The squire groaned, not so much for the loss of the sum which the shoddy suit represented, but because his supposed blunder had resulted in such good fortune for Clifford.
“Perhaps,” Maria remarked, after a moment of reflection, “you can sell it to Tom, the milk-driver; he’s about your build, and I heard him say a while ago that he was goin’ to get him some new clo’s before long.”
This proved to be a happy suggestion, and appealed at once to the discomfited man. Suffice it to say that he made a bargain with the milk-driver later, and so managed to get rid of the obnoxious garments; but for years he was sore over the matter, and could never bear the slightest reference to the subject. To the tailor he simply said that he was disappointed in the suit and ordered another made.
When Maria Kimberly left his presence after the above interview she repaired at once to the kitchen garden, ostensibly to pick “a mess of shell beans” for the morrow’s dinner; but could any one have seen her crouching among the tall bean-poles, and laughing until the tears rained over her face, and she was utterly exhausted with her mirth, he would have thought that Squire Talford’s usually sedate housekeeper had taken leave of her senses.
The days slipped very quickly by to Clifford, who was bending all his energies toward preparing for the ordeal before him.
Professor Harding accompanied him to Cambridge a day or two before the date set for his examinations, to show him about a little, get him settled, and introduce him to some of his old acquaintances, and to give him more confidence.
The young man acquitted himself most creditably, and won honors in mathematics, Greek and Latin, and his teacher felt justly proud of him, and well repaid for his own efforts in his behalf.
After seeing him located in a moderate-priced and homelike boarding-place, with a good woman whom he had known during his own college days, the professor wished him good luck and Godspeed and returned to his own duties in Connecticut.
Clifford set to work in good earnest—every moment of every hour was improved to the utmost, and, to his surprise, he did not find his duties nearly so arduous as he had anticipated.
He had always been very systematic in whatever he had to do, and, possessing a rare power of concentration, he was enabled to commit his lessons with comparative ease.