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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tutors' Lane, by Wilmarth Lewis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tutors' Lane
+
+Author: Wilmarth Lewis
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2008 [EBook #24771]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TUTORS' LANE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    TUTORS' LANE
+
+    Wilmarth Lewis
+
+    Alfred A. Knopf
+    New York--1922
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.
+    _Published, September, 1922_
+
+    _Set up and printed by the Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton, N. Y._
+    _Paper supplied by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York, N. Y._
+    _Bound by the H. Wolff Estate, New York, N. Y._
+
+    MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+    To
+    Helen and Wilson Follett
+
+
+
+
+    _LORD TOLLOLLER: "... of birth and position I've plenty;
+    I've grammar and spelling for two,
+    And blood and behaviour for twenty."_
+
+        IOLANTHE.
+
+
+
+
+Tutors' Lane
+
+
+A SYLLABUS
+
+
+Having once, for a few months, had a literary column in a newspaper, I
+have come to admire those authors who place at the beginning of their
+books a "word" in which the whole thing is given away. The time that
+those words saved me in writing my reviews--time which otherwise would
+have been lost in reading the books--enabled me to write this book; a
+consummation which may have, in its heart, a significant kernel, and
+which certainly shows how funny the world is, after all.
+
+Now, as to this book and what it is all about, I frankly am at a loss.
+That's the difficulty of being too near it. Whether it is realism,
+naturalism, or merely restrained romanticism, I simply do not know. It
+is awkward not knowing, for in the battle of the schools now raging I
+should like to take sides. I should like either to charge with the
+romantics, or defend with the realists. It must be good fun being pushed
+and shoved around, with someone's elbow in your eye and someone else's
+hatpin in your ear, and everyone crying, in the words of a recent
+heroine, "I want to be outraged." But, for the present at least, I must
+be content, like little Oliver Twist, to look hungrily on.
+
+The story which trickles through the book starts out bravely enough. Of
+this much, at least, I can be moderately sure. For a short time it looks
+as though something might come of it; but nothing really does. It is all
+so terribly obvious. There are no obstacles such as one finds in real
+fiction; there is no love spasm in Chapter XXV. There is no Chapter XXV
+at all! And so it must be perfectly clear that those who insist upon
+having their love spasms will be bored to death by _Tutors' Lane_ and
+should on no account be allowed to look at it. There is love, of course,
+in an academic community; one frequently sees evidences of it; but it is
+love under control, properly subordinated to the all important business
+of uniting youth and learning--and to snatching time for an occasional
+rejuvenating flutter in the sacred fount itself.
+
+So the syllabus is little more than a nervous shake of the hand and a
+timid statement of a few negative "points"--a disheartening, if not
+positively dangerous, affair. That there are lurking beauties, however,
+peeping shyly out like johnny-jump-ups and wild raspberry blossoms,
+there appears to be some evidence on the jacket. Meanwhile, the course
+is open, the bell is ringing to class, and the instructor, turning over
+the text to Chapter I, is prepared to meet whatever scholars God, in his
+greater wisdom, has been pleased to set before him.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Tom Reynolds, Instructor in English in Woodbridge College, walked along
+Tutors' Lane in the gathering dusk of a March afternoon. Persons whose
+knowledge of collegiate dons is limited to the poverty-stricken,
+butterfly-chasing genus created by humorous scenario writers would be
+surprised to learn that our hero--for such he is to be--was young, sound
+of wind and limb, and at the present moment comfortably clothed in a
+coon-skin coat. The latter touch might be accounted for by such persons
+on the basis of an eccentric city cousin generously disposed to casting
+off his garments when only half worn, but the other two points must
+convince them of the faithlessness of the whole account, and their
+acquaintance with the young man will accordingly end with the first
+paragraph.
+
+Woodbridge College, as a matter of fact, has never been without a few
+young men of this type in its Faculty. Situated in southern New England,
+it has roots which extend well back into the Eighteenth Century, and its
+traditions, keeping pace with its growth, rival in dignity and
+picturesqueness those of its larger neighbours. Whereas they have
+expanded from Colleges to Universities, Woodbridge has been content to
+restrict its enrolment to six hundred; and instead of making entrance
+easier it has, if anything, made it harder. Accordingly, the College
+holds its head high, not unconscious that the quality of its instruction
+and of its graduates is unsurpassed.
+
+The Founders of the College placed their first building on the crest of
+a smallish plateau which commands a view of the Blackmoor Valley.
+Succeeding generations have scattered its buildings haphazardly about,
+but, thanks to the generosity of a Woodbridge son, the meadow land which
+slopes away from the crest down to the Lebanon River, sixty acres in
+all, was bought and given to the College; and upon this land the future
+College is to rise. There is a good deal of rather vague talk about this
+new college--of the quadrangle which is to solve all dormitory and
+recitation problems, and which is to shine with beauty. But at present
+the meadow is sacred to athletics, and the elaborate new boat house,
+completed last spring, seems to make the quadrangle less of a
+probability than ever.
+
+Tutors' Lane is the main artery of the place. It passes through the
+college green and on down the hill through a row of faculty houses until
+it reaches the village of Woodbridge Center, or, as it is usually
+called, Center. It is a famous street--famous for its elms, which
+supply, as it has not infrequently been pointed out, the dignity of a
+nave; famous for the doorways and windows of its colonial houses; and
+famous for the distinction and propriety of its inhabitants.
+
+It is one of the Woodbridge traditions that these houses are inviolate.
+Assistant Professors' wives, upon taking up residence in Tutors' Lane,
+are tactfully warned that it is not the thing to alter them. There may
+be an occasional painting, yes; but innovations in the way of building
+are not to be thought of. People who have to build are advised to do it
+elsewhere; certain streets are provided for the purpose--High Street,
+for example--and though of course they are not Tutors' Lane, doubtless
+they are livable enough. In fact, High Street is distinctly coming into
+its own, thanks, of course, to the High Street Cemetery. For a mortal
+existence in Tutors' Lane is followed by an immortal one in the High
+Street Cemetery, and though perhaps those who spend mortality in the
+Street can hardly expect to enjoy immortality in the Cemetery,
+nevertheless, no one can take from them the satisfaction of being the
+neighbours of the oldest families who are doing so. Property is steadily
+rising in High Street, accordingly, and now Assistant Professors and
+their wives do well indeed to settle there.
+
+Tutors' Lane is not particularly wide for such an important
+thoroughfare. Two vehicles can pass without difficulty, but it is well
+for them not to rush by. If they are in a hurry, they had better take
+either Meadow Street, which skirts the athletic field, or High Street,
+which is wide and oiled and designed for heavy traffic. Tutors' Lane is
+not oiled, and heaven forfend that it ever should be, for its
+foundations go far back into the past, farther perhaps than any one
+dreams. No less a person than old Mrs. Baxter is authority for the
+statement that it follows the course of an old Roman road. It is
+incredible, of course, and opens up a vista of pre-Columbian discovery
+more astonishing than any to be found in the Book of Mormon, but Mrs.
+Baxter was a noted controversialist in her day and, true or false, she
+succeeded in handing down the story to the present generation.
+
+People who think of an ordinary row of city houses have no conception of
+Faculty Row. For one thing, the lots are of widely different sizes.
+Some, like the one owned by the Misses Forbes, daughters of the
+geologist, are modest affairs with forty-foot fronts. Others, like Dean
+Norris's, cover two acres. Those built before 1800 have their
+birth-years painted carefully over their doorways, and it is an
+unwritten law that younger houses may not claim this privilege. Many are
+sheltered by box hedges, and none but has its garden--in which flowers
+other than hollyhocks, mignonette, larkspur, stock, and bachelor's
+buttons are considered slightly _nouveaux venus_.
+
+As to the occupants of these houses, volumes many times the size of this
+one might be written. Suffice it for the present, however, that they are
+quite superior to the general indifference of the outside world, and
+that, like the dwellers in Cranford, though some may be poor, all are
+aristocratic.
+
+To Tom Reynolds, walking along Tutors' Lane in the dusk of a March
+afternoon, the scene was considerably different from the verdant one
+just sketched. Instead of peeping out behind their holly hocks and
+vines, the houses were still defensively wrapped up against the ice
+which besieged their walls. Storm doors could not yet be dispensed with,
+and here and there some practical soul--doubtless connected with the
+Physics Department--had by means of a railing insured himself against
+the painful mortification of an icy step. Walking is never good in
+Tutors' Lane during the winter. Cement walks are not laid, and temporary
+boards smack a little too much of a makeshift. Arctics are the
+invariable rule, but even so the going is not easy, and it is
+particularly bad at this time of year, for now it is that arctics, which
+never seem able to last through a winter, suddenly give out at the heel
+and fill with mud and slush.
+
+Tom walked on until he came to the Dean's driveway, and then he turned
+into it. During his college days he had spent a considerable amount of
+time at the Dean's house, and now, in the first year of his
+Instructorship, he was there more than ever. His own home in Ephesus,
+New York, being at the present time occupied by a stepmother for whom he
+had no particular affection and a father whose interests were in the
+drygoods rather than the scholastic line, he scarcely thought of himself
+as having a home other than that made for him by the Dean's wife. It was
+true that there was an older sister whose husband was a lawyer in
+Omaha, but she had never approved of his bringing up, and, since she was
+convinced that he had been spoiled beyond repair, their separation was
+merciful. At Christmas the family exchanged cheques, and Tom dutifully
+sent what the Telegraph Company called a "Yule Tide Message," tastefully
+decorated free of charge. But there family ties ended.
+
+They had really ended sixteen years ago when the nine-year-old Tom had
+been led up to take a terrified look at his mother's dead face and had
+then been allowed to escape to the rear of the house for a season of
+uncontrollable weeping. From that time on until five years later when he
+came in contact with Mr. Hilton, Instructor in English at the High
+School, he had led the life of a "queer" boy. Devoted to reading and
+content, in default of other youth who interested him, to stay by
+himself, he was a hopeless enigma to his father, whose memories of
+youth, strengthened by contemporary examination of his "cash boys," were
+of a radically different sort. But with the attainment of High School
+and Mr. Hilton the world changed. For the first time since his mother's
+death Tom met a congenial spirit. Mr. Hilton was gay, he was humorous,
+he noticed important things which other people were too stupid to notice
+or to appreciate. He was forever having amusing misadventures; and
+before long he took Tom off with him for week-end walks, and they had
+amusing misadventures together. No one else existed for Tom, and
+anything he suggested became law. In this way Tom came to play baseball
+sufficiently well to be allowed in his senior year the privilege of
+standing in the right field of the School team.
+
+Mr. Hilton was a Woodbridge man, and, after earnest discussion with Mr.
+Reynolds, he obtained permission for Tom to go to Woodbridge. The
+financial problem was a simple one, for Tom had awaiting him in trust a
+comfortable income from his mother's estate, and having him away would
+be cheaper for Mr. Reynolds. Beginning with Sophomore year, therefore,
+the previously dull curriculum took on a romantic hue, since by means of
+it Ephesus could be left behind forever. Studying became a "stunt," and
+he swept through examination after examination as though they were
+novels or ball games, until at length he found himself at Woodbridge.
+
+Tom's college life after the first year had been as pleasant as college
+life ever is. At the start, his career was like that of most boys
+entering Woodbridge from a high school. His "funny" clothes and mildly
+awkward manners indicated that, as yet, he hardly spoke the same
+language as his more fortunate classmates who had been privately
+prepared for their higher education. He had heard something, of course,
+as everyone has, of the celebrated democratic tendency that obtains at
+Woodbridge. It was disconcerting, therefore, to be eyed by these young
+men as though he were a too strange bird who had somehow wandered into
+the zoo proper instead of staying, where he belonged, in the aviary. He
+had been possessed, however, with the desire to "make good," and so
+avoided the little group of cynics that, in every class, leave their
+alma mater with gall and bitterness in their hearts. As it was, he came
+to admire the happy, well-dressed majority. There was an easiness of
+manner about them that charmed him. They were reserved and did not dull
+their palms with entertainment of each new-hatch'd comrade, but when
+they did accept one it appeared to be a thoroughgoing performance. They
+were the _jeunesse dorée_; but Tom frankly hoped that he might qualify
+for something as fine.
+
+Tom had, as a matter of fact, qualified, and in the spring of his Junior
+year he had been awarded the outward and visible sign of a successful
+Woodbridge career--an election to Star, one of the two Senior Clubs.
+
+This is not the place for a discussion of these two Clubs. Furthermore,
+they who know anything at all about Woodbridge know about them. They
+know well enough, without any reminder here, that an election to either
+is the first prize in the college social life, and they know,
+furthermore, that their influence extends over into graduate life,
+colouring it pleasantly to the end of one's days. The reticence which
+the members of the Clubs feel in regard to them--a reticence found
+highly amusing by outsiders--extends to the Woodbridge community, and
+there is, accordingly, a somewhat formidable atmosphere about them which
+is vaguely felt by all. But here we must let the affair rest. They are
+not to play any other part in our story than to shed their benign
+influence over the hero, and we may dismiss them except for an
+occasional inevitable reference, with a brief statement. When, in his
+Sophomore year, he had made the baseball team, it had been conceded that
+Tom's chances of "coming across" were good, and when, later, it was
+discovered that he read books not prescribed in the college courses, he
+was "sure." The baseball, however, had come first, for it is true at
+Woodbridge, as well as in Ephesus, that baseball adds lustre to letters.
+Why he had chosen Star rather than Grave--for the choice had been given
+him--is a matter so intimately connected with the outstanding
+characteristics of the two Clubs that an explanation would promptly lead
+to the discussion above declined. Let it suffice, therefore, that he
+"went" Star because of good and sufficient reasons, and we shall have
+done with this delicate business.
+
+Then the war had come; and now, after two years of service and a year in
+a graduate school, Tom was back, an infant member of the Faculty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tom loitered up the walk to the Dean's house to make the pleasure of his
+arrival the greater. The Norris house, a somewhat solemn brown-stone
+structure built in the 'thirties, fascinated him. He found it impossible
+to stay away for long; and now, as he rang the bell, his pulse quickened
+with the thought of the rooms about to be opened to him.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Tom stepped into the hall and threw his hat, muffler, and overcoat upon
+the hall bench. "Lovely day, isn't it, Norah?" he said to the maid who
+had let him in, receiving her "Yes, Mr. Reynolds" with a smile and a
+nod, and passing directly into the library.
+
+"Why, hello, Tom," said a girl on the sofa facing the fireplace. Before
+her was a tea wagon and she was at present pouring a cup for a slightly
+stiff person in knickerbockers.
+
+Tom shook hands with his host, lately Dean of Woodbridge and now, in the
+absence of the President, acting in his place. He then turned to the
+first gentleman, who, cup in hand, was making slow backward progress to
+his seat. "How do you do?" Tom said with a slight bow.
+
+"How are you, Reynolds," the other replied, hardly noticing him.
+
+"Henry and father have just come back from curling and they say it is
+perfectly rotten," continued the girl on the sofa. "Let's see, Tom, you
+take one lump, don't you?"
+
+He declined on the grounds of just having had tea and retiring to a
+table in the rear of the tea group, idly picked up a copy of the _London
+Times Literary Supplement_ that was lying on it. Henry, who had
+apparently been interrupted, proceeded with a description of the various
+characters that had taken part in the curling.
+
+Tom's interest in the _Times_ was not very great, but his interest in
+Henry Whitman's story was even less, and he frankly allowed his gaze to
+wander over the books that covered the walls of the room. They were one
+of the things that fascinated him in the house. They extended from the
+floor to the ceiling and encircled the entire room, yielding only to the
+wide, high fireplace and the five windows. A small section encased in
+glass housed a few of the Dean's first editions and presentation copies,
+but Tom rather resented it, breaking as it did the harmony of the whole
+and pulling the eye to it with its reflecting panes. He had from the
+first made the mental reservation that, were the house his, he should
+take away that glass.
+
+The dark blue velours sofa upon which Mary Norris was sitting, facing
+the fire, he called "The Bosom of the Norris Family," and when there
+were no heavy people like Henry Whitman about, he would occasionally
+throw himself upon it, carefully pointing out each time the pretty
+significance of his act. Behind the Bosom was a large and weighty desk
+covered with a multitude of personal letters, belonging for the most
+part to Mrs. Norris, a cheque-book open and face down in mute obeisance
+to the blotter, newspaper clippings, spectacle cases, scissors, and ash
+trays. In a neighbouring corner stood a table with imperfectly stacked
+current magazines, a work basket filled with knitting, and a lamp
+crowned by a broad shade of silk with threads hanging from it, which,
+when twirled, stood out and looked like a miniature wheat field with the
+wind running through it. The lamp on the table by which Tom was sitting
+was an old-fashioned silver affair but recently converted to
+electricity. Its shade was high and dignified, and it had been
+discovered that when lifted from its place it could be worn as a turban.
+
+The fireplace carried on its mantel a running commentary upon the
+changing details of family interest. At present, flanking the little
+French clock upon its centre was a variety of old glass, Eighteenth
+Century rum and whiskey flasks recently collected by Mrs. Norris. There
+were, additionally, a porcelain image of two farmers, _dos à dos_, one
+with rosy cheeks and flashing eye labelled "water," and the other,
+haggard and ill-favoured, labelled "gin"; also a brace of saturnine
+china cats. Above the mantel stretched an expanse of oak panelling which
+supported the portrait of Mrs. Norris's great-great-grandfather in a
+heavy gilt frame. The old gentleman, who looked amiably out from his
+starched neckcloth, had been a delegate to the Continental Congress and
+a jurist of distinction. Beside him on a table were some papers,
+obviously of the first importance, for they were plastered with seals, a
+copy of Coke on Lyttleton, and an inkpot with a quill sticking out of
+it. His arm was lying lightly on the table, his cherubic face smiling
+back at its observer wherever he stood; and Tom imagined that his next
+move would be, after the manner of his great-great-granddaughter, to
+rise with a sweep and tip over the inkpot.
+
+The colour in the room was chiefly contributed by the deep red curtains
+which hung beside the windows and which brought out and emphasized each
+object of kindred colour in the room. In this way were made conspicuous
+the turban-like shade, a lacquered calendar rest upon the desk, a
+footstool, and even the British Colonies on a globe hiding unobtrusively
+in a corner. The heavy Persian rugs echoed the note so generously that
+the books with reddish bindings stood out from their fellows and played
+their part in giving to the whole a richness that made the room
+remarkable.
+
+Tom gazed at the group before him. Henry Whitman, Assistant Professor of
+Economics at thirty, a member of Grave, was telling a story of an
+Italian in Whitmanville who, when he curled, used only the broadest
+Scotch. When Tom had met Henry in his ingenuous days he threatened to be
+overwhelmed by the calm indifference of Henry's manner. The Whitman Air,
+inherited from a line of distinguished forebears, all but swamped him.
+It was as perfect and finished as some smooth old bit of jade, and as
+hard; a "piece" to be carefully handled, admirable only to the
+initiated. Tom had not yet, in the course of his initiation, come to
+find it admirable, although he quite appreciated its authenticity.
+Harry's father, of the same name, had been one of the College's chief
+luminaries in the preceding Administration, known wherever Political
+Economy, as such, was known. _His_ father before him had produced the
+Whitman Woollen Mills, which supported Whitmanville, and though they
+were at present in the hands of an uncle and various cousins, their
+beneficent influence was obviously felt by Henry. Everything about him
+suggested comfort and nourishment. There was in his eye a look which
+implied intimacy with beagle-hunting in Derbyshire, and the way he used
+his hands positively suggested candle light at dinner. The
+knickerbockers that he wore gave out a delightful heathery smell, a
+smell which is at its best when mingled, as at present, with the smell
+of superior pipe tobacco. His stockings would naturally be objects of
+curiosity to anyone familiar with the Whitman Mills, just as the pearls
+around the neck of a famous jeweller's wife would be, or the soap in the
+tub of a famous soap-maker. They were, as a matter of fact, excellent
+stockings of the heaviest, woolliest kind, and Whitman had bought them a
+year and a half ago in Scotland, whither he had gone after his wife's
+death. He still wore a mourning band about his arm in her honour, and a
+black knitted tie; and there was every reason to believe that he would
+continue to do so another year and a half. For the Whitmans always had
+mourned hard.
+
+The girl on the sofa was a thoroughly healthy person of twenty-four. She
+played excellent female tennis, and her golf was better than that of
+half of the male members at the club. Yet she had none of the mannish
+mannerisms that so often accompany an "athletic" girl. At the present
+time she was submitting herself to a rigorous course in "housekeeping"
+majoring in cooking and minoring in accounting, and she had taught
+Sunday School ever since she had been graduated from Miss Hammond's
+School at Mill Rock some six years ago. People instinctively liked her
+unless they were bored by obvious wholesomeness. And although no one
+ever thought of her as being particularly pretty--she was somewhat too
+dumpy to be thought that--people noticed her hair, which was a most
+fashionable shade of red. Then, of course, in as much as she had Mrs.
+Norris for a mother, one could never be entirely sure that she might not
+burst forth in some altogether unexpected and delightful manner. Her
+impromptu _bataille des fleurs_, for example, was still remembered in
+Woodbridge although it took place nearly sixteen years ago. Somewhere
+her attention had been caught by the picture of a cherub, or possibly
+seraph, perched on a cloud and pouring from a cornucopia great masses of
+flowers upon the delighted earth. The idea seemed such a lovely one that
+when, in the spring, her mother gave a card party out on the terrace,
+she determined to give the ladies a delightful surprise. For weeks
+before it she despoiled the garden, keeping her plans miraculously
+secret, and storing her treasures away in a waste-basket, in lieu of the
+cornucopia. And then, when the ladies were twittering away happily
+beneath, she stepped out upon her porch clad only in a Liberty scarf
+borrowed from her mother's wardrobe--the young creature in the picture
+confined itself to a ribonny dress which floated charmingly about
+it--and discharged her flowers. She was prepared for astonishment in her
+audience, and her reception was all she could ask; but what she was not
+prepared for was the insidious decay which had set in among the blooms,
+and which robbed them entirely of their natural colour and fragrance,
+transforming them into a composition recognized by polite people only
+upon their lawns. It had been Mary's first encounter with the baffling
+thaumaturgy of chemistry; and to the end of her days her confidence in
+it was never wholly restored.
+
+Henry Whitman at last finished his story and rose to go. The Dean, who
+was a genial soul, and who, with his generous embonpoint and his
+knickers, looked at present a little like Mr. Pickwick, regarded him
+affectionately. He had retired from the college two years before, but
+upon the President's departure for Europe on a six months' leave, he had
+been called from retirement to act in his place because of the great
+respect the College had for his temperate judgment, a quality at that
+time particularly useful in college affairs, stirred as they were by the
+contentions of the advocates of a larger Woodbridge. It was the Dean's
+duty to keep these malcontents, these radicals--some of whom were
+powerful--in their places. Quality not quantity had ever been the
+Woodbridge cry, and it should remain so as long as he had any power. In
+other respects, however, he was as gentle as one could well be. In the
+matter of motoring, for example, he was so gentle that to the untutored
+eye he might seem almost timid. He had viewed the rise of the motor car
+with all the misgivings of a lover of the Old Ways, long refusing to
+accompany his wife on her hectic flights, but at last he had consented
+to buy an electric. For three dreadful weeks he ran it in agony or
+apprehension. It was not that he might run into people: there was no
+danger there, for even if he had bumped into some one, the damage would
+have been only very trifling. No, the terrible thought was what the
+reckless people might do who would crash into him. So at the end of the
+three weeks he abandoned the lever and, bringing Murdock in from the
+stable, definitely transformed him into his chauffeur. The picture that
+he presented was, he realized, somewhat sedate, but at least he was no
+longer taking foolhardy chances, and he could now, furthermore, see
+something as he went along. "When are you expecting Nancy?" he asked
+Henry.
+
+"Oh, I supposed Mary had told you. Why, she is coming day after
+tomorrow. Henry Third is very much excited. He has been making a
+collection for her as a present. I didn't know anything about it until
+the other day when Annie told me. It seems that he has been very much
+impressed by a postal card from his Aunt Nancy showing a California
+orange grove, and so he has been collecting orange pips ever since! He
+now has over ninety and he is afraid she will arrive before he can get a
+hundred. It seems to be a rule of the collection that his pips can only
+be taken from oranges he's eaten, and as he only gets one a day at his
+breakfast, there is no help for him."
+
+"Oh, for heaven's sake, Henry, send him up here and I'll let him eat out
+his hundred," said Mary.
+
+"Fine person you are," laughed Whitman, "ruining my son's good habits."
+
+They had passed out into the hall when the bell rang violently two or
+three times.
+
+"That must be mamma," said Mary, and going to the door, she opened it
+for a majestic lady who swept into the room, talking volubly as she
+began peeling off the shawls and capes in which she was wrapped.
+
+"Why, Henry, dear, what on earth are you doing here? You never come to
+see us any more, and I am so anxious, too, to ask you all about the
+stabilized dollar and these new vitamines. Susan!" she called suddenly
+in the general direction of the upper floors. Then, addressing no one in
+particular, "I must find out about the salted almonds that the Dean
+asked for last night," and she started for the kitchen.
+
+"I ordered them this morning, Gumgum, myself, when I was ordering
+everything else. I had them on my list."
+
+"You did?" and Mrs. Norris burst into the most contagious laughter.
+"Tom, I wish you'd stop my daughter calling me that horrid name. It's
+disgusting. I'm going to call her 'Snuffles.'"
+
+"I really must go, Aunt Helen," said Whitman, starting for the door. The
+"Aunt" was a heritage of an earlier and more innocent day and not an
+indication of blood relationship. "Uncle Julian" had, however, been
+allowed to lapse, upon Henry's accession to the Woodbridge Faculty.
+
+"Oh dear," replied Mrs. Norris. "Well, I'm coming down to see Nancy as
+soon as she gets back, and then you've got to come up here for dinner.
+It will be such a relief having her here for the party. And now," she
+added, putting her arm through Tom's, "I must have a little talk with
+Tom. I suspect he needs a pill, and I'm going to give it to him. Come
+here, Tommy, dear, and let me look at you," and she pulled him back into
+the library.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Mrs. Norris was about to force Tom down upon the Bosom when her eye was
+caught by the cheque-book on the table. "Oh, land," she exclaimed, "why
+didn't I give Henry his cheque! I've owed him for those German Socialist
+books he got me for I don't know how long, and here I've forgotten to
+give it to him. I must send Susan after him with it right away," and
+going over to a bell by the fireplace, she pushed it until Susan
+appeared. Then, looking at Tom, with her sweetest smile she asked, in
+her quietest voice, "Why don't you like Henry?"
+
+"Why, I don't mind Henry."
+
+"Oh, come now, Tommy." She moved over to "her" chair under the yellow
+lamp and, picking up the knitting immediately set the needles flying and
+clicking over one another. "You know you can't bear him. He is a little
+cut and dried--that's the trouble with him, I think--but then, as far as
+I can make out, you people in the classics and literatures are just as
+bad."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Norris."
+
+"You are too. You are perfectly dreadful. Why, I can remember as well as
+anything, old Professor Packard standing up before that fireplace and
+saying, 'Helen,' says he, 'no gentleman is worthy the name who doesn't
+know his Horace.' 'Stuff,' says I, 'that's utter nonsense. You might as
+well say a gentlemen is not worthy of the name unless he knows his
+French for "fiddle-dee-dee"----like the Red Queen,'" and still knitting
+busily, she rocked with laughter.
+
+Tom dropped into a chair beside her, threw one leg over the arm, and,
+pipe in hand, gazed at her affectionately. She was about the age his own
+mother would have been, he thought, in the immediate neighbourhood of
+sixty. But his own mother, who he knew had become reconciled to the life
+of Ephesus, could never have arrived at sixty with the imperious
+disregard for convention that was so perfectly Mrs. Norris's. Upon her
+face at present, as she looked down at her knitting, was a smiling
+benignity that would have recommended itself to the Virgin at Chartres;
+and at the same time her hair--what modest growth there was left--was
+uncurling itself from behind and threatening to pull down the whole
+structure after it. It was perfect, Tom told himself, and were he a
+sculptor commissioned to make her bust, he would do her just like that.
+
+"Nancy, I sometimes think, is the worst person in the world to look
+after Henry. It's bad for her and bad for him. What he ought to do is to
+go out and get another wife and leave Nancy alone to do as she pleases.
+I have a good mind to take her with me to Athens next winter myself.
+What with Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee taking her to California this
+winter and my taking her to Athens next, Henry will have to get
+married."
+
+There had been rumours abroad lately that Henry had about arrived at the
+same conclusion himself and that Mary Norris was receiving serious
+consideration as a candidate, but there was nothing in Mrs. Norris's
+manner that suggested a knowledge of it, and Tom correctly concluded
+that it was just another of those idle rumours that live their luxurious
+day in Faculty Row.
+
+"Oh, my no," said Tom, "that wouldn't do at all. Why, another marriage
+would completely upset Henry's System that he's always talking so much
+about. It's almost certain she couldn't stand it, you know, and then
+where would Henry be? Suppose, for example, that she forgot to have his
+senna tea for him at night or didn't care about playing cribbage for
+three-quarters of an hour after dinner? Now Nancy, apparently, gives
+perfect satisfaction. She adores little Henry and she manages the house
+so well that there isn't a single thing to bother big Henry. But they
+say--"
+
+"Stop it, Tommy. You've been listening again to that horrid old Mrs.
+Conover. Her husband was a perfect old Scrooge, and now that she's rid
+of him, poor dear, she feels that she's got to expand and make up for
+lost time----" Her voice, which had become more and more drowsy, as if
+bored with what it had to say, trailed off and died. Then, with renewed
+interest, she exclaimed, "I wonder what they are going to do about
+Poland?"
+
+Tom had learned that an answer to these startling questions and comments
+of Mrs. Norris was not required. There was no harm, however, in saying
+the first thing that came into one's head, as in a psychological test,
+and he accordingly now answered, "Paderewski."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Norris quietly. Then brightening up: "How is your work
+going, Tommy?"
+
+"Why, it's going pretty well."
+
+"They get rather difficult about this time of year, don't they?"
+
+"They do! Oh my, I've had an awful time with them lately. I've muffed
+Carlyle and Transcendentalism completely."
+
+"Oh, no! Why that's Emerson and all those Concord people. Still, I
+suppose Louisa Alcott is getting a little old-fashioned."
+
+"You should have seen the set of papers I got back today. There it was,
+all that I had given them, in great heavy undigested lumps--"
+
+"Like footballs," suggested Mrs. Norris.
+
+"Once I was funny with them," went on Tom, "and I may say that I was
+properly punished. They put it all down in their notebooks and then
+mixed it up with everything they shouldn't have mixed it up with--and I
+shall never be funny again."
+
+"I shall give you _at least_ two grains----"
+
+"Then there are the young men who get off all the stale old facts and
+expect an A. One of them came to me yesterday, when I had given him a C,
+and whined around my desk until I finally told him I did not consider
+his performance remarkable in a young man of eighteen, however much so
+it might be in a poll parrot of the same age."
+
+"Now that was wrong. Were there other boys around?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, you simply must not go do that kind of thing. They'll hate it."
+
+"I know it was wrong, but I am rather amused by it. As a matter of fact,
+I can stand anything but the ones who think they can fool me with a lot
+of embroidery and gas. They're insulting----"
+
+"Why, Tommy, you were doing the same thing yourself only three or four
+years ago. You mustn't get so snufty so soon."
+
+"Of course, at times when I've had a good recitation I wouldn't trade
+places with anyone. It's a kind of ecstasy. It's like all sorts of
+rushing, exciting things--like a high tide, or a close race, or a fire;
+really it is. Then you go to the other extreme and you ask yourself what
+on earth is the use of so futile a business, and what right has a young
+man with anything to him whatever to waste his time with it. Better go
+and make bird cages or hair nets or--or--hot water bags, and make some
+money. When I feel that way I sometimes go out along the ridge, just at
+dusk, you know, or into the woods--"
+
+"You do? Why, I think that's awfully romantic of you; like
+Chateaubriand, you know." Then, dreamily, "He used to go out and lean on
+a pedestal and let the moon shine down on him through the trees. I
+think Nancy is a little that way herself."
+
+There was a pause, during which the young educator's difficulties were
+brushed aside.
+
+"Do you realize that I haven't seen Nancy since leaving college?"
+
+"Why, that's strange."
+
+"No: you see she had left for the west before college opened in the
+fall, and I hadn't been back between then and the time I graduated. As a
+matter of fact, the last time I saw her was in this house. It was the
+night of our Senior Prom. I took Mary, you know, and Teddy Roberts took
+Nancy, and when it was over we came in here and had a cooky contest in
+the kitchen. Nancy could put a whole one of those gingersnaps you always
+have into her mouth without breaking it."
+
+"Oh dear. I'm afraid she has the Billings mouth."
+
+"We then got to talking about growing moustaches, and Nancy bet Teddy
+she could grow one before he could."
+
+"How disgusting! That's what comes of all this emancipation. Marcus
+Aurelius has a lot to say about it. I must look that up. Did she win?"
+
+"As I remember it, she was in a fair way to, but the war came along, and
+we left before it could be settled."
+
+Mrs. Norris stopped knitting and looked at Tom with amused curiosity
+through her tortoise-shell spectacles, which had slid rather farther
+down her nose than usual. "I forget. Didn't you use to see a good deal
+of Nancy at one time?" she asked.
+
+"Only just here," he replied.
+
+"Oh," said Mrs. Norris, and went on with her work.
+
+At this point the Dean entered, dressed for dinner.
+
+"Oh dear, I'm not ready at all," cried Mrs. Norris, jumping up; and her
+knitting, worsted, and bag spilled out upon the floor. "Tommy, tell
+Norah to put on a plate for you."
+
+"I can't really, Mrs. Norris. This is Thursday night, you see, and I'm
+going around to the Club." Then as his hostess disappeared up the
+stairs, he hurried into his overcoat and, indulging in only a small
+fraction of his usual recessional with the Dean, he was gone.
+
+Outside, walking down the long driveway that led to Tutors' Lane, Tom
+slowed his pace. Overhead, Betelgeuse was making the most of its recent
+publicity, unobstructed by vagrant clouds. Tom gazed up at it with a
+certain air of proprietorship. He had known Betelgeuse years ago and
+personally had always preferred its neighbour Rigel, which had received
+no publicity at all. As a small boy some one had given him a Handbook of
+the Stars, with diagrams of the constellations on one page and chatty
+notes about them opposite. He had lain on his back out in the fields,
+with opera glasses to sweep the heavens and a flashlight to sweep the
+diagrams until he had reconciled the two. This had been in the summer,
+and although his observations had extended to the autumn stars, the
+winter constellations had suffered. Still, he knew the great ones and,
+weather permitting, he would gaze upon them and their neighbours with
+awe, the greater, perhaps, for his unfamiliarity with their diagrams.
+
+Tom occasionally gave parlour lessons in astronomy, and he had given one
+to Nancy on the night of his Senior Prom, the night of the cooky
+contest. He had looked out and seen that the summer stars were up, and
+had spoken of it, to the boredom of Mary and Teddy Roberts. But Nancy
+wanted Scorpio pointed out, and from Scorpio they naturally progressed
+to the others until Nancy sneezed and the kitchen window had to be shut.
+Then, as it was getting light anyway and the waffles were ready, they
+stopped the lesson. Tom, however, with the true teacher's instinct, had
+sent her a copy of his Handbook of the Stars, and at his Training Camp
+he had received a note of thanks. It was the only note he had ever
+received from her, and he found it remarkable. She had thanked him
+without the barrage of gratitude usual among young ladies on such
+occasions. There had been something masculine in the directness of it,
+and yet there was no doubt that she had been pleased. In closing, she
+looked forward to seeing him back at Woodbridge when the war was over.
+There had been no fine writing about his Going to the Flag. Tom had been
+impressed by the amount left unsaid, and he had saved the letter until,
+in moving about, it had been lost. He was annoyed when he missed it, but
+on second thought he wondered if it were not just as well. For, on
+later inspection, it might not have proved so remarkable, after all.
+
+Well, the war was now over, and he was back at Woodbridge. It would be
+very pleasant indeed if she had gone ahead as she gave promise of doing;
+and why in the world shouldn't she? When he was in college Nancy had
+been admittedly the first of Woodbridge young ladies. To take her to a
+dance was to have the ultimate in good times, there was no need to worry
+about her getting "stuck," and in addition to the thrill of taking a
+popular girl one could enjoy all the advantages of a stag. One could
+flit from flower to flower until surfeited with beauty and then retire
+for a smoke or other innocent diversion without the haunting fear that
+possibly Dick or Bill was circling around and around in ever-deepening
+gloom with one's elected for the night. Nancy had permanently impressed
+herself upon the imagination of discerning Woodbridge youth, and it was
+hardly extravagant that Tom should look forward to her return.
+
+Let it, therefore, without further evasion, be stated at once that he
+did look forward to her return.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Nancy Whitman arrived at Woodbridge Center as planned, and her brother
+and nephew were at the station to meet her, the latter with his
+collection of ninety-six orange pips in a candy box.
+
+In describing Juliet it will be remembered that the author said nothing
+about her colour or dimensions, but described her indirectly, and
+succeeding generations have had their attention called to the merit of
+the performance. We know, for example, that she taught the candles to
+burn bright, and, furthermore, that she seemed to hang upon the cheek of
+night like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear--most probably a pearl. So,
+in describing Nancy, perhaps it would be effective to point out that the
+snow began thawing as soon as she arrived, that the motor which carried
+her home from the station purred along without the "knock" that had been
+troubling it, and that Tutors' Lane was less bumpy as they passed over
+it. But such a description, being dangerously near burlesque, however
+refined and genteel, must not be thought of for a moment in connection
+with a prominent resident of Tutors' Lane. It is something of a pity,
+nevertheless, that it must be given up, for Nancy was not particularly
+pretty, as young men nowadays measure beauty, and were it possible, the
+truth might have been hidden. She was something too elfish--and then
+there was the Billings mouth already mentioned. Gertrude Ellis, who
+spent much of her time with her aunt in New York and who had a proper
+care for her person, thought it a ridiculous pose for Nancy not to have
+something done about her freckles. It was such a simple matter nowadays
+to have them removed that obviously only a poseuse would tolerate them.
+Still, men were so unobserving about things that they didn't seem to
+mind them at all, and Gertrude got nowhere when she once tried to
+discuss Nancy with a senior.
+
+"Oh, Nancy is so wonderful that she could look like a leopard and people
+wouldn't care," he had said. "It's funny about her, isn't it? She's not
+good looking, and yet she's so nice everyone's crazy about her. You have
+to hand it to a girl that's like that."
+
+Henry Third, or Harry, as everyone but his father called him, had
+immediately given his collection and been rewarded. He had on his best
+suit for the occasion and the tie his aunt had sent him on his seventh
+and latest birthday. He was a handsome, sturdy boy, and his father
+expected a Phi Beta Kappa key of him and an enthusiasm for Marx and John
+Stuart Mill. His aunt's plans were vague, but altogether different. At
+present she was inclined to favour the family business, with the
+understanding that when he was established at its head he should give a
+beautiful chapel with a Magdalen tower to the College. His own goal was
+the Woodbridge football team and, after that, a locomotive on the run to
+New York.
+
+They were met at the door by Annie, Harry's nurse, and by Clarence,
+Harry's Airedale. Clarence, who immediately dominated the scene,
+rendering Nancy's greeting to Annie vain and perfunctory, was a
+three-year-old with a frivolity of manner that ill became his senescent
+phiz. Upon its grizzled expanse there would pass in amazing succession
+the whole range of canine passion, rage, love, urbanity, shame,
+drollery, ennui, and, most frequent of all, curiosity. At present all
+his energy was devoted to expressing unmitigated pleasure, the dignity
+of which exhibition was continually being marred by sliding rugs. But it
+is almost certain that he didn't care a rap for his lost dignity. His
+mistress was back after an unconscionable absence, and there was every
+reason to believe in the reappearance of the superior brand of soup
+bones, a matter in which of late there had been too much indifference.
