"Was that why you seemed to take to me so much?" he asked, wistfully.
"It was only one reason," said the president, soothingly. "I liked you from the first."
"But I don't see," said Andrew, "why I should have suffered for your action."
For the moment, his veneration for this remarkable man hung in the balance.
"It would have been for the society's sake," said the president, simply; "probationers are hardly missed."
His face wore a pained look, but there was no reproach in his voice.
Andrew was touched.
He looked the apology, which, as a Scotchman, he could not go the length of uttering.
"Before I leave you to-day," said the president, turning to a pleasanter subject, "I shall give you some money. We do not, you understand, pay our probationers a fixed salary."
"It is more, is it not," said Andrew, "in nature of a scholarship?"