When a freshman has been invited to dinner and in a rash moment accepted
the invitation and lived through the agony, he usually pays his party
call (always supposing that he has imbibed a certain amount of home
etiquette) sometime before graduation. In the balance of freshman year
the obligation possesses him like a specter of remorse; in sophomore
year he remembers it by fits and starts, always in the middle of the
week, in time to forget it by Sunday; in junior year he is tempted once
or twice to use it as an excuse for sporting his newly won high hat and
frock-coat, but fears he has offended too deeply; and in senior year he
watches the local society columns for departures, and rushes around to
deposit his cards, with an expression of surprise and regret when
informed at the door that the family is away.
Dink Stover temporized, confronted with the awful ordeal of arraying
himself in his Sunday prison garb and stiffly traversing the long,
tricky, rug-strewn hall of the Story's, with the chance of suddenly
showing his whole person to a dozen inquisitive eyes. He let the first
Sunday pass without a qualm, as being too unnecessarily close and
familiar. On the second Sunday he decided to wait until he had received
the suit made of goods purchased at a miraculous bargain from the
unsuspecting Yankee drummer. The third Sunday he completely forgot his
duties as a man of fashion. On the fourth Sunday, in a panic, he bound
his neck in a shackling high collar, donned his new suit, which looked
as lovely as everything that is new and untried can look, and went
post-haste in search of Hungerford as a companion in misery and a post
to which to cling. To his horror, Hungerford had paid his visit, and
felt very doubtful as to the propriety of repeating it before having
been again fed.
Dink returned for McNab or Hunter as the lesser of two evils. They were
both out. Being in stiff and circumstantial attire, the afternoon was
manifestly lost. With a sort of desperate hope for some miraculous
evasion, he set out laggingly for the Story mansion, revolving different
plans.
"I might leave a card at the door," he thought to himself, "and tell the
girl that my room-mate was desperately ill--that I had just run in for a
moment because I wanted them to know, to know--to know what?"
The idea expired noiselessly. He likewise rejected the idea of stalking
the door Indian fashion, and slipping the card under the crack as if he
had rung and not been heard.
"After all, they might be out," he thought at last, hopefully. "I'll
just go by quietly and see if I can hear anything."
But at the moment when he came abreast the steps a carriage drove up,
the door opened, and Judge Story and his wife came down. Stover came to
a balky stop, hastily snatching away his derby.
"Why, bless me if it isn't Mr. Stover," said the Judge instantly.
"Dressed to kill, too. Never expected to see you until I went around
myself, with an injunction. How did you screw up your courage?"
Mrs. Story came to his rescue, smiling a little at his tell-tale face.
"Don't stop on my account," said Stover, very much embarrassed. "It's a
beautiful day for a ride, beautiful."
"Oh, you are not going to get off as easily as that," said the Judge,
delighted. "My daughter Jean is inside watching you from behind the
curtains. Go right up and entertain her with some side-splitting
stories. Besides, Miss Kelly is there with some important top-heavy
junior who thinks he's making an awful hit with her. Go in and steal her
right away from him."
The maid stood at the open door. There was nothing to do but to toil up
the penal steps, heart in mouth.
"Is Miss Story in?" he said in a lugubrious voice. "Will you present her
with this card?"
"Step right into the parlor, sah. You'll find Miss Jean there," said the
colored maid, with no feeling at all for his suffering.
He caught a fleeting, unreassuring glimpse of himself in a dark mirror,
successfully negotiated the sliding rugs, and all at once found himself
somehow in the cheery parlor alone with Miss Story, shaking hands.
"Miss Kelly is here?" he said, perfunctorily stalking to a chair.
"No, indeed."
"Why your father said--"
"That was only his way--he's a dreadful tease."
Stover drew a more quiet breath, and even relaxed into a smile.
"He had me all primed up for a junior, at least."
"Isn't Dad dreadful! That's why you came in with such overpowering
dignity?"
Stover laughed, a little pleased that his entrance could be so
described, and, shifting to a less painfully contracted position,
sought anxiously for some brilliant opening that would make the
conversation a distinguished success.