+
+Nancy luxuriated in her renewed proprietorship of the old house, her
+home, and the home of her family even before the British officers seized
+it for their quarters in 1812. There was a hole to this day in the white
+pine panelling above the fireplace in the dining room, which, tradition
+held, had been made by a British bullet discharged after a discussion of
+the family port. She had found something depressing in the rococo
+civilization of Southern California. There was an insufficient
+appreciation of Mr. Square's Eternal Fitness of Things. The spirit of
+Los Angeles, for example, was the same as that of the picnic party
+which, lunching on Ruskin's glacier, leaves its chicken bones and
+eggshells to offend all subsequent picnickers. At Woodbridge people did
+not make public messes of themselves. If they picnicked on a glacier
+they did up their eggshells in a neat package, which, in default of a
+handy bottomless pit, they took home with them and put in their garbage
+pails. That's the way nice people behaved, and what on earth was there
+to be gained by behaving otherwise?
+
+So Nancy was glad to be home and see again the family things she had
+grown up with and loved. She was glad to see Henry, who appeared in his
+turn glad to see her; but her feelings upon being restored to her nephew
+were much deeper than either. Harry mattered more to her than anyone
+else in the world. Her mother, who had died five years ago, when Nancy
+was twenty, had been particularly devoted to him; and this would have
+been sufficient reason in itself for commending him to her tenderest
+care.
+
+Such was the family that would have met the casual eye of a stranger: a
+young professor in extremely comfortable circumstances, with a brilliant
+future and an enviable son, living in a fine old house administered by a
+younger sister, the favourite daughter of the town. Beneath the surface,
+however, and unknown except to a few, was a conflict of wills that only
+an exterior made up of strong family pride and respect for the
+established order could have withstood.
+
+On the evening of the day on which Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee--the
+grandeur of whose name was never reduced by the omission of a single
+syllable--asked Nancy to go to California, Nancy had talked it over with
+Henry.
+
+"It would be nice to go, for I haven't really been away since Mother
+died. I confess I'd like it, but she's not coming back until March, and
+that seems a long time to leave Harry and the house."
+
+Henry had leisurely put his cigar into his mouth, had puffed
+luxuriously, and had then continued to gaze at his paper without saying
+anything.
+
+Nancy hated this indifference, and she knew that Henry knew that she
+hated it. It was like his whistling. At times, when for some reason or
+other he wished to be disagreeable, he would start quietly whistling
+behind his paper, apparently for his sole enjoyment. It was as if, in
+view of the coldness of his audience, he were forced to express himself
+in a humble and subdued manner, but express himself he must. The tunes
+that he chose were The Rosary, The Miserere, Tosti's Good-bye, Gounod's
+Ave Maria. There would be an occasional lapse into the jazz song of the
+moment, and quite frequently a sacred number. The songs themselves
+exasperated her, but what was unbearable were the trills and improvised
+fireworks. She would leave the room thoroughly angry, and would fancy
+that as she ascended the stairs the tune swelled slightly and acquired
+even more airs and graces.
+
+So now, as he deliberately smoked his cigar without noticing her, her
+anger rose. He was so smug, so self-sufficient--she wanted to stick a
+pin into him.
+
+"It isn't, of course, as if the house were not in capable hands," she
+went on, "for Katie and Julia are perfectly responsible, and Annie
+couldn't be better." Henry put down his paper, blew a cloud of smoke,
+and, looking blandly at her, twisted his mouth so that he might enjoy
+the luxury of biting his cheek.
+
+"Well?" burst out Nancy. "I don't see why you need be so irritating
+about it?"
+
+"Why, don't be foolish," he replied with an amused smile; "do just what
+you want, of course." To Nancy, the smile spoke a great deal more. "How
+fatuous you are," it said, "with your devotion to my son and to me. Let
+a lollypop in the way of a trip to California come along, and away you
+go as if you didn't have a responsibility in the world. There's a firm
+nature for you."
+
+She had fled to Mrs. Norris, as always in an emergency, and, receiving
+reassuring words, she had gone, but not without tears and misgiving and
+not without an unforgettable memory of Henry's behaviour.
+
+She had frankly discussed her Henry Problem with Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee. "I can't seem to reach any middle ground with him," she
+had said. "Either I feel terribly because things go so wrong, so much
+worse than when Mother was alive, or else I am furious with him. Then I
+am overwhelmed with mortification and make up my mind that I _will_ get
+on with him, no matter what happens. And of course he can be perfectly
+lovely when he wants to be--and then he will deliberately go and do some
+horrid thing which makes me want to go away and--drive an auto stage, or
+something."
+
+As a matter of fact Nancy would on these occasions, retire and invest
+herself in some such romantic, emancipated, rôle. Possibly she would be
+a great surgeon. Having gone through her preliminary training with
+unprecedented speed, she had established herself as a famous
+specialist--of the brain. People who had gone wrong in their heads would
+be brought to her by their desperate friends and relatives. If she only
+would help them out. She did usually, although heaven knew that she was
+but one little woman to so many brains, and as she worked chiefly under
+God's guidance, anyway, she had to conserve her strength. However, she
+operated steadily from eight in the morning until eight at night with
+only a light lunch in between--possibly only a water cracker. She saw
+herself in the operating room with her rubber gloves and her knives.
+There was a hazy cloud of white-robed nurses and distinguished surgeons
+who, attracted from all over the world, had come to see her miracles for
+themselves. A form was on the table, with head shaved. She was to go
+into his cerebellum and take out a tumor which had caused deafness,
+dumbness, and blindness. She would probably have to make two hundred
+stitches or more in sewing him up, but she always had been good at
+needlework, and it gave her no concern. She picked up her saw--but to
+her horror she found she couldn't bear to stick it in!
+
+Or she was a famous lawyer, strongly reminiscent of Portia, specializing
+in pleading for widows and orphans. She had a secretary to handle her
+correspondence, who explained that as Miss Whitman was able to work
+chiefly by the grace of God--her health was none too robust, and it was
+necessary for her to put her trust in Him--it really was not fair of
+them to expect her to handle their cases. However, the most outrageous
+ones she passed on to Nancy and it was by them that Nancy made her great
+reputation. Of course she took no fees, but as body and soul had to be
+kept together and the secretary's salary paid, she wrote syndicated
+articles for the papers, on religious and ethical subjects. Naturally
+she was an object of interest and curiosity and people thronged the
+court room when she pleaded. They saw a quiet woman, dressed in black,
+but when she began speaking you could hear a pin drop. There was a
+thrilling quality in her voice, much remarked by the press, and big
+lawyers pitted against her had been known to break down and weep, to the
+confusion of their clients. The judge--it was always the same one--had a
+big bushy beard, and, though of fierce and impartial mien at the
+beginning of the proceedings, he had been known time and again, as her
+address continued, to draw forth his large silk handkerchief and blubber
+into it. The gratitude of the widows--who extended in a long, black
+line, leading their army of white-faced little boys, looking strangely
+like Harry when he had the croup--was the one thing that she could not
+stand. She would not see them when it was all over, but she couldn't
+keep them from sending her flowers, and accordingly her apartment was
+always a bower.
+
+So mighty would these scenes be, so moving, and so pathetic, that Nancy
+would emerge entirely at peace with Henry and the world. They dwarfed
+the cause of her anger; they left her calm and serene, a cousin to the
+Superwoman.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first evening at home passed off very pleasantly indeed. Henry was
+charmingly interested in the details of her trip, and the usual cribbage
+session was doubled. Harry's progress at school and through the
+mumps--an illness which had torn his aunt--were duly recounted and the
+maids given a good bill of health. The state of Henry's classes was
+described at some length. They were slightly better than usual, it
+appeared, and his special course in Labour Problems was going perfectly.
+It was really making him famous, he told Nancy.
+
+That night in her room, as she sat at her desk writing her diary, she
+calmly told herself that the present tranquillity should last. She
+solemnly resolved to guard against every possible contingency that
+might lead to a "situation." She did not purpose to surrender her
+individuality; she would not become a dummy. But there _must_ be a
+middle ground where she could blend service to herself with service to
+her family. Life should be rich, but it ought also to be tactful. Surely
+this was not an impossible union. Very well, then, she would live richly
+and tactfully.
+
+Just exactly what she meant by living richly she didn't quite know. It
+would doubtless be somewhat clearer in the morning when she wasn't so
+sleepy. Americanization work in Whitmanville. That seemed to offer rich
+possibilities. There must be room for endless Uplift in Whitmanville.
+And what could be richer than Uplift? She would start a school, she
+thought, as she turned off the light and climbed into her four-poster.
+She would teach the women how to take care of their babies and the men
+how to take care of their women. But it must all be done tactfully. She
+must be eternally vigilant upon that score. Yet not so tactful as to
+become less rich. Nor yet so rich as to become less tactful.... Tact and
+riches--riches and tacks--tracts--striches--....
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The night following Nancy's return was the night of the Norris party,
+the party which is to Woodbridge what the Mardi Gras is to New Orleans,
+the Carnival to Rome, and what the Feast of the Ygquato Bloom was to the
+ancient Aztecs. It is always held on the twenty-first of March, Sunday
+of course excepted, and it is known as the Vernal. Not to be seen at it
+is too bad. Not to be invited--unlike the lupercals before mentioned it
+requires invitations--is a blight mercifully spared all but the most
+painfully outré. Of these the Coogans, who live in Center and whose
+connubial infelicities are proverbial, are an example. Tradespeople
+frequently bear witness to the marks of a man's fingers on Mrs. Coogan's
+fair--and by no means insignificant--arm, and it is common property that
+she drinks paregoric. It is quite clear, of course, that such people can
+not expect to be invited.
+
+The Vernal has always been "different." In the old days Mrs. Norris set
+her face against dancing, not upon any moral grounds, certainly, but
+because of its alleged dullness. Why couldn't people enjoy one another
+without flying into a perspiration? she asked; but, unfortunately for
+her plans for the establishment of an animated conversazione, the
+substitutes she had advocated were felt to be even duller. So, one by
+one, all her nice games were abandoned and only the charade is left.
+This however has gained in popularity, if anything, and certainly it has
+gained paraphernalia. Mrs. Norris's costume box has overflowed into a
+trunk, and from the trunk has spread into a closet, and the closet is
+now nearly filled. From this treasure the two captains select their
+colleagues' wardrobes, a duty discharged in advance of the performance
+by way of ensuring enough professionalism to prevent the party's
+collapsing at the start. In other words, Mrs. Norris, although luckless
+in the matter of "adverbs," memory contests, and backgammon tourneys,
+has established charades.
+
+It used to be a masquerade party, but because of certain unhappy
+circumstances which have recently befallen, it was decided this year to
+do without the masks and "Fancy dress." For the last few years people
+have been complaining a little of the necessity of getting something new
+each year. Mrs. Bates, for example, has exhausted the possibilities of
+her husband's summer bath robe. It served excellently at first as a
+Roman toga, and the next year it did well enough for Mephistopheles. By
+cutting away the parts ravaged by moths it passed as a pirate, but she
+despairs of any further alteration. Then, too, it would always be
+remembered that a stranger at the last Vernal had in all seriousness
+reproved old Professor Narbo, the Chemist, for not taking off his funny
+old mask when he already had done so, a mishap none the less enjoyed
+because the bringing of a similar charge to one's friends has been an
+inevitable jest among the wags for generations. Professor Narbo had been
+offended, and great is the offendedness of a Full Professor,
+particularly when he is a Heidelberg Ph.D. and parts his hair all the
+way down the back. The stranger had been crushed; and, all in all, it
+was as mortifying an affair as one could well imagine, and one which in
+itself would have been enough to do away with the masks--a
+long-discussed possibility--had not worse followed. Edgar Stebbins,
+Assistant Professor of History, was unfortunately a little too warmly
+devoted to the memory of the grape, or, more specifically, of the corn.
+Being mildly mellowed by something more than the memory of it, he found
+occasion to embrace a lady who was dressed in his period, the Late
+Roman, and to whom he was naturally drawn. The lady promptly screamed
+and unmasked; and the situation was not at all improved by its being
+discovered that she was the wife of Professor Robbins of the Latin
+Department, with which gentleman Mr. Stebbins was not on speaking terms.
+Mrs. Robbins, it seemed, had employed the squeaky voice so familiar at
+masquerade parties and had thus rendered her disguise complete. Upon her
+testimony it was learned that Mr. Stebbins's voice had been so roughened
+by drink that his own mother wouldn't have recognized it. Mr. Stebbins
+had withdrawn from the party and, at the end of the academic year, from
+the college as well, and his name is now only an appalling memory.
+
+In the morning Nancy hurried up to the Norrises' as soon as she could.
+She found Mary and her mother in the drawing-room. Mary was playing the
+piano while her mother sat in a distant chair, amiably shredding
+codfish, a pleasure which she would on no account yield to the kitchen.
+
+As soon as the rush of sisterly greeting was passed, all four--for the
+cod could not be left behind--repaired to the sofa in the library; and
+after the gaps in their correspondence had been filled, they came to the
+party. Mary was to be one of the charade captains and Tom Reynolds the
+other. Nancy, who was an inevitable member of the charade, was to be on
+Tom's side.
+
+"Tell me," she asked, "is he really as nice as you people make out?"
+
+"Oh yes," replied Mary, "he's one of us."
+
+"He used to scare me. He never would dance with me any more than he had
+to, and I always was afraid he would get that terribly bored look I've
+seen him get. I think probably he's conceited."
+
+"Oh dear, to hear you girls talk you'd think that a little honest
+boredom was the most dreadful thing on earth. Why, your fathers used to
+get so bored with us that----"
+
+"Now, Gumgum, you know that isn't sensible," broke in Mary severely--a
+regrettable habit which seems increasingly prevalent among our modern
+daughters--"unless you people were ninnies."
+
+"That was in Garfield's administration," replied Mrs. Norris absently,
+"or possibly a little before, in Hayes's--Rutherford B. Hayes. He did
+away with the carpetbaggers and all those dreadful people in the South."
+Then, more dreamily still, "His middle name was Birchard."
+
+"I know why you think he's conceited," Mary went on, warming up to the
+never-ending pleasure of analysis, "but it's because he's really
+diffident. Lots of people I know who people think are snobby are only
+just diffident."
+
+"What on earth do you mean by saying that Rutherford Hayes was
+diffident? He wasn't a bit. He was a very great philanthropist."
+
+"She's too awful today," exclaimed Mary, "with that smelly old fish and
+Rutherford Garfield. Gracious, I'd like to bury the old thing."
+
+"You horrid, ungrateful child, when I'm doing this for your lunch. We're
+just old Its, we mothers. I'm going to start an Emancipation Club for
+Mothers. The poor old things, they might just as well crawl away into
+the bushes like rabbits."
+
+There then followed a tender passage between mother and daughter, which
+ended in Mary's blowing down her mother's neck. A convulsive scream and
+a frantic clawing gesture in the direction of her daughter was the
+immediate reaction, much to the confusion of the codfish, which was only
+just saved by Nancy from a premature end upon the hearth.
+
+Following the rescue, the heroine, who had some shopping to do, began
+making motions of departure. "You must come as soon as you can after
+dinner to have Tom explain what you are to do. Gumgum thinks we ought
+to have a rehearsal, but Tom has a five o'clock, and I don't think it's
+necessary anyway. He's really awfully funny and clever, Nancy, and you
+must like him."
+
+"I hate clever people. I have nothing to say to them. I'm a perfect gawk
+when they're around, and I'm afraid I won't be able to stand him."
+
+As she walked on down to Center, however, it occurred to her that he
+might come in useful with the children of the parents in her
+Whitmanville school. He could teach them basketball and of course he
+could coach their baseball team. He would also be useful in taking them
+off on hikes and--But she hadn't seen him in ever so long, and he might
+not do at all. In fact, it was highly probable that he wouldn't do, for
+boys are suspicious of clever people, and he almost certainly wouldn't
+think of doing it. Or possibly he might, out of politeness, and then
+when he got bored with it he would decide to be funny with the boys, and
+they would get to hate him and tell their parents, who would come to her
+with sullen looks and threatening gestures and----
+
+When Nancy arrived in the evening, she found Tom distributing costumes.
+He was heavier, she noticed, and his forehead was higher. Some day she
+might get a chance to tell him how she saved Henry's hair simply by
+brushing it carefully. It was ridiculous to put a lot of smelly greasy
+stuff on it----
+
+She had shaken hands with him and received her costume which was an
+aigrette and a peacock-feather fan. "The word is 'draper,'" explained
+Tom, "and you are to be the Lady Angela. In the first syllable you have
+lost your pet Persian and, after explaining your loss to the little
+house-maid who is dusting around, you call in Merriam the detective. I
+am Merriam the detective and I arrive immediately after you are through
+calling me up on the telephone. The little maid goes over to the window
+and says, 'Goody, here comes Mr. Merriam the detective in a dray,' and
+then you go out to meet me, and that's the first act. Then I come on
+alone in the second act and investigate the room heavily, looking for a
+clue, you see. I have a theory that the little maid is the thief, and
+when you come in, as you do when I have said 'Ha, it is a match box,' I
+explain to you that----"
+
+"Oh, dear, I haven't any idea what I'm to do."
+
+"Well, you just go in and wave your fan disconsolately, and I'll do the
+rest. It will be dreadful, of course, but then, no one ever expects them
+to be otherwise. Now I think the best way is for us to run over it, and
+then little things will come to you."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+Downstairs the Dean and Mrs. Norris had begun receiving their guests,
+most of the receiving being done by the Dean. His wife, whose trail was
+like that of a runaway astral body, was here, there, and everywhere,
+calling, ordering, laughing.
+
+The Misses Forbes, invariably the first comers, had taken possession of
+front-row seats. This year Miss Edith had the Burnham lace--an heirloom
+whose glory could on no account be dimmed by a tri-partite division--and
+Miss Annie had the Burnham pearls. They were a modest string, perhaps,
+but they lived on after more spectacular ones became gummy. As for Miss
+Jennie, the youngest, aged sixty-five, she was something of a
+philosopher, being the community's sole theosophist, and she regarded
+her sisters' pleasure in their baubles with amusement. Nor could she be
+drawn into a discussion of their ultimate disposition, a nice problem,
+for other Burnhams and Forbeses were there none. "Why not give them to
+the museum?" she had once suggested, to the sorrow of her sisters, who
+hated to see her cynical side. Worse than that, she was a radical and
+had boldly come out for the open shop, or the closed shop, whichever was
+the radical one, and she talked very wildly indeed of Unions and
+Compensation Bills.
+
+Miss Elfrida Balch had arrived, and likewise her brother, the artist.
+Miss Balch was a lady of almost crystalline refinement. She was tall and
+fair, with a delicacy of complexion that stood in no need of retailed
+bloom. She might have passed for the daughter of a kindly old Saxon
+chieftain--it was, indeed, generally known that she sprang from the seed
+of Saxon kings--who, firm in the belief that no young man was her equal
+in birth or behaviour, had insisted upon her declining into a
+spinsterhood which increased in refinement as it did in service.
+Sentimental persons held that she came by that manner from association
+with Art in her brother's studio. Others, of a more sardonic turn, said
+that her manner was that of one who continually smelled a bad smell, and
+that if she got it by looking at her brother's pictures they didn't
+wonder.
+
+Leofwin Balch was not a personable gentleman. The early Saxon strain in
+him had taken the form of obesity, a tendency not confined, if we may
+trust the evidence of scholars, to descendants of Saxon kings. To those
+who had little sympathy with genius in its more alarming shapes, his
+fair chin whisker seemed an absurdity. The more discriminating, however,
+welcomed it. Anything might be expected of a man with a chin whisker
+which some one, with more imagination than restraint, had described as
+an "attenuated shredded wheat biscuit seen through a glass darkly."
+Leofwin's work had of late years suffered on account of a rheumatism
+which defied medicine. He had sacrificed his tonsils and nine teeth upon
+the altar of Art with little or no relief, and it was now feared by
+those closest to him, his sister and himself, that he would never again
+approach the promise given in his "Willows." "Willows" had received an
+honourable mention at the Exhibition--just which Exhibition, was a
+subject of controversy among the uninitiated--and had been purchased by
+a rich baronet in Suffolk. The Balches had seen it in his gallery, and
+it had become an open secret that hanging in the same room were a
+Constable and a John Opie.
+
+Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had arrived and was already with a group of
+the great around her chair. She was wearing the famous Lee-Satterlee dog
+collar, and her hair had been carefully dressed for the occasion. Such
+items alone would have borne witness to the importance of the Vernal,
+had she not in addition chosen to carry the Court fan. This fan, which
+was known as the "Court fan" to distinguish it from all other fans in
+the world, had been given her by the Court ladies when she and her
+husband, the late Ambassador, had departed upon the arrival of the new
+Administration's appointee. Its sticks were mother-of-pearl, encrusted
+with diamonds, and on its silk was the cruel story of Pyramus and Thisbe
+set forth in brilliant colours, but in what wondrous manner no one quite
+knew. For it was true that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had walked with
+kings, danced with dukes, and played croquet with counts, and it was
+therefore inevitable that she should be regarded as the Empress of
+Woodbridge. She would have been considered so quite apart from the fact
+that she had great possessions--in addition to the Court fan and the dog
+collar--possessions which were commonly supposed to be destined for the
+college, the Lee-Satterlees having no issue. Accordingly, Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee was allowed liberties unthinkable in another; but, be it
+said to her credit, she never abused them. Since she, or at least her
+property, was to take such an active part in Woodbridge affairs when she
+passed into the next world, it was only reasonable that she should take
+an active part while she was still in this; and it is safe to say that
+no one knew more about college affairs than she. Still, no one ever
+thought of calling her a nuisance. When, occasionally, she did quietly
+suggest that possibly such-and-such a course might be a wise one or that
+such-and-such a man might be the one to appoint to such-and-such a
+vacancy, it would be discovered that, with singular insight, she had
+made a perfect suggestion. Whereas, therefore, it might be said that she
+was a despot, it was universally agreed that she was a benevolent one
+and an enlightened one, and many even went so far as to fear that her
+death might actually prove a loss.
+
+The library was filling fast. Mrs. Norris, casting a rather wild eye
+into it occasionally, would perhaps signal out an individual for a
+mission that somehow in the general run of things could not conceivably
+be completed. For example, her eye, on one of these expeditions,
+happened to alight on a gentleman of the Physics Department, a gentleman
+with a gold tooth and a loud laugh, who represented a somewhat larger
+group of instructors than the best Tutors' Lane families cared to
+acknowledge. The gentleman responded with an alacrity that did him
+credit, nor did he quail before the steady gaze of Mrs. Norris, which
+seemed to wonder if she hadn't been a little unwise in placing such
+trust in so uninteresting a vessel. She asked him, however, to see if
+the musicians had found a good place to put their hats and coats, and as
+there were several musicians, some of whom had not arrived, he was not
+restored to his nervous and too friendly mate until the charades were
+over.
+
+And now there was a suggestive flutter in the Dean's study, behind whose
+large folding doors the charades were to be acted. Gentlemen who were
+standing urbanely about moved into corners, with smiles calculated to
+impress all with their self-possession in even the first houses. The
+doors rolled open and a buzz of admiration greeted the _distraite_ Lady
+Angela, whose return from California had been acknowledged by but few of
+the audience. She went through her scene with the little maid, and when
+the doors were bumped together, Mr. Grimes of the Romance Languages, a
+noted success at anagrams, acrostics, and charades, announced, "Dray."
+After a few minutes the second act was done, in which it appeared that
+Mr. Merriam the detective had fallen madly in love with Lady Angela. In
+the midst of the scene the little maid was heard purring loudly
+off-stage, a purring which was explained by both lovers as the purring
+of the lost Persian. Mr. Grimes guessed "Purr" loudly at the close, and
+the final syllable, in which Mr. Merriam appeared disguised as a draper,
+was thus rendered stale and perfunctory. Mary's charade eluded Mr.
+Grimes's wit no more successfully, and the music was received with even
+more enthusiasm than usual.
+
+The Lady Angela, as a matter of fact, had been considerably flustered by
+the ardour of Merriam the detective's wooing. The rehearsal had not
+prepared her for anything so realistic, and she was annoyed. Art was
+art, of course, but she was no Duse, and she didn't care to be the
+object of such public passion. The fact that she was obliged to
+reciprocate his sentiments instead of slapping his face was also trying.
+Well, there was no reason to conceal her displeasure now; and when she
+found herself again in his arms--they were rather strong arms,
+incidentally, and he did dance well--she had little to say to him.
+
+It was not, fortunately, necessary for her to do a great deal of
+dancing, because of the visiting she naturally owed to her elderly
+friends, and once when Tom cut in she left him, excusing herself on the
+ground of having to see the Dean and Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee, his
+time-honoured bridge partner. The Dean took his bridge seriously and
+with extreme deliberation. Henry Whitman, on the other hand, who was one
+of his opponents, played with a rapidity amounting at times to frenzy,
+and he was fidgeted by anyone of more sober pace. His partner, old Mrs.
+Conover, in a cap with violet insertion, had some little difficulty in
+telling kings from jacks and hearts from spades and was inclined,
+furthermore, to be forgetful of the trump. Accordingly, Nancy remarked
+beneath her brother's rather terrible calm all these symptoms of a
+whistling bee when they were again at home.
+
+The Dean was halfway through a hand and was trying to choose a card from
+the dummy. He at length carefully lifted the king of spades from it as
+if it weighed a ton, and then, after looking at it soberly, put it back
+and scowled at his own hand. Henry, who had his card ready to throw down
+upon the table, slid it back into his hand with the look of resignation
+that has tranquillized our memories of the Early Christian Martyrs. The
+Dean rested his eye on the tempting king in the dummy and pursed his
+lips. He _would do_ it. Then he leaned over and played it with the air
+of a man who lays all in the lap of the gods. Mrs. Conover, who had been
+shuffling her cards around in ill-suppressed excitement, popped out a
+trump with a cry of triumph just as Henry's Ace of Spades covered the
+king. A dreadful scene followed. The Dean was all gallantry, Mrs.
+Conover all self-reproach, Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee all charm, and
+Henry all exasperation; and when, later in the same hand, his mind torn
+with the memory of his lost ace, he made a revoke and was quietly
+brought to account by the Dean, Nancy discreetly withdrew.
+
+Tom, who had seen her at the table with three people whom she met
+constantly and upon whom she hardly needed to make a call, felt
+decidedly snubbed. Was she, after all, so much a Whitman that she felt
+no need to obey the ordinary rules of decency? It seemed too bad, for
+his impression of her earlier in the evening had been decidedly
+different.
+
+Tom had sometimes wondered about love at first sight. What was it
+anyway? How did one feel? Was it like a blow between the eyes, a ball in
+the breast? Did one stagger and have to lie down, with a pulse coursing
+up to one hundred and five? What was it? When Tom first looked at Nancy
+in the costume closet he wondered if he were to be brought face to face
+with the answer. Certainly, little hints by the Norrises and Old Mrs.
+Conover would have put the idea into his head, had it not in the natural
+course of events found its way there unaided.
+
+And now Nancy had made it clear that she did not care to have anything
+to do with him. It was, he guessed, because of the too tender passage in
+the charade. He pictured himself arguing with her. "It is ridiculous to
+object to me because I played the part well. Would you have had me a
+stick and make the thing even more of a bore?" "No," coldly, "but you
+didn't have to have that part in it." "Well, it made it more
+interesting, and, besides, if you think that I put it in just for an
+excuse to put my arm around you, you're entirely mistaken and not the
+girl I thought you." This last thrust, which, in less skilful hands
+might have become mere petulance, was delivered with a rolling
+deliberation that would have wrung a Jezebel. Tom always did well in
+these conversations, but unfortunately, the present situation was not
+solved so easily. Nancy, he had found, was even more attractive than she
+had been when he was in college. They would, of course, see something of
+each other from time to time, and it would be tiresome not to be
+friendly. Besides, he guessed that she would be helpful in discussing
+his various problems. Mrs. Norris was splendid, of course, and he loved
+her dearly, but he found himself occasionally wishing for a somewhat
+younger listener and one not given over to quite so many nonsequiturs.
+Nancy seemed excellent material, but if she were going to be
+superior--Possibly it was because of Ephesus and the Reynolds Dry Goods
+Store. He turned away with a slightly bilious feeling. If it should
+prove that she was affected by that, then indeed would he be
+disappointed in her.
+
+He crossed the hall into the drawing-room, where a dozen or so couples
+were dancing in various stages of æsthetic intoxication. The saxophone
+and the violin were engaging in a pantomime calculated to add gaiety to
+the waning enthusiasm of the party, and he gazed at them in disgust. A
+young lady with hair newly hennaed and face suggestive of an over-ripe
+pear ogled him over her partner's elbow as they jazzed by. Let her dance
+on until she got so sick of him she was ready to scream, was Tom's
+thought.
+
+In one corner, obviously having a poor time, was Leofwin Balch. Tom sat
+down beside him.
+
+"It's too hot in here, don't you think?" he asked.
+
+"Much," replied Leofwin. "I think these parties get worse every year."
+These were soothing words. "Particularly those damned charades," he went
+on. "Now, my dear fellow, you know perfectly well that yours was a
+miserable failure."
+
+Tom found this a little trying. It was true that no one could be more
+deprecating of his effort than he, but, privately, he had a somewhat
+better opinion of it. As charades went, he thought it decidedly above
+the average; and the way he had examined the room, after the manner of
+Mr. William Gillette, and come upon the match box was proved amusing by
+the laugh it had brought.
+
+"Granted," he replied, with a shade of sarcasm, "it was a miserable
+failure."
+
+"Why, the way you made love to Miss Whitman was disgusting."
+
+Tom flushed. Had he really been as bad as that? Had he really just
+missed being put out of the house like that clown Stebbins? Were they
+all now, all these people sitting around so innocently in groups, were
+they all blasting his name as a cheap cad? "What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"Why, you went at it like a puling babe. Why didn't you put some fire
+into it--kiss her feet or bite her neck? Then you would have made us sit
+up and take notice. You college people are a lot of old women, anyway."
+
+Tom, with bounding relief, started to confess the apparent inability of
+most college people to bite ladies in the neck, when he observed a
+startling change in his companion. From the passionate leprecaune of the
+moment before he had become even as a little child. His hand, which was
+resting elegantly on the arm chair, stole up into his chin whisker, amid
+which it wistfully strayed. There crept into his Saxon eyes that light
+of resigned suffering which inspires such exquisite anguish in the
+friends of Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. In short, his entire being
+proclaimed to all who would but look, a great quiet man in love. Tom's
+eyes followed his and rested upon--Nancy! He rose in disgust and,
+walking away, suddenly came face to face with her. Then, without
+thinking of his resolve to let her severely alone, he reached out his
+hand and cut in.
+
+What a fool he was! Obviously she didn't want to dance with him, and
+here he was forcing himself upon her. It made him look so common, so
+pushing, so like an Ephesus drygoods clerk. Some one barged into him,
+surged into him, from the rear, causing him to stumble. "Sorry," he
+muttered. They started on, just out of step. He tried to get into step
+by speeding up, and their knees bumped together. Would no one ever cut
+in? Then the music stopped, and it appeared that the musicians were
+going to rest for a few minutes.
+
+"Let's sit down, shall we?" said Nancy. They settled themselves upon two
+gilt chairs with spindly legs. "Do you like your work here?" she asked
+pleasantly.
+
+What a very dull question! An expletive exploded inside Tom's head. "Oh,
+yes," he said. Then after a heavy pause, "How are you getting on with
+the stars?"
+
+"Oh, I learned the diagrams in that nice little book you sent me, but
+I'm afraid I've forgotten most of them now. I feel rather superior about
+Betelgeuse, though."
+
+"So do I. We might start a Betelguese Club."
+
+"What would we do at it?"
+
+"Oh, read papers. With Betelguese's power behind us we might do all
+sorts of things--have picnics and read tracts to the poor. When you see
+only college people, after a while you crave being illiterate, and I've
+thought recently that I'd like to enlist in the Navy or move to Alaska,
+or go over and work in the Mills. I'd buy a black shirt to work in and
+use a bandana--when I used anything--and take the nice extra room my
+laundress has in Whitmanville. She says her clothesline goes out fifty
+feet, and they have a phonograph. Don't you think that would be more
+attractive than trying to teach a lot of Freshmen Carlyle and
+Hawthorne?"
+
+"Lots, and there would be ever so much more money in it."
+
+"It would be a kind of social service work, wouldn't it? 'Woodbridge
+Professor Slaves in Mill to Earn Bread.' That would go big, all over
+the country."
+
+"Do you know, I've thought a little of doing some social work,
+seriously. I don't know anything about it, of course, but it has
+occurred to me that if I could get a group of people together we might
+have one of the Physiologist instructors give us some lectures. You see,
+the first thing in social work must be the health of the people, and I
+should think a good grounding in the fundamentals would be essential. As
+soon as we have their interest in their personal welfare we can get them
+to playing basketball, brushing their teeth, putting screens in their
+windows, and--so on. Naturally I don't know much about it, but it would
+seem as though there were a great opportunity for somebody."
+
+"Conditions in the town, on the west side, aren't too good."
+
+"Of course they're not. I have let my mind run on at a great rate about
+it, but I don't see why, if the right person got hold of it, the whole
+town couldn't be improved, made into a model mill town, you know--with
+playgrounds, and crèches, and--" Again other model features failed her.
+
+"Well, why aren't you the proper person? I should think you could do it
+if anyone could. Your uncle would have to listen to you, and he probably
+would be all for it."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Rob is just as nice as he can be--but I couldn't do it all
+alone."
+
+"Well, now of course we have got into this thing pretty quickly, but I
+assure you I should like nothing better than to do something about it
+with you. After all, what is education in the finest sense, but the
+uplifting of the masses? You probably will want to think it over a
+little more before going ahead, but, really, I hope you will, and I hope
+you will let me join you."
+
+"There is no time like the present. Why dilly-dally? We both realize
+that this is a crying need. Then why not do something about it? If you
+will find out who is the best man for us, I'll provide the rest."
+
+At this point the musicians swung into Home Sweet Home, and Mrs. Norris
+hurried up to the embryonic workers. "The party is over now, my dears,
+and please help by going and getting your things. It's this awful
+standing around saying good-bye that is so trying," and with an emphatic
+push of her back comb she began hauling tables and chairs back into
+their normal places.
+
+Tom had only just time to assure Nancy that he would do his part when
+Mrs. Norris called to him again to help her with the dining-room rug;
+and with a quick handshake and a pleasanter nod than he would have
+thought could possibly have come to him half an hour before, Nancy
+Whitman was gone.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+In the morning Nancy's thoughts flew to the proposed social work. What
+on earth had she got herself into! Swept away, as usual, she had
+confided her plans for a life of service to a man she barely knew, one
+hour after she had decided to leave him alone! Well, there was nothing
+to do now but make the best of it. Their talk had, as a matter of fact,
+shown that she had been a little silly about the charade. He had
+unsuspected depth. That had been made clear by his conversation about
+education, and it was unlikely that anyone who felt as strongly as he
+did could be wayward in a charade. So it might turn out all right, after
+all, and she had better set about getting the workers.
+
+Mary, to her surprise, was a disappointment. It seemed that with her
+music, which she was studying seriously this year, with weekly trips to
+Boston for a lesson, she had no time. Others of her friends to whom she
+had naturally turned were unavailable for one reason or another, and the
+affair began to look discouraging. On the fourth day, however, while
+calling upon the Misses Forbes, she got an unsolicited recruit. Her mind
+being full of the idea, she was talking about it before she knew it;
+and to her astonishment, and a little to her dismay, Miss Jennie offered
+her services. "I cannot," she said, "talk to the operatives about their
+bodies, and, accordingly, it won't be necessary for me to attend the
+physiological lectures, but I think I can be of use later on. When we
+went to Miss Northcote's School we learned to weave mats and paint on
+china, and I can give instructions in them. In their turn they will
+instruct me, for I shall learn much about Housing Conditions and have an
+opportunity to examine at first hand the various industrial problems of
+the day. Who knows? when we are through, I may prepare a paper for the
+_Nation_." Her sisters indicated their disapproval by rocking
+hopelessly.
+
+Tom, too, had met with difficulties. Upon thinking the matter over he
+had little doubt as to its outcome. Enough of his Ephesus life remained
+with him to tell him that factory hands are not to be reached by
+lectures from academic ladies and gentlemen. He blushed, too, for
+certain sentiments he had expressed upon the essence of education, but
+they might be credited to the delicate frenzy of the dance and his
+unexpected reconciliation. It was, of course, all Nancy. He could not
+imagine himself proceeding upon such an affair with anyone else. Still,
+he found it necessary to placate his conscience for the time taken from
+the study of Beowulf which he was then making for his Ph.D. "All work
+and no play makes Jack a dull boy" seemed, after a somewhat desperate
+search, as sound a principle as any; and, furthermore, he would save
+time from his exercise by running around the cemetery--the classic
+running course--instead of playing squash at the Country Club. So that
+problem was settled.
+
+The young physiologist, however, upon whom he had been counting had
+developed appendicitis, and he didn't feel that he knew any of the other
+men in the department well enough to take their time for such a
+speculative cause. Then he met old Professor Sprig, a Star man of '65,
+who had been a celebrated physiologist in his time and who was now an
+almost equally celebrated eccentric. Having complained of the present
+status of the department and explained his problem, Tom was invited by
+the old gentleman to bring Nancy to his rooms. "You know, I suppose,
+where I live?" he asked with a crafty smile.
+
+Tom did know where he lived. The old four-story frame building in
+Whitmanville, the Diamond Building, the highest in the town, had been
+made famous by his residence. The top floor was said to be his apartment
+and it was commonly supposed that he kept chickens in it. There were
+some dreadful stories about midnight dissections, but cooler heads
+affirmed that if there were any chickens there at all, they were there
+as the companions and not as the helpless victims of a debauched old
+age. And now the two social workers were invited into these mysterious
+precincts! The news might swell the roster to disconcerting
+proportions. They should have to proceed with caution.
+
+"All we want, sir, is a most elementary discussion. Just enough so we
+can give the men and women in the Mills some simple facts about
+themselves. Then, with that as a starter, we can build up more
+intelligently."
+
+"I shall be glad to give you whatever you want. Shall we say Tuesday
+next? At eight o'clock? Don't dress, you know. Just come as you are.
+This is business," and with another of his sly smiles he moved on down
+the street.
+
+When Tom called for Nancy on Tuesday night he found her equipped with
+pad and pencils.
+
+"Henry doesn't think too highly of this performance, I may say," she
+said, smiling up at him, "but we simply couldn't have let people know
+where we are going. They would have swamped the whole thing. I must say
+I am a little afraid." She slipped her arm through his, and they hurried
+on down Division Street, which connects Tutors' Lane with Whitmanville.
+"If he only has chickens, I won't mind, but if he has bats I shall hate
+it. I confess I'm a perfect fool about bats. They're loathsome. What
+they really are, are hairy rats with wings like web feet, and they have
+the most _loathsome_ mouths."
+
+Tom was curiously excited. He felt buoyed up. It was like water-wings,
+he told himself. And when he tried afterwards to think of the things he
+had said, he could remember nothing except that he had quoted Alice's
+perplexity about bats eating cats when she was falling down the well,
+and that they had both laughed immoderately.
+
+The Diamond Building, on their arrival, presented a somewhat portentous
+picture. A Five, Ten, and Fifteen Cent store dimly showed forth strings
+of penny postal cards and piles of dusty candy in its macabre windows.
+The second floor was throbbing with the rich life of a poolhall, and as
+they passed the Christian Science rooms on the third floor they carried
+with them the strains of a therapeutic hymn. And then, at last, they
+were before a door which bore over its bell the pencilled legend, H.
+Sprig.
+
+They were admitted by a flunkey named Herbert. Herbert's period of
+usefulness in the laboratory had terminated with that of the Professor,
+and the latter had engaged him as a body servant, not only because of
+his proved capacity and loyalty, but because of the unusual shape of his
+head, upon which the Professor found it restful to gaze. He was black,
+was Herbert, and was at present clothed in gorgeous blue livery with
+gold buttons. He bowed the guests inside and led them through a narrow
+hallway to a comfortable room of generous size, the Professor's library.
