himself with it.

"Well, can't you LOOK a little bit excited? Try and look the way
I feel! Anybody as cool as you are shouldn't suffer with the heat."

"I don't know--I get pretty hot, sometimes. Well, what is the most
splendid news? Can't you tell a fellow, after calling him up here
in the hot sun?"

"Well, listen. The Gilroy hospital--you know, where Cecil is"--Chip knew--
"has a case of blighted love and shattered hopes"--Chip's foolish, man-
heart nearly turned a somersault. Was it possible?--"and it's the
luckiest thing ever happened."

"Yes?" Chip wished to goodness she would get to the point. She could
be direct enough in her statements when what she said was going to hurt
a fellow. His heart was thumping so it hurt him.

"Yes. A doctor there was planning to get married and go away on his
honeymoon, you know--"

Chip nodded, half suffocated with crowding, incredulous hopes.

"Well, and now he isn't. His ladylove was faithless and loves another,
and his honeymoon is indefinitely postponed. Do you see now where the
good news comes in?"

Chip shook his head once and looked away up the grade. Funny, but
something had gone wrong with his throat. He was half choked.