Inside of his conscience the real battle was fought and won,and lost,only to be won and lost over and over.So long as Elinor Wream was away,he could stay execution on himself.
The same train that brought her home to Lagonda Ledge,brought a letter to Professor Vincent Burgess,A.B.The letter heading bore as many of Dr.Joshua Wream's titles as space would permit,but the cramped,old-fashioned handwriting belonged to a man of more than fourscore years,and it was signed just "J.R."Burgess read this letter many times that night after he returned from dinner at the Fenneben home.And sometimes his fists were clinched and sometimes his blue eyes were full of tears.
Then he remembered little Bug,who had declared once that "Don Fonnybone was dood for twoubleness.""I can't take this to Fenneben,"he mused,as he read Joshua Wream's letter for the tenth time."Nor can I go to Saxon.He's never sure of himself and when he's drunk,he reverses himself and turns against his best friends.
And who am I to turn to a man like Bond Saxon for my confidences?""What about Elinor?"came a voice from somewhere.
"The woman you would make your wife should be the one to whose loving sympathy you could turn at any of life's angles,else that were no real marriage.""Elinor,of all people in the world,the very last.
She shall never know,never!"So he answered the inward questioner.
Dimly then rose up before him the picture of Victor Burleigh on the rainy May night when he stood beside little Bug Buler's bed--Victor Burleigh,with his white,sorrowful face,and burning brown eyes,telling in a voice like music the reason why he must renounce athletic honors in Sunrise.
Burgess had been unconsciously exultant over the boy's confession.
It would put the confessor out of reach of any claim to Elinor's friendship when the truth was known about his poverty and his professional playing.
And yet he had followed Bond Saxon's lead the more willingly that night that he was hating himself for rejoicing with himself.
On this December night,with Elinor once more in Lagonda Ledge,Victor Burleigh must come again to trouble him.
What a price that boy must have paid for his honesty!
But he paid it,aye,he paid it!And then the rains put out the game and nobody knew except Burleigh and himself.
Burgess almost resented the kindness of Fate to the heroic boy.
But all this solved no problems for Vincent Burgess,except the realization that here was one fellow who had a soul of courage.
Could he confide in Burleigh?Not in a thousand years!
In utter loneliness,Vincent Burgess put out his light and stared at the window.The street lamps glowed in lonely fashion,for it was very late,and nobody was abroad.Up on the limestone ridge,the Sunrise beacon shone bravely.Down in town beside the campus gate--he could just catch a glimpse of one steady beam.
It was the faithful old lamp in the hallway of the Saxon House,and beyond that unwavering light was Dennie.
"Dennie!Why have I not thought of her?The only one in the world whom I can fully trust.That ought to be a man's sweetheart,I suppose,but she is not mine.She is just Dennie.Heaven bless her!
I've sworn to care for her.She must help me now."And with the comforting thought,he fell asleep beside the window.
The December sunset was superb in a glory of endless purple mists and rose-tinted splendor of far-reaching skies.
The evening drops down early at this season and the lights were gleaming here and there in the town where the shadows fall soonest before the day's work is finished up in Sunrise.
Victor Burleigh,who had been called to Dr.Fenneben's study,found only Elinor there,looking out at the radiant beauty of the sunset sky beyond the homey shadows studded with the twinkling lights of Lagonda Ledge at the foot of the slope.
The young man hesitated a little before entering.All day the school had been busy settling affairs for Professor Burgess and "Norrie,the beloved."Gossip has swift feet and from surmise to fact is a short course.Twenty-four hours had quite completely "fixed things"for Elinor Wream and Vincent Burgess,so far as Sunrise and Lagonda Ledge were able to fix them.
So Burleigh,whose strong face carried no hint of grief,held back a minute now,before entering the study.
"I beg your pardon,Elinor.Dr.Fenneben sent for me."Somehow the deep musical voice and her name pronounced as nobody else ever could pronounce it,and the big manly form and brave face,all seemed to complete the spell of the sunset hour.
Elinor did not speak,but with a smile made room for him beside her at the window,and the two looked long at the deepening grandeur of the heavens and the misty shadows of heliotrope and silver darkening softly to the twilight below them.
"And God saw that it was good.And the evening and the morning were the fourth day,"Victor said at last.
"Your voice grows richer with the passing years,Victor,"Elinor said softly.
"I wanted to hear it again the first time I heard you speak out there one September day.""It is well to grow rich in something,"Victor said,half-earnestly,half-carelessly.
Before Elinor could say more,they caught sight of Professor Burgess and Dennie Saxon,leaving the front portico as they had done on the May evening before the assault on Dr.Fenneben.Burgess and Dennie usually left the building together this year.
"Is n't Dennie a darling?Elinor said calmly.
"I guess so,"he replied."I don't just know what makes a girl a darling to another girl.I only know"--he was on thin ice now--"and I don't even know that very well."They turned to the landscape again.The whole building was growing quiet.Footsteps were fading away down the halls.
Doors clicked faintly here and there.Somebody was singing softly in the basement laboratory,and the sunset sky was exquisitely lovely above the quiet gray December prairies.