+At one end was a long table, and behind it was Mr. Sprig, clad in a
+morning coat. Behind him on the walls were half a dozen diagrams of Man
+the Master, designed to gratify students whose thirst was for the
+anatomical. Before Mr. Sprig were a pitcher of iced water, a tumbler,
+and a sheaf of notes.
+
+Mr. Sprig rose as Nancy and Tom entered and bowed pleasantly, at the
+same time waving them to two chairs placed close together before his
+table. When they had seated themselves he bowed again, and, without more
+ado, began an address. He spoke in a low, deep, if somewhat quavery
+voice, and with an elegant ease of manner. It was his purpose, he
+explained, to give them an elementary course in the primary systems of
+the body, together with two supplementary lectures on hygiene, in order
+that they might go out and instruct the poor in the proper care of their
+bodies. Tonight he would have only time for the respiratory and
+circulatory systems, next time would come the digestive and excretory
+tracts, and he hoped to finish in six lectures. It was, of course, a
+broad subject and much water had passed under the bridge since his day,
+but with their generous help he hoped that the thing might be done.
+
+He talked for fifty minutes, that being a college period, and at its
+close he bowed again. He then came from behind the table and shook them
+warmly by the hand. "You will forgive a foolish old man, I know. You see
+I haven't given a lecture since I resigned eight years ago, and I
+thought I'd like to do it up brown. And now, Herbert"--for the elaborate
+old man had appeared at the close of the lecture--"please bring in the
+things."
+
+The "things" were some little round cup cakes, three wine glasses, and
+a large bottle of sauterne.
+
+"The summer we graduated," Mr. Sprig went on, "my classmate Curtis and I
+went abroad. We took a walking trip south of Bordeaux, and on that walk
+we discovered this wine. I have kept in touch with the people who make
+it ever since, and although I shall never get any more, I shall have
+enough to last me. You must try a glass, Miss Whitman. I assure you it
+will improve all of your systems!"
+
+When Nancy first looked at her watch it was nearly eleven.
+
+"You mustn't go, of course, until you have seen the chickens," said Mr.
+Sprig.
+
+The chickens! Under the charm of the softly lighted room, the old
+gentleman's quiet flow of half-whimsical, half-serious reminiscence,
+they had been carried back to the rosy days that were before their
+birth. Now they dreaded lest their host should show himself a little
+mad, after all.
+
+He lit a bedside candle, and at his request they followed him out upon a
+sun parlour. And there, indeed, was a wire-enclosed runaway with a
+white-washed shelf at the end supporting four sleeping forms. The candle
+moved nearer, and there they were--beyond any possible doubt, Plymouth
+Rocks.
+
+To see them at night was a nice problem, he explained. Being a little
+light-minded about sunshine, it seemed that they were unable to
+discriminate between heaven's high lamp and the electric one on the
+porch, and would dutifully arise when either appeared. Once down from
+their perch, they would refuse to return until the sun was removed; and
+when it chanced to be the one on the porch and was switched off, they
+were unable to return because their endowment of optic nerve was small
+and their homing instinct, so strong in bees and eagles, smaller. There
+was created, accordingly, an _impasse_, but Mr. Sprig, who knew his
+hens, circumvented it. He lit a bedside candle which merely troubled his
+friends' sleep.
+
+"The one on the extreme left is Helen of Troy. She is a stunning
+creature, as you can see. She produced an egg for me only this morning.
+Next is Malvolio. I confess I am partial to him. Then comes Little Nell.
+She is extremely demure and inclined to be sentimental. And last is
+Carol Kennicott, who chatters so much I am afraid I shall shortly have
+to pop her into a pie." He gazed at her affectionately. "Well," he
+continued as he led the way back into his library, "I have now shown you
+my treasures. They, of course, seem a little crazy to you, and I hope
+your lives will end so fully that you won't have to fall back on them.
+But in case either of you should find yourself old and foolish and
+alone, I can recommend them as pleasant and amiable companions. You will
+find them curiously simple--they are not offended if you don't call upon
+them or write them letters,--and then from time to time they yield up to
+you the shining miracle of an egg, for which they ask no recompense; and
+when they come to lay down their lives they do it with a gesture and
+make the day a feast."
+
+He was standing before the dying fire, surrounded by its genial light,
+as his guests withdrew. Near him, just touched by the firelight, were
+the crumbs of their supper and the stately old bottle which had given
+its bouquet to the room. Old Herbert, moving out of the shadow
+noiselessly and pleasantly, bowed them out, and as the vision faded one
+of the guests, at least, pictured the four friends on the sun porch
+readjusting themselves, after their fitful fever, to the gentle life of
+their home.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The following Thursday night Tom called at the Whitmans' to rehearse the
+lecture. Nancy's cousin Bob had arranged to have two rooms reserved for
+them during the Friday noon hour at the Mills, and they had agreed that
+the best way to prepare for the ordeal was to study their notes and get
+their material in final shape and then have a dress rehearsal on
+Thursday night. "After a while," Nancy had said, "when we work into the
+harness, we probably won't need to have one, but I don't think we can be
+too careful of this first lecture." This had been precisely Tom's
+opinion also.
+
+Tom had never seen Henry so amiable. In fact he seemed hard put to it to
+keep from unrestrained merriment, and Tom, who found the affair more
+alarming as it progressed, would have preferred avoiding him altogether.
+He knew that Henry was calling him callow, a lightweight, charges
+well-nigh proved by his present undertaking, and to save himself from
+rout he had to remember that Henry was a heavy Grave man and that his
+own participation was only a question of common courtesy to a lady,
+anyway. Nancy had set her heart upon the thing, and he would be a very
+indifferent friend to stand idly by and not lift a finger to help.
+
+"I believe," said Henry, "that we are to sit in the drawing-room. Nancy
+will stand in the far end of the library."
+
+"I see," replied Tom vaguely.
+
+"She feels that having the conditions rather trying tonight will help
+her tomorrow. Accordingly, she's going to speak first, and she wants me
+to excuse her for not being here when you arrived. By coming in formally
+and beginning her address without speaking to us, she hopes to get some
+of the feeling of the way it will be tomorrow." And with a somewhat
+hysterical noise he went to the stairway. "All right, Nancy."
+
+In a minute Nancy appeared on the stairs and, walking stiffly across
+into the library, she climbed upon a footstool at the far end. In front
+of her was an old violin stand. Upon it she put her notes. She then
+raised her face; and even at the distance it appeared flushed.
+
+"Fellow workers," she began.
+
+At this point Henry broke into uncontrollable laughter. "Excuse me,
+really, but it is too much. 'Fellow workers'--oh, dear me. Oh, oh, I am
+afraid I can't stand it. You must excuse me, really. Oh, dear me," and
+rising weakly, handkerchief in hand, he tottered from the room.
+
+Nancy, the picture of resigned despair, gazed at Tom. He felt slightly
+hysterical himself.
+
+"What are we to do?" she asked helplessly. As they were nearly fifty
+feet apart, the pitch of her voice was necessarily above that used in
+ordinary conversation and gave to her words considerable melodramatic
+force. A fresh shout of laughter descending from the stairs made the
+situation none the easier.
+
+Nancy was, indeed, thoroughly upset. What was to become of her
+independent life if this failed? How else could she express herself? Was
+it to collapse at the very start, before she could even approach her
+dreams for the future? To have it end ridiculously, to have her become a
+laughing stock, would be too cruel. No, she would fight for her liberty.
+
+"Why, the thing to do is to go on," replied Tom. Had those words been
+said at Marengo or Poitiers or Persepolis, they might today be learned
+by school children. They were of the stuff that wins lost causes. They
+stem defeat as effectively as fresh battalions.
+
+"Fellow workers," Nancy began again, and this time there was only
+respectful silence, "I have come to you today to tell you a little
+something about the machines which are forever your property, which were
+given to you by your Maker and which it is your sacred duty to keep in
+as good condition as possible. I mean your own bodies." She paused, and
+Tom nodded encouragement from the other room. "It has become my pleasant
+duty to come to you and tell you how you may keep these God-given
+machines. You are to regard me, in other words, as your friend and
+sister." The lecturer was here threatened by a dry, pippy, cough and
+the whole course was imperilled. However, she drove fiercely on.
+
+"At the outset you should have a brief working knowledge of such things
+as your heart and lungs, your pancreas, liver, big and little intestines
+and their juices; and I shall, accordingly, give you a brief idea of the
+various systems, beginning today with the circulatory and respiratory.
+Next time I shall hope to cover the digestive and excretory tracts, and
+I shall close with two talks on personal hygiene." This ended the
+preliminary matter, and the lecturer proceeded with the body of her talk
+in a somewhat more mechanical style. The respiratory system was
+dismissed in six minutes, although, in some curious way, Mr. Sprig had
+strung the same material out to half an hour.
+
+Before beginning upon the circulatory system, however, she sprang a
+surprise. "For your convenience," she explained, "I shall draw a diagram
+of the heart and its valves, and with your assistance I shall explain
+its action." After a little wrestling with the diagram, which _would_
+curl, she managed to pin it to the wall. She then proceeded, in red
+crayon, to draw a fully equipped heart. She finished with audible relief
+and, turning triumphantly--greeted Miss Balch and her brother Leofwin.
+
+"Dear me, I am afraid we are intruding," said Miss Balch, looking around
+with ingenuous charm.
+
+Henry, having heard the bell which the social workers had been too
+absorbed to hear, appeared at the door and relieved the situation
+temporarily. Leofwin, however, whose eye was naturally caught by the
+pictorial, was gazing at the circulatory system on the wall. "What on
+earth is that?" he asked, with more curiosity than was perhaps
+excusable. "It looks for all the world like some sort of impressionistic
+valentine."
+
+Nancy, for one reckless moment, was tempted to say that it was, but
+temperate judgment prevailed. After all, why need she be ashamed of what
+they were doing?
+
+"Tom and I are giving a course of lectures at the Mill, in hygiene, and
+we are just rehearsing a little; that's all. The valentine shows the
+heart action. Those arm things are the valves, you see."
+
+"But, really, you know, even a valve must have some perspective."
+
+"Well, of course, I'm no artist. The cut in the dictionary was very
+small, and when I enlarged it I tried to get the right proportions, but
+I just had my tape measure and----"
+
+"I shall help you. Elfrida will bear me out: I have always been
+interested in the lower classes, and I shall love to go with you and
+draw it when the time comes."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't let you do that."
+
+"Why not? I admit I've had no experience, but, after all, in a work of
+this kind, it is the spirit that counts, isn't it?"
+
+Elfrida had engaged Tom and Henry at a point as far distant as she could
+from her brother and Nancy, and she now asked Tom what he thought of
+Somebody's latest novel and made him lose track of their conversation.
+
+"Are you _really_ a realist?" asked Miss Balch.
+
+"No, I don't think I am."
+
+"Fancy," replied Miss Balch. "Then I think you would like a thing I got
+out of the library the other day by one of these new Russians. He has
+some dreadful name. Well, it is about this man, a peasant, who falls in
+love with this Bolshevist agent, and she uses the man, you see, as a
+tool. Then there is this other woman in it who----"
+
+Leofwin had adopted a very free-and-easy manner, it seemed to Tom.
+He was sitting with his legs crossed, hands folded, one arm over
+the back of his chair, half facing Nancy. He was being extremely
+bland and at his ease. It was the sort of thing one might do in
+a Russian drawing-room, perhaps, where the ladies doubtless didn't
+mind being bitten in a fit of passion, but it was decidedly not the
+way to behave in Woodbridge--although it must be confessed that an
+impartial observer might have failed to distinguish any marked
+difference in the way Tom himself was sitting, since he, too, had
+crossed his legs, folded his hands, and was half facing Nancy. It
+was clear that Nancy was painfully trying to do the honours. "You
+must let me see your pictures," Tom heard her say.
+
+"... Really, Mr. Reynolds, I think you might listen to me when I'm
+trying so hard to entertain you."
+
+"Why, I heard everything you said. All about this new Russian."
+
+"Sly boots!" said Miss Balch archly.
+
+Tom wondered what the proper reply was. What he wanted to say, in the
+same arch manner was "Puss Wuss!" but instead he just grinned brightly
+and let it be inferred that he was thinking of all sorts of clever
+things.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, sir," cried Miss Balch.
+
+This was unbearable, especially since Henry was apparently enjoying it
+so much.
+
+"I hope you won't think me rude, but I was thinking of the great pile of
+uncorrected test papers at home on my desk, and I am afraid you will
+have to excuse me." He rose. The whole room rose.
+
+He started for the door, and Nancy hurried over to him. "Isn't it
+dreadful?" she seemed to say. Behind her, like Tartarin's camel, loomed
+Leofwin.
+
+"We'll meet here at twelve," Nancy said, and with an effort she managed
+to include the cavalier and irrepressible artist, who, beaming and
+bowing, showed in every corner of him his thorough approval of the whole
+arrangement.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+By a coincidence, the two men arrived at ten minutes to twelve. They
+found Nancy in a rather pathetic state of excitement. She had been
+running up and down stairs and from one room to another and she met them
+with the elaborate calm of one about to give himself up to a capital
+operation.
+
+"We have a nice day for it, anyway," she said bravely. Any agreeable
+condition, however remote it might at first appear from the business at
+hand, was welcome. "Tell me," she asked Tom, "do you think I'm dressed
+suitably?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Some social workers go down in the slums in the worst old clothes they
+can find, but I've heard that the people down there like to see nice
+things, so I compromised. This is just a gingham dress, you see, but I'm
+wearing my pearls."
+
+"I should think that's just right. Didn't Henry, the Labour expert, help
+you?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't bother him. He's not interested, you see."
+
+Leofwin, who had been fidgeting around for an opening, now burst forth.
+"I came early," he said, "to find out if I can't do the lungs too; I've
+been practising them along with the heart, you know, and I think it
+might go well dashing them in somewhere. What?" Leofwin's "what's" were
+noteworthy. They were in a higher key than the rest of his conversation,
+which was itself high, and he drew them out to almost exquisite lengths.
+They were nearly all that was left of his week-end with the patron in
+Suffolk.
+
+"Oh, dear me, no," replied Nancy with considerable spirit.
+
+"I think you will like my heart," he continued undismayed. "I've been
+doing them all morning. I dug up some priceless old Beaux Arts crayons.
+It will be nice when we get to the brain. It's awfully romantic, I
+find," and he gave Nancy a killing smile. She gazed at him placidly and
+then turned to Tom. "What time is it?" she asked.
+
+"Nearly twelve."
+
+At this point Edmund drove up, and with renewed palpitations the party
+proceeded to the Mill.
+
+As they passed in through the gates Tom noticed with sickening dread a
+huge sign in flaming letters, "ARE YOU PHYSICALLY FIT? _Mr. Reynolds of
+Woodbridge Will Address You----_" They were met by Bob Whitman, a hearty
+young man who had just been made an officer of the Company. He stared at
+Leofwin in amused bewilderment.
+
+"Mr. Balch is helping me with the diagrams," explained Nancy. "And now
+where do we go?"
+
+"Well, you'd better just sit here for a minute or two until they get
+settled with their lunches. I'll take you to where you go; and what's
+more, Nancy, I'll introduce you!" Nancy received the word "introduce" as
+a surgical case receives the initial injection of morphine. The first
+step had been taken, and nothing could save her. "As for you, Tom, your
+lecture room's over there, and I'll get the foreman to introduce you."
+
+"Don't think of it," said Tom quickly, "I'll just introduce myself; get
+to be one of them, you know what I mean. Just one of the boys."
+
+"Well, Miss Whitman, let's you and I get to be just one of the girls,"
+tittered Leofwin.
+
+"I think we might as well go in," said Nancy without noticing Leofwin's
+jest, which appeared singularly hollow.
+
+"You're sure you don't want some one to start you off, Tom?" asked Bob.
+
+Tom was certain of it; and before entering his room, he waited until
+Nancy's party had disappeared around the corner. He then opened the door
+and, going over to a man who was ruminating vacantly upon a huge chunk
+of bread, sat down. "There's going to be some sort of lecture here,
+today, isn't there?" he asked.
+
+"I dunno," replied the man.
+
+"Yeah, there is," spoke up a hand nearby. "I seen it on a sign this
+morning. Some guy from the college."
+
+"That's what I thought," said Tom. "I thought I'd just come in and see
+what he had to say. Can't stay very long, though," he added, looking at
+his watch. Then after a pause, "Pretty nice place you got here."
+
+"Oh, it's good enough, I guess."
+
+The room was a large one, filled with three or four dozen tables bearing
+complicated-looking machinery. There were twenty or thirty men sitting
+around solemnly chewing their food.
+
+"Pretty slow now, isn't it?" asked Tom.
+
+"Yeah, they laid off about a hundred last week."
+
+"This laying-off stuff would have gone bigger a couple of years ago--in
+the army--wouldn't it?"
+
+"I'll say it would."
+
+"Have a cigarette?" said Tom. "What outfit were you in?"
+
+The prospect of free cigarettes and army talk, which already in less
+than three years had taken on a romantic glow, attracted the other men,
+who, as they finished their lunches, came up and joined the circle. Tom
+was holding forth in the centre; and when Bob Whitman glanced in on his
+way home he could see that Tom, by making his talk informal, was getting
+it across in great style.
+
+Once, during the conversation, Providence seemed to offer an opportunity
+of bringing in his lecture in such a way that no one would guess he was
+giving it.
+
+His conscience bothered him a little, and he plunged ahead. One of the
+men told how his bunkie at Base Six in Bordeaux had died of heart
+failure when under ether. In a somewhat parched voice Tom started to
+explain how this could come about, but in no time he was talking
+gibberish. "The aorta," he heard himself saying, "is the big main artery
+which comes out of one of the ventricles," and then he noticed the dazed
+look on the men's faces and, floundering hopelessly, managed to laugh it
+off. Well, he had tried to talk to them, anyway, and by consulting his
+watch he found that half an hour had gone by.
+
+After his third cigarette--he had come plentifully supplied--he looked
+at his watch again. He could go at last! It was ten minutes to one, and
+Nancy had probably finished long ago. "Apparently this guy isn't coming
+today. I've got to run along. Well, I've enjoyed this talk a lot," and
+with an inclusive smile and wave of the hand he went.
+
+Nancy wasn't back in the car, and starting off in the direction they had
+taken, he soon came to her room. There must have been a hundred women in
+it and it was Leofwin, not Nancy, who was talking to them.
+
+Tom opened the door quietly and sat down on a stool in the rear. Nancy,
+pale and helpless, was sitting on one side of a resplendent circulatory
+system drawn to illustrate the subtleties of the designer's art.
+
+"You will observe, ladies," Leofwin was saying in his purest Suffolk
+manner, "that shading is done with the crayon well back, like this." He
+made a few swift lines on the corner of the System and looked up with
+his bright, inquisitive smile. "Now are there any questions?" There was
+a stony silence, amid which the one o'clock whistle blew.
+
+The foreman, left in charge by Bob, rose. "I'm sorry, Miss Whitman, but
+I'm afraid we'll have to stop today."
+
+The worker's friend and sister bowed to him and, clutching her notes and
+her bag, with firmly set lips and eyes fixed, marched to the door.
+Leofwin followed, bowing pleasantly right and left, to the intense
+gratification of his audience, and the trio retired.
+
+"Jolly, wasn't it?" said Leofwin. "I'm sorry, though, we couldn't have
+had more time. I didn't get to foreshortening at all. However, I think I
+probably helped them a good deal. Sometime I'd like to tell them about
+etching, you know, and aqua--and mezzotints."
+
+Nancy received her assistant's remarks in complete silence. She was even
+unable to do more than nod a good-bye to him. But she shook Tom's hand
+in parting, and, with an air that might augur the worst, she asked him
+to come and see her on the next afternoon.
+
+Nancy was particularly charming, Tom thought when he was again with her,
+and what was even more to the point, he found that they were to be
+alone. She got his tea ready without difficulty--he was flattered that
+she remembered his formula--and they settled back for a good talk and
+laugh.
+
+"I wasn't civil to him, but I really don't care! Did you ever know a
+more dreadful person?"
+
+"Never. He's awful. But, tell me, how did it go until he took charge?"
+
+"Why, not so badly. But, oh, Tom I heard about you!"
+
+Tom flushed. "What did you hear?"
+
+"Well, Bob was here last night and he said he saw you through the
+window. He told us how you got them all around you and how you might
+have been talking about anything." She was wholly admiring.
+
+"Oh, I just talked to them," he said. "I never could have gotten away
+with anything formal."
+
+"Isn't it funny? I used to think that teaching must be the easiest thing
+in the world. I used to imagine myself lecturing to the whole college,
+but I can appreciate now what you and Henry are doing."
+
+Tom was anxious to have the conversation move upon firmer ground. He was
+also in the dark as to what the next move in the campaign was to be.
+
+Was it to be abandoned, or were they to try and carry on? The latter
+possibility seemed too fearful. How could he go into that room again?
+But one must proceed cautiously. It would never do, for example, to come
+out and treat the whole thing as a distinctly juvenile performance,
+something they had quite outgrown, until it was clear that they had
+outgrown it. Again, now was not the time to explain the real nature of
+his lecture. He could do that when the whole thing had become an
+amusing memory. "What are we going to do about Mr. Sprig?" asked Tom
+vaguely.
+
+"You mean are we going to keep on with the lectures?"
+
+"Well, yes."
+
+"What do you think? Last night I was so sick about the whole thing that
+I was ready to give it all up, but now I wonder if it isn't our duty to
+give it one more trial." Her words were disappointing, but the
+dispirited tone in which she said them was cheering, and Tom made so
+bold as to sing the lately revived "Duty, duty must be done, the rule
+applies to everyone, and painful though the duty be, to shirk the task
+were fiddle-dee-dee..."; a happy impulse, for when Henry arrived from
+his five o'clock he found Tom at the piano and Nancy sitting by him, the
+one in the rôle of the Mikado of Japan and the other as his
+daughter-in-law-elect.
+
+When, however, on the following Tuesday they again climbed down from the
+fourth floor of the Whitman building, the light had indeed gone out of
+the undertaking. Mr. Sprig's subject, the digestive and excretory
+tracts, had not been a propitious one for so critical a time. Leofwin,
+who had invited himself along, had been captivated by the decorative
+possibilities of the alimentary canal and had led the discussion
+following the lecture with a vigour and thoroughness trying for those
+unfamiliar with an artist's training. "Don't you think it might be fun
+to trace something all the way from the initial bite down?" he asked.
+"Let's take an olive, a green olive. 'Back to Nature by A. Green Olive:
+A Drama in Six Acts and any Number of Scenes.'"
+
+Tom was looking intently at the diagrams on the walls. At musical
+comedies and the movies, when embarrassing situations arose, one was, in
+a measure, prepared. The darkness, too, helped, and one could stare
+straight ahead until the relief, which was rarely long in coming,
+arrived. There was, finally, the comfort of numbers. But now they were
+only two--the artist and the scientist being immune to shame. It was,
+furthermore, extremely bright, everybody was out in the open, and
+although the amateurs had come prepared for a momentary brush with a
+bowel or two, they had no reason to expect a prolonged causerie upon
+even more intimate matters. Tom was, accordingly, hot with
+embarrassment, and he had reason to believe that Nancy was also.
+
+As Leofwin rattled on, with frankness ever more Elizabethan, Tom glanced
+at Nancy. She was examining the point of her pencil with as elaborate an
+interest as he had ever seen shown in any object. It seemed an
+altogether remarkable affair; but then, apparently, so was the eraser.
+They were complementary. A line could be made by the point, a delicate,
+straight line; and then, reversing the pencil, the line could be taken
+out by the eraser. The thing was complete.
+
+Tom became angry. What right had that great calf to subject Nancy to
+such an ordeal? He turned to her and said without lowering his voice,
+"This is rather dull, don't you think? Let's go out and see the hens."
+
+They went out, but couldn't very well see the hens, since they had no
+candle and were above deceiving them with the porch light. Accordingly,
+they stepped back into the little hallway that led to the library. To go
+on into the library was to expose themselves again to the mortification
+of the physiological vagaries of Leofwin. So they just stood in the
+little hallway. And then, they laughed.
+
+The relief of a thunderstorm on a stifling day is proverbial, as is the
+relief of finding one's handkerchief just before one sneezes; but what
+are these compared with the flooding joy that comes with release from an
+embarrassing situation with a young lady? The effect upon Tom was to
+make him excited; more so, perhaps, than he had ever been. It was the
+same swelling, throbbing excitement he had felt when, waiting in his
+room on the afternoon of his Election Day, he realized by the shouting
+of the crowd below that his election was coming.
+
+Nancy was really wonderful. From being curious about her, he had been
+swept into the Problem of Living with which he had found her somewhat
+pathetically struggling. It had absorbed him in the brief time that he
+had encountered it; and now that her first attempt at a solution had
+ended in ridiculous failure, she immediately rose above it in laughter!
+
+And how happy was the cause of their laughter, after all. An experience
+such as the one they had just come through must make or break a
+friendship. Their relationship could not remain the same; and with their
+laughter they had sealed the new bond.
+
+They said little as they strolled home, alone, in the clear night. It
+had in it the first suggestion of spring; and neither, apparently, found
+need to hurry.
+
+"Bob will have to straighten it out at the Mill," said Nancy, "and I
+shall write Mr. Sprig. I think we ought to send him something, don't
+you?"
+
+They had come to the Whitman gate. It was a high wooden structure,
+connected at the top, and in the spring it was covered with roses. The
+fanlight in the old doorway shone down the brick walk and touched
+Nancy's hair.
+
+"Of course we must."
+
+They shook hands and bade each other good night. And then, as Nancy
+turned from him and went up the lighted walk and into the house, Tom
+knew without any particular surprise and quite without a rising
+temperature, that he loved her.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Nancy emerged from her social service work with the feeling that she had
+added several chapters to the store of her experience. The sheep-like
+expression that covered the composite face of her group had brought home
+to her the ineffectiveness of her plan. One couldn't, it was clear, go
+down among the masses, no matter how thoughtfully dressed, with only an
+equipment of good will, and hope to do them much good. Nor was she, she
+now suspected, the person to attempt such a career. She fancied she saw
+inherent weaknesses in her character which would preclude a successful
+performance. She had been frightened, rather than inspired, by the women
+in that room, particularly by the women of her own age. "What right have
+you to come down here with your pearls and your simple gingham dress,"
+she felt they were asking, "and get off a lot of this college stuff to
+us?" What right indeed? She was convinced, in short, that she had been
+embarked upon a hopeless piece of snobbery, and, finding the whole
+business distasteful, it had not been difficult to discover her
+unfitness.
+
+The time had not been wasted, however. Not only had she satisfied
+herself that a career of Uplift was not for her, but she had made a
+friend into the bargain. Tom, she decided, had behaved beautifully
+through it; and in her humbled state of mind the offence she had taken
+at his acting in the charade became all the more odious. What a
+mean-minded girl she could be, to be sure; yet how perfectly he had
+risen above the situation. He had received her rudeness with an
+instinctive fineness that gave freshness to the Biblical admonition
+about the other cheek. He had returned good for evil, and in supporting
+her through the ordeal of the Uplift Plan he had proved himself a tower
+of strength.
+
+Tom and she, a few days after the final lecture, had gone together to
+the college book shop and picked out their present for Professor Sprig.
+They had dawdled over the shelves, pulling down a book here and another
+there, meeting every few minutes to show each other a possibility, and
+then putting it back. The thing could, of course, have been done much
+more quickly, but neither seemed in a hurry to find the right one, for
+they both liked books, and the shop was well-stocked, and the clerks did
+not descend like buzzards upon them. They at length selected a
+rag-paper, wide-margined copy of Calverley's _Verses and Fly Leaves_ and
+laughed at its inappropriateness for the physiologist. Still, they were
+confident enough that Mr. Sprig knew his Calverley quite as well as
+they, and that another copy would not be a burden. It had been a
+delightful two hours, and Nancy, at dinner, began a detailed account of
+it.
+
+But Henry was not interested. "It seems to me that you are seeing a
+good deal of Tom Reynolds, lately," was all that he said.
+
+And why shouldn't she see a good deal of Tom Reynolds? she asked
+herself. There was that in Henry's tone which opened up the old-time
+anger. Here he was, questioning her again, this time questioning her
+friends. He was questioning Tom!
+
+Had Henry wished to further the young man's chances with his sister to
+the best of his ability, he could not have chosen a more effective
+method. Tom, who had been doing very well on his own account, was now
+made doubly romantic through persecution. Nor do I think Nancy should be
+condemned as over-sentimental for feeling so, for if the reader--who
+cannot conceivably be thought over-sentimental--examine his own
+experience, I dare say he will find a parallel. In any event, Nancy was
+in a fair way to discover a tender interest in Tom, if, indeed, she had
+not already done so.
+
+But in the meantime, she must be true to herself and live richly. She
+had not yet determined what her new work would be, nor should she
+determine what it would be until she had considered the matter more
+dispassionately than she had the last one. Until the right thing was
+apparent, therefore, she would devote herself with more assiduity to the
+physical, mental, and spiritual progress of her nephew. After all, what
+finer work could there be than the rearing of a first-class American
+youth?
+
+Henry had sent his son to Miss West's kindergarten when he was scarcely
+four. Harry had not done well at the various cutting and pasting
+exercises, but he had been somewhat precocious at reading and was
+already advanced into the third reader. His orthographic sense, however,
+had not yet unbudded, and it was to the gentle fostering of this, in
+particular, that Nancy now committed herself. She also thought it high
+time that his musical education should commence, and the services of
+Miss Marbury were invoked. Harry, unlike the general run of his fellows,
+was wholly charmed with the prospect of playing, and the old piano was
+assailed with a diligence reminiscent of the youthful Händel. So it
+happened that Harry was practising in mid-afternoon on the day when
+Leofwin Balch called, something over a week after the débâcle of Nancy's
+social service career.
+
+Nancy, too, was at home and was much surprised and annoyed when her late
+assistant appeared. Not the least surprising feature of his call was his
+costume. Usually clad with a conspicuous and artistic carelessness, he
+was today arrayed like the lilies of the field. He was wearing a morning
+coat, faultlessly pressed, and in its buttonhole bloomed a gardenia. He
+carried a stick with a gold band around it, his spats were of a light
+and wonderful tan, and in his hand, in place of the usual greenish-brown
+veteran, he held a grey fedora of precisely the shape and shade worn by
+His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on the occasion of that happiest
+of events, his recent visit to our country.
+
+"I learned from your chauffeur that you were at home," said Leofwin,
+smiling graciously, "but I had no way of knowing that you were alone."
+
+He had actually been spying on her! "Why didn't you call up one of the
+maids?" replied Nancy with more asperity than was perhaps becoming in a
+hostess.
+
+"Delightful picture," laughed Leofwin, "but as a matter of fact you see
+I don't know any of them, what?" and he nodded pleasantly.
+
+Harry, who had progressed to the D scale at his second and latest
+lesson, was going over it with all the ardour of first love, and
+contributed a tinkly-winkly background which was vaguely disturbing. It
+was not near enough, however, to be quite recognizable, and Leofwin
+carried on without comment, supposing it to be a kind of funny clock, or
+something.
+
+"I called," he continued, "at this odd hour in the hope that I might
+find out how you are after our recent attempt to improve the lower
+classes." He drew his chair up nearer to Nancy as he spoke, and there
+was a tenderness in his tone that alarmed her, particularly in the way
+he emphasized "our."
+
+"I am quite well, thank you."
+
+"Oh, but I am glad to hear it," he said.
+
+The fervour of his words was nonsensical, but his intention, alas, was
+becoming clear.
+
+"If you will forgive me," he continued, "I shall begin at once upon the
+business at hand. We artists, you know, are sometimes accused of being
+unbusinesslike. Goodness only knows, I am a mere child at stocks and
+bonds and par and all those things, but the underlying essence of
+business I rather fancy I have--that is, quickness of perception. Now I
+quickly perceive that we are likely to be interrupted here at almost any
+minute." He paused and looked about a little wildly. "I do wish we might
+have a more secluded nook for our talk." Nancy, however, who was now
+prepared for the worst, did not offer more seclusion and her lover
+continued. "I wish we had some grotto where I could lead you. I would
+have it on the Libyan shore. Overhead would be the azure sky. Before us,
+stealing up the golden beach, would be the Mediterranean. What a
+colourful scene! Soft breezes would lull you to my mood, and on their
+spicy-laden breath would come the notes of faëry music."
+
+While preparing for this call Leofwin had laboured over that conceit
+with all the diligence at his command; perhaps too diligently, for even
+he, had he not been blinded by zeal, might have seen that it was
+something too ornate to appeal to a rather practical young lady of
+twenty-five. It was much too ornate, that is certain; and it alone would
+have made him absurd had not fate joined forces against him and at
+precisely this point prompted Harry, who was for once impatient with his
+progress, to try to reproduce the larger music coursing through his
+soul. This he did by striking out wildly upon the keys in all
+directions; and at the same time the faithful Clarence, slumberingly
+waiting for his master's return to earthly matters, burst into full
+cry.
+
+"Good gracious, what is that?" cried Leofwin.
+
+Nancy sped to the door of the music room, while strange and crashing
+harmonies rang through the house. "Stop, Harry. Stop that dreadful
+noise. You mustn't do that. Some one is calling on me. I think you had
+better go out and play, anyway."
+
+"Oh, please, Auntie, please let me play the scales some more. Just for
+fifteen minutes."
+
+It would have taken a heart of flint to withstand such pleading. Nancy
+left the musician and went boldly back to her visitor.
+
+Leofwin was plainly annoyed by the interruption. He should now have to
+start all over again, and starting was difficult. As Nancy reappeared,
+however, the clouds rolled from his brow.
+
+"Is everything quite all right?" he asked solicitously.
+
+"Quite all right, thank you."
+
+"Well, in speaking just now of the Libyan grotto, I think I probably
+suggested the theme of my visit to you this afternoon. I confess, I am a
+passionate man. Things of the senses appeal to me more than to most; it
+is, of course, the artist within me. I am like a mountain torrent or the
+beetling crest of an ocean comber rushing, full-bodied, down
+upon--upon--the floor." He came to a full stop and stared with pursed
+lips at the object of his love, sitting unhappily before him. What the
+devil _do_ mountain torrents and ocean combers rush down upon? Nothing
+as domestic, surely, as a floor. The thing was unhappily met.
+
+"Please, Mr. Balch," said Nancy, rising, "please don't go any further. I
+really can't listen to you."
+
+"Nancy," he cried, attempting to seize her hand. "I must call you
+'Nancy.' I must call you more than that. With you by my side there will
+be nothing I cannot do. I shall make your name ring down the ages--like
+Madame Récamier, or--or, Mona Lisa. I already have planned a piece for
+us. You are to be Miranda, and I shall be Ferdinand. You are just
+emerging from your bath, and I am peering through the bushes at you----"
+
+The picture was such a dreadful one that Nancy could endure the
+situation no longer. From being anxious to let him down as easily as
+possible--for he was, after all, paying her a compliment--she wished the
+scene over at any cost. He was making the most holy of moments a
+travesty. She felt amazingly self-possessed.
+
+"I appreciate the honour of your intention, Mr. Balch"--the language was
+that of Jane Austen, whom she had just been reading--"but I cannot allow
+it to go on. In fact," she hastened to add, for he showed signs of going
+on, "I shall have to ask you to go."
+
+The D scale, laboriously achieved, floated in from the music room.
+Leofwin turned away and Nancy, standing aside for him, was dismayed to
+note that his little eyes were filled with sorrow and disappointment.
+
+"It is true," he said, "that I have for some time wanted you for myself,
+but of late another reason has been urging me on. If it hadn't been for
+it, I don't think I could have come to you. You see, it is my sister.
+She has set her heart upon a trip abroad; not an ordinary touristy trip,
+you know, but a real one--to Italy. We have now only enough money for
+one to go--I gladly resigned it to her--but she does not feel that she
+can leave me alone. If only you could have--but there, my dear, I'll not
+go on."
+
+Nancy was a little disconcerted by this sudden turn. The situation had
+become almost impersonal. "I'm sorry," she said. She wished that she
+could have thought of a better remark--a better one came in the night,
+when she was going over the whole affair--but he seemed grateful even
+for that.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "But Elfrida will be so disappointed. You simply
+can't imagine how this will spoil all her plans. But perhaps you will
+let me try again some time?"
+
+Harry was following his right hand with his left, an octave lower, with
+almost no success.
+
+"No, I am afraid not," said Nancy as they stood in the doorway. She
+softened her words, however, by holding out her hand.
+
+"Good-bye," he replied, gently taking it; and then, following the
+Continental custom, he stooped and kissed it, much to the amusement of
+two undergraduates who were at the time passing down Tutors' Lane.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+On the morning following the final lecture Tom woke early, and his mind
+flew to the miracle of the preceding night. He was now ablaze with
+Nancy! It was a dazzling business, but when had it happened? It had not
+been as though he had gazed too boldly into the sun and had fallen down,
+blinded by the light of it. It had, to date, been altogether painless.
+He had seen Nancy in various situations, some of them pleasant, some of
+them trying. He had liked the way she had met them; and then it dawned
+upon him that her behaviour was consistently good; and next he knew that
+it would always be so. This was a stupendous discovery, the more so
+since he was not aware of any such consistency in his own character. Had
+he not learned in elementary physics that unlike poles attract one
+another? He could even now picture a diagram in the book showing the
+hearty plus pole in happy affinity with the retiring minus pole, a
+figure which proved the thing beyond a doubt. Science, when made to
+serve as handmaiden to the arts, has its uses, after all, and Tom took
+comfort in its present service.
+
+Still, Nancy wasn't "cut and dried"; it would be a grave injustice to
+imagine her so. She was consistent in an ever new and charming way; she
+never obtruded her consistency. One would almost certainly never be
+bored with her; and yet one could depend upon her through thick and
+thin. He thought of the way the crew on a ferry boat throw their ropes
+over the great piles as they make fast in the slip. Nancy was such a
+pile--but what an odious figure! He thought of her face as he had first
+seen it on the night of the Vernal, when, slightly flushed and smilingly
+expectant, she had peered into the costume closet. A couplet floated out
+of Freshman English into his mind--something about a countenance which
+had in it sweet records and promises as sweet. He jumped out of bed to
+verify it, and found:
+
+    "A countenance in which did meet
+    Sweet records, promises as sweet."
+
+He read on:
+
+    "A creature not too bright or good
+    For human nature's daily food,
+    For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
+    Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles."
+
+There was one more verse, and the last two couplets covered everything.
+
+    "A perfect Woman, nobly planned
+    To warm, to comfort, and command;
+    And yet a Spirit still, and bright
+    With something of an angel-light."
+
+He turned the book down, open at this point, and resolved to memorize
+those lines.
+
+His youth and playtime had now left him for good. The time for
+half-hearted or three-quarters-hearted attempts to forge ahead were
+over. He had pledged his heart and shortly hoped to pledge his hand in
+the service of the loveliest young lady in the world, none less. At
+present he was only a young instructor; of promise, perhaps, but still
+unproved. The immediate goal in his academic career was an Assistant
+Professorship; and although, even under the most favourable
+circumstances, it would probably be a matter of at least three years
+before he got it, nevertheless he could at least make it plain that he
+was indubitably on the way to it, and that (giddy thought) he was even
+of the stuff that Full Professors are made on! And no time should be
+lost before this were shown. Dressing feverishly, he corrected some
+slightly overdue test papers; and when he appeared at breakfast his
+landlady's three other guests noted the spirit in his bearing and
+commented upon it when he left.
+
+There was to be a meeting of the Freshman English Department in the
+afternoon, and Tom found himself looking eagerly forward to it. He had
+no idea of the business that was coming up, but he was going to be
+extremely keen-eyed and watchful about it, whatever it was. The little
+slump which he had allowed to creep into his work recently was over. He
+wondered if any of his colleagues had noticed it, and in particular he
+wondered if Professor Dawson, Head of the Department, had noticed it.
