“Two.”
“So you brought in two runs. Well, that’s not so bad. And I guess you’ll do even better to-morrow.”
“I hope so,” said Lester. “I’d like to do well to-morrow, for you see Ruth will be there. I wanted to tell you, Dave; to-morrow she and I are announcing our engagement.”
“Fine enough!” cried David. “I always felt it would come sometime. It’s splendid, Lester. But I beat you to it. Katharine Vance and I announced our engagement this evening.”
Lester was enthusiastic in his expressions of rejoicing.
“I suppose in a way it was rather foolish of us,” admitted David. “With four years at least ahead of me in which I shan’t be earning a cent, and probably six or seven, anyway, before I can afford to get married. But Katharine was game for it—and somehow there’s a satisfaction in letting our friends know how we feel about each other.”
“Yes,” said Lester. “Ruth and I have no very immediate prospects. I’ve got over those get-rich-quick ideas I used to air so freely, Dave. I’m starting in next week to work in a cotton mill down in New Bedford. I’m going to try to learn the business from the bottom up.” He added musingly, “With the real things of life so close to us, isn’t it funny that I should think of that game to-morrow as so important?”
“No,” said David. “Of course it’s important. It’s a thing you’ve worked hard for; it’s a thing the whole college is keen about.”
“Yes, but it’s more important than in just that way,” said Lester slowly. “I feel as if it were going to be the first real test of me for Ruth. She’ll be with my mother and father; they saw the game at New Haven to-day. At one time I thought they wouldn’t come to see me graduate—you know why.”