He's too timid and too honest to be reckless.

It is his first taste of freedom; let him enjoy it, and he'll work the better by and by; I know--and I'm sure I'm right.' So the warnings were very gentle, and the good people waited anxiously to hear more of hard study, and less of 'splendid times'.

Daisy sometimes wondered, with a pang of her faithful heart, if one of the charming Minnas, Hildegardes, and Lottchens mentioned were not stealing her Nat away from her; but she never asked, always wrote calmly and cheerfully, and looked in vain for any hint of change in the letters that were worn out with much reading.
Month after month slipped away, till the holidays came with gifts, good wishes, and brilliant festivities.

Nat expected to enjoy himself very much, and did at first; for a German Christmas is a spectacle worth seeing.

But he paid dearly for the abandon with which he threw himself into the gaieties of that memorable week; and on New Year's Day the reckoning came.