+
+Professor Dawson was Tom's beau ideal of all that a university
+instructor should be. Tom had had him when in college, had taken
+everything that he taught; and he looked back upon the hours spent at
+his feet as among the best of his whole life. To teach like that was to
+be doing something indeed; and it was the picture of himself giving
+formal lectures in the Dawsonian manner that had finally led him into
+teaching. That Tom should have imitated as best he could the Dawsonian
+manner and method was, therefore, inevitable, but it none the less
+exposed him to the smiles of the Department. A member of it, a Professor
+Furbush, found occasion to refer to the Johnsonian anecdote anent sprats
+talking like whales; and, Tom hearing of it, there was brought into
+being one of the enmities which add zest to collegiate existence.
+Professor Dawson was a young man to be so celebrated, being only some
+fifteen years older than Tom himself. He was, of course, a Full
+Professor--the only Full Professor in Freshman English.
+
+Next in rank to him in the Department was Mr. Brainerd, a gentleman who
+was nearly as much Professor Dawson's senior as Dawson was Tom's. Mr.
+Brainerd was, however, only an Assistant Professor, and it was now
+understood by all that he would never be anything higher. Fifteen years
+ago when he produced his chef-d'oeuvre on Smollett his hopes had run
+high. At that time his fate hung in the balance. He could no longer be
+regarded as one of the "younger men," and his status was to be
+determined once and for all. The crowning glory of a Full Professorship
+could only go to one who had made some significant contribution to his
+subject. Would _Tobias Smollett_ be that? Into it had gone all that
+Brainerd could give, and it had, after a brief and generally indifferent
+appearance in the reviews, dropped out of sight. Then it was recognized
+that good old Burt Brainerd would have to putter through life as best he
+could. Mr. Brainerd felt no particular bitterness about it, certainly no
+bitterness towards the College. He had been disappointed in his
+publisher. He should have gone to Beeson, Pancoast with it; instead of
+to Trull. Trull hadn't pushed it at all: they merely announced it with a
+string of books on very dull subjects. Then, too, they had used a cursed
+small type. He had protested against this and had been told that a
+larger type would have made it much more expensive, would probably have
+necessitated doing the work in two volumes. They had had the calm
+assurance to talk to him of expense when he had consented to waive his
+royalties on the first five hundred copies!--an exemption, by the way,
+which they had not yet succeeded in working off. Well, that had been his
+main chance, and he now watched the rise of younger men with equanimity.
+And it must be confessed that he got a certain amount of cold comfort
+from the remembrance that on three several occasions good things had
+come to him from out of the west, and that he need not have remained
+"assistant" had he not elected to do so.
+
+Were it not for his wife, he might have become content. The library was
+a strong one, particularly in his field, and what more delightful end
+for a scholar than to browse at will in his period and write essays for
+the literary magazines? But Mrs. Brainerd chafed. Not having been a
+woman of means or of any particular position, she had been somewhat
+self-conscious in mixing with the great ones of the place. She had, at
+length, however, after a residence of nearly twenty years, decided that
+to live so was nothing; and she had boldly called upon Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee. She had found the great lady all charm and friendliness;
+but when, upon leaving, she had expressed the hope that Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee might be inclined to return her call, Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee had replied, "Thank you." "Is it 'Thank you, yes' or
+'Thank you, no'?" the rash woman had persisted. To which Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee had bowed, "Well, since you insist, I'm afraid it will
+have to be 'Thank you, no.'" Mr. Brainerd had felt the snub perhaps more
+than his wife, although he was most convincing in reassuring her that
+upon trying again, say with some one of the Whitman family, there would
+be small danger of such a rebuff. Mrs. Brainerd, however, had not tried
+again and had, with what stoicism she could command, resigned herself to
+the path God had ordered for her feet. So Mr. Brainerd's end at
+Woodbridge was not a brilliant one, but he did not shrink or cry aloud,
+and it was generally recognized that dear old Burt Brainerd was a good
+sport.
+
+The other Assistant Professor in Freshman English has already been
+mentioned--Jerome Furbush. He was a young man, a classmate of Henry
+Whitman, and rather intimate in consequence. He was, quite decidedly, a
+striking figure. Whereas the average member of the Faculty might have
+been taken for an ordinary business man in his working clothes, Furbush
+was obviously a man of temperament. Tall and lean, he had allowed his
+beard to grow into something of patriarchal proportions, or, more
+exactly, into one of those healthy spade-like growths which the French
+know so well how to develop. That it was a rich red only added to its
+distinction, and to his. He was noted for being a hard worker and a wit,
+but feeling about him was sharply divided. One could not be neutral;
+either one hailed him as a prophet and seer, or one hated him as an
+abandoned cynic, a vicious and arbitrary egoist whose presence in the
+community was a menace. There appeared to be evidence in support of
+either view. It was true that the Dean's office was frequently absorbed
+by problems of his making. He had a weakness, to illustrate, for calling
+his students liars and cheats upon, frequently, tenuous evidence; and
+the discussions that ensued were never amiable. On the other hand, a
+certain number of the most promising men in the class were invariably
+drawn to him and, taking up his battles, defended him against all
+detractors. The Permanent Officers had to admit that he got "results,"
+but they shook their heads. Jerome Furbush was notoriously a "case."
+
+Phil Meyers, instructor, had been graduated from a small western college
+and had taken his Ph.D. at a large eastern university. He was what is
+known as a "monographist," a thesis-writer; and it had become apparent
+to all that he was not long for the Woodbridge world. Word had
+repeatedly come through the somewhat devious channels of information
+that he was "no good." His classes were doing shockingly bad work and
+they were articulate in their disapproval of him. The coming June would
+close his first appointment, and it had been tactfully broken to him
+that he need not expect another.
+
+Such was the personnel of the meeting in Mr. Dawson's office.
+
+"I have called you together today, gentlemen," said Mr. Dawson after the
+preliminary pleasantries, "to consider the advisability of changing our
+course next year. It has been brought to my attention that there has
+been some criticism of the course as it now stands. Although," he
+continued, gazing at the blotter before him, "I could have wished that
+this criticism might have been made first to me, rather than have
+reached me indirectly, I am grateful for it at any time and welcome this
+opportunity for discussing it."
+
+The air had become electrified. Everyone understood that the criticism
+referred to had come from only one source, Furbush, and that Dawson was
+administering to him a public rebuke. Dawson remained staring at his
+blotter when he finished, and there was complete silence for several
+seconds. "Well?" he asked, raising his eyes. "Don't hesitate, gentlemen.
+Although the course is largely of my making at present, there is no
+reason why it should remain so, and I'm sure no one will welcome an
+improvement more than I." Another pause. "Come, Jerry, won't you lead
+the discussion?"
+
+Furbush, who seemed to be waiting to be thus addressed, rather than to
+presume to take the floor from his superior, Mr. Brainerd, smiled
+charmingly. "I should frankly wish," he said, "that the discussion be
+opened by one of you gentlemen, for I feel that my judgment in such a
+matter is possibly not of much value. I confess that I am not in as warm
+sympathy as any of you"--by singling out Meyers at this point he lent a
+quietly insulting tone to his remarks--"with the present course. Were it
+left to me, I should do away with Wordsworth, substituting, possibly,
+Swinburne. I have sometimes wondered if we weren't underestimating the
+potential strength of the Freshman's mind by feeding him on too much
+pap. By the same token I am inclined to think that I should drop Carlyle
+and Hawthorne for Matthew Arnold and, perhaps, Cardinal Newman."
+(Furbush was a High Churchman of a militant dye.) "What I should, of
+course, do would be to divide the present first term between Spenser and
+Milton, instead of giving it all to Shakespeare." This last was said
+directly to Dawson. It had been Mr. Dawson's particular joy that he
+could give one whole term to Shakespeare.
+
+Tom was sitting keen-eyed and alert, but it would obviously be madness
+worse confounded to risk a contribution to this discussion, which was
+for Titans only. But he was thrilled by the duel before him, even though
+the outcome was never in doubt, since a show of hands would give a
+unanimous vote to Dawson whatever the issue. Mr. Dawson, however,
+declined the gage of battle altogether. He apparently merely wished
+Furbush to make public confession of the iniquity that was in him; and
+after noting out loud the changes recommended, he abruptly closed the
+meeting.
+
+"Well, Jerry, we shall think over what you have said, and a week from
+today we'd better get together again and act on it. At that time, too, I
+wish you people would come prepared with your questions for the final
+examination paper." He looked around pleasantly at the little group. "I
+guess that will be all today," he said.
+
+Tom had been nothing but a spectator at that meeting; but after the next
+he emerged radiant. The discussion of the first one had taken only a few
+minutes. It happened that Mr. Furbush was not able to be present; and it
+was announced incidentally, that he had been transferred to Sophomore
+English. Of his proposed changes nothing had been said, although another
+change was made. It appeared that Mr. Dawson had been teaching _The
+Winter's Tale_ for the past six years and that he wished the
+Department's permission to drop it for _Cymbeline_. Mr. Dawson explained
+that he was getting a little stale on _The Winter's Tale_, and the
+change was hurriedly made.
+
+What an object lesson was this for the keen-eyed young instructor! On
+the one hand was the Scylla of Mr. Brainerd and on the other was the
+Charybdis of Mr. Furbush. Lucky was he who could sail safely past the
+two; and he was a wise young instructor who determined to follow in the
+Dawsonian wake.
+
+The final examination paper was then discussed; and Tom, who had come
+fully prepared and was extremely wide-awake, had contributed the "spot"
+passage in Wordsworth in its entirety--the couplet,
+
+    "A countenance in which did meet
+    Sweet records, promises as sweet,"
+
+was included--and he had, furthermore, lent a most constructive hand in
+the framing of the Carlyle-transcendental question--a performance which
+he retailed to Mrs. Norris at the earliest moment, and which made the
+Assistant Professorship and Nancy seem definitely within his grasp.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Mrs. Norris was pleased with Tom's account of his success in the writing
+of the examination paper. Certain unsatisfactory rumours had come to her
+ears recently about his work. Henry Whitman, for example, had stated
+that Tom was loafing and that unless he picked up and showed improvement
+he might not receive a reappointment when his present term had expired.
+It is curious how everyone knows everyone else's business at Woodbridge.
+Each man has his grade stamped clearly upon him, for all, with the
+possible exception of the man himself, to see. A young man can raise
+this grade; and Mrs. Norris--who loved Tom almost as though he were her
+own--was hopeful for him.
+
+"All he needs, Julian," she said to the Dean when she told him of Tom's
+triumph, "is a guiding hand. I can't do it, because I'm too old, but I
+know someone who can." She was "straightening out" the library at the
+time, and as she said this she gave a chair a shove with her knee, which
+sent it flying into the books on the wall.
+
+"Mercy on us," cried the Dean, annoyed by this display of vigour, "who
+is it?"
+
+"Nancy."
+
+"Oh, pshaw, you're always trying to marry her off. You're the worst
+match-maker I know."
+
+Mrs. Norris laughed quietly. "You wait and see," was all she said; but
+she had settled in her mind upon a picnic.
+
+Mary, when approached upon the subject, had not been at all
+enthusiastic. "Why, it's much too early for a picnic," she had objected.
+
+"It is not at all. Everything is three weeks early this year, and that
+makes it about the middle of May. We'll have a lovely moon, too. It will
+be grand." And she proceeded to invite the guests, Nancy and Tom, and
+Furbush, for it was true that he had been most attentive to Mary of
+late. Mrs. Norris at first refused to go, but Mary insisted.
+
+"You will have to watch the fire, Gumgum, while we are off looking for
+sticks and things." And so she had gone, after all.
+
+Mrs. Norris's ideas of a picnic were large, the heritage of a day that
+knew few tins and miraculous powders that bloom into omelettes. She
+scorned them and brought along a generous store of raw steak and bacon
+and potatoes. A picnic without a fire and roasting meat was too
+namby-pamby for words; and though she would not now undertake to cook
+the food herself, because of a certain eccentricity of the knee joints,
+and since her daughter, despite her domestic science, declined to do so,
+she had brought along Julia the cook. Nothing but the big limousine
+would do for such an undertaking, and, as it was, Furbush had to nurse
+the steak in his lap. Mrs. Norris would have reached the picnicking
+ground in a procession of buggies, but at that Mary protested so
+vigorously that she was forced to resign.
+
+The picnic place was a pretty, slightly inaccessible rock overlooking a
+creek. Though actually not far from Woodbridge, as the road was
+overgrown and the turns sharp the motor had to proceed with a
+deliberation which made the trip justifiably difficult. The rock itself
+was about a hundred yards from the road; and since there was scarcely
+any path through the woods to it, there were made possible the pretty
+callings and hallooings, fallings-down and pickings-up, without which no
+picnic is quite perfect. Mrs. Norris, as a matter of fact, did more than
+her share of this. She had not gone more than thirty steps into the wood
+before she was completely lost; and by the time she had been safely
+brought to the rock her hat was well over on one side, her hair
+streaming down, and the torn fringe of her petticoat dragging along
+behind in the dirt. Julia and Horace, the chauffeur, however, had gone
+directly to the rock without the preliminary vagaries vouchsafed to
+their superiors, and by the time Mrs. Norris was finally captured they
+had succeeded in getting the supper well under way.
+
+Upon her arrival Mrs. Norris announced her intention of roasting a
+potato.
+
+"Gumgum, please sit down," begged her daughter. "You are only upsetting
+everything," and she laid an unfilial hand upon her mother's arm.
+
+"I am going to roast a potato," Mrs. Norris cried, shaking herself free
+and seizing upon a pared potato. "Tommy, get me a stick."
+
+"Isn't she awful," laughed Mary. "Don't you dare give her a stick, Tom."
+But Tom did dare, and Mrs. Norris, with her smiling benignity, stood
+waving the stick back and forth over the fire in time with the andante
+movement of her favourite Brahms sonata.
+
+"Well, we might as well get ready to eat that old stuff," said Nancy to
+Furbush. "Don't you dread it?"
+
+"I would not dread it, dear, so much, dreaded I not mother more," he
+replied, to Mary's intense gratification. But Tom, who heard the
+low-spoken words, thought them decidedly forced and disliked Furbush the
+more for them.
+
+Furbush's presence was undoubtedly a drawback to Tom's pleasure. How
+could he be natural with a person whom he disliked as much as he did
+Furbush and who he knew disliked him? Besides, he did not feel like
+being sprightly and picnicky with Nancy beside him. Instead, he felt
+homesick, or at least that is the way it seemed to him. Still, how could
+it be genuine homesickness when the object of his yearning was beside
+him? Nevertheless, there had been in his thoughts recently the picture
+of a certain small colonial house in Tutors' Lane, a house now for rent
+or for sale. Possibly, however, the contrast of such a life--the house
+would be furnished with highboys and gate-leg tables and oval, woven
+mats--with his present one at Mrs. Ruddel's furnished him with a genuine
+case of homesickness, after all. How perfect would life be in such
+surroundings! He liked to think of breakfast: He and Nancy, alone,
+except, of course, for the pretty, efficient maid--at their mahogany
+breakfast table. Nancy, busy with the coffee things at one end and he at
+the other--no, at the side--tucking away his grapefruit and bacon and
+hot buttered muffins and jam in the last few minutes before he dashed
+off up the hill to his eight-thirty. Good heavens, what a life that
+would be! He saw Nancy with the morning light on her hair and her
+pleasant, lively face--the nose with only the faintest possible trace of
+powder--bending over his cup; and then he realized that he was gazing at
+her now in the same position, only with the sunset light in her hair,
+and with a white porcelain cup receiving the coffee out of a thermos
+bottle, instead of a china cup from a swelling-silver pot.
+
+"Careful Tommy, you are dribbling it all over me."
+
+"Oh, Nancy, I'm so sorry. I ask you, isn't that stupid. Please excuse
+me."
+
+"A little lemon or a hot iron or soap and water will fix it, probably,"
+said Furbush.
+
+Tom looked over at Furbush. He hated his liquid tones, like honey
+dripping on a blue plush sofa. "How the hell do you get that way?" he
+wanted to ask--then he rounded out the sentence with certain phrases
+which had been current among our heroes along all war fronts from
+Kamchatka to Trieste. Even a milder remark was happily averted, for at
+this point the potato which Mrs. Norris had been steadily roasting,
+burst into flame and had to be plunged into the fire; a grateful
+accident, for now she was willing to sit down on the camp stool brought
+for her and to confine herself to the slicing of the bread.
+
+What passed until the meal was finished was of slight significance. It
+was a decidedly detached party, the two couples being brought together
+chiefly through Mrs. Norris; and when Nancy and Tom had finished a
+banana which they had divided in the jolly picnic way, Tom stood up. "Do
+you realize," he asked Nancy, "that this is a wishing carpet we've been
+sitting on? Let's take it down by the creek and see where it will take
+us."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Mrs. Norris, not at all displeased. "And now where are
+you and Mary going?"
+
+"We're going to look for crocuses in the garden of the Queen of the
+Fairies," replied Furbush. "They ought to be up now."
+
+"Well, take along this flashlight: it's getting awfully bosky-wosky in
+there." And then Mrs. Norris was left alone with Julia, whom she
+entertained with an animated and brilliant account of Titania and
+Oberon.
+
+"Where shall we go?" asked Tom when they were seated on the magic motor
+rug.
+
+"Let's go to Libya!" said Nancy promptly.
+
+"Libya! Well, I suppose we might as well go there as anywhere. You
+realize, of course, that we won't go until I put my foot on the
+carpet"--his left foot was straggling over the edge.
+
+"Perhaps you'd better keep it there for a few minutes, then, until we
+are sure that we really want to go. As a matter of fact, I think it is
+rather nice right here in Woodbridge," and she smiled up at him.
+
+Nancy had, of course, smiled upon a great many young men without
+precipitating a proposal of marriage, but then, the young men had
+probably not woven her image into their future hopes and fears as
+thoroughly as he had. Also the hour and the place lent their potency to
+her smile. The soft spring evening, happily extended by Daylight Saving,
+the noisy little creek running by their feet, and the staunch ally of
+all such projects, the great round moon, all combined to weave a spell,
+just as Mrs. Norris planned that they should.
+
+Tom had come to the picnic prepared to speak his mind, not doubting that
+an opportunity would be given him. He had not memorized a speech, but
+was ready to trust to the inspiration of the moment. His cause was an
+honest one; he might expect the gift of tongues, but the starting gun
+had now been fired, the race was on, and he was not granted the gift of
+tongues. A little preparation might not have been amiss, after all.
+
+"I agree with you about Woodbridge. In fact, I think had rather go on
+living here than anywhere else in the world, provided one thing." He
+had plunged in without the gift of tongues.
+
+It was not so dark but that Tom could see the colour come into her face.
+"Provided what, Tom?"
+
+"Provided I can have you, Nancy. Provided you can love me as I love
+you." He had come nearer her, and although he had brought both feet upon
+the magic carpet, they remained stationary. "You mean more to me than
+anything I have ever known. I used to wonder how I could ever think more
+of anyone than I thought of Woodbridge and the Star and the different
+boys in college, but that was nothing compared to this." Nancy was
+tracing a series of geometrical patterns upon the magic carpet with a
+bit of stick. "I wish I could do something to show you how much I care
+now." Still Nancy said nothing. "And, oh, Nancy, what you could do for
+me! With you to help me, I think I could do anything. But I know I need
+you. Nancy, will you marry me?"
+
+Nancy was hardly prepared for this. She had, since the social service
+fiasco, acknowledged to herself that she had grown in that short space
+very fond of Tom. She looked forward to seeing him, and when he was gone
+she went over with pleasure what he had said and how he had looked. She
+liked his drollery and his strength, she admired his poise and
+self-reliance; and she had the greatest respect for his teaching
+ability, of which she had received direct proof. Still, she was not at
+all sure that she wished to marry him. After all, she had really known
+him only something over a month, and it was not the Whitman way to hurry
+into anything--least of all into matrimony.
+
+"You mustn't ask me that, Tom."
+
+"Why not, Nancy?"
+
+"Because I cannot accept; not now."
+
+"You mean that perhaps you can later? For of course I shall never grow
+tired of asking you."
+
+The moon had climbed a little and had turned a silvery yellow. It
+flooded the rock and the people moving about on it, but Nancy and Tom
+remained in shadow. "Tell me, Nancy," he said, leaning over and covering
+with his own the hand upon which she was resting, "tell me that I may
+ask you again, for, dear Nancy, I cannot lose you." She did not draw her
+hand away immediately and when she did so she did it gently.
+
+"You're awfully good, Tom," she said and Tom's heart swelled at the
+softness of her tone. Then she climbed to her feet, and--Tom picking up
+the magic carpet, which had become soaked through with the dampness of
+the creek bank--they made their way back to the rock.
+
+And so ended their first love scene. That Tom's behaviour will appear
+tepid, in these vigorous days, is to be feared. His own contemporaries,
+of both sexes, will almost certainly be the first to point out that had
+they been in his place nothing would have kept them from proceeding from
+the tame seizure of Nancy's hand to some bolder action. Tom, however,
+helping Nancy along over the rocks and sticks was happily oblivious of
+his unconventionality. The beauteous evening did, in very truth, seem
+calm and free to him, though the party on the rock was making a little
+too much noise to have the holy time quiet as a nun, breathless with
+adoration. His mind turned to the scrap of Wordsworth he had lately
+memorized, and though he was a trifle annoyed to find that he couldn't,
+even now, perhaps when he most wanted it, remember all, the phrase
+"comfort and command" stayed with him and did nicely for the whole.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+Tom telephoned to Mrs. Norris the next day to make certain that he might
+see her. He felt that she was an ally in the matter of Nancy, and it was
+important to get her advice.
+
+He found her knitting by the yellow lamp in the library. "Well, Tommy
+dear," she said, looking at him with a quizzical smile, "was the picnic
+a success?"
+
+"Mrs. Norris, you are wonderful. When I think how much I owe to your
+generation. After all, I think a woman is loveliest at fifty."
+
+"Oh, flatterer!"
+
+"But you know you cannot get that fine _savoir vivre_ before."
+
+"Oh dear me, how much more _savoir vivre_ I'll have when I'm eighty.
+What an old charmer I'll be then! Will you come to see me when I'm
+eighty, Tommy?"
+
+"What a question!"
+
+"Well, I hope you won't take me off on any old wishing carpet and put me
+down in a damp, horrid place and give me tonsilitis."
+
+"Who has tonsilitis?"
+
+"Nancy, of course, and you gave it to her, you bad thing."
+
+Tonsilitis! He remembered now the damp rug and also certain sniffles
+that had required, from time to time on the homeward trip, the
+administration of a diminutive handkerchief with a pretty "N"
+embroidered, he knew, in the corner. So that is the way he would look
+after her!
+
+"What can I do about it?" It was true that Mrs. Norris was taking it
+very calmly.
+
+"Do? Why, you can't do anything but wait until she gets over it. You
+might go and see her when she begins to pick up."
+
+"I caught cold myself." He had at least been true to that extent.
+
+"Are you doing anything for it? Remind me when you go, and I'll give you
+some Squim. It's something new, and it did wonders for Mary."
+
+"Don't you think it might be nice for me to send Nancy some?" asked Tom,
+laughing. Tonsilitis was seldom fatal, after all; and what an excellent
+excuse to visit her it would be when she was getting better!
+
+"Tommy, dear, haven't you something to tell me?"
+
+"No, not really."
+
+"Not anything?"
+
+"Well, hardly anything." He was sitting near her, and now he leaned
+forward and whispered, "I asked her to be my wife, and she refused." It
+was not said, however, in the tone one would expect for such an unhappy
+message. Mrs. Norris looked at him curiously. "She said she couldn't
+answer me now, but as good as gave me permission to ask her again--and
+when a girl talks that way, isn't it as good as settled?"
+
+It did look promising, certainly. But then, there was Henry. "What about
+Henry?" she asked. "How does he feel?"
+
+"What has he to do with it?"
+
+"Oh my, he has a lot to do with it. He's more than just a brother, you
+know. He's her father and mother."
+
+"And aunt, maiden aunt, as well."
+
+Mrs. Norris laughed. "Henry's to be reckoned with, though, just like
+Marshal Ney--or was it Cincinnatus? I never can remember."
+
+"But, Mrs. Norris, what am I to do?"
+
+"Why, you must just be very nice and thoughtful to Nancy and as decent
+as you can be to Henry, and pray the Good Lord will help you."
+
+"Will you pray for me, too?" Tom had played too much baseball not to
+appreciate the value of organized cheering.
+
+"Yes, I'll pray for you." And then Tom jumped up and planted a
+thoroughgoing kiss--which was designed for the cheek, but which, upon
+her turning quickly, was delivered, in a manner that even Leofwin would
+have applauded--upon her neck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the sixth day Nancy sat up for a while during Miss Albers' hour and a
+half off. There was an abutment at one end of her room which overlooked
+the Whitman garden and carried the eye on down the hill until it rested
+on the factory in Whitmanville--the factory which made the garden
+possible for her. There was a letter in her lap from Tom. It had come
+with his roses and it asked her to go with him to the boat race. There
+was also a book in her lap, but she made no effort to read it; it was so
+much easier just to gaze out of the window and let her mind wander where
+it would.
+
+Henry knocked and entered. "Well, this is very nice. Do you really feel
+a lot better?"
+
+"Ever so much, thank you. I think probably I'll get up in a day or two."
+
+"I suppose you'll want your tonsils out now, won't you?" The question of
+a tonsilectomy had been a moot one for years. Nancy had always been
+anxious to have them out, having been told that it was merely a case of
+"snip, snip, and a day on ice cream." Henry, who regarded tonsilectomy
+skeptically as a fad, and who knew, furthermore, that it was a major
+operation for adults and that old Mrs. Merton hadn't walked straight
+since she had had hers out, was strongly opposed. This had, in fact,
+been an exceedingly sore point with them, and the amount of unhappiness
+engendered by it was considerably in excess of that which would have
+resulted from an operation when it was first suggested.
+
+"I'll have to wait, of course, until I get well over this. It isn't like
+a rheumatism, you know." Nancy had learned the jargon thoroughly.
+
+Well, that subject was now disposed of, and Henry, with the directness
+of a trained economist, abruptly went into the main object of his call.
+There had been certain features about Nancy's delirium which had
+astonished and annoyed him, and he had come with the express purpose of
+discussing them should he find Nancy strong enough. He now decided that
+she was strong enough. "Do you realize that when your fever was high you
+talked at a great rate?" he asked.
+
+"I vaguely remember mumbling and grumbling."
+
+Henry did not relish his task, but he felt it to be his duty--and Henry
+had never been one to shirk his duty. "You talked a great deal about
+this Tom Reynolds," he said.
+
+"Yes?" Nancy was aware that she coloured. She was aware also of a sudden
+sinking sensation, not dissimilar to the one that comes from a too rapid
+drop in an elevator. So Henry had come to her at the first possible
+moment to protest against "this Tom Reynolds." "He has had a bad
+recitation," she thought, "and now he is going to take it out on me,"
+and then she called her brother a hard and inelegant name, as people
+will when angry with their dearest relatives. Had Nancy been of a
+satirical nature she might have made something of her brother's adoption
+of Freudian methods; but she was not, and she knew only direct-fire
+warfare.
+
+"Nancy," Henry went on, leaning towards her, "surely you are not in love
+with that man?"
+
+Had Tom been a head hunter with tin cans in his ears, Nancy would have
+loved him at that moment.
+
+"Yes, I am," she said.
+
+Henry stared at her. It was clear she meant what she said. Then he
+glanced at the letter and the book that lay in her lap, as people will
+notice small things at such times. He guessed in whose handwriting the
+letter was, and--the book was _Sonnets from the Portuguese_! She had
+even taken to sentimental rubbish!
+
+"Oh Nancy, can't you see that he is not worthy of you? Who are his
+people? Where is he from? I wouldn't give _that_ for his future here.
+He's lazy, and he's filled you up on a lot of poetry. Nancy, think well
+of it before it's too late." She was gazing out the window, hardly
+hearing him. She had confessed aloud, before Henry, that she loved Tom.
+Henry was going on. "If you won't think of yourself, perhaps you can
+think of Henry Third? What is to become of him if you go?"
+
+Nancy turned to look at him. She felt giddy now, and she thought she was
+going to cry. It would not do, however, to make a scene, when up to this
+point she had acquitted herself so well. "You mean that I should give up
+my life to look after your son?"
+
+"Please don't be melodramatic. We know one another so well it isn't
+necessary. I am not asking you to give up your life. I am asking you not
+to throw it away, and in the meantime you have certain definite
+obligations here. You are more than an aunt to Henry. Life here with him
+will be far better for you than being the wife of that uncertain boy."
+
+She allowed it to pass, but it gave the final flick to her anger. "You
+are the kind of person, Henry, who is so monumentally selfish that you
+think everybody who dares to cross you in any way is himself
+monumentally selfish too. Now you come to me in a protective rôle to
+save me from 'this Tom Reynolds' with a mass of ill-natured slander--and
+lies--because if I go to him you will have to get a new housekeeper."
+
+"Nancy--"
+
+"Don't interrupt me, please. It would be the same, no matter who came.
+You would find some dreadful fault in anyone. You always have been
+jealous of every man that ever came here and if you had your way you
+would keep me here for life." Nancy paused, but her brother did not
+offer to speak. She had asked not to be interrupted, and he would be
+quite sure that she was through before he spoke again, but he could not
+conceal his anger. Nancy noticed it, and her own anger increased. "I
+don't think I'd mind it so much, if you didn't pretend that it was all
+for my good. That is nothing but rank hypocrisy. Just what have you ever
+done to make my life pleasant here? You are never interested in what I'm
+interested in, outside of Harry. This lecture business you just laughed
+and sneered at. I admit it was ridiculous, but you wouldn't lift your
+finger to make it less so. I admit, also, that I would appreciate a
+little attention once in a while, but it would never occur to you to
+give me any pleasure unless you had to, to get some for yourself. When
+you really want to give me a good time you sit down and talk to me about
+your miserable old Labour class and what a wonderful lecture you gave
+them. Well, Henry, that time is past, and I am going to have my own life
+from now on." And the tears which she had been fighting back were no
+longer to be denied.
+
+Henry was entirely put out, and he awkwardly got up. Now was clearly not
+the time to renew the attack. Nothing that Nancy had said was of the
+slightest significance, except her lack of interest in his work. There,
+indeed, was a sorry confession of inability to forget herself in the
+greatest interest of her nearest relation. Poor wilful girl! Well, he
+had done his duty. No one could charge him with unbrotherliness.
+
+Nancy had also got up. "Please go away," she sobbed; and Henry, without
+further word, did so.
+
+Nancy crawled back into bed and had her cry out. What a brute he
+was--and what a god was Tom! What a miserable snob Henry was about
+family--and then for him to say that Tom had no future! Had Tom been a
+member of his wretched old Grave, he would have had a very different
+view of it. That was the cause of nine-tenths of his dislike, anyway.
+Tom was in the rival club and Henry never could see any good in anyone
+connected with it. What a miserable, juvenile business! Had not Tom
+frankly confessed his need of help? Henry had never in any way indicated
+that she could be of service to him, except to order his meals and keep
+him comfortable. But Tom had thrown himself upon her. He "needed"
+her--that had been his word. With her to help him he felt that he could
+do anything. What a career for a girl! That would be living indeed.
+
+She thought of his unanswered letter and climbed out of bed at once.
+"Dear Tom," she wrote, and again the tears came into her eyes, "Thank
+you so much for the lovely flowers. They are by my bed and I can enjoy
+them all day long. It is awfully nice of you to ask me to the Boat Race
+and I accept with pleasure. I don't think there will be any question
+about my being able to make it. In two weeks I should be perfectly well
+again.
+
+"It will be lovely to see you and I can do so at any time now.
+
+    "As ever,
+        "NANCY."
+
+The final draft of the letter was composed only after three preliminary
+ones. Nancy found it extremely difficult to get just the right tone. She
+couldn't put too much warmth into it, and yet it mustn't be too cold. So
+she sat at her desk, copying and recopying, and only succeeded in
+finishing it when Miss Albers returned.
+
+"I've done it at last," she announced proudly, her cheeks aflame. Miss
+Albers, fortunately one of the few surviving members of the Good Nurse
+family, saw the situation immediately.
+
+"Why, I see you have," she said. "Isn't that fine! Now I think you are
+entitled to a nice nap." And when Tom arrived, post-haste upon receipt
+of Nancy's note, he was met at the front door with the news of her
+relapse.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+When Tom reached the Whitman house on the day of the race, he found it
+full. He had seen Nancy only once since her illness; and as her room had
+then been filled with people, his call was not remarkable. He had not
+failed to notice, nevertheless, that the colour came into her face as he
+entered the room; and there had been other auspicious signs which had
+had an exciting effect upon his pulse. This call had been made only two
+days before the race, and it was then clear that Nancy could not go with
+him. A Philadelphia cousin had, however, announced her arrival--a
+particular friend of hers being in the Woodbridge boat--and would Tom
+mind taking her? Uncle Bob Whitman had wonderful seats, being an
+Overseer, but he wasn't going to be able to use them, and--of course Tom
+would be only too happy to take her.
+
+Nancy, pale and lovely, was serving tea, but she found time to thank him
+again for his goodness about the Philadelphia cousin, and then she took
+him over to be presented. On the way across the room they passed Henry.
+Tom, who stared at him, missed the tell-tale blush on Nancy's cheeks.
+Instead, he only saw Henry shift his eyes calmly from Nancy to him and
+bow coldly. Tom bowed as coldly in his turn, and then Nancy left him
+with the Philadelphia cousin.
+
+Lily Griffin, the Philadelphia cousin, gazed at him steadily from under
+the floppy expanse of her black hat. She was sitting on a low cane
+covered bench before the fireplace, and her legs, which were encased in
+light grey silk stockings and which terminated in slippers of the same
+colour, her legs, let it be relentlessly repeated, were the most
+conspicuous things in the room. Over her shoulders were the thin strings
+of an undergarment that Tom thought was generally concealed. Still, one
+couldn't be at all sure about such things from one day to the next.
+
+"Would you mind taking my cigarette?" she asked, handing him the stub.
+
+"So you know Platt Raeburn," he began amiably when he had returned from
+his pretty task.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's an awfully nice boy. I know him quite well." Platt was in the
+Star; and Lily, who knew a great deal about such things, immediately
+suspected that Tom was also. How else would a professor know a crew star
+"quite well"? Her interest in Tom rose. He had, as a matter of fact,
+attractive eyes; and that cerise-coloured knitted tie with a pearl
+stickpin might indicate much.
+
+"Platt is a nice boy, isn't he?" she continued with a shade more
+enthusiasm. "We went on the most wonderful party this Easter. He wasn't
+in training then, you know, and I have never seen any one funnier than
+he was. We were at the Greysons' in Ardmore, and Platt thought he was
+insulted by the butler when he took Platt's cigarette off a table and
+threw it in the fire. It was burning the table, but old Platt didn't
+know that, and he knocked the man down."
+
+"It must have been funny," said Tom, who had heard the story before.
+
+"Oh, it was a scream. I thought I'd die laughing. It was really awfully
+bad of him, though, don't you think?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Tom boldly. "I don't think it was so very bad.
+You've got to expect that sort of thing nowadays."
+
+"Mercy, I didn't think you'd say that. Aren't you a professor here, or
+something?"
+
+"Yes, something."
+
+"Well, but I always thought----"
+
+"What?" with a smile.
+
+"Oh, nothing. Say, just between you and I, don't you think this is
+rather slow?" and she gave him a look that showed he was making good.
+
+The hospitality they were accepting was, of course, his own Nancy's, and
+to be strictly honourable he should have defended everything, but with
+certain definite reservations in his mind he replied, "Deadly."
+
+"That dreadful old creature over there actually eyed me when I smoked
+that last cig." The dreadful old creature was Mrs. Conover, who found it
+difficult to reconstruct herself to the present century. "I should
+think it would be awfully stupid living here. Now, isn't it really?"
+
+"No, it isn't half bad."
+
+"Oh, I can see you're a highbrow, like all the rest of them. Personally,
+I couldn't stand it. I'm too independent, I guess. What a sweet dog."
+Clarence was before her, arrayed in the Woodbridge colours. "I love
+dogs. I've the sweetest little Boston bull bitch at home. She won a
+silver flask for me last year." She was examining Clarence with the eye
+of a practised dogwoman. "Do you know anything about Airedales?" Tom
+didn't. "I suspect his tail is wrong," she said. "Now run along,
+sweetie," she called to Clarence; "momma can't have a baby with wrong
+tail." Clarence received this incredulously, but a complication was
+averted by the arrival of Nancy. "We were just criticizing your dog, my
+dear. Why don't you have his tail fixed?"
+
+"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked Nancy. She hated the thought of
+anything having happened to Clarence.
+
+"Why, it's too long. You should have two inches at least cut off." The
+picture of Clarence going around with his tail done up in a bandage was
+a delightful one, and Nancy laughed.
+
+Lily appealed to Tom. "Isn't she heartless?" But before Tom could answer
+the slightly embarrassing question, the cruel one announced that they
+had better be on their way, as the race started at five and it was then
+half-past four. So they hustled into the Whitman motor and drove to
+Center, where the new observation train was already filling.
+
+The race with Hartley was always one of the great spring events, but the
+new observation train made it more of an event than ever. People gloated
+over it as though they had never seen a train before, much to the
+amusement of Lily, whose attendance at New London had been frequent.
+Many paused admiringly at the engine and, as they passed on up the line
+of a dozen cars, loudly proclaimed their admiration of the entire
+arrangement. "They are just like prairie schooners," said one young man,
+to Lily's huge delight, for she had never before seen so much
+provincialism all at once. The platform was thick with people rushing to
+find their cars at the last minute. All was hurry and excitement and
+colour and laughter. The orange of Woodbridge and the olive of Hartley
+were everywhere. Each person boldly displayed his colours, whether with
+flowers or feathers, and it was clear that earth had few greater
+pleasures than this. Then the engine tooted and rang its bell, and with
+a convulsive wrench they were off, amid the cheers of everyone.
+
+Tom and his Lily were seated between the Hartley cheering section and
+the Woodbridge cheering section, in the very choice seats which Mr.
+Whitman naturally commanded and Tom, although he thought boat racing a
+much overrated sport and resented its being preferred to baseball, felt
+a distinct thrill as they passed out upon the river bank and up to the
+starting point. Only the cold unseasonable wind which swept down the
+course, riffling the water and chilling every one to the bone, marred
+the day.
+
+They arrived at the starting point, and the occupants of the new cars
+wrapped what little they had around them. Quite obviously, the race
+could not be rowed until the wind died. There was nothing to do but just
+sit and wait.
+
+The Hartley cheering section immediately climbed down upon the bank,
+with the exception of one young man who was left with his head lolling
+over the side of the car next to Tom. Friendly remonstrance had been
+futile. He had refused to move and had elected to slumber. "I think he's
+sweet," said Lily, gazing over at him. "Tell me, do you have much
+trouble getting liquor here?"
+
+"No," said Tom. Already the spell of the day was wearing off.
+
+"I've learned, to my sorrow that you can't be too careful. Such a time
+as I had last month! I went out to a luncheon party--May Stephens--you
+know her? Well, just before luncheon I was astonished to see cocktails
+appear. I didn't think May had any stock, but there she was just the
+same, jiggling the shaker up and down. Well, at the first sip I thought
+something was funny, but there was nothing to do about it; and then May
+gave me a dividend, and although it nearly killed me, I managed to get
+it down, and then when we were all through she asked us how we liked it.
+Well, I told her I thought it was a little funny, and then she
+announced what I knew all along; that she had made it herself. 'I made
+it out of spirits of nitre,' she said. 'Did you boil off the ether?'
+someone asked, and she said she hadn't! Well, we hadn't got hardly
+started at lunch when one of the girls passed right straight out and
+then we all began feeling trembly and queer, and then the next thing I
+knew I was at home in bed, and I wasn't up and about for a week. Wasn't
+that awful?"
