Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Don-a-dreams.djvu/65

 "I don't intend to sacrifice his future to yours. I told you I could not send you both to college." He threw down the paper decisively. "I will get you a position down town—in a bank, if I can."

"But—but," Don stammered.

His father turned away. He was used to courtroom scenes. He was sorry; but he knew that his decision was wise.

Don stood, stupefied with the horror of the disaster. Then he ran for his room, stumbling up the stairs, holding his breath, in a desperate attempt to get out of sight before he lost control of himself.

The little room that had hidden so many of his boyish griefs sheltered this one too; but it was to be the last. For though he cried like a child for five despairing minutes, he jumped up then, and shook his fists at the door, and sobbed: "No! No, you won't!... No, you won't! No, you won't!" He was engaged to be married; his first duty was to his wife. He had promised her that he would go to college—and be a lawyer. His father stop him?

He laced up his shoes, washed his face frantically, and hurried out. He bought a newspaper and found that he had been "starred" in mathematics. He could write it off in the Supplemental Examination. His father stop him?

He came into his aunt's sitting-room—at the other side of the town—with his cap set awry on his head, pale, and with a face that startled her. "Why, Don!" she said.

He took the newspaper from his pocket. "I've failed in my examination—in mathematics." His