be my year and not
Anne's."

They were a week thrashing it out, and in the end it was Mrs. Tresslyn who
settled the matter. She had had her talk with Mr. Templeton Thorpe, and,
after hearing all that he had to say, expressed herself in no uncertain
terms on the advisability of postponing the wedding for a year if not
longer. Something she said in private to Anne appeared to have altered
that charming young person's notions in regard to an early wedding, so
Braden found himself without an ally. He went to London early in the fall,
with Anne's promises safely stowed away in his heart, and he came back in
the middle of his year with Sir George, dazed and bewildered by her
faithlessness and his grandfather's perfidy.

Out of a clear sky had come the thunderbolt. And then, while he was still
dazed and furious, his grandfather had tried to conv