"Maybe it'll interest you," he said. "I suppose you'll go there when you're
ready, eh?"
"Might as well go to one as another, I guess," said I.
"Perhaps; but I'd like you to go to mine," he answered, kind of gravely. "I
think it's a little better than the others, you see."
"I suppose you won't be there," I said, flicking Nell's ear with my crop.
"I'm not so sure," he said. "I'm trying for an instructorship. I get my Ph.
D. next year. Then I want to go to Germany for a year to study. You're
helping to pay for that," he said with a smile.
"I am?"
"Yes; the money I get for your tutoring is to go for that."
"Oh," I said. "Then--then you're coming back to college?"
"If they'll have me."
"Hope they won't," I said.
But I didn't.
The next Wednesday we had lessons after breakfast, because it was a good
deal cooler. Twigg said I had studied first rate, and if I liked we'd have
a go at golf. So we did. I beat him one up and two to play. I thought at
first he was just letting me win, but he wasn't. He didn't seem to be
thinking of golf and looked sort of sober all the way round. When we'd
finished he said:
"Raymond, I don't think I'll have an opportunity to use my clubs again this
summer, and so, if you'd like me to, I'll leave them here. I dare say you
could get some fun out of them. You could get a good deal of practice that
would help you a lot later on."
"Leave them?" I asked. "I--I didn't know you were going away."
"You forget that my month's up to-morrow," he answered quietly. "I was to
have a month in which to see what I could do. If by the end of that time I
had managed to get you in control I was to stay on. That was the agreement
with your father."
"Oh," I muttered. We were sitting under the big maple tree on the lawn. I
had an iron putter and was digging a hole in the turf.
"Yes," he continued, "to-morrow ends the present arrangement. I wish very
much that I could go to Mr. Dale and tell him that I had won. But I can't.
I haven't won, Raymond. I have gained ground, but the victory is still a
long way off."
"You--you've done better than the others," I muttered.
"Have I? Well, I'm glad of that; that's something, isn't it? No man likes
to acknowledge utter defeat; I'm certain I don't."