+
+Tom's enthusiasm was ebbing fast. What a prodigious bore this race was
+going to be! The wind was blowing up his legs, and his light spring
+overcoat was far from ample. The seats were too close together and were
+of a granite hardness; but he and Lily were wedged into the back and
+could not escape without treading upon the toes of half of Woodbridge's
+notables. So he sat still and tried to smile brightly at the conclusion
+of her story.
+
+"Do you know?" Lily continued, "I think you have a lovely smile."
+
+"Goody," replied Tom, and smiled again, this time rather archly.
+
+Lily was examining him between half closed lids. "And I think you have
+nice eyes, too--particularly the lashes. They are so long and silky."
+
+"Well, it's a great secret, of course," replied Tom, "and you mustn't
+tell even your mother"--Lily giggled--"but I think you have the
+prettiest way with you I have ever seen."
+
+"Oh, dear me, you are funny. Now you must keep me warm."
+
+The car, it has been pointed out, was full of Woodbridge notables, and
+any warming of the young lady would not have been looked upon with
+favour. Nor would Tom have cared to warm her had they been quite alone
+at the North Pole. What an ordeal this was getting to be, and how lucky
+was Nancy, comfortably seated before the fire! How good would that
+particular fire be, and what a soft and fragrant place to ask a certain
+question! What a contrast Nancy made to this miserable girl beside him!
+Nancy at the time happened to be repairing certain ravages that the tea
+had made upon her nephew's best blue suit, but the scheme of Tom's
+thoughts was not spoiled.
+
+"Bad man, you're not showing me any kind of a time."
+
+Tom was exasperated. A group in front of them had built a fire. "How
+would you like to go down there?" he asked. "Can you climb down over the
+side here?"
+
+"'Course I can."
+
+Tom climbed over the railing, dropped to the ground, and, turning his
+ankle, cried "Ouch!" loudly enough to waken the young Hartley man whose
+head was lolling over the adjacent railing. The youth looked up and
+beheld the lovely Lily poised, apparently preparing to fly into his
+arms. He reared himself up. "Come, lovely girl," he cried, "I love you."
+And then as she swooped by, he made a grab at her and tore her dress.
+
+"You bad boy," she cried, with little discretion, "you tore my dress."
+
+"You bad boy," repeated the young Hartley man, "yuhtoradress,
+yuhtoradress."
+
+Tom had managed to hurry her away, although his ankle hurt him
+considerably, but not until all the notables had seen the performance.
+What a mortifying affair. No doubt many supposed that he was the one who
+had torn the dress.
+
+Fortunately, Lily met a friend at the fire, and Tom was free for the
+time being. Would the wind never die down? The flag on the coach's
+launch was not quite so active. There was a rumour that they would start
+at six-thirty. Only half an hour more. Well, he could stand that. Lily
+seemed to be having a time with her new young man, and he limped over to
+a neighbouring fire where there were fewer Lilies and more heat. There
+he met a classmate of whom he was particularly fond; and before he knew
+it the starter's launch had put out into the river, and the parties
+around the fires were scampering back aboard the train. With
+considerable difficulty he followed Lily up over the side, for his foot
+was now swollen and painful. Finally, however, they were seated again,
+buoyed up with the thought of the race's being at last under way--when
+the starter's boat retired from the scene, and word arrived that the
+race would not be rowed until seven.
+
+Tom could not cover his disappointment.
+
+"I don't think you are very polite!" said Lily.
+
+"Sorry," replied Tom, his ankle throbbing.
+
+"In fact I think you're horrid."
+
+"Good!" said Tom. Lily looked her rage and half turned her back on him.
+Well, that was something to be thankful for, at any rate.
+
+They sat there in ever-increasing gloom. Some of the Lilies gamboled
+back to shiver over the fires, but even they were beginning to droop.
+Tom's Lily would have joined them--her new friend was not a wet
+smack--but Tom, with his throbbing ankle, did not offer to go, and she
+was too proud to suggest it. So they sat and waited.
+
+The race was eventually rowed. At the starter's gun the train gave
+another convulsive jerk, which sent Tom's injured foot flying against
+the side of the car, and the crowd fanned into life its jaded
+enthusiasm. Out in the gathering dusk the two crews inched their way
+along. It was not quite clear which was which, the blades both showing
+black, and though Lily was certain she had located Platt and cheered
+lustily for his boat, subsequent evidence indicated that he was in the
+other. The two cheering sections woke to frenzy, and the notables' car
+was swept with confusion. Lily was beside herself and kept jumping to
+her feet with an appealing cry of "Oh Platt!" Tom looked over at the
+Hartley car at one point and saw that his friend had apparently had
+fresh access to his source of refreshment, for he was now blissfully
+asleep, cheek on the railing.
+
+At the two-mile stake--with a final mile to go--the boats were even,
+but both sides were jubilant, for from each section it clearly showed
+that the home crew was ahead. Then the train shot behind a heavily
+timbered point, and when the view of the river was again free, the
+Woodbridge shell was half a length behind and obviously beaten. A pang
+of disappointment shot through Tom. Oh, well, it was a fitting climax to
+the day. There they were, slipping back and back. They were splashing
+badly, and one of the Woodbridge men was obviously not pulling his
+weight. Then the Hartley boat flashed over the finish amid the tooting
+of countless automobiles along the banks, a winner by a length and a
+quarter.
+
+The Hartley people had given way to a transport of joy, while their
+coxswain crawled along his shell throwing water over the chests and
+faces of his men. The two boats floated idly about, their crews bowed
+forward, gasping in agony for strength. To the men in the Hartley boat
+came the faint sound of their grateful supporters. They had won--and
+what was an enlarged heart or, possibly, a damaged kidney, to such
+glory? The half hysterical screams of their Lilies were sweet
+compensation. As for the Woodbridge crew, well, they would have to
+swallow their dose as best they could--and wait for next year.
+
+The young Hartley man next to Tom woke up. "'S the race over?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, it's over," shouted Tom, for no one else heard him.
+
+"Thank God," he shouted hoarsely, and went back to sleep--a sentiment
+which cheered Tom so much that Lily, on the homeward trip, decided he
+wasn't quite such a dumb-bunny, after all.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+Scarcely a day went by now without Tom's tracing his steps to the Norris
+house. He seldom bothered any more with the formality of the door: going
+around to the terrace side, he walked into the drawing-room unannounced.
+If no one was at home, he sat down with a magazine or book in the
+library or drummed at the piano. Then, possibly, he would go before
+anyone arrived; but the house which was so friendly to him and so full
+of Nancy, was far dearer to him than her own, for Henry's hostility was
+too marked to make his visits there other than difficult.
+
+So it was that he came unexpectedly upon Mrs. Norris, Mary, and Nancy
+when he walked into the library on the day following the race; and then
+he regretted his free and easy entrance. For Mary was in tears and was
+receiving the comfort of her mother and friend. Tom backed hurriedly
+out, muttering an inarticulate apology and cursing himself for an
+awkward fool. Mary saw him, however, and with a sob brushed past him in
+the hall and went upstairs. Her mother who swept after her like a large
+and stately galleon in her black silk dress, was more troubled than he
+had ever seen her. Still, as she passed, she told him not to mind. And
+then he was alone with Nancy.
+
+"What on earth is the matter?" he asked. Nancy, too, was thoroughly
+upset.
+
+"Just look at that," she said, and pointed to an article in a New York
+evening paper. "Woodbridge Professor Drowns," ran the headlines.
+"Overtaken by Cramps After Eating Cherries and Milk." It appeared that
+Professor Furbush had defied the popular fear of the fatal combination
+and, in order to make his defiance complete, had promptly gone in
+swimming after eating it. The tragedy had occurred at the country house
+of relatives; and though a number of people were present, they took his
+cries for help as a joke until it was too late. The account went on to
+explain that it was more sad even than it might at first appear, for it
+was generally supposed that the dead man had been engaged to marry Miss
+Mary Norris, daughter of the Acting President of Woodbridge.
+
+"Why, isn't that dreadful," said Tom. It is always a little hard to know
+what should be said in such circumstances. If the one who has just died
+is close to us, we don't think about what to say at all, but if it is
+only an acquaintance and we are merely a little thrilled by his going,
+it is difficult; for decency requires a solemn look and a shocked word.
+So Tom did what he could to be decent; and Nancy, who was staring with
+half averted face out upon the garden, made no reply. She, of course,
+knew all the secrets of Mary's heart and must be sharing her sorrow.
+Accordingly, any words from him, other than sympathetic ones for Mary's
+loss, would be untimely. Perhaps, even, she would insist upon remaining
+in sisterly spinsterhood! "It's awfully tough, isn't it," Tom added.
+
+"Yes," said Nancy, somewhat faintly, from the curtains. Nancy seemed
+very much upset. Tom knew that Furbush had been a frequent visitor at
+her house, and probably she had grown fond of him. He was not at all
+aware, however, that Furbush's affair with Mary had progressed so far.
+He could not picture Furbush marrying Mary--or anyone else, for that
+matter--and he doubted whether Furbush would have married her. Still, it
+appeared that Mary had cared for him, and now her little romance was
+over.
+
+"It's awfully hard on Mary, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Furbush was gone. Who would take his place? His place, an Assistant
+Professorship--there was now a vacancy! A flood of excitement swept
+through him. But how foolish to expect that it would fall to him. He had
+taught but one year, and he was only twenty-five. People still spoke of
+Harry Spear's having been given his Assistant Professorship at the end
+of three years as a record-breaking performance. He knew perfectly well,
+furthermore, that he had not made a startling success of it; not the
+kind of success that makes a man jump from a Captaincy to a
+Brigadiership. Still, he thought he stood quite as well as the other
+young instructors in the department; and his "outside connections" were
+considerably better. After all, a man's career in college counted for
+something. And so, although he knew that the thing was impossible and
+that what they would do would be to go outside for an older man, he
+luxuriated for a moment in the picture of the Dean congratulating him on
+his success. An Assistant Professorship and Nancy! The two were linked
+in his mind as the sum-total of desire; and since he could think of
+Nancy without thinking of the Assistant Professorship, but could not
+think of the Professorship without thinking of Nancy, it is to be
+supposed that Nancy came first.
+
+And there she was now, over by the window, painfully aware of the garden
+and fidgeting ever so little with the curtain. Perhaps this might not be
+such a bad time to repeat his question, after all. Had she not of her
+own free will come to the Norris house, at which she knew that he was
+almost a daily visitor? There was in that something to give him heart.
+As if he hadn't enough evidence without it!
+
+"You will admit, though, Nancy, that it was an awfully stupid thing for
+him to eat the cherries and milk, won't you? Everyone knows that it
+can't be done." Tom moved over nearer to her, but she did not answer
+him. Instead, she fixed her eyes steadily on the bulging root of an elm
+in the garden. She must concentrate everything on that to keep from
+being an utter fool. But what an hour it had been! First the dreadful
+news about Furbush and that thing in the paper, and then Tom's
+unexpected entrance. How wonderful he looked as he came into the room;
+he had been so self-possessed, and she should have been such a ninny in
+his place!
+
+Tom took a step nearer. "Nancy," he said very tenderly.
+
+The root was waving now; it _would_ become indistinct. How gentle he
+was, and how different from Henry! "Nancy!" he repeated. Then the root
+became altogether blurred and meaningless, and she felt him take her in
+his arms and kiss her. "Darling Nancy," he was saying; and, somehow, to
+her great relief, she found an apparently adequate reply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was decided that a long engagement was altogether unnecessary, a
+decision which was without repeal, in view of the absence of parental
+supervision. Why waste the perfectly good summer? Why indeed? And so the
+wedding was set for a few days after Commencement.
+
+"That will give me just about enough time to get ready," said Nancy,
+"and I really think you must get a new cutaway."
+
+Then at last Commencement was over. The electricians bore away for
+another year the last of the class numeral signs which had hung from
+their respective Headquarters. The Headquarters themselves had been
+swept and cleaned and restored to their owners, and one by one the
+dwellers, in Tutors' Lane prepared to board up their houses for the
+summer and depart for the mountains or for the shore.
+
+The wedding alone kept most of them in Woodbridge. Few there were that
+had not some pleasant memory of Nancy, and the sacrifice of a day or two
+of vacation was counted as little. Furbush's dramatic end had held the
+centre of the Woodbridge stage, but it was now forced into the
+background by the question: Was Tom good enough for Nancy? It was
+generally agreed that he was getting the best of it, but not many
+thought that she was altogether throwing herself away upon him. Nancy
+might have married anyone, it was pointed out, and having had so much
+responsibility, she could have graced the board of a much older man.
+Instead, she had chosen a young instructor--a pleasant enough boy,
+perhaps but still unproved. Well, Nancy would make the most of him,
+there was no question of that, and of course he was a great friend of
+the Norrises and it was known that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee herself
+approved of the match. So they would hope for the best, and Nancy was a
+dear girl.
+
+Tom was in perfect accord with the last sentiment, and it will perhaps
+be charitable to draw a veil over his behaviour at this time. Such names
+as "Mrs. Mouse" and "Boofly Woofly" are all very well when whispered
+teasingly into the delighted ear of one's intended, but they hardly
+stand the light of unromantic day. They have even been known to set up
+opposing currents of emotion in breasts not so nicely attuned, and to
+inspire such expressions as "Fish!" or even "Blat!" It may well be a
+considerate office, therefore, not to submit our lovers to the graceless
+manners of the unsympathetic, but to let them enjoy their artless
+passages unmolested.
+
+One of these, alone, might be risked. Nancy had confidingly told him
+that she had all the faith in the world in his future, and he heard her
+gratefully. "Why, the way you talked to those men at the mill shows
+clearly enough what you can do," she said.
+
+Tom coloured slightly, but let the moment pass without explanation. When
+he had first done so it was with the mental reservation that he would
+laughingly explain it some day, and he would, too, but it wasn't yet
+just the right time. So he stooped and kissed her affectionately; and
+then, as he was hatless at the time, she was reminded of something she
+had long wanted to tell him.
+
+"If you don't look out, Tom, you will be perfectly bald in five years."
+
+"Well, I've done everything I can, and----"
+
+"Now, all you have to do is to brush it five minutes in the morning and
+five minutes at night."
+
+"Ten minutes a day! I should be exhausted."
+
+"Well, I shall do it for you, then." Whereupon the scene acquired an
+excess of sentiment at once.
+
+Certain more mundane passages may be observed, however, without any
+particular offence.
+
+The passages that took place around the opening of the wedding presents
+were possibly as diverting as any. Tom, whose mind's eye was ever upon
+the little colonial house in Tutors' Lane, now his property, was perhaps
+more concerned than most grooms are in the furnishing of his nest. He
+found himself greatly elated when he or his bride would draw forth some
+shining prize of a silver bowl or plate--until they began getting too
+many of them--and correspondingly depressed when some many-coloured
+glass lamp or strange dish would appear. What on earth could they do
+with them? Dear old Mrs. Conover, for example, sent a large Bohemian
+glass jar of a peacock-eyes pattern. It would have to be on view when
+she called, and as they had no way of knowing when that would be, it had
+to be on view all the time.
+
+From Omaha came an ominous package which made Tom shudder. Would his
+sister contrive to mortify him? He could picture her pleasure in doing
+so, and when the package was opened and out came two china parrots, Tom
+thought the pleasure was hers. A note which came with the birds
+explained that they were very fashionable in Omaha at the time and that
+all Omaha had them on its dinner table. To Tom, his sister's gift and
+note could hardly have been worse, but Nancy kissed him and told him not
+to be stupid, that the parrots were nice; and Tom was so flustered he
+couldn't tell whether they were or not. At any rate, Nancy wrote a
+charming, sisterly little note, and Tom was more pleased with his future
+than ever.
+
+The silver tea service which arrived early from Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee was among the grandest presents that Nancy received from
+outside the family. She was particularly grateful for it, since it
+enabled her to leave her mother's with Henry and thus avoid a discussion
+which would have been unendurable at the time. It was true that Henry's
+wife had had a tea service herself and that it was now his; but it was
+not so fine as the Whitman one, and Henry would have regarded its
+removal with a jaundiced eye. His wife's silver, however, was quite a
+bit more handsome than the family silver, and he relinquished the latter
+with a gesture so graceful that any further donation of property to the
+hymeneal happiness seemed almost fulsome. Still he did make a further
+contribution--a costly set of John Stuart Mill.
+
+A few days after she announced her engagement Nancy was waited upon by
+the Misses Forbes. Their mission was one of obvious importance, for they
+seldom moved out of their warm little house, excepting, of course, Miss
+Jennie, who was quite indifferent to the outside and marched forth
+almost without a thought. They wore, furthermore, a serious
+demeanour--even Miss Jennie, whose assumption of a cavalier manner
+didn't quite hide her excitement. She was carrying a small parcel neatly
+done up in white tissue paper; and when, after a period of rocking, she
+launched upon the little speech she had prepared, her liver-spotted old
+hands opened and closed over it. "You must know, my dear," she said,
+"that we are going to miss you very much. Of course, you are not really
+going away"--the little colonial house was in truth only a quarter of a
+mile farther from their house than Nancy's present one--"yet it can't be
+quite the same, and we want to mark your going with our love and best
+wishes. So we have brought you the Burnham lace for you to keep and hand
+down to your children, and may God bless you, my dear, and keep you."
+Then they all had a quiet turn at their handkerchiefs, and the Burnham
+lace passed into the House of Reynolds.
+
+Leofwin also called and delivered his gift in person. Tom was
+fortunately in the room at the time, and the somewhat painful scene was
+not protracted. It was the first meeting they had had since Leofwin had
+offered his hand and been rejected, and even Leofwin was constrained.
+Nancy wondered if Elfrida were to have her trip to Italy, but she could
+not put the question without appearing unmaidenly since she knew so well
+the only condition of the trip; and as Woodbridge had not many girls
+that were eligible for Leofwin's love, the prospect was indeed black.
+"Your happiness is all I ask," he said in a low tone, and, despite the
+theatrical diction, even Tom was touched by his sincerity. "You know, of
+course," he went on, "that I am not in a position now to make an
+adequate expression of my wishes"--it _was_ rather affecting even though
+nobody present quite knew what he meant--"but I have brought you the
+best I have. It is of small material value, but its sentimental value
+is great. I did all my best work with it." Whereupon he handed her a
+paint brush.
+
+With considerable of a to-do, Mrs. Norris announced the gift of a
+grandfather's clock. "There is no use, Nancy dear, in dragging it around
+from house to house, and I'm having it sent to your new one."
+Accordingly, when the expressman announced its arrival everyone
+proceeded to the little colonial house in Tutors' Lane. Then
+difficulties arose. To begin with, it was too tall for any room in the
+house; and after a great deal of staggering around with it, trying it
+first in this place and then in that, a gorgeous wooden plume which
+stuck up from its head had to be removed. Then it was discovered that
+there were no works in it, Mrs. Norris having bought only the case,
+supposing of course that the thing was complete. When finally the parts
+had all been assembled and adjusted--which was in the second year of
+Tom's and Nancy's married life--it was learned that the ways of the
+clock were nearly as eccentric as those of its donor, for when it went
+at all, the hands made the downward journey with so much rapidity that
+they were exhausted at the bottom and in no condition for the return
+trip. The end came one morning when the clock, which was known as "Aunt
+Helen," was discovered to have died at six-thirty; and, all horological
+assistance having been summoned in vain, it was suffered to stand in its
+corner, untouched except by dust cloths, its hands forever pointing at
+six-thirty, an eloquent warning of the end of indolence.
+
+Although perhaps Mrs. Norris's contribution to the future life of our
+lovers was not distinguished by that perfect satisfaction which we all
+strive to furnish with our wedding gifts, her services at the wedding
+itself were invaluable. Nancy naturally turned to her for assistance
+with the thousand and one preliminaries that the bride's mother usually
+performs, and, moving in her own wondrous ways, Mrs. Norris saw to
+everything.
+
+The night before the wedding arrived, and she gave a dinner for the
+bridal party. As, after considerable discussion, Nancy had consented to
+have the reception at the Norris house, Mrs. Norris relieved the minds
+of her people in the kitchen by having a buffet supper--and using paper
+napkins.
+
+Nancy was grateful for this, for she was extremely tired, and the
+simpler everything could be, the better. So the supper was eaten all
+over the house and out on the terrace, and when the last paper napkin
+had been crumpled up, and the entire party had been brought together to
+drink the bride's health, and her future husband's, and their mutual
+healths, in the Dean's 1854 champagne, the party was whisked off up to
+the college church for rehearsal.
+
+Upon arriving there, Nancy being engaged momentarily with Mary, who had
+heroically consented to be her maid of honour, Tom stole away by
+himself. Before the church the ridge sloped gently away, giving an
+unobstructed view of the valley. The evening was a perfect one, and Tom
+enjoyed one of those rare moments when one feels in complete accord with
+everything. All around him were the sights and sounds of bucolic
+tranquillity; and within, apart from the comfortable effects of the
+Dean's wine and cigar, were such melting thoughts as we may only guess
+at. Life was now just beginning for him--and how good it was!
+
+The sun died in ever darkening carmine. Tom flicked the ash from his
+cigar and held it up against the light. It matched perfectly. A long
+zeppelin-like cloud hung, apparently motionless, a little higher up. Tom
+moved his cigar up to it and cocked one eye. Again perfect harmony. But,
+even as he looked, the cloud thinned out at one end and spoiled it a
+little. Oh, well, it was perfect, anyway.
+
+Behind him came the strains of the church organ and the voices of the
+bridal party. They were calling him. He paused deliciously, drinking in
+the last moments of his freedom. And then, throwing away his cigar, he
+passed quickly up the hill and into the lighted church.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    _NEW BORZOI NOVELS_
+
+    _FALL, 1922_
+
+    THE QUEST
+    _Pio Baroja_
+
+    THE ROOM
+    _G. B. Stern_
+
+    ONE OF OURS
+    _Willa Cather_
+
+    MARY LEE
+    _Geoffrey Dennis_
+
+    THE PROMISED ISLE
+    _Laurids Bruun_
+
+    THE RETURN
+    _Walter de la Mare_
+
+    THE BRIGHT SHAWL
+    _Joseph Hergesheimer_
+
+    THE MOTH DECIDES
+    _Edward Alden Jewell_
+
+    INDIAN SUMMER
+    _Emily Grant Hutchings_
+
+
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |Transcriber's Note:                                         |
+    |The book title on the cover shows "Tutor's", while inside is|
+    |"Tutors'"; and whereas "Woodbridge Center" is spelled thus, |
+    |the alternative spelling "centre" is used elsewhere.        |
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tutors' Lane, by Wilmarth Lewis
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tutors' Lane, by Wilmarth Lewis
+
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+Title: Tutors' Lane
+
+Author: Wilmarth Lewis
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2008 [EBook #24771]
+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TUTORS' LANE ***
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+
+
+
+<h1>TUTORS' LANE</h1>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="417" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 388px;">
+<img src="images/title.jpg" class="jpg" width="388" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Tutors' Lane<br />
+Wilmarth Lewis<br />
+<br />
+Alfred A. Knopf<br />
+New York&mdash;1922</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p class="center noi"><small>COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY<br />
+ALFRED A. KNOPF, <span class="smcap">Inc.</span><br />
+<br />
+<em>Published, September, 1922</em><br />
+<br />
+<em>Set up and printed by the Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton, N. Y.</em><br />
+<em>Paper supplied by W. F. Etherington &amp; Co., New York, N. Y.</em><br />
+<em>Bound by the H. Wolff Estate, New York, N. Y.</em></small></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="center noi"><big>To<br />
+Helen and Wilson Follett</big></p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<div class="block2">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="out"><em>LORD TOLLOLLER: "... of birth and position I've plenty;</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><em>I've grammar and spelling for two,</em><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><em>And blood and behaviour for twenty."</em><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">IOLANTHE.<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+Tutors' Lane</h1>
+
+
+<h2>A SYLLABUS</h2>
+
+
+<p>Having once, for a few months, had a literary column in a newspaper, I
+have come to admire those authors who place at the beginning of their
+books a "word" in which the whole thing is given away. The time that
+those words saved me in writing my reviews&mdash;time which otherwise would
+have been lost in reading the books&mdash;enabled me to write this book; a
+consummation which may have, in its heart, a significant kernel, and
+which certainly shows how funny the world is, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as to this book and what it is all about, I frankly am at a loss.
+That's the difficulty of being too near it. Whether it is realism,
+naturalism, or merely restrained romanticism, I simply do not know. It
+is awkward not knowing, for in the battle of the schools now raging I
+should like to take sides. I should like either to charge with the
+romantics, or defend with the realists. It must be good fun being pushed
+and shoved around, with someone's elbow in your eye and someone else's
+hatpin in your ear, and everyone crying, in the words of a recent
+heroine, "I want to be outraged." But, for the present at least, I must
+be content, like little Oliver Twist, to look hungrily on.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p><p>The story which trickles through the book starts out bravely enough. Of
+this much, at least, I can be moderately sure. For a short time it looks
+as though something might come of it; but nothing really does. It is all
+so terribly obvious. There are no obstacles such as one finds in real
+fiction; there is no love spasm in Chapter XXV. There is no Chapter XXV
+at all! And so it must be perfectly clear that those who insist upon
+having their love spasms will be bored to death by <em>Tutors' Lane</em> and
+should on no account be allowed to look at it. There is love, of course,
+in an academic community; one frequently sees evidences of it; but it is
+love under control, properly subordinated to the all important business
+of uniting youth and learning&mdash;and to snatching time for an occasional
+rejuvenating flutter in the sacred fount itself.</p>
+
+<p>So the syllabus is little more than a nervous shake of the hand and a
+timid statement of a few negative "points"&mdash;a disheartening, if not
+positively dangerous, affair. That there are lurking beauties, however,
+peeping shyly out like johnny-jump-ups and wild raspberry blossoms,
+there appears to be some evidence on the jacket. Meanwhile, the course
+is open, the bell is ringing to class, and the instructor, turning over
+the text to Chapter I, is prepared to meet whatever scholars God, in his
+greater wisdom, has been pleased to set before him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+I</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">TOM REYNOLDS, Instructor in English in Woodbridge College, walked along
+Tutors' Lane in the gathering dusk of a March afternoon. Persons whose
+knowledge of collegiate dons is limited to the poverty-stricken,
+butterfly-chasing genus created by humorous scenario writers would be
+surprised to learn that our hero&mdash;for such he is to be&mdash;was young, sound
+of wind and limb, and at the present moment comfortably clothed in a
+coon-skin coat. The latter touch might be accounted for by such persons
+on the basis of an eccentric city cousin generously disposed to casting
+off his garments when only half worn, but the other two points must
+convince them of the faithlessness of the whole account, and their
+acquaintance with the young man will accordingly end with the first
+paragraph.</p>
+
+<p>Woodbridge College, as a matter of fact, has never been without a few
+young men of this type in its Faculty. Situated in southern New England,
+it has roots which extend well back into the Eighteenth Century, and its
+traditions, keeping pace with its growth, rival in dignity and
+picturesqueness those of its larger neighbours. Whereas they have
+expanded from Colleges to Universities, Woodbridge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> has been content to
+restrict its enrolment to six hundred; and instead of making entrance
+easier it has, if anything, made it harder. Accordingly, the College
+holds its head high, not unconscious that the quality of its instruction
+and of its graduates is unsurpassed.</p>
+
+<p>The Founders of the College placed their first building on the crest of
+a smallish plateau which commands a view of the Blackmoor Valley.
+Succeeding generations have scattered its buildings haphazardly about,
+but, thanks to the generosity of a Woodbridge son, the meadow land which
+slopes away from the crest down to the Lebanon River, sixty acres in
+all, was bought and given to the College; and upon this land the future
+College is to rise. There is a good deal of rather vague talk about this
+new college&mdash;of the quadrangle which is to solve all dormitory and
+recitation problems, and which is to shine with beauty. But at present
+the meadow is sacred to athletics, and the elaborate new boat house,
+completed last spring, seems to make the quadrangle less of a
+probability than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Tutors' Lane is the main artery of the place. It passes through the
+college green and on down the hill through a row of faculty houses until
+it reaches the village of Woodbridge Center, or, as it is usually
+called, Center. It is a famous street&mdash;famous for its elms, which
+supply, as it has not infrequently been pointed out, the dignity of a
+nave; famous for the doorways and windows of its colonial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> houses; and
+famous for the distinction and propriety of its inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>It is one of the Woodbridge traditions that these houses are inviolate.
+Assistant Professors' wives, upon taking up residence in Tutors' Lane,
+are tactfully warned that it is not the thing to alter them. There may
+be an occasional painting, yes; but innovations in the way of building
+are not to be thought of. People who have to build are advised to do it
+elsewhere; certain streets are provided for the purpose&mdash;High Street,
+for example&mdash;and though of course they are not Tutors' Lane, doubtless
+they are livable enough. In fact, High Street is distinctly coming into
+its own, thanks, of course, to the High Street Cemetery. For a mortal
+existence in Tutors' Lane is followed by an immortal one in the High
+Street Cemetery, and though perhaps those who spend mortality in the
+Street can hardly expect to enjoy immortality in the Cemetery,
+nevertheless, no one can take from them the satisfaction of being the
+neighbours of the oldest families who are doing so. Property is steadily
+rising in High Street, accordingly, and now Assistant Professors and
+their wives do well indeed to settle there.</p>
+
+<p>Tutors' Lane is not particularly wide for such an important
+thoroughfare. Two vehicles can pass without difficulty, but it is well
+for them not to rush by. If they are in a hurry, they had better take
+either Meadow Street, which skirts the athletic field, or High Street,
+which is wide and oiled and designed for heavy traffic. Tutors' Lane is
+not oiled, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> heaven forfend that it ever should be, for its
+foundations go far back into the past, farther perhaps than any one
+dreams. No less a person than old Mrs. Baxter is authority for the
+statement that it follows the course of an old Roman road. It is
+incredible, of course, and opens up a vista of pre-Columbian discovery
+more astonishing than any to be found in the Book of Mormon, but Mrs.
+Baxter was a noted controversialist in her day and, true or false, she
+succeeded in handing down the story to the present generation.</p>
+
+<p>People who think of an ordinary row of city houses have no conception of
+Faculty Row. For one thing, the lots are of widely different sizes.
+Some, like the one owned by the Misses Forbes, daughters of the
+geologist, are modest affairs with forty-foot fronts. Others, like Dean
+Norris's, cover two acres. Those built before 1800 have their
+birth-years painted carefully over their doorways, and it is an
+unwritten law that younger houses may not claim this privilege. Many are
+sheltered by box hedges, and none but has its garden&mdash;in which flowers
+other than hollyhocks, mignonette, larkspur, stock, and bachelor's
+buttons are considered slightly <em>nouveaux venus</em>.</p>
+
+<p>As to the occupants of these houses, volumes many times the size of this
+one might be written. Suffice it for the present, however, that they are
+quite superior to the general indifference of the outside world, and
+that, like the dwellers in Cranford, though some may be poor, all are
+aristocratic.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+To Tom Reynolds, walking along Tutors' Lane in the dusk of a March
+afternoon, the scene was considerably different from the verdant one
+just sketched. Instead of peeping out behind their holly hocks and
+vines, the houses were still defensively wrapped up against the ice
+which besieged their walls. Storm doors could not yet be dispensed with,
+and here and there some practical soul&mdash;doubtless connected with the
+Physics Department&mdash;had by means of a railing insured himself against
+the painful mortification of an icy step. Walking is never good in
+Tutors' Lane during the winter. Cement walks are not laid, and temporary
+boards smack a little too much of a makeshift. Arctics are the
+invariable rule, but even so the going is not easy, and it is
+particularly bad at this time of year, for now it is that arctics, which
+never seem able to last through a winter, suddenly give out at the heel
+and fill with mud and slush.</p>
+
+<p>Tom walked on until he came to the Dean's driveway, and then he turned
+into it. During his college days he had spent a considerable amount of
+time at the Dean's house, and now, in the first year of his
+Instructorship, he was there more than ever. His own home in Ephesus,
+New York, being at the present time occupied by a stepmother for whom he
+had no particular affection and a father whose interests were in the
+drygoods rather than the scholastic line, he scarcely thought of himself
+as having a home other than that made for him by the Dean's wife. It was
+true that there was an older<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> sister whose husband was a lawyer in
+Omaha, but she had never approved of his bringing up, and, since she was
+convinced that he had been spoiled beyond repair, their separation was
+merciful. At Christmas the family exchanged cheques, and Tom dutifully
+sent what the Telegraph Company called a "Yule Tide Message," tastefully
+decorated free of charge. But there family ties ended.</p>
+
+<p>They had really ended sixteen years ago when the nine-year-old Tom had
+been led up to take a terrified look at his mother's dead face and had
+then been allowed to escape to the rear of the house for a season of
+uncontrollable weeping. From that time on until five years later when he
+came in contact with Mr. Hilton, Instructor in English at the High
+School, he had led the life of a "queer" boy. Devoted to reading and
+content, in default of other youth who interested him, to stay by
+himself, he was a hopeless enigma to his father, whose memories of
+youth, strengthened by contemporary examination of his "cash boys," were
+of a radically different sort. But with the attainment of High School
+and Mr. Hilton the world changed. For the first time since his mother's
+death Tom met a congenial spirit. Mr. Hilton was gay, he was humorous,
+he noticed important things which other people were too stupid to notice
+or to appreciate. He was forever having amusing misadventures; and
+before long he took Tom off with him for week-end walks, and they had
+amusing misadventures together. No one else existed for Tom, and
+anything he suggested became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> law. In this way Tom came to play baseball
+sufficiently well to be allowed in his senior year the privilege of
+standing in the right field of the School team.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hilton was a Woodbridge man, and, after earnest discussion with Mr.
+Reynolds, he obtained permission for Tom to go to Woodbridge. The
+financial problem was a simple one, for Tom had awaiting him in trust a
+comfortable income from his mother's estate, and having him away would
+be cheaper for Mr. Reynolds. Beginning with Sophomore year, therefore,
+the previously dull curriculum took on a romantic hue, since by means of
+it Ephesus could be left behind forever. Studying became a "stunt," and
+he swept through examination after examination as though they were
+novels or ball games, until at length he found himself at Woodbridge.</p>
+
+<p>Tom's college life after the first year had been as pleasant as college
+life ever is. At the start, his career was like that of most boys
+entering Woodbridge from a high school. His "funny" clothes and mildly
+awkward manners indicated that, as yet, he hardly spoke the same
+language as his more fortunate classmates who had been privately
+prepared for their higher education. He had heard something, of course,
+as everyone has, of the celebrated democratic tendency that obtains at
+Woodbridge. It was disconcerting, therefore, to be eyed by these young
+men as though he were a too strange bird who had somehow wandered into
+the zoo proper instead of staying, where he belonged, in the aviary.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> He
+had been possessed, however, with the desire to "make good," and so
+avoided the little group of cynics that, in every class, leave their
+alma mater with gall and bitterness in their hearts. As it was, he came
+to admire the happy, well-dressed majority. There was an easiness of
+manner about them that charmed him. They were reserved and did not dull
+their palms with entertainment of each new-hatch'd comrade, but when
+they did accept one it appeared to be a thoroughgoing performance. They
+were the <em>jeunesse dor&eacute;e</em>; but Tom frankly hoped that he might qualify
+for something as fine.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had, as a matter of fact, qualified, and in the spring of his Junior
+year he had been awarded the outward and visible sign of a successful
+Woodbridge career&mdash;an election to Star, one of the two Senior Clubs.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the place for a discussion of these two Clubs. Furthermore,
+they who know anything at all about Woodbridge know about them. They
+know well enough, without any reminder here, that an election to either
+is the first prize in the college social life, and they know,
+furthermore, that their influence extends over into graduate life,
+colouring it pleasantly to the end of one's days. The reticence which the
+members of the Clubs feel in regard to them&mdash;a reticence found highly
+amusing by outsiders&mdash;extends to the Woodbridge community, and there is,
+accordingly, a somewhat formidable atmosphere about them which is
+vaguely felt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> by all. But here we must let the affair rest. They are not
+to play any other part in our story than to shed their benign influence
+over the hero, and we may dismiss them except for an occasional
+inevitable reference, with a brief statement. When, in his Sophomore
+year, he had made the baseball team, it had been conceded that Tom's
+chances of "coming across" were good, and when, later, it was discovered
+that he read books not prescribed in the college courses, he was "sure."
+The baseball, however, had come first, for it is true at Woodbridge, as
+well as in Ephesus, that baseball adds lustre to letters. Why he had
+chosen Star rather than Grave&mdash;for the choice had been given him&mdash;is a
+matter so intimately connected with the outstanding characteristics of
+the two Clubs that an explanation would promptly lead to the discussion
+above declined. Let it suffice, therefore, that he "went" Star because
+of good and sufficient reasons, and we shall have done with this
+delicate business.</p>
+
+<p>Then the war had come; and now, after two years of service and a year in
+a graduate school, Tom was back, an infant member of the Faculty.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Tom loitered up the walk to the Dean's house to make the pleasure of his
+arrival the greater. The Norris house, a somewhat solemn brown-stone
+structure built in the 'thirties, fascinated him. He found it impossible
+to stay away for long; and now, as he rang the bell, his pulse quickened
+with the thought of the rooms about to be opened to him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+II</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">TOM stepped into the hall and threw his hat, muffler, and overcoat upon
+the hall bench. "Lovely day, isn't it, Norah?" he said to the maid who
+had let him in, receiving her "Yes, Mr. Reynolds" with a smile and a
+nod, and passing directly into the library.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, hello, Tom," said a girl on the sofa facing the fireplace. Before
+her was a tea wagon and she was at present pouring a cup for a slightly
+stiff person in knickerbockers.</p>
+
+<p>Tom shook hands with his host, lately Dean of Woodbridge and now, in the
+absence of the President, acting in his place. He then turned to the
+first gentleman, who, cup in hand, was making slow backward progress to
+his seat. "How do you do?" Tom said with a slight bow.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you, Reynolds," the other replied, hardly noticing him.</p>
+
+<p>"Henry and father have just come back from curling and they say it is
+perfectly rotten," continued the girl on the sofa. "Let's see, Tom, you
+take one lump, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>He declined on the grounds of just having had tea and retiring to a
+table in the rear of the tea group, idly picked up a copy of the <em>London
+Times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> Literary Supplement</em> that was lying on it. Henry, who had
+apparently been interrupted, proceeded with a description of the various
+characters that had taken part in the curling.</p>
+
+<p>Tom's interest in the <em>Times</em> was not very great, but his interest in
+Henry Whitman's story was even less, and he frankly allowed his gaze to
+wander over the books that covered the walls of the room. They were one
+of the things that fascinated him in the house. They extended from the
+floor to the ceiling and encircled the entire room, yielding only to the
+wide, high fireplace and the five windows. A small section encased in
+glass housed a few of the Dean's first editions and presentation copies,
+but Tom rather resented it, breaking as it did the harmony of the whole
+and pulling the eye to it with its reflecting panes. He had from the
+first made the mental reservation that, were the house his, he should
+take away that glass.</p>
+
+<p>The dark blue velours sofa upon which Mary Norris was sitting, facing
+the fire, he called "The Bosom of the Norris Family," and when there
+were no heavy people like Henry Whitman about, he would occasionally
+throw himself upon it, carefully pointing out each time the pretty
+significance of his act. Behind the Bosom was a large and weighty desk
+covered with a multitude of personal letters, belonging for the most
+part to Mrs. Norris, a cheque-book open and face down in mute obeisance
+to the blotter, newspaper clippings, spectacle cases, scissors, and ash
+trays. In a neighbouring corner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> stood a table with imperfectly stacked
+current magazines, a work basket filled with knitting, and a lamp
+crowned by a broad shade of silk with threads hanging from it, which,
+when twirled, stood out and looked like a miniature wheat field with the
+wind running through it. The lamp on the table by which Tom was sitting
+was an old-fashioned silver affair but recently converted to
+electricity. Its shade was high and dignified, and it had been
+discovered that when lifted from its place it could be worn as a turban.</p>
+
+<p>The fireplace carried on its mantel a running commentary upon the
+changing details of family interest. At present, flanking the little
+French clock upon its centre was a variety of old glass, Eighteenth
+Century rum and whiskey flasks recently collected by Mrs. Norris. There
+were, additionally, a porcelain image of two farmers, <em>dos &agrave; dos</em>, one
+with rosy cheeks and flashing eye labelled "water," and the other,
+haggard and ill-favoured, labelled "gin"; also a brace of saturnine
+china cats. Above the mantel stretched an expanse of oak panelling which
+supported the portrait of Mrs. Norris's great-great-grandfather in a
+heavy gilt frame. The old gentleman, who looked amiably out from his
+starched neckcloth, had been a delegate to the Continental Congress and
+a jurist of distinction. Beside him on a table were some papers,
+obviously of the first importance, for they were plastered with seals, a
+copy of Coke on Lyttleton, and an inkpot with a quill sticking out of
+it. His arm was lying lightly on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> table, his cherubic face smiling
+back at its observer wherever he stood; and Tom imagined that his next
+move would be, after the manner of his great-great-granddaughter, to
+rise with a sweep and tip over the inkpot.</p>
+
+<p>The colour in the room was chiefly contributed by the deep red curtains
+which hung beside the windows and which brought out and emphasized each
+object of kindred colour in the room. In this way were made conspicuous
+the turban-like shade, a lacquered calendar rest upon the desk, a
+footstool, and even the British Colonies on a globe hiding unobtrusively
+in a corner. The heavy Persian rugs echoed the note so generously that
+the books with reddish bindings stood out from their fellows and played
+their part in giving to the whole a richness that made the room
+remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>Tom gazed at the group before him. Henry Whitman, Assistant Professor of
+Economics at thirty, a member of Grave, was telling a story of an
+Italian in Whitmanville who, when he curled, used only the broadest
+Scotch. When Tom had met Henry in his ingenuous days he threatened to be
+overwhelmed by the calm indifference of Henry's manner. The Whitman Air,
+inherited from a line of distinguished forebears, all but swamped him.