Now, although he still retained his invincible determination to keep his
faith from women, he had during certain pleasant episodes of the last
vacation condescended to listen politely to the not disagreeable
adoration of a score of hero-worshiping young ladies still languishing
in boarding-schools. He had learned the trick of such conversations,
exchanged photographs with the laudable intention of making his rooms
more like an art gallery than ever, and carried off as mementos such
articles as fans, handkerchiefs, flowers, etc.
But, somehow, the stock phrases were out of place here. He tried one or
two openings, and then relapsed, watching her as she took up the
conversation easily and ran on. Ever since their first meeting the
charming silhouette of the young girl had been in his mind. He watched
her as she rose once or twice to cross the room, and her movements had
the same gentle rhythm that mystified him in her voice. Yet he was
conscious of a certain antagonism. His vanity, perhaps, was a little
stirred. She was not flattered in the least by his attentions, which in
itself was an incredible thing. There was about her not the slightest
suggestion of coquetry--in fact, not more than a polite uninterested
attitude toward a guest. And, perceiving this all at once, a desire came
to him to force from her some recognition.
"You are very much like Bob," he said abruptly, "you are very hard to
know."
"Really?"
"I really want to know your brother, but I can't. I don't think he likes
me," he said.
"I don't think Bob knows you," she said carefully, raising her eyes in
a little surprise. "You're right; we both take a long time to make up
our minds."
"Then what I said is true?" he persisted.
She looked at him a moment, as if wondering how frank she might be, and
said after a little deliberation:
"I think he's in a little doubt about you."
"In doubt," said the prospective captain of a Yale eleven, vastly
amazed. "How?"
"You will succeed; I am sure of that."
"Well, what then?" he said, wondering what other standard could be
applied.
"I wonder how _real_ you will be in your success," she said, looking at
him steadily.
"You think I am calculating and cold about it," he said, insisting.
She nodded her head, and then corrected herself.
"I think you are in danger of it--being entirely absorbed in
yourself--not much to give to others--that's what I mean."
"By George," said Dink, open-mouthed, "you are the strangest person I
ever met in my life!"
She colored a little at this, and said hastily:
"I beg your pardon; I didn't realize what I was saying."
"You may be right, too." He rose and walked a little, thinking it over.
He stopped suddenly and turned to her. "Why do you think I'm not
'real'?"
"I don't believe you have begun to think yet."
"Why not?"
"Because--well, because you are too popular, too successful. It's all
come too easily. You've had nothing to test you. There's nothing so much
alike as the successful men here."
"You are very old for your years," he said, plainly annoyed.
"No; I listen. Bob and Dad say the same thing."
"You know, I wanted you to be my friend," he said, suddenly brushing
aside the conversation. "You remember?"
"I should like to be your friend," she said quietly.
"If I turn out as you want."
"Certainly."
He seized an early opportunity to leave, furious at what (not
understanding that the instincts of a first antagonism in a young girl
are sometimes evidence of a growing interest) he felt was her
indifference. He did not go directly to his rooms, but struck out for a
brisk walk up the avenue.
"What the deuce does she think I'm going to turn out?" he said to
himself, with some irritation. "Turn out? Absurd! Haven't I done
everything I should do? I've only been here a year, and I stand for
something. By George, I'd like to know how many men get where I've
gotten the first year." Looking back over the year, he was quickly
reassured on this vital point. "If she thinks I'm calculating, how about
Hunter? He's the original cold fish," he said. "Yes, what about him?
Absurd. She just said that to provoke me." He sought in his mind some
epithet adequate to such impertinence, and declared: "She's
young--that's it; she's _quite_ young."
Suddenly he thought of Regan, who had intruded his shadow across the
path of his personal ambition. Had he really been honest about Regan?
Could he not have made him see the advantages of belonging to a
sophomore society, if he had really tried? Whereupon Mr. Dink Stover
began a long, victorious debate with his conscience, one of those
soul-satisfying arguments that always end one way, as conscience is a
singularly poor debater when pitted against a resourceful mind.
