"Why not?"

"You are going to be a poor man."

"I don't know about that."

"You are poor now, at any rate."

"Well, perhaps so, but am I any the worse for that?"

"I thought you would understand my meaning."

"I do, but I am glad that all my friends don't attach the importance
you do to the possession of fortune. Good morning!"

"I suppose it's the way of the world!" thought Walter, as his quondam
friend left him. "But, thank Heaven, all are not mercenary! I've got a
few friends left, anyhow."

A few rods farther on he met Victor Creswell, perhaps the richest
student in the junior class.

"What's this I hear, Walter?" he asked. "Have you lost your money?"

"Some of it, I believe."

"And you are not coming back to college?"

"I shall stay out a year. Perhaps I can come back then."