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 pain!" exclaimed Bones. "If she's lonesome why doesn't she go back down South where she came from? What's she moping around here for, that's what I'd like to know. Ask her that when you get there."

"No bad idea," commented Jock. "I will. I'd like to know, myself."

He sat idle for some seconds, toying with Eunice's letter but not thinking of it longer, nor of her. "Believe I'll leave college," he announced startlingly.

"What?"

Jock nodded. "Might as well. I haven't done a lick of work since before Christmas, and I'm darn sure I won't from now on. I'm sick of the whole business, anyway. Why hang on here for four months more when I don't want to, just to get a degree that won't mean a thing when I do get it? I can't see the percentage."

"You've hung on for four years already after that degree! What's a few months, compared"

"Things are different now, though."

Bones left his dresser and came to perch on the edge of the desk, from which elevation he looked down upon his roommate with anxiety. "See here, Jock," he began. "I get it. I get it straight. You're all gloomed up over this Hathaway thing, and no wonder, what with the way the boys are taking it and Bad News down the street bombarding you with notes and all. But listen, that'll straighten itself out if you give it time, and then"

"That's not it," insisted Jock. "You're way out of bounds. I'd never let a little rumor hound me out of college if I didn't want to go, you ought to know that. No, the fact is—" He faltered, irresolute. To tell it! To hear himself say it aloud, and know that it was real! Bones' beloved worried face added the last straw to