"We should be brother and sister," he said.

"Yes," she assented.

"And it would not be real marriage--I mean, it would be just for the
world's eyes."

"So I don't see how it could hinder you," Corydon added. "Whatever I
did that was wrong, you would tell me. And then too, about money. I
shouldn't be any burden; for I have twenty-five dollars a month of
my own."

"I had no idea of that," said Thyrsis.

"I've only had it for a year," said Corydon. "An aunt left me nearly
four thousand dollars. I can't touch the principal until I'm thirty,
but I have the income, and that will buy me everything I need. And
so it would be just as if you didn't have me to think of."

"I don't think the money side matters so much," was his reply. "It's
only this summer, you see--until I've finished the book."

Section 8. The key to all the future was the book; but alas, the
book was not coming on. How could one write amid such excitement?
This was a new kind of wine in Thyrsis' blood. This was reality! And
before it his dream-phantoms seemed to have dissolved into
nothingness.

They would make a compact for so many days, and he would start to