+It was as perfect and finished as some smooth old bit of jade, and as
+hard; a "piece" to be carefully handled, admirable only to the
+initiated. Tom had not yet, in the course of his initiation, come to
+find it admirable, although he quite appreciated its authenticity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+Harry's father, of the same name, had been one of the College's chief
+luminaries in the preceding Administration, known wherever Political
+Economy, as such, was known. <em>His</em> father before him had produced the
+Whitman Woollen Mills, which supported Whitmanville, and though they
+were at present in the hands of an uncle and various cousins, their
+beneficent influence was obviously felt by Henry. Everything about him
+suggested comfort and nourishment. There was in his eye a look which
+implied intimacy with beagle-hunting in Derbyshire, and the way he used
+his hands positively suggested candle light at dinner. The
+knickerbockers that he wore gave out a delightful heathery smell, a
+smell which is at its best when mingled, as at present, with the smell
+of superior pipe tobacco. His stockings would naturally be objects of
+curiosity to anyone familiar with the Whitman Mills, just as the pearls
+around the neck of a famous jeweller's wife would be, or the soap in the
+tub of a famous soap-maker. They were, as a matter of fact, excellent
+stockings of the heaviest, woolliest kind, and Whitman had bought them a
+year and a half ago in Scotland, whither he had gone after his wife's
+death. He still wore a mourning band about his arm in her honour, and a
+black knitted tie; and there was every reason to believe that he would
+continue to do so another year and a half. For the Whitmans always had
+mourned hard.</p>
+
+<p>The girl on the sofa was a thoroughly healthy person of twenty-four. She
+played excellent female<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> tennis, and her golf was better than that of
+half of the male members at the club. Yet she had none of the mannish
+mannerisms that so often accompany an "athletic" girl. At the present
+time she was submitting herself to a rigorous course in "housekeeping"
+majoring in cooking and minoring in accounting, and she had taught
+Sunday School ever since she had been graduated from Miss Hammond's
+School at Mill Rock some six years ago. People instinctively liked her
+unless they were bored by obvious wholesomeness. And although no one
+ever thought of her as being particularly pretty&mdash;she was somewhat too
+dumpy to be thought that&mdash;people noticed her hair, which was a most
+fashionable shade of red. Then, of course, in as much as she had Mrs.
+Norris for a mother, one could never be entirely sure that she might not
+burst forth in some altogether unexpected and delightful manner. Her
+impromptu <em>bataille des fleurs</em>, for example, was still remembered in
+Woodbridge although it took place nearly sixteen years ago. Somewhere
+her attention had been caught by the picture of a cherub, or possibly
+seraph, perched on a cloud and pouring from a cornucopia great masses of
+flowers upon the delighted earth. The idea seemed such a lovely one that
+when, in the spring, her mother gave a card party out on the terrace,
+she determined to give the ladies a delightful surprise. For weeks
+before it she despoiled the garden, keeping her plans miraculously
+secret, and storing her treasures away in a waste-basket, in lieu of the
+cornucopia. And then,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> when the ladies were twittering away happily
+beneath, she stepped out upon her porch clad only in a Liberty scarf
+borrowed from her mother's wardrobe&mdash;the young creature in the picture
+confined itself to a ribonny dress which floated charmingly about
+it&mdash;and discharged her flowers. She was prepared for astonishment in her
+audience, and her reception was all she could ask; but what she was not
+prepared for was the insidious decay which had set in among the blooms,
+and which robbed them entirely of their natural colour and fragrance,
+transforming them into a composition recognized by polite people only
+upon their lawns. It had been Mary's first encounter with the baffling
+thaumaturgy of chemistry; and to the end of her days her confidence in
+it was never wholly restored.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Whitman at last finished his story and rose to go. The Dean, who
+was a genial soul, and who, with his generous embonpoint and his
+knickers, looked at present a little like Mr. Pickwick, regarded him
+affectionately. He had retired from the college two years before, but
+upon the President's departure for Europe on a six months' leave, he had
+been called from retirement to act in his place because of the great
+respect the College had for his temperate judgment, a quality at that
+time particularly useful in college affairs, stirred as they were by the
+contentions of the advocates of a larger Woodbridge. It was the Dean's
+duty to keep these malcontents, these radicals&mdash;some of whom were
+powerful&mdash;in their places. Quality not quantity had ever been the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+Woodbridge cry, and it should remain so as long as he had any power. In
+other respects, however, he was as gentle as one could well be. In the
+matter of motoring, for example, he was so gentle that to the untutored
+eye he might seem almost timid. He had viewed the rise of the motor car
+with all the misgivings of a lover of the Old Ways, long refusing to
+accompany his wife on her hectic flights, but at last he had consented
+to buy an electric. For three dreadful weeks he ran it in agony or
+apprehension. It was not that he might run into people: there was no
+danger there, for even if he had bumped into some one, the damage would
+have been only very trifling. No, the terrible thought was what the
+reckless people might do who would crash into him. So at the end of the
+three weeks he abandoned the lever and, bringing Murdock in from the
+stable, definitely transformed him into his chauffeur. The picture that
+he presented was, he realized, somewhat sedate, but at least he was no
+longer taking foolhardy chances, and he could now, furthermore, see
+something as he went along. "When are you expecting Nancy?" he asked
+Henry.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I supposed Mary had told you. Why, she is coming day after
+tomorrow. Henry Third is very much excited. He has been making a
+collection for her as a present. I didn't know anything about it until
+the other day when Annie told me. It seems that he has been very much
+impressed by a postal card from his Aunt Nancy showing a California
+orange grove, and so he has been collecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> orange pips ever since! He
+now has over ninety and he is afraid she will arrive before he can get a
+hundred. It seems to be a rule of the collection that his pips can only
+be taken from oranges he's eaten, and as he only gets one a day at his
+breakfast, there is no help for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for heaven's sake, Henry, send him up here and I'll let him eat out
+his hundred," said Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine person you are," laughed Whitman, "ruining my son's good habits."</p>
+
+<p>They had passed out into the hall when the bell rang violently two or
+three times.</p>
+
+<p>"That must be mamma," said Mary, and going to the door, she opened it
+for a majestic lady who swept into the room, talking volubly as she
+began peeling off the shawls and capes in which she was wrapped.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Henry, dear, what on earth are you doing here? You never come to
+see us any more, and I am so anxious, too, to ask you all about the
+stabilized dollar and these new vitamines. Susan!" she called suddenly
+in the general direction of the upper floors. Then, addressing no one in
+particular, "I must find out about the salted almonds that the Dean
+asked for last night," and she started for the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"I ordered them this morning, Gumgum, myself, when I was ordering
+everything else. I had them on my list."</p>
+
+<p>"You did?" and Mrs. Norris burst into the most contagious laughter.
+"Tom, I wish you'd stop my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> daughter calling me that horrid name. It's
+disgusting. I'm going to call her 'Snuffles.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I really must go, Aunt Helen," said Whitman, starting for the door. The
+"Aunt" was a heritage of an earlier and more innocent day and not an
+indication of blood relationship. "Uncle Julian" had, however, been
+allowed to lapse, upon Henry's accession to the Woodbridge Faculty.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear," replied Mrs. Norris. "Well, I'm coming down to see Nancy as
+soon as she gets back, and then you've got to come up here for dinner.
+It will be such a relief having her here for the party. And now," she
+added, putting her arm through Tom's, "I must have a little talk with
+Tom. I suspect he needs a pill, and I'm going to give it to him. Come
+here, Tommy, dear, and let me look at you," and she pulled him back into
+the library.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+III</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">MRS. NORRIS was about to force Tom down upon the Bosom when her eye was
+caught by the cheque-book on the table. "Oh, land," she exclaimed, "why
+didn't I give Henry his cheque! I've owed him for those German Socialist
+books he got me for I don't know how long, and here I've forgotten to
+give it to him. I must send Susan after him with it right away," and
+going over to a bell by the fireplace, she pushed it until Susan
+appeared. Then, looking at Tom, with her sweetest smile she asked, in
+her quietest voice, "Why don't you like Henry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I don't mind Henry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come now, Tommy." She moved over to "her" chair under the yellow
+lamp and, picking up the knitting immediately set the needles flying and
+clicking over one another. "You know you can't bear him. He is a little
+cut and dried&mdash;that's the trouble with him, I think&mdash;but then, as far as
+I can make out, you people in the classics and literatures are just as
+bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mrs. Norris."</p>
+
+<p>"You are too. You are perfectly dreadful. Why, I can remember as well as
+anything, old Professor Packard standing up before that fireplace and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+saying, 'Helen,' says he, 'no gentleman is worthy the name who doesn't
+know his Horace.' 'Stuff,' says I, 'that's utter nonsense. You might as
+well say a gentlemen is not worthy of the name unless he knows his
+French for "fiddle-dee-dee"&mdash;&mdash;like the Red Queen,'" and still knitting
+busily, she rocked with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>Tom dropped into a chair beside her, threw one leg over the arm, and,
+pipe in hand, gazed at her affectionately. She was about the age his own
+mother would have been, he thought, in the immediate neighbourhood of
+sixty. But his own mother, who he knew had become reconciled to the life
+of Ephesus, could never have arrived at sixty with the imperious
+disregard for convention that was so perfectly Mrs. Norris's. Upon her
+face at present, as she looked down at her knitting, was a smiling
+benignity that would have recommended itself to the Virgin at Chartres;
+and at the same time her hair&mdash;what modest growth there was left&mdash;was
+uncurling itself from behind and threatening to pull down the whole
+structure after it. It was perfect, Tom told himself, and were he a
+sculptor commissioned to make her bust, he would do her just like that.</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy, I sometimes think, is the worst person in the world to look
+after Henry. It's bad for her and bad for him. What he ought to do is to
+go out and get another wife and leave Nancy alone to do as she pleases.
+I have a good mind to take her with me to Athens next winter myself.
+What with Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee taking her to California<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> this
+winter and my taking her to Athens next, Henry will have to get
+married."</p>
+
+<p>There had been rumours abroad lately that Henry had about arrived at the
+same conclusion himself and that Mary Norris was receiving serious
+consideration as a candidate, but there was nothing in Mrs. Norris's
+manner that suggested a knowledge of it, and Tom correctly concluded
+that it was just another of those idle rumours that live their luxurious
+day in Faculty Row.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my no," said Tom, "that wouldn't do at all. Why, another marriage
+would completely upset Henry's System that he's always talking so much
+about. It's almost certain she couldn't stand it, you know, and then
+where would Henry be? Suppose, for example, that she forgot to have his
+senna tea for him at night or didn't care about playing cribbage for
+three-quarters of an hour after dinner? Now Nancy, apparently, gives
+perfect satisfaction. She adores little Henry and she manages the house
+so well that there isn't a single thing to bother big Henry. But they
+say&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop it, Tommy. You've been listening again to that horrid old Mrs.
+Conover. Her husband was a perfect old Scrooge, and now that she's rid
+of him, poor dear, she feels that she's got to expand and make up for
+lost time&mdash;&mdash;" Her voice, which had become more and more drowsy, as if
+bored with what it had to say, trailed off and died. Then, with renewed
+interest, she exclaimed, "I wonder what they are going to do about
+Poland?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Tom had learned that an answer to these startling questions and comments
+of Mrs. Norris was not required. There was no harm, however, in saying
+the first thing that came into one's head, as in a psychological test,
+and he accordingly now answered, "Paderewski."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Norris quietly. Then brightening up: "How is your work
+going, Tommy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's going pretty well."</p>
+
+<p>"They get rather difficult about this time of year, don't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"They do! Oh my, I've had an awful time with them lately. I've muffed
+Carlyle and Transcendentalism completely."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! Why that's Emerson and all those Concord people. Still, I
+suppose Louisa Alcott is getting a little old-fashioned."</p>
+
+<p>"You should have seen the set of papers I got back today. There it was,
+all that I had given them, in great heavy undigested lumps&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like footballs," suggested Mrs. Norris.</p>
+
+<p>"Once I was funny with them," went on Tom, "and I may say that I was
+properly punished. They put it all down in their notebooks and then
+mixed it up with everything they shouldn't have mixed it up with&mdash;and I
+shall never be funny again."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall give you <em>at least</em> two grains&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then there are the young men who get off all the stale old facts and
+expect an A. One of them came to me yesterday, when I had given him a C,
+and whined around my desk until I finally told him I did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> not consider
+his performance remarkable in a young man of eighteen, however much so
+it might be in a poll parrot of the same age."</p>
+
+<p>"Now that was wrong. Were there other boys around?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you simply must not go do that kind of thing. They'll hate it."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it was wrong, but I am rather amused by it. As a matter of fact,
+I can stand anything but the ones who think they can fool me with a lot
+of embroidery and gas. They're insulting&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Tommy, you were doing the same thing yourself only three or four
+years ago. You mustn't get so snufty so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, at times when I've had a good recitation I wouldn't trade
+places with anyone. It's a kind of ecstasy. It's like all sorts of
+rushing, exciting things&mdash;like a high tide, or a close race, or a fire;
+really it is. Then you go to the other extreme and you ask yourself what
+on earth is the use of so futile a business, and what right has a young
+man with anything to him whatever to waste his time with it. Better go
+and make bird cages or hair nets or&mdash;or&mdash;hot water bags, and make some
+money. When I feel that way I sometimes go out along the ridge, just at
+dusk, you know, or into the woods&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You do? Why, I think that's awfully romantic of you; like
+Chateaubriand, you know." Then, dreamily, "He used to go out and lean on
+a pedestal and let the moon shine down on him through the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> trees. I
+think Nancy is a little that way herself."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, during which the young educator's difficulties were
+brushed aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you realize that I haven't seen Nancy since leaving college?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's strange."</p>
+
+<p>"No: you see she had left for the west before college opened in the
+fall, and I hadn't been back between then and the time I graduated. As a
+matter of fact, the last time I saw her was in this house. It was the
+night of our Senior Prom. I took Mary, you know, and Teddy Roberts took
+Nancy, and when it was over we came in here and had a cooky contest in
+the kitchen. Nancy could put a whole one of those gingersnaps you always
+have into her mouth without breaking it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear. I'm afraid she has the Billings mouth."</p>
+
+<p>"We then got to talking about growing moustaches, and Nancy bet Teddy
+she could grow one before he could."</p>
+
+<p>"How disgusting! That's what comes of all this emancipation. Marcus
+Aurelius has a lot to say about it. I must look that up. Did she win?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I remember it, she was in a fair way to, but the war came along, and
+we left before it could be settled."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Norris stopped knitting and looked at Tom with amused curiosity
+through her tortoise-shell spectacles, which had slid rather farther
+down her nose than usual. "I forget. Didn't you use to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> a good deal
+of Nancy at one time?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only just here," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Mrs. Norris, and went on with her work.</p>
+
+<p>At this point the Dean entered, dressed for dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, I'm not ready at all," cried Mrs. Norris, jumping up; and her
+knitting, worsted, and bag spilled out upon the floor. "Tommy, tell
+Norah to put on a plate for you."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't really, Mrs. Norris. This is Thursday night, you see, and I'm
+going around to the Club." Then as his hostess disappeared up the
+stairs, he hurried into his overcoat and, indulging in only a small
+fraction of his usual recessional with the Dean, he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Outside, walking down the long driveway that led to Tutors' Lane, Tom
+slowed his pace. Overhead, Betelgeuse was making the most of its recent
+publicity, unobstructed by vagrant clouds. Tom gazed up at it with a
+certain air of proprietorship. He had known Betelgeuse years ago and
+personally had always preferred its neighbour Rigel, which had received
+no publicity at all. As a small boy some one had given him a Handbook of
+the Stars, with diagrams of the constellations on one page and chatty
+notes about them opposite. He had lain on his back out in the fields,
+with opera glasses to sweep the heavens and a flashlight to sweep the
+diagrams until he had reconciled the two. This had been in the summer,
+and although his observations had extended to the autumn stars, the
+winter constellations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> had suffered. Still, he knew the great ones and,
+weather permitting, he would gaze upon them and their neighbours with
+awe, the greater, perhaps, for his unfamiliarity with their diagrams.</p>
+
+<p>Tom occasionally gave parlour lessons in astronomy, and he had given one
+to Nancy on the night of his Senior Prom, the night of the cooky
+contest. He had looked out and seen that the summer stars were up, and
+had spoken of it, to the boredom of Mary and Teddy Roberts. But Nancy
+wanted Scorpio pointed out, and from Scorpio they naturally progressed
+to the others until Nancy sneezed and the kitchen window had to be shut.
+Then, as it was getting light anyway and the waffles were ready, they
+stopped the lesson. Tom, however, with the true teacher's instinct, had
+sent her a copy of his Handbook of the Stars, and at his Training Camp
+he had received a note of thanks. It was the only note he had ever
+received from her, and he found it remarkable. She had thanked him
+without the barrage of gratitude usual among young ladies on such
+occasions. There had been something masculine in the directness of it,
+and yet there was no doubt that she had been pleased. In closing, she
+looked forward to seeing him back at Woodbridge when the war was over.
+There had been no fine writing about his Going to the Flag. Tom had been
+impressed by the amount left unsaid, and he had saved the letter until,
+in moving about, it had been lost. He was annoyed when he missed it, but
+on second thought he wondered if it were not just as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> well. For, on
+later inspection, it might not have proved so remarkable, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the war was now over, and he was back at Woodbridge. It would be
+very pleasant indeed if she had gone ahead as she gave promise of doing;
+and why in the world shouldn't she? When he was in college Nancy had
+been admittedly the first of Woodbridge young ladies. To take her to a
+dance was to have the ultimate in good times, there was no need to worry
+about her getting "stuck," and in addition to the thrill of taking a
+popular girl one could enjoy all the advantages of a stag. One could
+flit from flower to flower until surfeited with beauty and then retire
+for a smoke or other innocent diversion without the haunting fear that
+possibly Dick or Bill was circling around and around in ever-deepening
+gloom with one's elected for the night. Nancy had permanently impressed
+herself upon the imagination of discerning Woodbridge youth, and it was
+hardly extravagant that Tom should look forward to her return.</p>
+
+<p>Let it, therefore, without further evasion, be stated at once that he
+did look forward to her return.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+IV</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">NANCY WHITMAN arrived at Woodbridge Center as planned, and her brother
+and nephew were at the station to meet her, the latter with his
+collection of ninety-six orange pips in a candy box.</p>
+
+<p>In describing Juliet it will be remembered that the author said nothing
+about her colour or dimensions, but described her indirectly, and
+succeeding generations have had their attention called to the merit of
+the performance. We know, for example, that she taught the candles to
+burn bright, and, furthermore, that she seemed to hang upon the cheek of
+night like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear&mdash;most probably a pearl. So,
+in describing Nancy, perhaps it would be effective to point out that the
+snow began thawing as soon as she arrived, that the motor which carried
+her home from the station purred along without the "knock" that had been
+troubling it, and that Tutors' Lane was less bumpy as they passed over
+it. But such a description, being dangerously near burlesque, however
+refined and genteel, must not be thought of for a moment in connection
+with a prominent resident of Tutors' Lane. It is something of a pity,
+nevertheless, that it must be given up, for Nancy was not particularly
+pretty, as young men nowadays<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> measure beauty, and were it possible, the
+truth might have been hidden. She was something too elfish&mdash;and then
+there was the Billings mouth already mentioned. Gertrude Ellis, who
+spent much of her time with her aunt in New York and who had a proper
+care for her person, thought it a ridiculous pose for Nancy not to have
+something done about her freckles. It was such a simple matter nowadays
+to have them removed that obviously only a poseuse would tolerate them.
+Still, men were so unobserving about things that they didn't seem to
+mind them at all, and Gertrude got nowhere when she once tried to
+discuss Nancy with a senior.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nancy is so wonderful that she could look like a leopard and people
+wouldn't care," he had said. "It's funny about her, isn't it? She's not
+good looking, and yet she's so nice everyone's crazy about her. You have
+to hand it to a girl that's like that."</p>
+
+<p>Henry Third, or Harry, as everyone but his father called him, had
+immediately given his collection and been rewarded. He had on his best
+suit for the occasion and the tie his aunt had sent him on his seventh
+and latest birthday. He was a handsome, sturdy boy, and his father
+expected a Phi Beta Kappa key of him and an enthusiasm for Marx and John
+Stuart Mill. His aunt's plans were vague, but altogether different. At
+present she was inclined to favour the family business, with the
+understanding that when he was established at its head he should give a
+beautiful chapel with a Magdalen tower to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> the College. His own goal was
+the Woodbridge football team and, after that, a locomotive on the run to
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>They were met at the door by Annie, Harry's nurse, and by Clarence,
+Harry's Airedale. Clarence, who immediately dominated the scene,
+rendering Nancy's greeting to Annie vain and perfunctory, was a
+three-year-old with a frivolity of manner that ill became his senescent
+phiz. Upon its grizzled expanse there would pass in amazing succession
+the whole range of canine passion, rage, love, urbanity, shame,
+drollery, ennui, and, most frequent of all, curiosity. At present all
+his energy was devoted to expressing unmitigated pleasure, the dignity
+of which exhibition was continually being marred by sliding rugs. But it
+is almost certain that he didn't care a rap for his lost dignity. His
+mistress was back after an unconscionable absence, and there was every
+reason to believe in the reappearance of the superior brand of soup
+bones, a matter in which of late there had been too much indifference.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy luxuriated in her renewed proprietorship of the old house, her
+home, and the home of her family even before the British officers seized
+it for their quarters in 1812. There was a hole to this day in the white
+pine panelling above the fireplace in the dining room, which, tradition
+held, had been made by a British bullet discharged after a discussion of
+the family port. She had found something depressing in the rococo
+civilization of Southern California. There was an insufficient
+appreciation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> Mr. Square's Eternal Fitness of Things. The spirit of
+Los Angeles, for example, was the same as that of the picnic party
+which, lunching on Ruskin's glacier, leaves its chicken bones and
+eggshells to offend all subsequent picnickers. At Woodbridge people did
+not make public messes of themselves. If they picnicked on a glacier
+they did up their eggshells in a neat package, which, in default of a
+handy bottomless pit, they took home with them and put in their garbage
+pails. That's the way nice people behaved, and what on earth was there
+to be gained by behaving otherwise?</p>
+
+<p>So Nancy was glad to be home and see again the family things she had
+grown up with and loved. She was glad to see Henry, who appeared in his
+turn glad to see her; but her feelings upon being restored to her nephew
+were much deeper than either. Harry mattered more to her than anyone
+else in the world. Her mother, who had died five years ago, when Nancy
+was twenty, had been particularly devoted to him; and this would have
+been sufficient reason in itself for commending him to her tenderest
+care.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the family that would have met the casual eye of a stranger: a
+young professor in extremely comfortable circumstances, with a brilliant
+future and an enviable son, living in a fine old house administered by a
+younger sister, the favourite daughter of the town. Beneath the surface,
+however, and unknown except to a few, was a conflict of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> wills that only
+an exterior made up of strong family pride and respect for the
+established order could have withstood.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the day on which Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee&mdash;the
+grandeur of whose name was never reduced by the omission of a single
+syllable&mdash;asked Nancy to go to California, Nancy had talked it over with
+Henry.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be nice to go, for I haven't really been away since Mother
+died. I confess I'd like it, but she's not coming back until March, and
+that seems a long time to leave Harry and the house."</p>
+
+<p>Henry had leisurely put his cigar into his mouth, had puffed
+luxuriously, and had then continued to gaze at his paper without saying
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy hated this indifference, and she knew that Henry knew that she
+hated it. It was like his whistling. At times, when for some reason or
+other he wished to be disagreeable, he would start quietly whistling
+behind his paper, apparently for his sole enjoyment. It was as if, in
+view of the coldness of his audience, he were forced to express himself
+in a humble and subdued manner, but express himself he must. The tunes
+that he chose were The Rosary, The Miserere, Tosti's Good-bye, Gounod's
+Ave Maria. There would be an occasional lapse into the jazz song of the
+moment, and quite frequently a sacred number. The songs themselves
+exasperated her, but what was unbearable were the trills and improvised
+fireworks. She would leave the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> room thoroughly angry, and would fancy
+that as she ascended the stairs the tune swelled slightly and acquired
+even more airs and graces.</p>
+
+<p>So now, as he deliberately smoked his cigar without noticing her, her
+anger rose. He was so smug, so self-sufficient&mdash;she wanted to stick a
+pin into him.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't, of course, as if the house were not in capable hands," she
+went on, "for Katie and Julia are perfectly responsible, and Annie
+couldn't be better." Henry put down his paper, blew a cloud of smoke,
+and, looking blandly at her, twisted his mouth so that he might enjoy
+the luxury of biting his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" burst out Nancy. "I don't see why you need be so irritating
+about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, don't be foolish," he replied with an amused smile; "do just what
+you want, of course." To Nancy, the smile spoke a great deal more. "How
+fatuous you are," it said, "with your devotion to my son and to me. Let
+a lollypop in the way of a trip to California come along, and away you
+go as if you didn't have a responsibility in the world. There's a firm
+nature for you."</p>
+
+<p>She had fled to Mrs. Norris, as always in an emergency, and, receiving
+reassuring words, she had gone, but not without tears and misgiving and
+not without an unforgettable memory of Henry's behaviour.</p>
+
+<p>She had frankly discussed her Henry Problem with Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee. "I can't seem to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> reach any middle ground with him," she
+had said. "Either I feel terribly because things go so wrong, so much
+worse than when Mother was alive, or else I am furious with him. Then I
+am overwhelmed with mortification and make up my mind that I <em>will</em> get
+on with him, no matter what happens. And of course he can be perfectly
+lovely when he wants to be&mdash;and then he will deliberately go and do some
+horrid thing which makes me want to go away and&mdash;drive an auto stage, or
+something."</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact Nancy would on these occasions, retire and invest
+herself in some such romantic, emancipated, r&ocirc;le. Possibly she would be
+a great surgeon. Having gone through her preliminary training with
+unprecedented speed, she had established herself as a famous
+specialist&mdash;of the brain. People who had gone wrong in their heads would
+be brought to her by their desperate friends and relatives. If she only
+would help them out. She did usually, although heaven knew that she was
+but one little woman to so many brains, and as she worked chiefly under
+God's guidance, anyway, she had to conserve her strength. However, she
+operated steadily from eight in the morning until eight at night with
+only a light lunch in between&mdash;possibly only a water cracker. She saw
+herself in the operating room with her rubber gloves and her knives.
+There was a hazy cloud of white-robed nurses and distinguished surgeons
+who, attracted from all over the world, had come to see her miracles for
+themselves. A form was on the table, with head shaved.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> She was to go
+into his cerebellum and take out a tumor which had caused deafness,
+dumbness, and blindness. She would probably have to make two hundred
+stitches or more in sewing him up, but she always had been good at
+needlework, and it gave her no concern. She picked up her saw&mdash;but to
+her horror she found she couldn't bear to stick it in!</p>
+
+<p>Or she was a famous lawyer, strongly reminiscent of Portia, specializing
+in pleading for widows and orphans. She had a secretary to handle her
+correspondence, who explained that as Miss Whitman was able to work
+chiefly by the grace of God&mdash;her health was none too robust, and it was
+necessary for her to put her trust in Him&mdash;it really was not fair of
+them to expect her to handle their cases. However, the most outrageous
+ones she passed on to Nancy and it was by them that Nancy made her great
+reputation. Of course she took no fees, but as body and soul had to be
+kept together and the secretary's salary paid, she wrote syndicated
+articles for the papers, on religious and ethical subjects. Naturally
+she was an object of interest and curiosity and people thronged the
+court room when she pleaded. They saw a quiet woman, dressed in black,
+but when she began speaking you could hear a pin drop. There was a
+thrilling quality in her voice, much remarked by the press, and big
+lawyers pitted against her had been known to break down and weep, to the
+confusion of their clients. The judge&mdash;it was always the same one&mdash;had a
+big bushy beard, and, though of fierce and impartial mien at the
+beginning of the proceedings,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> he had been known time and again, as her
+address continued, to draw forth his large silk handkerchief and blubber
+into it. The gratitude of the widows&mdash;who extended in a long, black
+line, leading their army of white-faced little boys, looking strangely
+like Harry when he had the croup&mdash;was the one thing that she could not
+stand. She would not see them when it was all over, but she couldn't
+keep them from sending her flowers, and accordingly her apartment was
+always a bower.</p>
+
+<p>So mighty would these scenes be, so moving, and so pathetic, that Nancy
+would emerge entirely at peace with Henry and the world. They dwarfed
+the cause of her anger; they left her calm and serene, a cousin to the
+Superwoman.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>The first evening at home passed off very pleasantly indeed. Henry was
+charmingly interested in the details of her trip, and the usual cribbage
+session was doubled. Harry's progress at school and through the
+mumps&mdash;an illness which had torn his aunt&mdash;were duly recounted and the
+maids given a good bill of health. The state of Henry's classes was
+described at some length. They were slightly better than usual, it
+appeared, and his special course in Labour Problems was going perfectly.
+It was really making him famous, he told Nancy.</p>
+
+<p>That night in her room, as she sat at her desk writing her diary, she
+calmly told herself that the present tranquillity should last. She
+solemnly resolved to guard against every possible contingency<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> that
+might lead to a "situation." She did not purpose to surrender her
+individuality; she would not become a dummy. But there <em>must</em> be a
+middle ground where she could blend service to herself with service to
+her family. Life should be rich, but it ought also to be tactful. Surely
+this was not an impossible union. Very well, then, she would live richly
+and tactfully.</p>
+
+<p>Just exactly what she meant by living richly she didn't quite know. It
+would doubtless be somewhat clearer in the morning when she wasn't so
+sleepy. Americanization work in Whitmanville. That seemed to offer rich
+possibilities. There must be room for endless Uplift in Whitmanville.
+And what could be richer than Uplift? She would start a school, she
+thought, as she turned off the light and climbed into her four-poster.
+She would teach the women how to take care of their babies and the men
+how to take care of their women. But it must all be done tactfully. She
+must be eternally vigilant upon that score. Yet not so tactful as to
+become less rich. Nor yet so rich as to become less tactful.... Tact and
+riches&mdash;riches and tacks&mdash;tracts&mdash;striches&mdash;....</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+V</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">THE night following Nancy's return was the night of the Norris party,
+the party which is to Woodbridge what the Mardi Gras is to New Orleans,
+the Carnival to Rome, and what the Feast of the Ygquato Bloom was to the
+ancient Aztecs. It is always held on the twenty-first of March, Sunday
+of course excepted, and it is known as the Vernal. Not to be seen at it
+is too bad. Not to be invited&mdash;unlike the lupercals before mentioned it
+requires invitations&mdash;is a blight mercifully spared all but the most
+painfully outr&eacute;. Of these the Coogans, who live in Center and whose
+connubial infelicities are proverbial, are an example. Tradespeople
+frequently bear witness to the marks of a man's fingers on Mrs. Coogan's
+fair&mdash;and by no means insignificant&mdash;arm, and it is common property that
+she drinks paregoric. It is quite clear, of course, that such people can
+not expect to be invited.</p>
+
+<p>The Vernal has always been "different." In the old days Mrs. Norris set
+her face against dancing, not upon any moral grounds, certainly, but
+because of its alleged dullness. Why couldn't people enjoy one another
+without flying into a perspiration? she asked; but, unfortunately for
+her plans for the establishment of an animated conversazione, the
+substitutes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> she had advocated were felt to be even duller. So, one by
+one, all her nice games were abandoned and only the charade is left.
+This however has gained in popularity, if anything, and certainly it has
+gained paraphernalia. Mrs. Norris's costume box has overflowed into a
+trunk, and from the trunk has spread into a closet, and the closet is
+now nearly filled. From this treasure the two captains select their
+colleagues' wardrobes, a duty discharged in advance of the performance
+by way of ensuring enough professionalism to prevent the party's
+collapsing at the start. In other words, Mrs. Norris, although luckless
+in the matter of "adverbs," memory contests, and backgammon tourneys,
+has established charades.</p>
+
+<p>It used to be a masquerade party, but because of certain unhappy
+circumstances which have recently befallen, it was decided this year to
+do without the masks and "Fancy dress." For the last few years people
+have been complaining a little of the necessity of getting something new
+each year. Mrs. Bates, for example, has exhausted the possibilities of
+her husband's summer bath robe. It served excellently at first as a
+Roman toga, and the next year it did well enough for Mephistopheles. By
+cutting away the parts ravaged by moths it passed as a pirate, but she
+despairs of any further alteration. Then, too, it would always be
+remembered that a stranger at the last Vernal had in all seriousness
+reproved old Professor Narbo, the Chemist, for not taking off his funny
+old mask when he already<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> had done so, a mishap none the less enjoyed
+because the bringing of a similar charge to one's friends has been an
+inevitable jest among the wags for generations. Professor Narbo had been
+offended, and great is the offendedness of a Full Professor,
+particularly when he is a Heidelberg Ph.D. and parts his hair all the
+way down the back. The stranger had been crushed; and, all in all, it
+was as mortifying an affair as one could well imagine, and one which in
+itself would have been enough to do away with the masks&mdash;a
+long-discussed possibility&mdash;had not worse followed. Edgar Stebbins,
+Assistant Professor of History, was unfortunately a little too warmly
+devoted to the memory of the grape, or, more specifically, of the corn.
+Being mildly mellowed by something more than the memory of it, he found
+occasion to embrace a lady who was dressed in his period, the Late
+Roman, and to whom he was naturally drawn. The lady promptly screamed
+and unmasked; and the situation was not at all improved by its being
+discovered that she was the wife of Professor Robbins of the Latin
+Department, with which gentleman Mr. Stebbins was not on speaking terms.
+Mrs. Robbins, it seemed, had employed the squeaky voice so familiar at
+masquerade parties and had thus rendered her disguise complete. Upon her
+testimony it was learned that Mr. Stebbins's voice had been so roughened
+by drink that his own mother wouldn't have recognized it. Mr. Stebbins
+had withdrawn from the party and, at the end of the academic year, from
+the college as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> well, and his name is now only an appalling memory.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Nancy hurried up to the Norrises' as soon as she could.
+She found Mary and her mother in the drawing-room. Mary was playing the
+piano while her mother sat in a distant chair, amiably shredding
+codfish, a pleasure which she would on no account yield to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the rush of sisterly greeting was passed, all four&mdash;for the
+cod could not be left behind&mdash;repaired to the sofa in the library; and
+after the gaps in their correspondence had been filled, they came to the
+party. Mary was to be one of the charade captains and Tom Reynolds the
+other. Nancy, who was an inevitable member of the charade, was to be on
+Tom's side.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," she asked, "is he really as nice as you people make out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes," replied Mary, "he's one of us."</p>
+
+<p>"He used to scare me. He never would dance with me any more than he had
+to, and I always was afraid he would get that terribly bored look I've
+seen him get. I think probably he's conceited."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, to hear you girls talk you'd think that a little honest
+boredom was the most dreadful thing on earth. Why, your fathers used to
+get so bored with us that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Gumgum, you know that isn't sensible," broke in Mary severely&mdash;a
+regrettable habit which seems increasingly prevalent among our modern
+daughters&mdash;"unless you people were ninnies."</p>
+
+<p>"That was in Garfield's administration," replied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> Mrs. Norris absently,
+"or possibly a little before, in Hayes's&mdash;Rutherford B. Hayes. He did
+away with the carpetbaggers and all those dreadful people in the South."
+Then, more dreamily still, "His middle name was Birchard."</p>
+
+<p>"I know why you think he's conceited," Mary went on, warming up to the
+never-ending pleasure of analysis, "but it's because he's really
+diffident. Lots of people I know who people think are snobby are only
+just diffident."</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth do you mean by saying that Rutherford Hayes was
+diffident? He wasn't a bit. He was a very great philanthropist."</p>
+
+<p>"She's too awful today," exclaimed Mary, "with that smelly old fish and
+Rutherford Garfield. Gracious, I'd like to bury the old thing."</p>
+
+<p>"You horrid, ungrateful child, when I'm doing this for your lunch. We're
+just old Its, we mothers. I'm going to start an Emancipation Club for
+Mothers. The poor old things, they might just as well crawl away into
+the bushes like rabbits."</p>
+
+<p>There then followed a tender passage between mother and daughter, which
+ended in Mary's blowing down her mother's neck. A convulsive scream and
+a frantic clawing gesture in the direction of her daughter was the
+immediate reaction, much to the confusion of the codfish, which was only
+just saved by Nancy from a premature end upon the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>Following the rescue, the heroine, who had some shopping to do, began
+making motions of departure. "You must come as soon as you can after
+dinner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> to have Tom explain what you are to do. Gumgum thinks we ought
+to have a rehearsal, but Tom has a five o'clock, and I don't think it's
+necessary anyway. He's really awfully funny and clever, Nancy, and you
+must like him."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate clever people. I have nothing to say to them. I'm a perfect gawk
+when they're around, and I'm afraid I won't be able to stand him."</p>
+
+<p>As she walked on down to Center, however, it occurred to her that he
+might come in useful with the children of the parents in her
+Whitmanville school. He could teach them basketball and of course he
+could coach their baseball team. He would also be useful in taking them
+off on hikes and&mdash;But she hadn't seen him in ever so long, and he might
+not do at all. In fact, it was highly probable that he wouldn't do, for
+boys are suspicious of clever people, and he almost certainly wouldn't
+think of doing it. Or possibly he might, out of politeness, and then
+when he got bored with it he would decide to be funny with the boys, and
+they would get to hate him and tell their parents, who would come to her
+with sullen looks and threatening gestures and&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>When Nancy arrived in the evening, she found Tom distributing costumes.
