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"Yes, dear, I feel it; I hope--I think; perhaps not so strongly, so enthusiastically as you do. You see,--don't be downcast, Marian, but it's best to look these things in the face, darling!--all I can try to get is a tutor's, or an usher's, or a secretary's place, and in any of these the want of the University stamp is heavily against me. There's no disguising that, Marian!"

"Oh, indeed; is that so?"

"Yes, child, undoubtedly. The University degree is like the Hall-mark in silver, and I'm afraid I shall find very few persons willing to accept me as the genuine article without it."

"And all this risk might have been avoided if your father had only----"

"Well, yes; but then, Marian darling, if my father had left me money to go to college immediately on his death I should never have known you--known you, I mean, as you are, the dearest and sweetest of women."

He drew her to him as he spoke, and pressed his lips on her forehead. She received the kiss without any undue emotion, and said--

"Perhaps that had been for the best, Walter."