"Heavens! haven't I been the best friend he's had?" he concluded.
"Perhaps I might have talked more to him about the sophomore question,
but then, I know I never could have changed him. So what's the odds? I'm
democratic and liberal. Didn't I go to Gimbel and have it out? I can see
the other side, too. What the deuce, then, did she mean?"
After another long period of furious tramping, he answered this vexing
question in the following irrelevant way: "By George, what an
extraordinary girl she is! I must go around again and talk with her. She
brushes me up."
And around he did go, not once, but several times. The first little
antagonism between them gradually wore away, and yet he was aware of a
certain defensive attitude in her, a judgment that was reserved; and as,
by the perfected averaging system of college, he had lost in one short
year all the originality and imagination he had brought with him, he was
quite at a loss to understand what she found lacking in so important and
successful a personage as Mr. John Humperdink Stover.
Naturally, he felt that he was in love. This extraordinary passion came
to him in the most sudden and convincing manner. He corresponded, with
much physical and mental agony, with what is called a dashing brunette,
with whom he had danced eleven dances out of a possible sixteen on the
occasion of a house-party in the Christmas vacation, on the strength of
which they had exchanged photographs and simulated a confidential
correspondence. He had done this because he had plainly perceived it was
the thing for a man to do, as one watches the crease in the trousers or
exposes a vest a little more daring than the rest. It gave him a sort of
reputation among lady-killers that was not distasteful. At Easter he had
annexed a blonde, who wrote effusive rolling scrawls and used a
noticeable crest. He had done this, likewise, because he wished to be
known as a destructive force, as one who rather allowed himself to be
loved. But he found the manual labor too taxing. He was cruel and abrupt
to the blonde, but he consoled himself by saying to himself that he had
restored to the little girl her peace of mind.
On Sunday evening, then, according to tacit agreement, after a pipe had
been smoked and the fifth Sunday newspaper had been searched for the
third time, McCarthy stretched himself like a cat and said:
"Well, I guess I'll dash off a few heart-throbs to the dear little
things."
"That reminds me," said Stover, with an obvious loudness. He took out
the last heliotrope envelop and read over the contents which had pleased
him so much on the preceding Tuesday. Somehow, it had a different
ring--a little too flippant, too facile.
"What the deuce am I going to write her?" he said, inciting his hair to
rebellion. He cleaned the pen, and then the ink-well, and wrote on the
envelop:
_Miss Anita Laurence_
It was a name that had particularly attracted him, it was so Spanish and
suggestive of serenades. He wrote again at the top of the page:
"_Dear Anita._"
Then he stopped.
"What the deuce can I say now?" he repeated crossly.
"By George, I've only seen her five times. What is there to say?"
He rose, went to his bureau, and took up the photograph of honor and
looked at it long. It was a pretty face, but the ears were rather large.
Then he went back, and, tearing up what he had written, closed his desk.
"Hello," said McCarthy, who was in difficulties. "Aren't you going to
write Anita?"
"I wrote her last night," said Stover with justifiable mendacity. "I was
writing home, but feel rather sleepy."
As this was unchallengeable, he went to his room and stretched out on
the delicious bed.
"I wonder if I'm falling in love with Jean Story?" he said hopefully.
"I'm sick to death of Anita calling me by my front name and writing as
she does. I'll bet I'm not the only one, either!" This sublimely
ingenious suspicion sufficed for the demise of the dashing brunette from
whom he had forced eleven dances out of a possible sixteen. "Jean Story
is so different. What the deuce does she want changed in me? I wonder if
I could get Bob to give me a bid for a visit this summer?"
The opening to the imagination being thus provided, he went wandering
over summer meadows with a certain slender girl who moved as no one else
moved and in a dreamy landscape showed him the most marked preference.
In the midst of a most delightful and thoroughly satisfactory
conversation he fell asleep. When he woke he went straight to his
bureau, and, removing the photograph of Anita, consigned it to a humble
position in the study amid the crowded beauties that McCarthy termed the
harem.