+He was heavier, she noticed, and his forehead was higher. Some day she
+might get a chance to tell him how she saved Henry's hair simply by
+brushing it carefully. It was ridiculous to put a lot of smelly greasy
+stuff on it&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>She had shaken hands with him and received her costume which was an
+aigrette and a peacock-feather fan. "The word is 'draper,'" explained
+Tom, "and you are to be the Lady Angela. In the first syllable you have
+lost your pet Persian and, after explaining your loss to the little
+house-maid who is dusting around, you call in Merriam the detective. I
+am Merriam the detective and I arrive immediately after you are through
+calling me up on the telephone. The little maid goes over to the window
+and says, 'Goody, here comes Mr. Merriam the detective in a dray,' and
+then you go out to meet me, and that's the first act. Then I come on
+alone in the second act and investigate the room heavily, looking for a
+clue, you see. I have a theory that the little maid is the thief, and
+when you come in, as you do when I have said 'Ha, it is a match box,' I
+explain to you that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, I haven't any idea what I'm to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you just go in and wave your fan disconsolately, and I'll do the
+rest. It will be dreadful, of course, but then, no one ever expects them
+to be otherwise. Now I think the best way is for us to run over it, and
+then little things will come to you."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+VI</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">DOWNSTAIRS the Dean and Mrs. Norris had begun receiving their guests,
+most of the receiving being done by the Dean. His wife, whose trail was
+like that of a runaway astral body, was here, there, and everywhere,
+calling, ordering, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>The Misses Forbes, invariably the first comers, had taken possession of
+front-row seats. This year Miss Edith had the Burnham lace&mdash;an heirloom
+whose glory could on no account be dimmed by a tri-partite division&mdash;and
+Miss Annie had the Burnham pearls. They were a modest string, perhaps,
+but they lived on after more spectacular ones became gummy. As for Miss
+Jennie, the youngest, aged sixty-five, she was something of a
+philosopher, being the community's sole theosophist, and she regarded
+her sisters' pleasure in their baubles with amusement. Nor could she be
+drawn into a discussion of their ultimate disposition, a nice problem,
+for other Burnhams and Forbeses were there none. "Why not give them to
+the museum?" she had once suggested, to the sorrow of her sisters, who
+hated to see her cynical side. Worse than that, she was a radical and
+had boldly come out for the open shop, or the closed shop, whichever was
+the radical one,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> and she talked very wildly indeed of Unions and
+Compensation Bills.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Elfrida Balch had arrived, and likewise her brother, the artist.
+Miss Balch was a lady of almost crystalline refinement. She was tall and
+fair, with a delicacy of complexion that stood in no need of retailed
+bloom. She might have passed for the daughter of a kindly old Saxon
+chieftain&mdash;it was, indeed, generally known that she sprang from the seed
+of Saxon kings&mdash;who, firm in the belief that no young man was her equal
+in birth or behaviour, had insisted upon her declining into a
+spinsterhood which increased in refinement as it did in service.
+Sentimental persons held that she came by that manner from association
+with Art in her brother's studio. Others, of a more sardonic turn, said
+that her manner was that of one who continually smelled a bad smell, and
+that if she got it by looking at her brother's pictures they didn't
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Leofwin Balch was not a personable gentleman. The early Saxon strain in
+him had taken the form of obesity, a tendency not confined, if we may
+trust the evidence of scholars, to descendants of Saxon kings. To those
+who had little sympathy with genius in its more alarming shapes, his
+fair chin whisker seemed an absurdity. The more discriminating, however,
+welcomed it. Anything might be expected of a man with a chin whisker
+which some one, with more imagination than restraint, had described as
+an "attenuated shredded wheat biscuit seen through a glass darkly."
+Leofwin's work had of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> late years suffered on account of a rheumatism
+which defied medicine. He had sacrificed his tonsils and nine teeth upon
+the altar of Art with little or no relief, and it was now feared by
+those closest to him, his sister and himself, that he would never again
+approach the promise given in his "Willows." "Willows" had received an
+honourable mention at the Exhibition&mdash;just which Exhibition, was a
+subject of controversy among the uninitiated&mdash;and had been purchased by
+a rich baronet in Suffolk. The Balches had seen it in his gallery, and
+it had become an open secret that hanging in the same room were a
+Constable and a John Opie.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had arrived and was already with a group of
+the great around her chair. She was wearing the famous Lee-Satterlee dog
+collar, and her hair had been carefully dressed for the occasion. Such
+items alone would have borne witness to the importance of the Vernal,
+had she not in addition chosen to carry the Court fan. This fan, which
+was known as the "Court fan" to distinguish it from all other fans in
+the world, had been given her by the Court ladies when she and her
+husband, the late Ambassador, had departed upon the arrival of the new
+Administration's appointee. Its sticks were mother-of-pearl, encrusted
+with diamonds, and on its silk was the cruel story of Pyramus and Thisbe
+set forth in brilliant colours, but in what wondrous manner no one quite
+knew. For it was true that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had walked with
+kings, danced with dukes, and played croquet with counts, and it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> was
+therefore inevitable that she should be regarded as the Empress of
+Woodbridge. She would have been considered so quite apart from the fact
+that she had great possessions&mdash;in addition to the Court fan and the dog
+collar&mdash;possessions which were commonly supposed to be destined for the
+college, the Lee-Satterlees having no issue. Accordingly, Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee was allowed liberties unthinkable in another; but, be it
+said to her credit, she never abused them. Since she, or at least her
+property, was to take such an active part in Woodbridge affairs when she
+passed into the next world, it was only reasonable that she should take
+an active part while she was still in this; and it is safe to say that
+no one knew more about college affairs than she. Still, no one ever
+thought of calling her a nuisance. When, occasionally, she did quietly
+suggest that possibly such-and-such a course might be a wise one or that
+such-and-such a man might be the one to appoint to such-and-such a
+vacancy, it would be discovered that, with singular insight, she had
+made a perfect suggestion. Whereas, therefore, it might be said that she
+was a despot, it was universally agreed that she was a benevolent one
+and an enlightened one, and many even went so far as to fear that her
+death might actually prove a loss.</p>
+
+<p>The library was filling fast. Mrs. Norris, casting a rather wild eye
+into it occasionally, would perhaps signal out an individual for a
+mission that somehow in the general run of things could not conceivably
+be completed. For example, her eye, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> one of these expeditions,
+happened to alight on a gentleman of the Physics Department, a gentleman
+with a gold tooth and a loud laugh, who represented a somewhat larger
+group of instructors than the best Tutors' Lane families cared to
+acknowledge. The gentleman responded with an alacrity that did him
+credit, nor did he quail before the steady gaze of Mrs. Norris, which
+seemed to wonder if she hadn't been a little unwise in placing such
+trust in so uninteresting a vessel. She asked him, however, to see if
+the musicians had found a good place to put their hats and coats, and as
+there were several musicians, some of whom had not arrived, he was not
+restored to his nervous and too friendly mate until the charades were
+over.</p>
+
+<p>And now there was a suggestive flutter in the Dean's study, behind whose
+large folding doors the charades were to be acted. Gentlemen who were
+standing urbanely about moved into corners, with smiles calculated to
+impress all with their self-possession in even the first houses. The
+doors rolled open and a buzz of admiration greeted the <em>distraite</em> Lady
+Angela, whose return from California had been acknowledged by but few of
+the audience. She went through her scene with the little maid, and when
+the doors were bumped together, Mr. Grimes of the Romance Languages, a
+noted success at anagrams, acrostics, and charades, announced, "Dray."
+After a few minutes the second act was done, in which it appeared that
+Mr. Merriam the detective had fallen madly in love with Lady Angela. In
+the midst of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> the scene the little maid was heard purring loudly
+off-stage, a purring which was explained by both lovers as the purring
+of the lost Persian. Mr. Grimes guessed "Purr" loudly at the close, and
+the final syllable, in which Mr. Merriam appeared disguised as a draper,
+was thus rendered stale and perfunctory. Mary's charade eluded Mr.
+Grimes's wit no more successfully, and the music was received with even
+more enthusiasm than usual.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Angela, as a matter of fact, had been considerably flustered by
+the ardour of Merriam the detective's wooing. The rehearsal had not
+prepared her for anything so realistic, and she was annoyed. Art was
+art, of course, but she was no Duse, and she didn't care to be the
+object of such public passion. The fact that she was obliged to
+reciprocate his sentiments instead of slapping his face was also trying.
+Well, there was no reason to conceal her displeasure now; and when she
+found herself again in his arms&mdash;they were rather strong arms,
+incidentally, and he did dance well&mdash;she had little to say to him.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, fortunately, necessary for her to do a great deal of
+dancing, because of the visiting she naturally owed to her elderly
+friends, and once when Tom cut in she left him, excusing herself on the
+ground of having to see the Dean and Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee, his
+time-honoured bridge partner. The Dean took his bridge seriously and
+with extreme deliberation. Henry Whitman, on the other hand, who was one
+of his opponents, played with a rapidity amounting at times to frenzy,
+and he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> fidgeted by anyone of more sober pace. His partner, old Mrs.
+Conover, in a cap with violet insertion, had some little difficulty in
+telling kings from jacks and hearts from spades and was inclined,
+furthermore, to be forgetful of the trump. Accordingly, Nancy remarked
+beneath her brother's rather terrible calm all these symptoms of a
+whistling bee when they were again at home.</p>
+
+<p>The Dean was halfway through a hand and was trying to choose a card from
+the dummy. He at length carefully lifted the king of spades from it as
+if it weighed a ton, and then, after looking at it soberly, put it back
+and scowled at his own hand. Henry, who had his card ready to throw down
+upon the table, slid it back into his hand with the look of resignation
+that has tranquillized our memories of the Early Christian Martyrs. The
+Dean rested his eye on the tempting king in the dummy and pursed his
+lips. He <em>would do</em> it. Then he leaned over and played it with the air
+of a man who lays all in the lap of the gods. Mrs. Conover, who had been
+shuffling her cards around in ill-suppressed excitement, popped out a
+trump with a cry of triumph just as Henry's Ace of Spades covered the
+king. A dreadful scene followed. The Dean was all gallantry, Mrs.
+Conover all self-reproach, Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee all charm, and
+Henry all exasperation; and when, later in the same hand, his mind torn
+with the memory of his lost ace, he made a revoke and was quietly
+brought to account by the Dean, Nancy discreetly withdrew.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Tom, who had seen her at the table with three people whom she met
+constantly and upon whom she hardly needed to make a call, felt
+decidedly snubbed. Was she, after all, so much a Whitman that she felt
+no need to obey the ordinary rules of decency? It seemed too bad, for
+his impression of her earlier in the evening had been decidedly
+different.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had sometimes wondered about love at first sight. What was it
+anyway? How did one feel? Was it like a blow between the eyes, a ball in
+the breast? Did one stagger and have to lie down, with a pulse coursing
+up to one hundred and five? What was it? When Tom first looked at Nancy
+in the costume closet he wondered if he were to be brought face to face
+with the answer. Certainly, little hints by the Norrises and Old Mrs.
+Conover would have put the idea into his head, had it not in the natural
+course of events found its way there unaided.</p>
+
+<p>And now Nancy had made it clear that she did not care to have anything
+to do with him. It was, he guessed, because of the too tender passage in
+the charade. He pictured himself arguing with her. "It is ridiculous to
+object to me because I played the part well. Would you have had me a
+stick and make the thing even more of a bore?" "No," coldly, "but you
+didn't have to have that part in it." "Well, it made it more
+interesting, and, besides, if you think that I put it in just for an
+excuse to put my arm around you, you're entirely mistaken and not the
+girl I thought you." This last thrust, which, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> less skilful hands
+might have become mere petulance, was delivered with a rolling
+deliberation that would have wrung a Jezebel. Tom always did well in
+these conversations, but unfortunately, the present situation was not
+solved so easily. Nancy, he had found, was even more attractive than she
+had been when he was in college. They would, of course, see something of
+each other from time to time, and it would be tiresome not to be
+friendly. Besides, he guessed that she would be helpful in discussing
+his various problems. Mrs. Norris was splendid, of course, and he loved
+her dearly, but he found himself occasionally wishing for a somewhat
+younger listener and one not given over to quite so many nonsequiturs.
+Nancy seemed excellent material, but if she were going to be
+superior&mdash;Possibly it was because of Ephesus and the Reynolds Dry Goods
+Store. He turned away with a slightly bilious feeling. If it should
+prove that she was affected by that, then indeed would he be
+disappointed in her.</p>
+
+<p>He crossed the hall into the drawing-room, where a dozen or so couples
+were dancing in various stages of &aelig;sthetic intoxication. The saxophone
+and the violin were engaging in a pantomime calculated to add gaiety to
+the waning enthusiasm of the party, and he gazed at them in disgust. A
+young lady with hair newly hennaed and face suggestive of an over-ripe
+pear ogled him over her partner's elbow as they jazzed by. Let her dance
+on until she got so sick of him she was ready to scream, was Tom's
+thought.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In one corner, obviously having a poor time, was Leofwin Balch. Tom sat
+down beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's too hot in here, don't you think?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Much," replied Leofwin. "I think these parties get worse every year."
+These were soothing words. "Particularly those damned charades," he went
+on. "Now, my dear fellow, you know perfectly well that yours was a
+miserable failure."</p>
+
+<p>Tom found this a little trying. It was true that no one could be more
+deprecating of his effort than he, but, privately, he had a somewhat
+better opinion of it. As charades went, he thought it decidedly above
+the average; and the way he had examined the room, after the manner of
+Mr. William Gillette, and come upon the match box was proved amusing by
+the laugh it had brought.</p>
+
+<p>"Granted," he replied, with a shade of sarcasm, "it was a miserable
+failure."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the way you made love to Miss Whitman was disgusting."</p>
+
+<p>Tom flushed. Had he really been as bad as that? Had he really just
+missed being put out of the house like that clown Stebbins? Were they
+all now, all these people sitting around so innocently in groups, were
+they all blasting his name as a cheap cad? "What do you mean?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you went at it like a puling babe. Why didn't you put some fire
+into it&mdash;kiss her feet or bite her neck? Then you would have made us sit
+up and take notice. You college people are a lot of old women, anyway."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Tom, with bounding relief, started to confess the apparent inability of
+most college people to bite ladies in the neck, when he observed a
+startling change in his companion. From the passionate leprecaune of the
+moment before he had become even as a little child. His hand, which was
+resting elegantly on the arm chair, stole up into his chin whisker, amid
+which it wistfully strayed. There crept into his Saxon eyes that light
+of resigned suffering which inspires such exquisite anguish in the
+friends of Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. In short, his entire being
+proclaimed to all who would but look, a great quiet man in love. Tom's
+eyes followed his and rested upon&mdash;Nancy! He rose in disgust and,
+walking away, suddenly came face to face with her. Then, without
+thinking of his resolve to let her severely alone, he reached out his
+hand and cut in.</p>
+
+<p>What a fool he was! Obviously she didn't want to dance with him, and
+here he was forcing himself upon her. It made him look so common, so
+pushing, so like an Ephesus drygoods clerk. Some one barged into him,
+surged into him, from the rear, causing him to stumble. "Sorry," he
+muttered. They started on, just out of step. He tried to get into step
+by speeding up, and their knees bumped together. Would no one ever cut
+in? Then the music stopped, and it appeared that the musicians were
+going to rest for a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's sit down, shall we?" said Nancy. They settled themselves upon two
+gilt chairs with spindly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> legs. "Do you like your work here?" she asked
+pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>What a very dull question! An expletive exploded inside Tom's head. "Oh,
+yes," he said. Then after a heavy pause, "How are you getting on with
+the stars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I learned the diagrams in that nice little book you sent me, but
+I'm afraid I've forgotten most of them now. I feel rather superior about
+Betelgeuse, though."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. We might start a Betelguese Club."</p>
+
+<p>"What would we do at it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, read papers. With Betelguese's power behind us we might do all
+sorts of things&mdash;have picnics and read tracts to the poor. When you see
+only college people, after a while you crave being illiterate, and I've
+thought recently that I'd like to enlist in the Navy or move to Alaska,
+or go over and work in the Mills. I'd buy a black shirt to work in and
+use a bandana&mdash;when I used anything&mdash;and take the nice extra room my
+laundress has in Whitmanville. She says her clothesline goes out fifty
+feet, and they have a phonograph. Don't you think that would be more
+attractive than trying to teach a lot of Freshmen Carlyle and
+Hawthorne?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lots, and there would be ever so much more money in it."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a kind of social service work, wouldn't it? 'Woodbridge
+Professor Slaves in Mill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> to Earn Bread.' That would go big, all over
+the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, I've thought a little of doing some social work,
+seriously. I don't know anything about it, of course, but it has
+occurred to me that if I could get a group of people together we might
+have one of the Physiologist instructors give us some lectures. You see,
+the first thing in social work must be the health of the people, and I
+should think a good grounding in the fundamentals would be essential. As
+soon as we have their interest in their personal welfare we can get them
+to playing basketball, brushing their teeth, putting screens in their
+windows, and&mdash;so on. Naturally I don't know much about it, but it would
+seem as though there were a great opportunity for somebody."</p>
+
+<p>"Conditions in the town, on the west side, aren't too good."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they're not. I have let my mind run on at a great rate about
+it, but I don't see why, if the right person got hold of it, the whole
+town couldn't be improved, made into a model mill town, you know&mdash;with
+playgrounds, and cr&egrave;ches, and&mdash;" Again other model features failed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why aren't you the proper person? I should think you could do it
+if anyone could. Your uncle would have to listen to you, and he probably
+would be all for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle Rob is just as nice as he can be&mdash;but I couldn't do it all
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now of course we have got into this thing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> pretty quickly, but I
+assure you I should like nothing better than to do something about it
+with you. After all, what is education in the finest sense, but the
+uplifting of the masses? You probably will want to think it over a
+little more before going ahead, but, really, I hope you will, and I hope
+you will let me join you."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no time like the present. Why dilly-dally? We both realize
+that this is a crying need. Then why not do something about it? If you
+will find out who is the best man for us, I'll provide the rest."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the musicians swung into Home Sweet Home, and Mrs. Norris
+hurried up to the embryonic workers. "The party is over now, my dears,
+and please help by going and getting your things. It's this awful
+standing around saying good-bye that is so trying," and with an emphatic
+push of her back comb she began hauling tables and chairs back into
+their normal places.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had only just time to assure Nancy that he would do his part when
+Mrs. Norris called to him again to help her with the dining-room rug;
+and with a quick handshake and a pleasanter nod than he would have
+thought could possibly have come to him half an hour before, Nancy
+Whitman was gone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+VII</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">IN the morning Nancy's thoughts flew to the proposed social work. What
+on earth had she got herself into! Swept away, as usual, she had
+confided her plans for a life of service to a man she barely knew, one
+hour after she had decided to leave him alone! Well, there was nothing
+to do now but make the best of it. Their talk had, as a matter of fact,
+shown that she had been a little silly about the charade. He had
+unsuspected depth. That had been made clear by his conversation about
+education, and it was unlikely that anyone who felt as strongly as he
+did could be wayward in a charade. So it might turn out all right, after
+all, and she had better set about getting the workers.</p>
+
+<p>Mary, to her surprise, was a disappointment. It seemed that with her
+music, which she was studying seriously this year, with weekly trips to
+Boston for a lesson, she had no time. Others of her friends to whom she
+had naturally turned were unavailable for one reason or another, and the
+affair began to look discouraging. On the fourth day, however, while
+calling upon the Misses Forbes, she got an unsolicited recruit. Her mind
+being full of the idea, she was talking about it before she knew it;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+and to her astonishment, and a little to her dismay, Miss Jennie offered
+her services. "I cannot," she said, "talk to the operatives about their
+bodies, and, accordingly, it won't be necessary for me to attend the
+physiological lectures, but I think I can be of use later on. When we
+went to Miss Northcote's School we learned to weave mats and paint on
+china, and I can give instructions in them. In their turn they will
+instruct me, for I shall learn much about Housing Conditions and have an
+opportunity to examine at first hand the various industrial problems of
+the day. Who knows? when we are through, I may prepare a paper for the
+<em>Nation</em>." Her sisters indicated their disapproval by rocking
+hopelessly.</p>
+
+<p>Tom, too, had met with difficulties. Upon thinking the matter over he
+had little doubt as to its outcome. Enough of his Ephesus life remained
+with him to tell him that factory hands are not to be reached by
+lectures from academic ladies and gentlemen. He blushed, too, for
+certain sentiments he had expressed upon the essence of education, but
+they might be credited to the delicate frenzy of the dance and his
+unexpected reconciliation. It was, of course, all Nancy. He could not
+imagine himself proceeding upon such an affair with anyone else. Still,
+he found it necessary to placate his conscience for the time taken from
+the study of Beowulf which he was then making for his Ph.D. "All work
+and no play makes Jack a dull boy" seemed, after a somewhat desperate
+search, as sound a principle as any;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> and, furthermore, he would save
+time from his exercise by running around the cemetery&mdash;the classic
+running course&mdash;instead of playing squash at the Country Club. So that
+problem was settled.</p>
+
+<p>The young physiologist, however, upon whom he had been counting had
+developed appendicitis, and he didn't feel that he knew any of the other
+men in the department well enough to take their time for such a
+speculative cause. Then he met old Professor Sprig, a Star man of '65,
+who had been a celebrated physiologist in his time and who was now an
+almost equally celebrated eccentric. Having complained of the present
+status of the department and explained his problem, Tom was invited by
+the old gentleman to bring Nancy to his rooms. "You know, I suppose,
+where I live?" he asked with a crafty smile.</p>
+
+<p>Tom did know where he lived. The old four-story frame building in
+Whitmanville, the Diamond Building, the highest in the town, had been
+made famous by his residence. The top floor was said to be his apartment
+and it was commonly supposed that he kept chickens in it. There were
+some dreadful stories about midnight dissections, but cooler heads
+affirmed that if there were any chickens there at all, they were there
+as the companions and not as the helpless victims of a debauched old
+age. And now the two social workers were invited into these mysterious
+precincts! The news might swell the roster<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> to disconcerting
+proportions. They should have to proceed with caution.</p>
+
+<p>"All we want, sir, is a most elementary discussion. Just enough so we
+can give the men and women in the Mills some simple facts about
+themselves. Then, with that as a starter, we can build up more
+intelligently."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be glad to give you whatever you want. Shall we say Tuesday
+next? At eight o'clock? Don't dress, you know. Just come as you are.
+This is business," and with another of his sly smiles he moved on down
+the street.</p>
+
+<p>When Tom called for Nancy on Tuesday night he found her equipped with
+pad and pencils.</p>
+
+<p>"Henry doesn't think too highly of this performance, I may say," she
+said, smiling up at him, "but we simply couldn't have let people know
+where we are going. They would have swamped the whole thing. I must say
+I am a little afraid." She slipped her arm through his, and they hurried
+on down Division Street, which connects Tutors' Lane with Whitmanville.
+"If he only has chickens, I won't mind, but if he has bats I shall hate
+it. I confess I'm a perfect fool about bats. They're loathsome. What
+they really are, are hairy rats with wings like web feet, and they have
+the most <em>loathsome</em> mouths."</p>
+
+<p>Tom was curiously excited. He felt buoyed up. It was like water-wings,
+he told himself. And when he tried afterwards to think of the things he
+had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> said, he could remember nothing except that he had quoted Alice's
+perplexity about bats eating cats when she was falling down the well,
+and that they had both laughed immoderately.</p>
+
+<p>The Diamond Building, on their arrival, presented a somewhat portentous
+picture. A Five, Ten, and Fifteen Cent store dimly showed forth strings
+of penny postal cards and piles of dusty candy in its macabre windows.
+The second floor was throbbing with the rich life of a poolhall, and as
+they passed the Christian Science rooms on the third floor they carried
+with them the strains of a therapeutic hymn. And then, at last, they
+were before a door which bore over its bell the pencilled legend, H.
+Sprig.</p>
+
+<p>They were admitted by a flunkey named Herbert. Herbert's period of
+usefulness in the laboratory had terminated with that of the Professor,
+and the latter had engaged him as a body servant, not only because of
+his proved capacity and loyalty, but because of the unusual shape of his
+head, upon which the Professor found it restful to gaze. He was black,
+was Herbert, and was at present clothed in gorgeous blue livery with
+gold buttons. He bowed the guests inside and led them through a narrow
+hallway to a comfortable room of generous size, the Professor's library.
+At one end was a long table, and behind it was Mr. Sprig, clad in a
+morning coat. Behind him on the walls were half a dozen diagrams of Man
+the Master, designed to gratify students whose thirst was for the
+anatomical. Before Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> Sprig were a pitcher of iced water, a tumbler,
+and a sheaf of notes.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sprig rose as Nancy and Tom entered and bowed pleasantly, at the
+same time waving them to two chairs placed close together before his
+table. When they had seated themselves he bowed again, and, without more
+ado, began an address. He spoke in a low, deep, if somewhat quavery
+voice, and with an elegant ease of manner. It was his purpose, he
+explained, to give them an elementary course in the primary systems of
+the body, together with two supplementary lectures on hygiene, in order
+that they might go out and instruct the poor in the proper care of their
+bodies. Tonight he would have only time for the respiratory and
+circulatory systems, next time would come the digestive and excretory
+tracts, and he hoped to finish in six lectures. It was, of course, a
+broad subject and much water had passed under the bridge since his day,
+but with their generous help he hoped that the thing might be done.</p>
+
+<p>He talked for fifty minutes, that being a college period, and at its
+close he bowed again. He then came from behind the table and shook them
+warmly by the hand. "You will forgive a foolish old man, I know. You see
+I haven't given a lecture since I resigned eight years ago, and I
+thought I'd like to do it up brown. And now, Herbert"&mdash;for the elaborate
+old man had appeared at the close of the lecture&mdash;"please bring in the
+things."</p>
+
+<p>The "things" were some little round cup cakes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> three wine glasses, and
+a large bottle of sauterne.</p>
+
+<p>"The summer we graduated," Mr. Sprig went on, "my classmate Curtis and I
+went abroad. We took a walking trip south of Bordeaux, and on that walk
+we discovered this wine. I have kept in touch with the people who make
+it ever since, and although I shall never get any more, I shall have
+enough to last me. You must try a glass, Miss Whitman. I assure you it
+will improve all of your systems!"</p>
+
+<p>When Nancy first looked at her watch it was nearly eleven.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't go, of course, until you have seen the chickens," said Mr.
+Sprig.</p>
+
+<p>The chickens! Under the charm of the softly lighted room, the old
+gentleman's quiet flow of half-whimsical, half-serious reminiscence,
+they had been carried back to the rosy days that were before their
+birth. Now they dreaded lest their host should show himself a little
+mad, after all.</p>
+
+<p>He lit a bedside candle, and at his request they followed him out upon a
+sun parlour. And there, indeed, was a wire-enclosed runaway with a
+white-washed shelf at the end supporting four sleeping forms. The candle
+moved nearer, and there they were&mdash;beyond any possible doubt, Plymouth
+Rocks.</p>
+
+<p>To see them at night was a nice problem, he explained. Being a little
+light-minded about sunshine, it seemed that they were unable to
+discriminate between heaven's high lamp and the electric one on the
+porch, and would dutifully arise when either appeared. Once down from
+their perch, they would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> refuse to return until the sun was removed; and
+when it chanced to be the one on the porch and was switched off, they
+were unable to return because their endowment of optic nerve was small
+and their homing instinct, so strong in bees and eagles, smaller. There
+was created, accordingly, an <em>impasse</em>, but Mr. Sprig, who knew his
+hens, circumvented it. He lit a bedside candle which merely troubled his
+friends' sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"The one on the extreme left is Helen of Troy. She is a stunning
+creature, as you can see. She produced an egg for me only this morning.
+Next is Malvolio. I confess I am partial to him. Then comes Little Nell.
+She is extremely demure and inclined to be sentimental. And last is
+Carol Kennicott, who chatters so much I am afraid I shall shortly have
+to pop her into a pie." He gazed at her affectionately. "Well," he
+continued as he led the way back into his library, "I have now shown you
+my treasures. They, of course, seem a little crazy to you, and I hope
+your lives will end so fully that you won't have to fall back on them.
+But in case either of you should find yourself old and foolish and
+alone, I can recommend them as pleasant and amiable companions. You will
+find them curiously simple&mdash;they are not offended if you don't call upon
+them or write them letters,&mdash;and then from time to time they yield up to
+you the shining miracle of an egg, for which they ask no recompense; and
+when they come to lay down their lives they do it with a gesture and
+make the day a feast."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was standing before the dying fire, surrounded by its genial light,
+as his guests withdrew. Near him, just touched by the firelight, were
+the crumbs of their supper and the stately old bottle which had given
+its bouquet to the room. Old Herbert, moving out of the shadow
+noiselessly and pleasantly, bowed them out, and as the vision faded one
+of the guests, at least, pictured the four friends on the sun porch
+readjusting themselves, after their fitful fever, to the gentle life of
+their home.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">THE following Thursday night Tom called at the Whitmans' to rehearse the
+lecture. Nancy's cousin Bob had arranged to have two rooms reserved for
+them during the Friday noon hour at the Mills, and they had agreed that
+the best way to prepare for the ordeal was to study their notes and get
+their material in final shape and then have a dress rehearsal on
+Thursday night. "After a while," Nancy had said, "when we work into the
+harness, we probably won't need to have one, but I don't think we can be
+too careful of this first lecture." This had been precisely Tom's
+opinion also.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had never seen Henry so amiable. In fact he seemed hard put to it to
+keep from unrestrained merriment, and Tom, who found the affair more
+alarming as it progressed, would have preferred avoiding him altogether.
+He knew that Henry was calling him callow, a lightweight, charges
+well-nigh proved by his present undertaking, and to save himself from
+rout he had to remember that Henry was a heavy Grave man and that his
+own participation was only a question of common courtesy to a lady,
+anyway. Nancy had set her heart upon the thing, and he would be a very
+indifferent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> friend to stand idly by and not lift a finger to help.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe," said Henry, "that we are to sit in the drawing-room. Nancy
+will stand in the far end of the library."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," replied Tom vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"She feels that having the conditions rather trying tonight will help
+her tomorrow. Accordingly, she's going to speak first, and she wants me
+to excuse her for not being here when you arrived. By coming in formally
+and beginning her address without speaking to us, she hopes to get some
+of the feeling of the way it will be tomorrow." And with a somewhat
+hysterical noise he went to the stairway. "All right, Nancy."</p>
+
+<p>In a minute Nancy appeared on the stairs and, walking stiffly across
+into the library, she climbed upon a footstool at the far end. In front
+of her was an old violin stand. Upon it she put her notes. She then
+raised her face; and even at the distance it appeared flushed.</p>
+
+<p>"Fellow workers," she began.</p>
+
+<p>At this point Henry broke into uncontrollable laughter. "Excuse me,
+really, but it is too much. 'Fellow workers'&mdash;oh, dear me. Oh, oh, I am
+afraid I can't stand it. You must excuse me, really. Oh, dear me," and
+rising weakly, handkerchief in hand, he tottered from the room.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy, the picture of resigned despair, gazed at Tom. He felt slightly
+hysterical himself.</p>
+
+<p>"What are we to do?" she asked helplessly. As they were nearly fifty
+feet apart, the pitch of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> voice was necessarily above that used in
+ordinary conversation and gave to her words considerable melodramatic
+force. A fresh shout of laughter descending from the stairs made the
+situation none the easier.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy was, indeed, thoroughly upset. What was to become of her
+independent life if this failed? How else could she express herself? Was
+it to collapse at the very start, before she could even approach her
+dreams for the future? To have it end ridiculously, to have her become a
+laughing stock, would be too cruel. No, she would fight for her liberty.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the thing to do is to go on," replied Tom. Had those words been
+said at Marengo or Poitiers or Persepolis, they might today be learned
+by school children. They were of the stuff that wins lost causes. They
+stem defeat as effectively as fresh battalions.</p>
+
+<p>"Fellow workers," Nancy began again, and this time there was only
+respectful silence, "I have come to you today to tell you a little
+something about the machines which are forever your property, which were
+given to you by your Maker and which it is your sacred duty to keep in
+as good condition as possible. I mean your own bodies." She paused, and
+Tom nodded encouragement from the other room. "It has become my pleasant
+duty to come to you and tell you how you may keep these God-given
+machines. You are to regard me, in other words, as your friend and
+sister." The lecturer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> was here threatened by a dry, pippy, cough and
+the whole course was imperilled. However, she drove fiercely on.</p>
+
+<p>"At the outset you should have a brief working knowledge of such things
+as your heart and lungs, your pancreas, liver, big and little intestines
+and their juices; and I shall, accordingly, give you a brief idea of the
+various systems, beginning today with the circulatory and respiratory.
+Next time I shall hope to cover the digestive and excretory tracts, and
+I shall close with two talks on personal hygiene." This ended the
+preliminary matter, and the lecturer proceeded with the body of her talk
+in a somewhat more mechanical style. The respiratory system was
+dismissed in six minutes, although, in some curious way, Mr. Sprig had
+strung the same material out to half an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Before beginning upon the circulatory system, however, she sprang a
+surprise. "For your convenience," she explained, "I shall draw a diagram
+of the heart and its valves, and with your assistance I shall explain
+its action." After a little wrestling with the diagram, which <em>would</em>
+curl, she managed to pin it to the wall. She then proceeded, in red
+crayon, to draw a fully equipped heart. She finished with audible relief
+and, turning triumphantly&mdash;greeted Miss Balch and her brother Leofwin.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, I am afraid we are intruding," said Miss Balch, looking around
+with ingenuous charm.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, having heard the bell which the social workers had been too
+absorbed to hear, appeared at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> the door and relieved the situation
+temporarily. Leofwin, however, whose eye was naturally caught by the
+pictorial, was gazing at the circulatory system on the wall. "What on
+earth is that?" he asked, with more curiosity than was perhaps
+excusable. "It looks for all the world like some sort of impressionistic
+valentine."</p>
+
+<p>Nancy, for one reckless moment, was tempted to say that it was, but
+temperate judgment prevailed. After all, why need she be ashamed of what
+they were doing?</p>
+
+<p>"Tom and I are giving a course of lectures at the Mill, in hygiene, and
+we are just rehearsing a little; that's all. The valentine shows the
+heart action. Those arm things are the valves, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"But, really, you know, even a valve must have some perspective."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course, I'm no artist. The cut in the dictionary was very
+small, and when I enlarged it I tried to get the right proportions, but
+I just had my tape measure and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall help you. Elfrida will bear me out: I have always been
+interested in the lower classes, and I shall love to go with you and
+draw it when the time comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I couldn't let you do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? I admit I've had no experience, but, after all, in a work of
+this kind, it is the spirit that counts, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Elfrida had engaged Tom and Henry at a point as far distant as she could
+from her brother and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> Nancy, and she now asked Tom what he thought of
+Somebody's latest novel and made him lose track of their conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you <em>really</em> a realist?" asked Miss Balch.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Fancy," replied Miss Balch. "Then I think you would like a thing I got
+out of the library the other day by one of these new Russians. He has
+some dreadful name. Well, it is about this man, a peasant, who falls in
+love with this Bolshevist agent, and she uses the man, you see, as a
+tool. Then there is this other woman in it who&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Leofwin had adopted a very free-and-easy manner, it seemed to Tom. He
+was sitting with his legs crossed, hands folded, one arm over the back
+of his chair, half facing Nancy. He was being extremely bland and at his
+ease. It was the sort of thing one might do in a Russian drawing-room,
+perhaps, where the ladies doubtless didn't mind being bitten in a fit of
+passion, but it was decidedly not the way to behave in
+Woodbridge&mdash;although it must be confessed that an impartial observer
+might have failed to distinguish any marked difference in the way Tom
+himself was sitting, since he, too, had crossed his legs, folded his
+hands, and was half facing Nancy. It was clear that Nancy was painfully
+trying to do the honours. "You must let me see your pictures," Tom heard
+her say.</p>
+
+<p>"... Really, Mr. Reynolds, I think you might listen to me when I'm
+trying so hard to entertain you."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, I heard everything you said. All about this new Russian."</p>
+
+<p>"Sly boots!" said Miss Balch archly.</p>
+
+<p>Tom wondered what the proper reply was. What he wanted to say, in the
+same arch manner was "Puss Wuss!" but instead he just grinned brightly
+and let it be inferred that he was thinking of all sorts of clever
+things.</p>
+
+<p>"A penny for your thoughts, sir," cried Miss Balch.</p>
+
+<p>This was unbearable, especially since Henry was apparently enjoying it
+so much.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you won't think me rude, but I was thinking of the great pile of
+uncorrected test papers at home on my desk, and I am afraid you will
+have to excuse me." He rose. The whole room rose.</p>
+
+<p>He started for the door, and Nancy hurried over to him. "Isn't it
+dreadful?" she seemed to say. Behind her, like Tartarin's camel, loomed
+Leofwin.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll meet here at twelve," Nancy said, and with an effort she managed
+to include the cavalier and irrepressible artist, who, beaming and
+bowing, showed in every corner of him his thorough approval of the whole
+arrangement.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+IX</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">BY a coincidence, the two men arrived at ten minutes to twelve. They
+found Nancy in a rather pathetic state of excitement. She had been
+running up and down stairs and from one room to another and she met them
+with the elaborate calm of one about to give himself up to a capital
+operation.</p>
+
+<p>"We have a nice day for it, anyway," she said bravely. Any agreeable
+condition, however remote it might at first appear from the business at
+hand, was welcome. "Tell me," she asked Tom, "do you think I'm dressed
+suitably?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly."</p>
+
+<p>"Some social workers go down in the slums in the worst old clothes they
+can find, but I've heard that the people down there like to see nice
+things, so I compromised. This is just a gingham dress, you see, but I'm
+wearing my pearls."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think that's just right. Didn't Henry, the Labour expert, help
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't bother him. He's not interested, you see."</p>
+
+<p>Leofwin, who had been fidgeting around for an opening, now burst forth.
+"I came early," he said, "to find out if I can't do the lungs too; I've
+been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> practising them along with the heart, you know, and I think it
+might go well dashing them in somewhere. What?" Leofwin's "what's" were
+noteworthy. They were in a higher key than the rest of his conversation,
+which was itself high, and he drew them out to almost exquisite lengths.
+They were nearly all that was left of his week-end with the patron in
+Suffolk.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me, no," replied Nancy with considerable spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will like my heart," he continued undismayed. "I've been
+doing them all morning. I dug up some priceless old Beaux Arts crayons.
