"Nobody does who has had no training," Miss Enid gently suggested. "It seems a pity that a young man of your possibilities should have had so little opportunity for cultivating them."
"Well, I ain't a Methuselah!" said Quin, slightly peaked. "What's the matter with me beginning now?"
"It's rather late, I am afraid. Still, other men have done it. I wonder if you would consider taking up some night courses at the university?"
"I'd consider anything that would get me on in the world. I've got a very particular reason, Miss Enid, for—for wanting to get on."
She looked at him with increased interest.
"Really? How interesting! You must tell me all about it some day. But this would keep you back for a time. You would have to give all your spare hours to study, and you might not even be able to take the better position they promised you at the factory this spring."
"I've already got it," Quin said. "Mr. Bangs told me to-day that I was to start in as shipping clerk Monday morning. But he'd let me off nights if I'd put it up to him. Old Chester says——"
Miss Enid's Pre-Raphaelite brows contracted slightly. "Don't you think it would be more respectful——"
"Sure," agreed Quin; "I didn't mean any harm. I like Mr. Chester. He asked me to come up to his rooms some night and see his collection of flutes."
"That was like him," Miss Enid said warmly. "He's always doing kind things like that. I know his reputation for being diffident and hard to get acquainted with, but once you get beneath the surface——"