During first recitation, which was an inconsequential voyage into
Greece, his imagination jumped the blackboarded walls and went
wandering into the realm of the possible summer. A week on the river at
the oars, however, drove from him all such imaginings; but at times the
vexing question returned, and each Sunday, somehow, he found an
opportunity to drop in and have a long talk with Judge Story, of whom he
grew surprisingly fond.
The period of duns now set in, and the house on York Street became a
place of mystery and signals. McNab, naturally, was the most sought, and
he took up a sort of migratory abode on Stover's window-seat,
disappearing under the flaps at the slightest sound in the corridor.
Stover himself began to feel the possibilities of vistas and the sense
of lurking shadows. He was utterly disappointed in the material for a
suit which he had bought from the unsuspecting Yankee. It had a yielding
characteristic way about it that brought the most surprising baggings
and stretchings, and he had a suspicion that it was pining away and
fading in the sun. By the time the tailor's bill had been presented (not
paid), the suit might have been on the fashion account of a prince. Then
there were little notes, polite but insistent, from the haberdasher's
whence the glowing green shirt, now sadly yellowed, had come. In order
to make a show of settling, he went over to Commons to eat, and, being
on an allowance for clothes, economized on such articles of apparel as
were visible only to himself and McCarthy, who was in the same
threadbare state.
[Illustration: "THE PERIOD OF DUNS SET IN, AND THE HOUSE BECAME A PLACE
OF MYSTERY AND SIGNALS"--_Page 201._]
His candidacy for the class crew kept him in strict training, though he
ranked no better than third substitute. His afternoons thus employed and
his evenings occupied with consultations, he found his life as narrowed
as it had been in the season of football. Every one knew him, and he had
learned the trick of a smile and an enthusiastic bob of the head to
every one. He was a popular man even among the outsiders now more and
more openly opposed to the sophomore society system. He was perhaps, at
this period, the most popular man in his class; and yet, he had made
scarcely a friend, nor did he understand quite what was the longing in
him.
With the end of May and the coming of society week for the first time
the full intensity and seriousness of the social ambition was brought
before him. The last elections in his own crowd were given out, Regan
and Brockhurst failing to be chosen. In McCarthy's society the last
place narrowed down to three men; and Stone, who had made the _News_,
won the choice.
Stover was sitting alone with McCarthy on the critical night, when the
door opened and Stone entered. One look at his face told McCarthy what
had happened.
"I'm sorry, Tough," said Stone, a little over-tense. "They gave me the
pledge. It's hard luck."
"Bully for you!" There wasn't a break in McCarthy's voice. "I knew you'd
get it all along."
"I came up to let you know right away," said Stone, looking down at the
floor. "Of course, I wanted it myself, but I'm sorry--deuced sorry."
"Nonsense. You've made the _News_. You ought to have it." McCarthy, calm
and smiling, held out his hand. "Bully for you! Shake on it!"
Stone went almost immediately and the room-mates were left alone.
McCarthy came back whistling, and irrelevantly went to his bureau,
parting his hair with methodical strokes of the brush.
"That was real white of Stone to come up and tell me," he said quietly.
"Yes."
"Well, we'll go on with that geometry now."
He came back and sat down at the desk quite calmly, as if a whole
outlook had not been suddenly closed to him.
Stover, cut to the heart, watched him with a genuine thrill. He rose,
drew a long breath, walked to the window, and, coming back, laid his
hand on his room-mate's shoulder.
McCarthy looked up quickly, with a little flush.
"Good grit, old man," said Dink, "darned good grit."
"Thank you."
"It won't make any difference, Tough."
"Of course not." McCarthy gave a little laugh and said: "Don't say any
more, Dink."
Stover took his place opposite, saying:
"I won't, only this. You take it better than I could do. I'm proud of
you."
"You remember what the old man said to you fellows after that Princeton
slaughter?" said Tough solemnly. "'Take your medicine.' Well, Dink, I'm
going to swallow it without a wink, and I rather guess, from what I've
seen, that's the biggest thing they have to teach us up here."
