You think, then, that last night Miss Wynter gave you--encouragement ?" "Oh! hardly that.

And yet--she certainly seemed to like--that is not to _dislike_ my being with her: and once--well,"-- confusedly--"that was nothing." "It must have been something." "No, really; and I shouldn't have mentioned it either--not for a moment." The professor's face changes.

The apathy that has lain upon it for the past five minutes now gives way to a touch of fierce despair.

He turns aside, as if to hide the tell-tale features, and going to the window, gazes sightlessly on the hot, sunny street below.
What was it--_what_?
Shall he ever have the courage to find out?
And is this to be the end of it all?
In a flash the coming of the girl is present before him, and now, here is her going.

Had she--had she--what _was_ it he meant?
No wonder if her girlish fancy had fixed itself on this tall, handsome, young man, with his kindly, merry ways and honest meaning.