You will taste life--yes, life." And as he repeated the word, all the jollity died suddenly out of the face of Mr.Jarvice.He bent his eyes somberly upon his visitor and a queer inscrutable smile played about his lips.

But Walter Hine had no eyes for Mr.Jarvice.He was nerving himself to refuse the proposal.
"I can't go," he blurted out, with the ungracious stubbornness of a weak mind which fears to be over-persuaded.

Afraid lest he should consent, he refused aggressively and rudely.
Mr.Jarvice repressed an exclamation of anger.

"And why ?" he asked, leaning forward on his elbows and fixing his bright, sharp eyes on Walter Hine's face.
Walter Hine shifted uncomfortably in his chair but did not answer.
"And why can't you go ?" he repeated.
"I can't tell you." "Oh, surely," said Mr.Jarvice, with a scarcely perceptible sneer.

"Come now! Between gentlemen! Well ?" Walter Hine yielded to Jarvice's insistence.
"There's a girl," he said, with a coy and odious smile.
Mr.Jarvice beat upon his desk with his fists in a savage anger.