I ..."

She wondered what he was so embarrassed about, but to save the
situation, she interrupted.

"Are you going to be awfully busy this afternoon? Because, if you
aren't, there's something you can do for me. You're in the law school
this year, aren't you?"

"Yes," he said. "Of course I'm not busy at all."

"It'll take quite a little while," she warned him, "an hour or so, and I
don't want to interfere with anything you've got to do."

Again he assured her that he hadn't anything.

"Well, then," she said rather dubiously, because his voice sounded still
so constrained and unnatural, "I'll come down in the car and pick you up
about half past one. Is that all right?"

"Yes," he said. "Yes, of course. Thank you very much."

Had inclination led Rose to do a little imaginative thinking about the
half-back, from his own point of view, she might, without much trouble,
have approximated the cause of his embarrassment.

Here is a poor but honest young man, who has devoted himself, heart,
brain and good right arm, to the service of a beautiful young fellow
student at the university. They must wait for each other, of course,
until he can graduate and get admitted to the bar and make a success