The afternoon was cold but bright, and being outdoors was a pleasure to any healthy person.

Neil forgot some of his worries and remembered that, after all, he was still a boy; that football is not the chief thing in college life, and that ten years hence it would matter little to him whether he played for his university against her rival or looked on from the bench.

And it was that thought that suggested to him a means of sparing Paul the bitter disappointment that he dreaded.
The plan seemed both simple and feasible, and he wondered why he had not thought of it before.

To be sure, it involved the sacrificing of an ambition of his own; but to-day, out here among the pines and beeches, with the clear blue sky overhead and the eager breeze bringing the color to his cheeks, the sacrifice seemed paltry and scarcely a sacrifice at all.

He smiled to himself, glad to have found the solution of Paul's trouble, which was also his own; but suddenly it occurred to him that perhaps he had no right to do what he contemplated.