"It'll make no difference," said Dink obstinately.
"Of course not."
But each knew that for McCarthy, who would never be above the substitute
class, the issue of the senior society was settled, once and for all.
The excitement of being initiated, the outward manifestation of Calcium
Light Night and the spectacular parade of the cowled junior societies
with their swelling marching songs, and the sudden arrival of Tap Day
for a while drove from Stover all thoughts but his personal dreams.
On the fateful Thursday in May, shortly after half past four, he and
Tough went over to the campus. By the fence the junior class, already
swallowed up by the curious body of the college, were waiting the
arrival of the senior elections which would begin on the stroke of five.
"Lots of others will take their medicine to-day," said McCarthy a little
grimly.
"You bet."
Hungerford and McNab, seeing them, came over.
"Gee, look at the way the visitors are on the campus," said McNab.
"They're packed in all the windows of Durfee and over on the steps of
Dwight Hall," said Hungerford. "I didn't know they came on like this."
"If you want a sensation," said McNab, "just go over to that bunch of
juniors. You can hear every one of them breathe. They're scared to
death. It's a regular slaughter."
Stover looked curiously at McNab, amazed to note the excitement on his
usually flippant countenance. Then he looked over at the herd huddled
under the trees by the fence. It was all a spectacle still--dramatic,
but removed from his own personality. The juniors, with but a few
exceptions, were only names to him. His own society men meant something,
and Captain Dudley of next year's eleven, who, of course, was absolutely
sure. He felt a little thrill as he looked over and saw the churning
mass and thought that in two years he would stand there and wait. But,
for the moment, he was only eagerly curious and a little inclined to be
amused at the excessive solemnity of the performance.
"Who do you think will be first tapped for Bones?" said McNab, at his
side.
"Dudley," said Hungerford.
"No; they'll keep him for the last place."
"Well, Allison, captain of the crew, then."
"I heard Smithson has switched over to Keys."
"They're both after De Gollyer."
All four had tentative lists in their hands, eagerly comparing them.
"Dopey, you're all wrong. Clark'll never get it."
"Why not."
"Look at your Bones list--there's no place for him. You've got to
include the pitcher of the nine and the president of Dwight Hall,
haven't you?"
"My guess is Rogers first man for Keys."
"No; they'll take some man Bones wants--De Gollyer, probably."
"Let's get into the crowd."
"Come on."
"It's ten minutes of five already."
Le Baron, passing, stopped Stover, saying excitedly:
"Say, Dink, watch out for the crowd who go Keys and let me know, will
you? I mean the men in our crowd?"
"Sure I will."
Stover was in the throng, with a strange, sharp memory of Le Baron's
drawn face. It was a silent mass, waiting, watch in hand, trying
stoically to face down the suspense of the last awful minutes. Men he
knew stared past him unseeing. Some were carefully dressed, and others
stood in sweater and jersey, biting on pipes that were not lit. He heard
a few scattered voices and the brief, crisp remarks came to him like the
scattered popping of musketry.
"What's the time, Bill?"
"Three minutes of."
"Did they ever make a mistake?"
"Sure; four years ago. A fellow got mixed up and tapped the wrong man."
"Didn't discover it until they were half way down the campus."
"Rotten situation."
"I should say so."
"Let's stand over here."
"What for?"
"Let's see Dudley tapped. He'll be first man for Bones."
"Gee, what a mob!"
"Packed like sardines."
Near the fence, the juniors, hemmed in, were constantly being welded
together. Stover, moving aimlessly, caught sight of Dudley's face. He
would have liked to signal him a greeting, a look of good will; but the
face of the captain was set in stone. A voice near him whispered that
there was a minute more. He looked in a dozen faces, amazed at the
physical agony he saw in those who were counted surest. For the first
time he began to realize the importance of it, the hopes and fears
assembled there. Then he noticed, above the ghost-like heads of the
crowd, the windows packed with spectators drawn to the spectacle. And he
had a feeling of indignant resentment that outsiders should be there to
watch this test of manhood after the long months of striving.
