One afternoon in the early part of his junior year, Florence and he were driving on the middle road to Ypsilanti. Below the Poor Farm they turned in at a side lane, over which the branches met. The sun, shining through the green canopy, stenciled the way with shadows that shifted and changed design as the soft wind moved the leaves.
"Jack," Florence said quite seriously, "what made you give up your idea of going in for the scholarship?"
He flecked the horse impatiently with the whip.
"What was the use keeping on?" he replied. "I fell down straight off the bat. I"d like to win it; that"s sure enough. It would be fine. I like to work, too; but it"s too late now." He sighed. "But there," he exclaimed, turning to her with a smile, "what"s the use of crying over spilt milk?"
She was still serious.
"Don"t be silly," she reproved. "Why don"t you go on with it now? Can"t you, dear? Please. Oh, how I"d love to see you win it; and you can if you"ll only try!" She clasped her hands eagerly and leaned in front of him.
"Do you suppose I could?" he asked, with some show of earnestness.
"Of course you could!" she cried. "Do try, Jack, dear; please do; for my sake."
The shade was deep where they were, and he stopped the horse and they remained there a s.p.a.ce. She planned for him gaily.
"If I could only help you," she murmured tenderly.
"You can--by loving me," he said.
She looked away.
"If I do take up the work to win," he went on, "it"ll mean I can"t come down so often. How would you like that?" he asked, playfully.
"I shouldn"t care." Then she added quickly, a little frightened by the look he gave her. "You know, dear, I didn"t mean that! I mean I could stand it--I could stand it for your sake."
"So we both might be happier in the end."
At his words she looked away again.
"Yes," she repeated slowly--"so we both might be happier in the end.
Won"t you try?" she asked eagerly, after the moment"s silence that ensued.
He did not answer her at once. Then suddenly he flapped the reins upon the horse"s back and touched the sleek animal with the whip.
"Gad! I will!" he exclaimed. And looking at her he saw a mist in her eyes, and that she had drawn her lower lip between her teeth, which were white upon it.
Moved by her emotion he asked, gently:
"Are you glad?"
"Oh, so glad!" she answered, and there was a tremor in her voice. "I know you"ll win," she went on after a moment. "I know, at least you"ll make the effort, for you"ve promised me. You always keep your promises to me, don"t you, Jack?"
He laughed lightly. "I couldn"t do otherwise," he said. "I couldn"t if I tried."
He felt her hand upon his arm, and his heart at that moment filled to overflowing with love for her....
"Crowley, you old parson, I"m going to win that Athens scholarship or bust--or _bust_; do you understand!" he exploded, later in the day, before his room-mate.
Crowley looked up from the three open books on the table over which he was bent.
"Good for you!" he cried. "Gad; you"re more apt to win it now than I am the Rome--the way the work is going."
"You"d better look to your laurels," was the bantering reply. "You just note your little Johnnie"s smoke. If he doesn"t make the rest of the bunch that"s on the same scent look like thirty cents, a year from next June, he"ll go jump off the dock; and upon you will devolve the cheerful duty of telegraphing papa!"
And the next day he began.
It was an Herculean task that confronted him and he realized fully the labor necessary to its accomplishment. He dove into the work with an enthusiasm that augured well for the achievement of the end he had in view. He outlined a system; he drafted a schedule of diversion and recreation, which he promised himself he would adhere to. It permitted of meetings with Florence on only two nights of the week. For a month he did not swerve a hair"s breath from this plan of employment, but at the end of that period he sent her a brief note breaking an engagement to drive with her on the Sunday following. He beseeched Crowley to call upon her and explain, which Crowley did, while Houston, locked in his room, studied.
During that call Crowley suffered an embarra.s.sment he had never before experienced in Florence"s presence. The John Alden part he had been so summarily cast to act, he felt did not fit him. As for Florence, she perceived his discomfort and surmising something of its cause adapted herself to the situation delicately.
"Do you think he"ll win?" she asked eagerly after Crowley had made the necessary explanations.
"Win!" he exclaimed. "He"ll win or go clear daft, if he keeps on working like he"s been doing the past three weeks. He"s getting thinner, too,"
he added--"actually getting thinner; hadn"t you noticed?" And he laughed with her at the thought of Houston wearing himself to a shadow over books of archeology. It _was_ very absurd.
Understanding well that Florence had had some hand in the change of Houston"s fortunes, he hesitated upon the point of asking her to tell him all about it. They had been very candid in the past. He recalled their walk by the river and the conversation of that afternoon bearing upon Jack"s misdeeds. But, for some reason that he could not, for his dulness, fathom now, he _did_ hesitate. Houston had never told him what was the precise relation between him and Florence, and for him now, he thought, in the event of a secret engagement, perhaps, to seek to learn from her what that relation might be---- It was too delicate, he concluded, altogether too delicate.
"I do hope," she said, "you won"t let him get sick working so hard."
"Oh, you needn"t worry," he replied, significantly, "I don"t think there"s any immediate danger."
After a moment she said, bluntly: "You haven"t any real faith in him, even now, have you, Jim?"
He was a little startled by her question. Had she, he asked himself, been sitting there reading his mind as though it were a show bill, printed in large type? He felt, for the moment, decidedly uncomfortable.
"You haven"t, have you?" she repeated.
"Why, yes," he replied, somewhat indefinitely. "Why yes I have, too."
She shook her yellow head and smiled. "I"m afraid not," she said quietly.
And that instant Crowley came nearer achieving a complete understanding of Houston"s case than he was destined to again--until long after. He was glad to leave the little round room at the end of half an hour.
For months Jack and Florence had made plans for the Junior Hop of his third year, but the first of February came and with it a realization to Florence that her hopes were destined to be shattered. Jack explained to her, as best he could, that the three days" respite from work after the first-semester examinations could not be that for him.
"I"m up to my eyes, dear," he said--"besides I know you don"t care much; you"ve been to a lot, and as for me I shouldn"t care a snap to go over to the Gym. and dance all night. I"m going through the exams, great. I know, dear, I"ve worked hard, but I must work harder. You understand, don"t you?"
Of course she understood. Hop? What was a Hop to her? Pouff! That for them! The same always; a great bore, usually, after one has been to three or four. That was what she said to him, but deep in her heart she was disappointed; not keenly perhaps, but disappointed, nevertheless.
Through the last semester she saw him less frequently, even, than she had during the earlier part of the year.
"I"ve decided to stay over for summer-school, dear," he said to her one afternoon in mid-June.
She was quite joyful at the prospect.
"We shall go on the river!" she cried. "We shall, shan"t we?"