Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-08-04
THE PROFESSOR.

Miss Wilson, your abstract shows
lack of thorough preparation"
Prof. Meyers tone was coldly formal,
and the dark eyes, lifted a moment from
the neat pile of papers, had in them no
more personal interest than if the girl
before him had been one of the cave
jewellers of whom the lesson treated.
At his rebuke warm color flooded the
girls sensitive face, but fretted, as al
ways, by his GOODNESS, she answered with
provoking nonchalance 1T shows the
truth, Professor Meyer; 1 studied my
lesson at in the morning after the
dance"
so 1 should presume from reading
your paper, yet one would suppose that
to a college student college duties came
first"
As the inhuman professor closed his
door he saw the girls cluster around
their injured queen, heard the cooling
notes of sympathy, and saw the arms
thrown in girlish fashion about the slen-
der figure; and turned away with a
keener sense of his own isolation
He bent to correct pile of abstracts,
but between his eyes and the dry his
torical analyses foated a figure in misty
white. So she had drifted past his door
the evening before and one white bud
had fallen all unnoticed from the wreath
of her hair. He had closed his door
and bent resolutely over his Antiquities,
but there kept throbbing through his
brain the waltz music that he knew was
echoing through the university halls a
mile away, and he saw a boyish head
bent eagerly over the bronze brown
braids; the handsome student who
hung ever at the side of the college
queen on those brief fore glmpses of
Paradise-the Friday night receptions
And the white bud in the nall had call
ed to him through the locked door till
he rose with a shamed flush and picked
1t up, all crushed and soiled, and laid
it in his desk amid uncorrected exer-
cises and worn reference books.
Commencement day came and passed,
and the girls, like a flock of butter
flies in their silk caps and gowns, had
been feted ana petted and praised. Twi-
light had come and lights were begin
ming to shine in the college halls.
From the bright rooms Professor
Meyer stole out into the quiet of the
garden. There was dancing now in the
large assembly hall; he could be alone
under the quiet stars after the strain
of the long hours. He had seen 'Rica
this day in her brightness and beauty
lifted far, far beyond his reach, as
Dante, raising yearning eyes, saw Bea-
trice throned far above him in the rose
of heaven How had he ever been SO
insane as to dream of seeking her love?
Numb and weary he stumbled on
along the darkening paths till he reach
| ed the little arbor where she had been
studying her Horace that evening. ale
would go in and rest on the little bench
| she had used then. But as he entered a
| figure, crouching on the low seat, rose
| with a startled cry.
do not be frightened; it is only l.
| Professor Meyer" he called reassuringly
ha1 20 nit n a xrrlA
| thing, whether voice or gesture he never
| knew, revealed who it was sobbing there
| in the darkness. With two strides he
| was at her side.
rs it you, Miss Wilson, out here In
the dew, with only this fidmsy silk over
your shoulders?" Lifting the silk in his
| fingers as he spoke he touched her soft
loosened hair, and he trembled. go ir
at once, child, out of the dampness
What are you doing here?"
II am not going in!' the old wilfu
RIGA echoed through the sobbint
| breaths May not one have a little cry
In peace when one wants one? Leave
| me! l am safe"
In a moment the professor had slipped
off his loose black silk gown and was
folding it about the girls head ant
shoulders as she crouched there sobbing
But when his arms were once abou
her, folding the soft wrap close, he coulC
not unclasp them.
Rica, my darling, how can let you
go from me?"
All the longing of the weary months
found utterance in the despairng cry
and in the moment of utter silence tina
! followed 1t seemed to the man that thu
very earth stood stll-that nothing II
the universe stirred save that frightene,
pulse throbbing in the cheek beneath
his own frh
Then-was he mad?-for the girl liftec
her wet face and breathed a. trembling
question in his ear:
why need you let me go?'-New Or
leans Times Democrat.