"Ten seconds, nine seconds, eight," some one said near him. Then
suddenly, immediately swallowed up in a roar, the first iron note of the
chapel bell crashed over them. Then a shriek:
"Yea!"
"There he comes!"
"Over by the library."
"First man."
Across the campus, Dana, first man out for Bones, all in black, was
making straight for them with the unrelenting directness of a torpedo.
The same breathless tensity was in his face, the same solemnity. The
crowd parted slightly before him and then closed behind him with a rush.
He made his way furiously into the center of the tangle, throwing the
crowd from him without distinction until opposite Dudley, who waited,
looking at him blankly. He passed, and suddenly, seizing a man nearer
Stover, swung him around and slapped him on the back with a loud slap,
crying:
"Go to your room!"
Instantly the cry went up:
"It's De Gollyer!"
"First man tapped!"
The mass parted, and De Gollyer, wabbling a little, taking enormous
steps, shot out for his dormitory, tracked by Dana, while about him his
classmates shouted their approval of the popular choice.
"Yea!"
"Rogers!"
"First man for Keys."
"Rogers for Keys!"
Stover set out for a rush in the direction of the shout, tossed and
buffeted in the scramble. At every moment, now, a cry went up as the
elections proceeded rapidly. From time to time he found Le Baron, and
shouted to him his report. He saw men he knew tearing back and forth,
Hunter driven out of his pose of calm for once, little Schley,
hysterical almost, running to and fro. At times the slap was given near
him, and he caught the sudden realization, a look in the face that was
not good to have seen. It was all like a stampede, some panic, a sudden
shipwreck, when every second was precious and, once gone, gone forever;
where the agony was in the face of the weak-hearted and a few stoically
stood smiling at the waiting gulf.
The elections began to be exhausted and the writing on the wall to stare
some in the face. Then something happened; a cry went up and a little
circle formed under one of the trees, while back came the rumor:
"Some one's fainted."
"Man's gone under."
"Who?"
"Who is it?"
"Franklin."
"No, no; Henderson."
"You don't say so!"
"Fainted dead away. Missed out for Bones."
All at once another shout went up--a shout of amazement and incredulity.
A great sensation spread everywhere. The Bones list had now reached
thirteen; only two more to be given, and Allison of the crew, Dudley,
and Harvey, chairman of the _News_, all rated sure men, were left. Who
was to be rejected? Stover fought his way to where the three were
standing white and silent, surrounded by the gaping crowd. Some one
caught his arm. It was Le Baron, beside himself with excitement, saying:
"Good God, Dink! you don't suppose they're going to turn down Harvey or
Allison?"
Almost before the words were uttered something had happened. A slap
resounded and the sharp command:
"Go to your room!"
Then the cry:
"Harvey!"
"Harvey's tapped!"
"Only one place left."
"Good heavens!"
"Who's to go down?"
"It's impossible!"
Dudley and Allison, prospective captains, room-mates from school days at
Andover, were left, and between them balancing the fates. A hush fell in
the crowd, awed at the unusual spectacle of a Yale captain marked for
rejection. Then Dudley, smiling, put out his hand and said in a clear
voice:
"Joe, one of us has got to walk the plank. Here's luck!"
Allison's hand went out in a firm grip, smiling a little, too, as he
answered:
"No, no; you're all right! You're sure."
"Here he is."
"Last man for Bones."
"Here he comes!"
The crowd massed at the critical point fell back, opening a lane to
where Allison and Dudley waited, throwing back their shoulders a little,
to meet the man who came straight to them, pale with the importance of
the decision that had been given him. He reached Dudley, passed, and,
seizing Allison by the shoulder, almost knocked him down by the force of
his slap. Pandemonium broke loose:
"It's Allison!"
"No!"
"Yes."
"What, they've left out Dudley?"
"Missed out."
"Impossible!"
"Fact."
