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It was strange that the question of wealth had never come up between them Howard had known that they were coood clothes, and were always free with their entertaining, but they lived in a modest house, and never made any pretences It had not occurred to hiht be some day if he worked hard They never talked about their circumstances Of course, now he caany pieces of furniture in the little house and wonderful rugs and things, but they all fitted in so hars that it never occurred to hiht have cost a mint of money They never cried out their price to those who saw the place, doing their service as all right-s both animate and inanimate in this world should do It was the first serpent in the Eden of this wonderful friendship at Cloudy Villa and it stung the proud-spirited young ave up all pretence at study and faced the truth He had been drifting in a delightful drea idea of the future before him, a future in which there was no question but that Allison Cloud AND his sister Leslie should figure intihly awakened to ask hiht to count on all this If these young people belonged to the favored few of the world ere rolling in wealth, wasn't it altogether likely that when they finished college they would pass out of this comradely atmosphere into a world of their oith a new set of lahereby to judge and choose their friends and life coine Allison and Leslie as anything but the frank, friendly, enthusiastic comrades they had been since he had known them--and yet--he knew the world, knehat the love of money could do to a human soul, for he had seen it many tirown selfish and forgetful as soon as money and poere put into their hands He had to confess that it was possible Also, his own pride forbade him to wish to force himself into a crohere he could not hold his own and pay his part They would simply not be in his class, at least not for many years to come, and his heart sank with desolation It was then, and not till then, that the heart of the trouble came out and looked him in the face It was not that he could not be in their class, that he could not keep pace with Allison Cloud and coo in his coht-haired Leslie, the sweet-faced, eager, earnest, wonderful girl She held his future happiness in her little rosy hand, and if she really were a rich girl he couldn't of course tell her now that he loved her, because he was a poor man He didn't expect to stay poor always, of course, but it would be a greatlike wealth, and during those years who ht not take her from him? Was it conceivable that such a cad as that youth who had boasted himself a playmate of her childhood could possibly win her?