n at the
interrupting sound of footsteps in the storm vestibule, followed an
instant later by the click of a latch-key, he leaned suddenly toward the
younger man.

"That's Elice now," he said. The voice was almost childishly hurried and
curious. "What was it that you wondered I didn't know, that Sanford
didn't announce?"

From under shaded lids Armstrong observed the change and smiled. The
smile vanished as a shadow passed through the entrance.

"I merely marvelled that the dean didn't announce that there would be no
professor of chemistry after another week, the close of the present
semester," he said evenly. "That is, until a new one is appointed."

"Steve!" The old man's face went gray,--gray as the face of a believer
whose gods have been offered sacrilege. In the silence the shadow
advanced to the doorway of the room itself; very real, paused there
waiting, all-seeing, listening. "You mean you're leaving the department
then, quitting for good?"

"For good, no, hardly." Again a laugh, but tense now, forced. "Nor
quitting. In plain English I mean I'm kicked out, fired. By request, very
insistent request, I've resigned." With an effort he met the girl's eyes
fairly. "I've babbled my last lecture in college halls, piped my swan
song. The curtain is down, the orchestra has packed its instruments. Only
the echo now remains."

* * * * *

"Tell me about it, Steve." The old man had gone, dodderingly, on a
pitifully transparent pretext. The girl had tossed coat and gloves on
one chair and herself had taken another, removing her hat as she spoke.

"Begin at the beginning and tell me what's the matter--what this all
means."

"There is no beginning that I know of," with a shrug that fell far short
of the indifferent. "What it means I've already told you."

The hat followed the coat, hanging where it caught on the latter by one
pin. "Let's not dissimulate for the present," pleaded the girl, "or
juggle words. There's a time for everything."

"And the present?"

"Don't, please! As a favor, if you wish. Begin at the beginning."

"I repeat, there is none to my knowledge. There's only an end."

"The end, then," swiftly; "the reason for it. Don't you wish to tell
me?"

"No, I don't wish to. I intend to tell you, however. It was all regular,
my retirement; no one at fault among the powers that are. I had been
warned--and failed to profit. It was very regular."

"Yes, yes; bu