student of medicine. He hoped to fight his way into full fraternity
membership by the beginning of the next semester. This last detail
was, at present, the most important of his life and had been confided
to her at the very beginning of their acquaintanceship.

Youth is in a hurry. At four o'clock their hands were intertwined. At
five o'clock their lips found each other. From six on the bandages
were changed more rarely. Instead they exchanged vows of eternal
fidelity. At eight a solemn betrothal took place. And when, at ten
o'clock, swaying slightly and mellow of mood, the physicians
reappeared in order to put the patient to bed properly, their
wedding-day had been definitely set for the fifth anniversary of that
day. Next morning the procession went on to celebrate in some other
picturesque locality the festival of the breakfast of "the
morning after."

Toni had run up on the hill which ascended, behind her father's house,
toward the high plateau of the river-bank. With dry but burning eyes
she looked after the wagons which gradually vanished in the silvery
sand of the road and one of which carried away into the distance her
life's whole happiness.

To be sure, she had fallen in love with everyone whom she had met.
This habit dated from her twelfth, nay, from her tenth year. But this
time it was different, oh, so different. This time it was like an
axe-blow from which one doesn't arise. Or like the fell
disease--consumption--which had dragged her mother to the grave.

She herself was more like her father, thick-set and sturdy.