"Hi, Jack, Dudley's missed out!"
"Dudley, the football captain!"
"What the devil!"
"For the love of heaven!"
"Why, Dudley's the best in the world!"
"Sure he is."
"It's a shame."
"An outrage."
"They've done it just to show they're independent."
Across the campus toward Vanderbilt, Allison and the last Bones man, in
tandem, were streaking like water insects. Le Baron, holding on to
Stover, was cursing in broken accents. But Dink heard him only
indistinctly; he was looking at Dudley. The pallor had left his face,
which was a little flushed; the head was thrown back proudly; and the
lips were set in a smile that answered the torrent of sympathy and
regret that was shouted to him. The last elections to Keys and
Wolf's-Head were forgotten in the stir of the incredible rejection.
Then some one shrieked out for a cheer, and the roar went over the
campus again and again.
Dudley, always with the same smile and shining eyes, made his way slowly
across toward Vanderbilt, hugged, patted on the back, his hand wrung
frantically by those who swarmed about him. Stover was at his side,
everything forgotten but the drama of the moment, cheering and shouting,
seeing with a sort of wonder a little spectacled grind with blazing eyes
shaking hands with Dudley, crying:
"It's a crime--a darned crime! We all think so, all of us!"
For half an hour the college, moved as it had never been, stood huddled
below Dudley's rooms, cheering itself hoarse. Then slowly the crowd
began to melt away.
"Come on, Dink," said Hungerford, who had him by the arm.
"Oh, is that you, Joe?" said Dink, seeing him for the first time.
"Isn't it an outrage?"
"I don't understand it."
"By George, wasn't he fine, though?"
"He certainly was!"
"I was right by him. He never flinched a second."
"Dink, the whole thing is terrible," said Hungerford, his sensitive face
showing the pain of the emotions he had undergone. "I don't think it's
right to put fellows through such a test as that."
"You don't believe in Tap Day?"
"I don't know."
Their paths crossed Regan's and they halted, each wondering what that
unusual character had thought of it all.
"Hello, Tom."
"Hello, Joe; hello, Dink."
"Tough about Dudley, isn't it?"
"How so?"
"Why, missing out!"
"Perhaps it's Bones's loss," said Regan grimly. "Dudley's all right.
He's lucky. He's ten times the man he was this morning."
Neither Hungerford nor Stover answered.
"What do you think of it--Tap Day?" said Hungerford, after a moment.
"The best thing in the whole society system," said Regan, with extra
warmth.
"Well, I'll be darned!" said Stover, in genuine surprise. "I thought
you'd be for abolishing it."
"Never! If you're going through three years afraid to call your souls
your own, why, you ought to stand out before every one and take what's
coming to you. That's my idea."
He bobbed his head and went on toward Commons.
"I don't know," said Hungerford solemnly. "It's a horror; I wish I
hadn't seen it."
"I'm glad I did," said Stover slowly. "They certainly baptize us in fire
up here." He remembered McCarthy with a new understanding and repeated:
"We certainly learn how to take our medicine up here, Joe. It's a good
deal to learn."
They wandered back toward the now quiet fence. All the crowding and the
stirring was gone, and over all a strange silence, the silence of
exhaustion. The year was over; what would come afterward was
inconsequential.
"I wonder if it's all worth it?" said Hungerford suddenly.
Stover did not answer; it was the question that was in his own thoughts.
What he had seen that afternoon was still too vivid in his memory. He
tried to shake it off, but, with the obsession of a fetish, it clung to
him. He understood now, not that he would yield to the emotion, but the
fear of judgment that swayed men he knew, and what Regan had meant when
he had referred to those who did not dare to call their souls their own.
"It does get you," he said, at last, to Hungerford.
"It does me," said Hungerford frankly, "and I suppose it'll get worse."
"I wonder?"
He was silent, thinking of the year that had passed, wondering if the
next would bring him the same discipline and the same fatigue, and if at
the end of the three years' grind, if such should be his lot, he could
stand up like Dudley before the whole college and take his medicine with
a smile.