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 jealousy of his cousin—none even when he heard that she and Miss Kimball had gone to the theatre with Conroy, or when he found that Conroy had given her the rose which she wore one morning in her coat.

"He's a funny boy, isn't he?" she said.

He nodded, admiring her silently.

"He seems to be having—a 'gay' time at college," she went on.

"Yes. That is what he came for."

A moment later, she added: "Mother says so many boys at college learn to—to drink"—she blushed—"and gamble."

He looked up quickly. "But he's not that sort, is he?"

"That's what I told mother! She seemed to think—but you'll look after him, won't you?"

"What has happened?"

"Why, nothing! Really nothing," she cried. "It was just that mother spoke of boys doing those things at college. And I knew that you wouldn't let him do them, if you knew. And that's why I mentioned it—really." "What made your mother speak of it at all?" he asked suspiciously.

"She—she had a brother once, who went to college and"

"Oh." He thought it over. "No. Con's all right. He'll take care of himself." He was flattered by her trust in him. "I see him in the halls almost every day."

He did not say that he had been avoiding Conroy,