We fell silent pondering the problem, which seemed to grow more perplexing the more we tried to unravel it. I have had a clothes-line act in just that way! But I saw what a help a trained mind like Mr. Chester’s would be to us. And we should need help—all we could get. Yet I had always delighted in solving puzzles—the more difficult the better—and I was determined to solve this one, upon which so much depended. The very fact that so much depended upon it, seemed to make it more difficult. It was impossible to approach it light-heartedly, not caring much whether one succeeded or not; and the very anxiety to succeed somehow beclouded the intellect.
Mr. Chester smiled as he looked at my serious, intent face.
“Come, my dear,” he said, “don’t take it so much to heart. Remember you have nearly a month in which to work out the answer. A great many things may happen in that time. Besides, as you grow better acquainted with the place, some natural solution of the puzzle may suggest itself to you. You mustn’t be discouraged over a first failure—that won’t do at all.”
“I’m not discouraged, sir,” I answered stoutly. “I don’t intend to permit myself to become discouraged.”
“That’s right,” he said heartily. “That’s the spirit that overcomes obstacles and wins out in the end. Do you remember the last lines that Browning ever wrote, where he described himself as
“‘One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake’?”