+It will be nice when we get to the brain. It's awfully romantic, I
+find," and he gave Nancy a killing smile. She gazed at him placidly and
+then turned to Tom. "What time is it?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly twelve."</p>
+
+<p>At this point Edmund drove up, and with renewed palpitations the party
+proceeded to the Mill.</p>
+
+<p>As they passed in through the gates Tom noticed with sickening dread a
+huge sign in flaming letters, "ARE YOU PHYSICALLY FIT? <em>Mr. Reynolds of
+Woodbridge Will Address You&mdash;&mdash;</em>" They were met by Bob Whitman, a hearty
+young man who had just been made an officer of the Company. He stared at
+Leofwin in amused bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Balch is helping me with the diagrams," explained Nancy. "And now
+where do we go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you'd better just sit here for a minute or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> two until they get
+settled with their lunches. I'll take you to where you go; and what's
+more, Nancy, I'll introduce you!" Nancy received the word "introduce" as
+a surgical case receives the initial injection of morphine. The first
+step had been taken, and nothing could save her. "As for you, Tom, your
+lecture room's over there, and I'll get the foreman to introduce you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think of it," said Tom quickly, "I'll just introduce myself; get
+to be one of them, you know what I mean. Just one of the boys."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Whitman, let's you and I get to be just one of the girls,"
+tittered Leofwin.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we might as well go in," said Nancy without noticing Leofwin's
+jest, which appeared singularly hollow.</p>
+
+<p>"You're sure you don't want some one to start you off, Tom?" asked Bob.</p>
+
+<p>Tom was certain of it; and before entering his room, he waited until
+Nancy's party had disappeared around the corner. He then opened the door
+and, going over to a man who was ruminating vacantly upon a huge chunk
+of bread, sat down. "There's going to be some sort of lecture here,
+today, isn't there?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno," replied the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah, there is," spoke up a hand nearby. "I seen it on a sign this
+morning. Some guy from the college."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I thought," said Tom. "I thought I'd just come in and see
+what he had to say. Can't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> stay very long, though," he added, looking at
+his watch. Then after a pause, "Pretty nice place you got here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's good enough, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>The room was a large one, filled with three or four dozen tables bearing
+complicated-looking machinery. There were twenty or thirty men sitting
+around solemnly chewing their food.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty slow now, isn't it?" asked Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah, they laid off about a hundred last week."</p>
+
+<p>"This laying-off stuff would have gone bigger a couple of years ago&mdash;in
+the army&mdash;wouldn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say it would."</p>
+
+<p>"Have a cigarette?" said Tom. "What outfit were you in?"</p>
+
+<p>The prospect of free cigarettes and army talk, which already in less
+than three years had taken on a romantic glow, attracted the other men,
+who, as they finished their lunches, came up and joined the circle. Tom
+was holding forth in the centre; and when Bob Whitman glanced in on his
+way home he could see that Tom, by making his talk informal, was getting
+it across in great style.</p>
+
+<p>Once, during the conversation, Providence seemed to offer an opportunity
+of bringing in his lecture in such a way that no one would guess he was
+giving it.</p>
+
+<p>His conscience bothered him a little, and he plunged ahead. One of the
+men told how his bunkie at Base Six in Bordeaux had died of heart
+failure when under ether. In a somewhat parched<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> voice Tom started to
+explain how this could come about, but in no time he was talking
+gibberish. "The aorta," he heard himself saying, "is the big main artery
+which comes out of one of the ventricles," and then he noticed the dazed
+look on the men's faces and, floundering hopelessly, managed to laugh it
+off. Well, he had tried to talk to them, anyway, and by consulting his
+watch he found that half an hour had gone by.</p>
+
+<p>After his third cigarette&mdash;he had come plentifully supplied&mdash;he looked
+at his watch again. He could go at last! It was ten minutes to one, and
+Nancy had probably finished long ago. "Apparently this guy isn't coming
+today. I've got to run along. Well, I've enjoyed this talk a lot," and
+with an inclusive smile and wave of the hand he went.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy wasn't back in the car, and starting off in the direction they had
+taken, he soon came to her room. There must have been a hundred women in
+it and it was Leofwin, not Nancy, who was talking to them.</p>
+
+<p>Tom opened the door quietly and sat down on a stool in the rear. Nancy,
+pale and helpless, was sitting on one side of a resplendent circulatory
+system drawn to illustrate the subtleties of the designer's art.</p>
+
+<p>"You will observe, ladies," Leofwin was saying in his purest Suffolk
+manner, "that shading is done with the crayon well back, like this." He
+made a few swift lines on the corner of the System and looked up with
+his bright, inquisitive smile. "Now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> are there any questions?" There was
+a stony silence, amid which the one o'clock whistle blew.</p>
+
+<p>The foreman, left in charge by Bob, rose. "I'm sorry, Miss Whitman, but
+I'm afraid we'll have to stop today."</p>
+
+<p>The worker's friend and sister bowed to him and, clutching her notes and
+her bag, with firmly set lips and eyes fixed, marched to the door.
+Leofwin followed, bowing pleasantly right and left, to the intense
+gratification of his audience, and the trio retired.</p>
+
+<p>"Jolly, wasn't it?" said Leofwin. "I'm sorry, though, we couldn't have
+had more time. I didn't get to foreshortening at all. However, I think I
+probably helped them a good deal. Sometime I'd like to tell them about
+etching, you know, and aqua&mdash;and mezzotints."</p>
+
+<p>Nancy received her assistant's remarks in complete silence. She was even
+unable to do more than nod a good-bye to him. But she shook Tom's hand
+in parting, and, with an air that might augur the worst, she asked him
+to come and see her on the next afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy was particularly charming, Tom thought when he was again with her,
+and what was even more to the point, he found that they were to be
+alone. She got his tea ready without difficulty&mdash;he was flattered that
+she remembered his formula&mdash;and they settled back for a good talk and
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I wasn't civil to him, but I really don't care! Did you ever know a
+more dreadful person?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Never. He's awful. But, tell me, how did it go until he took charge?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, not so badly. But, oh, Tom I heard about you!"</p>
+
+<p>Tom flushed. "What did you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bob was here last night and he said he saw you through the
+window. He told us how you got them all around you and how you might
+have been talking about anything." She was wholly admiring.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I just talked to them," he said. "I never could have gotten away
+with anything formal."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it funny? I used to think that teaching must be the easiest thing
+in the world. I used to imagine myself lecturing to the whole college,
+but I can appreciate now what you and Henry are doing."</p>
+
+<p>Tom was anxious to have the conversation move upon firmer ground. He was
+also in the dark as to what the next move in the campaign was to be.</p>
+
+<p>Was it to be abandoned, or were they to try and carry on? The latter
+possibility seemed too fearful. How could he go into that room again?
+But one must proceed cautiously. It would never do, for example, to come
+out and treat the whole thing as a distinctly juvenile performance,
+something they had quite outgrown, until it was clear that they had
+outgrown it. Again, now was not the time to explain the real nature of
+his lecture. He could do that when the whole thing had become an
+amusing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> memory. "What are we going to do about Mr. Sprig?" asked Tom
+vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean are we going to keep on with the lectures?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think? Last night I was so sick about the whole thing that
+I was ready to give it all up, but now I wonder if it isn't our duty to
+give it one more trial." Her words were disappointing, but the
+dispirited tone in which she said them was cheering, and Tom made so
+bold as to sing the lately revived "Duty, duty must be done, the rule
+applies to everyone, and painful though the duty be, to shirk the task
+were fiddle-dee-dee..."; a happy impulse, for when Henry arrived from
+his five o'clock he found Tom at the piano and Nancy sitting by him, the
+one in the r&ocirc;le of the Mikado of Japan and the other as his
+daughter-in-law-elect.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, on the following Tuesday they again climbed down from the
+fourth floor of the Whitman building, the light had indeed gone out of
+the undertaking. Mr. Sprig's subject, the digestive and excretory
+tracts, had not been a propitious one for so critical a time. Leofwin,
+who had invited himself along, had been captivated by the decorative
+possibilities of the alimentary canal and had led the discussion
+following the lecture with a vigour and thoroughness trying for those
+unfamiliar with an artist's training. "Don't you think it might be fun
+to trace something all the way from the initial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> bite down?" he asked.
+"Let's take an olive, a green olive. 'Back to Nature by A. Green Olive:
+A Drama in Six Acts and any Number of Scenes.'"</p>
+
+<p>Tom was looking intently at the diagrams on the walls. At musical
+comedies and the movies, when embarrassing situations arose, one was, in
+a measure, prepared. The darkness, too, helped, and one could stare
+straight ahead until the relief, which was rarely long in coming,
+arrived. There was, finally, the comfort of numbers. But now they were
+only two&mdash;the artist and the scientist being immune to shame. It was,
+furthermore, extremely bright, everybody was out in the open, and
+although the amateurs had come prepared for a momentary brush with a
+bowel or two, they had no reason to expect a prolonged causerie upon
+even more intimate matters. Tom was, accordingly, hot with
+embarrassment, and he had reason to believe that Nancy was also.</p>
+
+<p>As Leofwin rattled on, with frankness ever more Elizabethan, Tom glanced
+at Nancy. She was examining the point of her pencil with as elaborate an
+interest as he had ever seen shown in any object. It seemed an
+altogether remarkable affair; but then, apparently, so was the eraser.
+They were complementary. A line could be made by the point, a delicate,
+straight line; and then, reversing the pencil, the line could be taken
+out by the eraser. The thing was complete.</p>
+
+<p>Tom became angry. What right had that great calf to subject Nancy to
+such an ordeal? He turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> to her and said without lowering his voice,
+"This is rather dull, don't you think? Let's go out and see the hens."</p>
+
+<p>They went out, but couldn't very well see the hens, since they had no
+candle and were above deceiving them with the porch light. Accordingly,
+they stepped back into the little hallway that led to the library. To go
+on into the library was to expose themselves again to the mortification
+of the physiological vagaries of Leofwin. So they just stood in the
+little hallway. And then, they laughed.</p>
+
+<p>The relief of a thunderstorm on a stifling day is proverbial, as is the
+relief of finding one's handkerchief just before one sneezes; but what
+are these compared with the flooding joy that comes with release from an
+embarrassing situation with a young lady? The effect upon Tom was to
+make him excited; more so, perhaps, than he had ever been. It was the
+same swelling, throbbing excitement he had felt when, waiting in his
+room on the afternoon of his Election Day, he realized by the shouting
+of the crowd below that his election was coming.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy was really wonderful. From being curious about her, he had been
+swept into the Problem of Living with which he had found her somewhat
+pathetically struggling. It had absorbed him in the brief time that he
+had encountered it; and now that her first attempt at a solution had
+ended in ridiculous failure, she immediately rose above it in laughter!</p>
+
+<p>And how happy was the cause of their laughter, after all. An experience
+such as the one they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> just come through must make or break a
+friendship. Their relationship could not remain the same; and with their
+laughter they had sealed the new bond.</p>
+
+<p>They said little as they strolled home, alone, in the clear night. It
+had in it the first suggestion of spring; and neither, apparently, found
+need to hurry.</p>
+
+<p>"Bob will have to straighten it out at the Mill," said Nancy, "and I
+shall write Mr. Sprig. I think we ought to send him something, don't
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>They had come to the Whitman gate. It was a high wooden structure,
+connected at the top, and in the spring it was covered with roses. The
+fanlight in the old doorway shone down the brick walk and touched
+Nancy's hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we must."</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands and bade each other good night. And then, as Nancy
+turned from him and went up the lighted walk and into the house, Tom
+knew without any particular surprise and quite without a rising
+temperature, that he loved her.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+X</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">NANCY emerged from her social service work with the feeling that she had
+added several chapters to the store of her experience. The sheep-like
+expression that covered the composite face of her group had brought home
+to her the ineffectiveness of her plan. One couldn't, it was clear, go
+down among the masses, no matter how thoughtfully dressed, with only an
+equipment of good will, and hope to do them much good. Nor was she, she
+now suspected, the person to attempt such a career. She fancied she saw
+inherent weaknesses in her character which would preclude a successful
+performance. She had been frightened, rather than inspired, by the women
+in that room, particularly by the women of her own age. "What right have
+you to come down here with your pearls and your simple gingham dress,"
+she felt they were asking, "and get off a lot of this college stuff to
+us?" What right indeed? She was convinced, in short, that she had been
+embarked upon a hopeless piece of snobbery, and, finding the whole
+business distasteful, it had not been difficult to discover her
+unfitness.</p>
+
+<p>The time had not been wasted, however. Not only had she satisfied
+herself that a career of Uplift was not for her, but she had made a
+friend into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> bargain. Tom, she decided, had behaved beautifully
+through it; and in her humbled state of mind the offence she had taken
+at his acting in the charade became all the more odious. What a
+mean-minded girl she could be, to be sure; yet how perfectly he had
+risen above the situation. He had received her rudeness with an
+instinctive fineness that gave freshness to the Biblical admonition
+about the other cheek. He had returned good for evil, and in supporting
+her through the ordeal of the Uplift Plan he had proved himself a tower
+of strength.</p>
+
+<p>Tom and she, a few days after the final lecture, had gone together to
+the college book shop and picked out their present for Professor Sprig.
+They had dawdled over the shelves, pulling down a book here and another
+there, meeting every few minutes to show each other a possibility, and
+then putting it back. The thing could, of course, have been done much
+more quickly, but neither seemed in a hurry to find the right one, for
+they both liked books, and the shop was well-stocked, and the clerks did
+not descend like buzzards upon them. They at length selected a
+rag-paper, wide-margined copy of Calverley's <em>Verses and Fly Leaves</em> and
+laughed at its inappropriateness for the physiologist. Still, they were
+confident enough that Mr. Sprig knew his Calverley quite as well as
+they, and that another copy would not be a burden. It had been a
+delightful two hours, and Nancy, at dinner, began a detailed account of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>But Henry was not interested. "It seems to me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> that you are seeing a
+good deal of Tom Reynolds, lately," was all that he said.</p>
+
+<p>And why shouldn't she see a good deal of Tom Reynolds? she asked
+herself. There was that in Henry's tone which opened up the old-time
+anger. Here he was, questioning her again, this time questioning her
+friends. He was questioning Tom!</p>
+
+<p>Had Henry wished to further the young man's chances with his sister to
+the best of his ability, he could not have chosen a more effective
+method. Tom, who had been doing very well on his own account, was now
+made doubly romantic through persecution. Nor do I think Nancy should be
+condemned as over-sentimental for feeling so, for if the reader&mdash;who
+cannot conceivably be thought over-sentimental&mdash;examine his own
+experience, I dare say he will find a parallel. In any event, Nancy was
+in a fair way to discover a tender interest in Tom, if, indeed, she had
+not already done so.</p>
+
+<p>But in the meantime, she must be true to herself and live richly. She
+had not yet determined what her new work would be, nor should she
+determine what it would be until she had considered the matter more
+dispassionately than she had the last one. Until the right thing was
+apparent, therefore, she would devote herself with more assiduity to the
+physical, mental, and spiritual progress of her nephew. After all, what
+finer work could there be than the rearing of a first-class American
+youth?</p>
+
+<p>Henry had sent his son to Miss West's kindergarten when he was scarcely
+four. Harry had not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> done well at the various cutting and pasting
+exercises, but he had been somewhat precocious at reading and was
+already advanced into the third reader. His orthographic sense, however,
+had not yet unbudded, and it was to the gentle fostering of this, in
+particular, that Nancy now committed herself. She also thought it high
+time that his musical education should commence, and the services of
+Miss Marbury were invoked. Harry, unlike the general run of his fellows,
+was wholly charmed with the prospect of playing, and the old piano was
+assailed with a diligence reminiscent of the youthful H&auml;ndel. So it
+happened that Harry was practising in mid-afternoon on the day when
+Leofwin Balch called, something over a week after the d&eacute;b&acirc;cle of Nancy's
+social service career.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy, too, was at home and was much surprised and annoyed when her late
+assistant appeared. Not the least surprising feature of his call was his
+costume. Usually clad with a conspicuous and artistic carelessness, he
+was today arrayed like the lilies of the field. He was wearing a morning
+coat, faultlessly pressed, and in its buttonhole bloomed a gardenia. He
+carried a stick with a gold band around it, his spats were of a light
+and wonderful tan, and in his hand, in place of the usual greenish-brown
+veteran, he held a grey fedora of precisely the shape and shade worn by
+His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on the occasion of that happiest
+of events, his recent visit to our country.</p>
+
+<p>"I learned from your chauffeur that you were at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> home," said Leofwin,
+smiling graciously, "but I had no way of knowing that you were alone."</p>
+
+<p>He had actually been spying on her! "Why didn't you call up one of the
+maids?" replied Nancy with more asperity than was perhaps becoming in a
+hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"Delightful picture," laughed Leofwin, "but as a matter of fact you see
+I don't know any of them, what?" and he nodded pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>Harry, who had progressed to the D scale at his second and latest
+lesson, was going over it with all the ardour of first love, and
+contributed a tinkly-winkly background which was vaguely disturbing. It
+was not near enough, however, to be quite recognizable, and Leofwin
+carried on without comment, supposing it to be a kind of funny clock, or
+something.</p>
+
+<p>"I called," he continued, "at this odd hour in the hope that I might
+find out how you are after our recent attempt to improve the lower
+classes." He drew his chair up nearer to Nancy as he spoke, and there
+was a tenderness in his tone that alarmed her, particularly in the way
+he emphasized "our."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite well, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I am glad to hear it," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The fervour of his words was nonsensical, but his intention, alas, was
+becoming clear.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will forgive me," he continued, "I shall begin at once upon the
+business at hand. We artists, you know, are sometimes accused of being
+unbusinesslike. Goodness only knows, I am a mere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> child at stocks and
+bonds and par and all those things, but the underlying essence of
+business I rather fancy I have&mdash;that is, quickness of perception. Now I
+quickly perceive that we are likely to be interrupted here at almost any
+minute." He paused and looked about a little wildly. "I do wish we might
+have a more secluded nook for our talk." Nancy, however, who was now
+prepared for the worst, did not offer more seclusion and her lover
+continued. "I wish we had some grotto where I could lead you. I would
+have it on the Libyan shore. Overhead would be the azure sky. Before us,
+stealing up the golden beach, would be the Mediterranean. What a
+colourful scene! Soft breezes would lull you to my mood, and on their
+spicy-laden breath would come the notes of fa&euml;ry music."</p>
+
+<p>While preparing for this call Leofwin had laboured over that conceit
+with all the diligence at his command; perhaps too diligently, for even
+he, had he not been blinded by zeal, might have seen that it was
+something too ornate to appeal to a rather practical young lady of
+twenty-five. It was much too ornate, that is certain; and it alone would
+have made him absurd had not fate joined forces against him and at
+precisely this point prompted Harry, who was for once impatient with his
+progress, to try to reproduce the larger music coursing through his
+soul. This he did by striking out wildly upon the keys in all
+directions; and at the same time the faithful Clarence, slumberingly
+waiting for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> master's return to earthly matters, burst into full
+cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious, what is that?" cried Leofwin.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy sped to the door of the music room, while strange and crashing
+harmonies rang through the house. "Stop, Harry. Stop that dreadful
+noise. You mustn't do that. Some one is calling on me. I think you had
+better go out and play, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please, Auntie, please let me play the scales some more. Just for
+fifteen minutes."</p>
+
+<p>It would have taken a heart of flint to withstand such pleading. Nancy
+left the musician and went boldly back to her visitor.</p>
+
+<p>Leofwin was plainly annoyed by the interruption. He should now have to
+start all over again, and starting was difficult. As Nancy reappeared,
+however, the clouds rolled from his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Is everything quite all right?" he asked solicitously.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite all right, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in speaking just now of the Libyan grotto, I think I probably
+suggested the theme of my visit to you this afternoon. I confess, I am a
+passionate man. Things of the senses appeal to me more than to most; it
+is, of course, the artist within me. I am like a mountain torrent or the
+beetling crest of an ocean comber rushing, full-bodied, down
+upon&mdash;upon&mdash;the floor." He came to a full stop and stared with pursed
+lips at the object of his love, sitting unhappily before him. What the
+devil <em>do</em><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> mountain torrents and ocean combers rush down upon? Nothing
+as domestic, surely, as a floor. The thing was unhappily met.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Mr. Balch," said Nancy, rising, "please don't go any further. I
+really can't listen to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy," he cried, attempting to seize her hand. "I must call you
+'Nancy.' I must call you more than that. With you by my side there will
+be nothing I cannot do. I shall make your name ring down the ages&mdash;like
+Madame R&eacute;camier, or&mdash;or, Mona Lisa. I already have planned a piece for
+us. You are to be Miranda, and I shall be Ferdinand. You are just
+emerging from your bath, and I am peering through the bushes at you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The picture was such a dreadful one that Nancy could endure the
+situation no longer. From being anxious to let him down as easily as
+possible&mdash;for he was, after all, paying her a compliment&mdash;she wished the
+scene over at any cost. He was making the most holy of moments a
+travesty. She felt amazingly self-possessed.</p>
+
+<p>"I appreciate the honour of your intention, Mr. Balch"&mdash;the language was
+that of Jane Austen, whom she had just been reading&mdash;"but I cannot allow
+it to go on. In fact," she hastened to add, for he showed signs of going
+on, "I shall have to ask you to go."</p>
+
+<p>The D scale, laboriously achieved, floated in from the music room.
+Leofwin turned away and Nancy, standing aside for him, was dismayed to
+note that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> his little eyes were filled with sorrow and disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," he said, "that I have for some time wanted you for myself,
+but of late another reason has been urging me on. If it hadn't been for
+it, I don't think I could have come to you. You see, it is my sister.
+She has set her heart upon a trip abroad; not an ordinary touristy trip,
+you know, but a real one&mdash;to Italy. We have now only enough money for
+one to go&mdash;I gladly resigned it to her&mdash;but she does not feel that she
+can leave me alone. If only you could have&mdash;but there, my dear, I'll not
+go on."</p>
+
+<p>Nancy was a little disconcerted by this sudden turn. The situation had
+become almost impersonal. "I'm sorry," she said. She wished that she
+could have thought of a better remark&mdash;a better one came in the night,
+when she was going over the whole affair&mdash;but he seemed grateful even
+for that.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," he said. "But Elfrida will be so disappointed. You simply
+can't imagine how this will spoil all her plans. But perhaps you will
+let me try again some time?"</p>
+
+<p>Harry was following his right hand with his left, an octave lower, with
+almost no success.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am afraid not," said Nancy as they stood in the doorway. She
+softened her words, however, by holding out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," he replied, gently taking it; and then, following the
+Continental custom, he stooped and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> kissed it, much to the amusement of
+two undergraduates who were at the time passing down Tutors' Lane.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+XI</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">ON the morning following the final lecture Tom woke early, and his mind
+flew to the miracle of the preceding night. He was now ablaze with
+Nancy! It was a dazzling business, but when had it happened? It had not
+been as though he had gazed too boldly into the sun and had fallen down,
+blinded by the light of it. It had, to date, been altogether painless.
+He had seen Nancy in various situations, some of them pleasant, some of
+them trying. He had liked the way she had met them; and then it dawned
+upon him that her behaviour was consistently good; and next he knew that
+it would always be so. This was a stupendous discovery, the more so
+since he was not aware of any such consistency in his own character. Had
+he not learned in elementary physics that unlike poles attract one
+another? He could even now picture a diagram in the book showing the
+hearty plus pole in happy affinity with the retiring minus pole, a
+figure which proved the thing beyond a doubt. Science, when made to
+serve as handmaiden to the arts, has its uses, after all, and Tom took
+comfort in its present service.</p>
+
+<p>Still, Nancy wasn't "cut and dried"; it would be a grave injustice to
+imagine her so. She was consistent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> in an ever new and charming way; she
+never obtruded her consistency. One would almost certainly never be
+bored with her; and yet one could depend upon her through thick and
+thin. He thought of the way the crew on a ferry boat throw their ropes
+over the great piles as they make fast in the slip. Nancy was such a
+pile&mdash;but what an odious figure! He thought of her face as he had first
+seen it on the night of the Vernal, when, slightly flushed and smilingly
+expectant, she had peered into the costume closet. A couplet floated out
+of Freshman English into his mind&mdash;something about a countenance which
+had in it sweet records and promises as sweet. He jumped out of bed to
+verify it, and found:</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A countenance in which did meet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sweet records, promises as sweet."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">He read on:</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A creature not too bright or good<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For human nature's daily food,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For transient sorrows, simple wiles,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">There was one more verse, and the last two couplets covered everything.</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A perfect Woman, nobly planned<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To warm, to comfort, and command;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And yet a Spirit still, and bright<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With something of an angel-light."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+He turned the book down, open at this point, and resolved to memorize
+those lines.</p>
+
+<p>His youth and playtime had now left him for good. The time for
+half-hearted or three-quarters-hearted attempts to forge ahead were
+over. He had pledged his heart and shortly hoped to pledge his hand in
+the service of the loveliest young lady in the world, none less. At
+present he was only a young instructor; of promise, perhaps, but still
+unproved. The immediate goal in his academic career was an Assistant
+Professorship; and although, even under the most favourable
+circumstances, it would probably be a matter of at least three years
+before he got it, nevertheless he could at least make it plain that he
+was indubitably on the way to it, and that (giddy thought) he was even
+of the stuff that Full Professors are made on! And no time should be
+lost before this were shown. Dressing feverishly, he corrected some
+slightly overdue test papers; and when he appeared at breakfast his
+landlady's three other guests noted the spirit in his bearing and
+commented upon it when he left.</p>
+
+<p>There was to be a meeting of the Freshman English Department in the
+afternoon, and Tom found himself looking eagerly forward to it. He had
+no idea of the business that was coming up, but he was going to be
+extremely keen-eyed and watchful about it, whatever it was. The little
+slump which he had allowed to creep into his work recently was over. He
+wondered if any of his colleagues had noticed it, and in particular he
+wondered if Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> Dawson, Head of the Department, had noticed it.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Dawson was Tom's beau ideal of all that a university
+instructor should be. Tom had had him when in college, had taken
+everything that he taught; and he looked back upon the hours spent at
+his feet as among the best of his whole life. To teach like that was to
+be doing something indeed; and it was the picture of himself giving
+formal lectures in the Dawsonian manner that had finally led him into
+teaching. That Tom should have imitated as best he could the Dawsonian
+manner and method was, therefore, inevitable, but it none the less
+exposed him to the smiles of the Department. A member of it, a Professor
+Furbush, found occasion to refer to the Johnsonian anecdote anent sprats
+talking like whales; and, Tom hearing of it, there was brought into
+being one of the enmities which add zest to collegiate existence.
+Professor Dawson was a young man to be so celebrated, being only some
+fifteen years older than Tom himself. He was, of course, a Full
+Professor&mdash;the only Full Professor in Freshman English.</p>
+
+<p>Next in rank to him in the Department was Mr. Brainerd, a gentleman who
+was nearly as much Professor Dawson's senior as Dawson was Tom's. Mr.
+Brainerd was, however, only an Assistant Professor, and it was now
+understood by all that he would never be anything higher. Fifteen years
+ago when he produced his chef-d'&oelig;uvre on Smollett his hopes had run
+high. At that time his fate hung in the balance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> He could no longer be
+regarded as one of the "younger men," and his status was to be
+determined once and for all. The crowning glory of a Full Professorship
+could only go to one who had made some significant contribution to his
+subject. Would <em>Tobias Smollett</em> be that? Into it had gone all that
+Brainerd could give, and it had, after a brief and generally indifferent
+appearance in the reviews, dropped out of sight. Then it was recognized
+that good old Burt Brainerd would have to putter through life as best he
+could. Mr. Brainerd felt no particular bitterness about it, certainly no
+bitterness towards the College. He had been disappointed in his
+publisher. He should have gone to Beeson, Pancoast with it; instead of
+to Trull. Trull hadn't pushed it at all: they merely announced it with a
+string of books on very dull subjects. Then, too, they had used a cursed
+small type. He had protested against this and had been told that a
+larger type would have made it much more expensive, would probably have
+necessitated doing the work in two volumes. They had had the calm
+assurance to talk to him of expense when he had consented to waive his
+royalties on the first five hundred copies!&mdash;an exemption, by the way,
+which they had not yet succeeded in working off. Well, that had been his
+main chance, and he now watched the rise of younger men with equanimity.
+And it must be confessed that he got a certain amount of cold comfort
+from the remembrance that on three several occasions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> good things had
+come to him from out of the west, and that he need not have remained
+"assistant" had he not elected to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for his wife, he might have become content. The library was
+a strong one, particularly in his field, and what more delightful end
+for a scholar than to browse at will in his period and write essays for
+the literary magazines? But Mrs. Brainerd chafed. Not having been a
+woman of means or of any particular position, she had been somewhat
+self-conscious in mixing with the great ones of the place. She had, at
+length, however, after a residence of nearly twenty years, decided that
+to live so was nothing; and she had boldly called upon Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee. She had found the great lady all charm and friendliness;
+but when, upon leaving, she had expressed the hope that Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee might be inclined to return her call, Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee had replied, "Thank you." "Is it 'Thank you, yes' or
+'Thank you, no'?" the rash woman had persisted. To which Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee had bowed, "Well, since you insist, I'm afraid it will
+have to be 'Thank you, no.'" Mr. Brainerd had felt the snub perhaps more
+than his wife, although he was most convincing in reassuring her that
+upon trying again, say with some one of the Whitman family, there would
+be small danger of such a rebuff. Mrs. Brainerd, however, had not tried
+again and had, with what stoicism she could command, resigned herself to
+the path God had ordered for her feet. So Mr. Brainerd's end at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+Woodbridge was not a brilliant one, but he did not shrink or cry aloud,
+and it was generally recognized that dear old Burt Brainerd was a good
+sport.</p>
+
+<p>The other Assistant Professor in Freshman English has already been
+mentioned&mdash;Jerome Furbush. He was a young man, a classmate of Henry
+Whitman, and rather intimate in consequence. He was, quite decidedly, a
+striking figure. Whereas the average member of the Faculty might have
+been taken for an ordinary business man in his working clothes, Furbush
+was obviously a man of temperament. Tall and lean, he had allowed his
+beard to grow into something of patriarchal proportions, or, more
+exactly, into one of those healthy spade-like growths which the French
+know so well how to develop. That it was a rich red only added to its
+distinction, and to his. He was noted for being a hard worker and a wit,
+but feeling about him was sharply divided. One could not be neutral;
+either one hailed him as a prophet and seer, or one hated him as an
+abandoned cynic, a vicious and arbitrary egoist whose presence in the
+community was a menace. There appeared to be evidence in support of
+either view. It was true that the Dean's office was frequently absorbed
+by problems of his making. He had a weakness, to illustrate, for calling
+his students liars and cheats upon, frequently, tenuous evidence; and
+the discussions that ensued were never amiable. On the other hand, a
+certain number of the most promising men in the class were invariably
+drawn to him and, taking up his battles, defended him against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> all
+detractors. The Permanent Officers had to admit that he got "results,"
+but they shook their heads. Jerome Furbush was notoriously a "case."</p>
+
+<p>Phil Meyers, instructor, had been graduated from a small western college
+and had taken his Ph.D. at a large eastern university. He was what is
+known as a "monographist," a thesis-writer; and it had become apparent
+to all that he was not long for the Woodbridge world. Word had
+repeatedly come through the somewhat devious channels of information
+that he was "no good." His classes were doing shockingly bad work and
+they were articulate in their disapproval of him. The coming June would
+close his first appointment, and it had been tactfully broken to him
+that he need not expect another.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the personnel of the meeting in Mr. Dawson's office.</p>
+
+<p>"I have called you together today, gentlemen," said Mr. Dawson after the
+preliminary pleasantries, "to consider the advisability of changing our
+course next year. It has been brought to my attention that there has
+been some criticism of the course as it now stands. Although," he
+continued, gazing at the blotter before him, "I could have wished that
+this criticism might have been made first to me, rather than have
+reached me indirectly, I am grateful for it at any time and welcome this
+opportunity for discussing it."</p>
+
+<p>The air had become electrified. Everyone understood that the criticism
+referred to had come from only one source, Furbush, and that Dawson was
+administering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> to him a public rebuke. Dawson remained staring at his
+blotter when he finished, and there was complete silence for several
+seconds. "Well?" he asked, raising his eyes. "Don't hesitate, gentlemen.
+Although the course is largely of my making at present, there is no
+reason why it should remain so, and I'm sure no one will welcome an
+improvement more than I." Another pause. "Come, Jerry, won't you lead
+the discussion?"</p>
+
+<p>Furbush, who seemed to be waiting to be thus addressed, rather than to
+presume to take the floor from his superior, Mr. Brainerd, smiled
+charmingly. "I should frankly wish," he said, "that the discussion be
+opened by one of you gentlemen, for I feel that my judgment in such a
+matter is possibly not of much value. I confess that I am not in as warm
+sympathy as any of you"&mdash;by singling out Meyers at this point he lent a
+quietly insulting tone to his remarks&mdash;"with the present course. Were it
+left to me, I should do away with Wordsworth, substituting, possibly,
+Swinburne. I have sometimes wondered if we weren't underestimating the
+potential strength of the Freshman's mind by feeding him on too much
+pap. By the same token I am inclined to think that I should drop Carlyle
+and Hawthorne for Matthew Arnold and, perhaps, Cardinal Newman."
+(Furbush was a High Churchman of a militant dye.) "What I should, of
+course, do would be to divide the present first term between Spenser and
+Milton, instead of giving it all to Shakespeare." This last was said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+directly to Dawson. It had been Mr. Dawson's particular joy that he
+could give one whole term to Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>Tom was sitting keen-eyed and alert, but it would obviously be madness
+worse confounded to risk a contribution to this discussion, which was
+for Titans only. But he was thrilled by the duel before him, even though
+the outcome was never in doubt, since a show of hands would give a
+unanimous vote to Dawson whatever the issue. Mr. Dawson, however,
+declined the gage of battle altogether. He apparently merely wished
+Furbush to make public confession of the iniquity that was in him; and
+after noting out loud the changes recommended, he abruptly closed the
+meeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Jerry, we shall think over what you have said, and a week from
+today we'd better get together again and act on it. At that time, too, I
+wish you people would come prepared with your questions for the final
+examination paper." He looked around pleasantly at the little group. "I
+guess that will be all today," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had been nothing but a spectator at that meeting; but after the next
+he emerged radiant. The discussion of the first one had taken only a few
+minutes. It happened that Mr. Furbush was not able to be present; and it
+was announced incidentally, that he had been transferred to Sophomore
+English. Of his proposed changes nothing had been said, although another
+change was made. It appeared that Mr. Dawson had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> teaching <em>The
+Winter's Tale</em> for the past six years and that he wished the
+Department's permission to drop it for <em>Cymbeline</em>. Mr. Dawson explained
+that he was getting a little stale on <em>The Winter's Tale</em>, and the
+change was hurriedly made.</p>
+
+<p>What an object lesson was this for the keen-eyed young instructor! On
+the one hand was the Scylla of Mr. Brainerd and on the other was the
+Charybdis of Mr. Furbush. Lucky was he who could sail safely past the
+two; and he was a wise young instructor who determined to follow in the
+Dawsonian wake.</p>
+
+<p>The final examination paper was then discussed; and Tom, who had come
+fully prepared and was extremely wide-awake, had contributed the "spot"
+passage in Wordsworth in its entirety&mdash;the couplet,</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"A countenance in which did meet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sweet records, promises as sweet,"<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">was included&mdash;and he had, furthermore, lent a most constructive hand in
+the framing of the Carlyle-transcendental question&mdash;a performance which
+he retailed to Mrs. Norris at the earliest moment, and which made the
+Assistant Professorship and Nancy seem definitely within his grasp.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+XII</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">MRS. NORRIS was pleased with Tom's account of his success in the writing
+of the examination paper. Certain unsatisfactory rumours had come to her
+ears recently about his work. Henry Whitman, for example, had stated
+that Tom was loafing and that unless he picked up and showed improvement
+he might not receive a reappointment when his present term had expired.
+It is curious how everyone knows everyone else's business at Woodbridge.
+Each man has his grade stamped clearly upon him, for all, with the
+possible exception of the man himself, to see. A young man can raise
+this grade; and Mrs. Norris&mdash;who loved Tom almost as though he were her
+own&mdash;was hopeful for him.</p>
+
+<p>"All he needs, Julian," she said to the Dean when she told him of Tom's
+triumph, "is a guiding hand. I can't do it, because I'm too old, but I
+know someone who can." She was "straightening out" the library at the
+time, and as she said this she gave a chair a shove with her knee, which
+sent it flying into the books on the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy on us," cried the Dean, annoyed by this display of vigour, "who
+is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pshaw, you're always trying to marry her off. You're the worst
+match-maker I know."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Norris laughed quietly. "You wait and see," was all she said; but
+she had settled in her mind upon a picnic.</p>
+
+<p>Mary, when approached upon the subject, had not been at all
+enthusiastic. "Why, it's much too early for a picnic," she had objected.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not at all. Everything is three weeks early this year, and that
+makes it about the middle of May. We'll have a lovely moon, too. It will
+be grand." And she proceeded to invite the guests, Nancy and Tom, and
+Furbush, for it was true that he had been most attentive to Mary of
+late. Mrs. Norris at first refused to go, but Mary insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to watch the fire, Gumgum, while we are off looking for
+sticks and things." And so she had gone, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Norris's ideas of a picnic were large, the heritage of a day that
+knew few tins and miraculous powders that bloom into omelettes. She
+scorned them and brought along a generous store of raw steak and bacon
+and potatoes. A picnic without a fire and roasting meat was too
+namby-pamby for words; and though she would not now undertake to cook
+the food herself, because of a certain eccentricity of the knee joints,
+and since her daughter, despite her domestic science, declined to do so,
+she had brought along Julia the cook. Nothing but the big limousine
+would do for such an undertaking, and, as it was, Furbush had to nurse
+the steak in his lap.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> Mrs. Norris would have reached the picnicking
+ground in a procession of buggies, but at that Mary protested so
+vigorously that she was forced to resign.</p>
+
+<p>The picnic place was a pretty, slightly inaccessible rock overlooking a
+creek. Though actually not far from Woodbridge, as the road was
+overgrown and the turns sharp the motor had to proceed with a
+deliberation which made the trip justifiably difficult. The rock itself
+was about a hundred yards from the road; and since there was scarcely
+any path through the woods to it, there were made possible the pretty
+callings and hallooings, fallings-down and pickings-up, without which no
+picnic is quite perfect. Mrs. Norris, as a matter of fact, did more than
+her share of this. She had not gone more than thirty steps into the wood
+before she was completely lost; and by the time she had been safely
+brought to the rock her hat was well over on one side, her hair
+streaming down, and the torn fringe of her petticoat dragging along
+behind in the dirt. Julia and Horace, the chauffeur, however, had gone
+directly to the rock without the preliminary vagaries vouchsafed to
+their superiors, and by the time Mrs. Norris was finally captured they
+had succeeded in getting the supper well under way.</p>
+
+<p>Upon her arrival Mrs. Norris announced her intention of roasting a
+potato.</p>
+
+<p>"Gumgum, please sit down," begged her daughter. "You are only upsetting
+everything," and she laid an unfilial hand upon her mother's arm.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am going to roast a potato," Mrs. Norris cried, shaking herself free
+and seizing upon a pared potato. "Tommy, get me a stick."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she awful," laughed Mary. "Don't you dare give her a stick, Tom."
+But Tom did dare, and Mrs. Norris, with her smiling benignity, stood
+waving the stick back and forth over the fire in time with the andante
+movement of her favourite Brahms sonata.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we might as well get ready to eat that old stuff," said Nancy to
+Furbush. "Don't you dread it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would not dread it, dear, so much, dreaded I not mother more," he
+replied, to Mary's intense gratification. But Tom, who heard the
+low-spoken words, thought them decidedly forced and disliked Furbush the
+more for them.</p>
+
+<p>Furbush's presence was undoubtedly a drawback to Tom's pleasure. How
+could he be natural with a person whom he disliked as much as he did
+Furbush and who he knew disliked him? Besides, he did not feel like
+being sprightly and picnicky with Nancy beside him. Instead, he felt
+homesick, or at least that is the way it seemed to him. Still, how could
+it be genuine homesickness when the object of his yearning was beside
+him? Nevertheless, there had been in his thoughts recently the picture
+of a certain small colonial house in Tutors' Lane, a house now for rent
+or for sale. Possibly, however, the contrast of such a life&mdash;the house
+would be furnished with highboys and gate-leg tables and oval,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> woven
+mats&mdash;with his present one at Mrs. Ruddel's furnished him with a genuine
+case of homesickness, after all. How perfect would life be in such
+surroundings! He liked to think of breakfast: He and Nancy, alone,
+except, of course, for the pretty, efficient maid&mdash;at their mahogany
+breakfast table. Nancy, busy with the coffee things at one end and he at
+the other&mdash;no, at the side&mdash;tucking away his grapefruit and bacon and
+hot buttered muffins and jam in the last few minutes before he dashed
+off up the hill to his eight-thirty. Good heavens, what a life that
+would be! He saw Nancy with the morning light on her hair and her
+pleasant, lively face&mdash;the nose with only the faintest possible trace of
+powder&mdash;bending over his cup; and then he realized that he was gazing at
+her now in the same position, only with the sunset light in her hair,
+and with a white porcelain cup receiving the coffee out of a thermos
+bottle, instead of a china cup from a swelling-silver pot.</p>
+
+<p>"Careful Tommy, you are dribbling it all over me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Nancy, I'm so sorry. I ask you, isn't that stupid. Please excuse
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"A little lemon or a hot iron or soap and water will fix it, probably,"
+said Furbush.</p>
+
+<p>Tom looked over at Furbush. He hated his liquid tones, like honey
+dripping on a blue plush sofa. "How the hell do you get that way?" he
+wanted to ask&mdash;then he rounded out the sentence with certain phrases
+which had been current among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> our heroes along all war fronts from
+Kamchatka to Trieste. Even a milder remark was happily averted, for at
+this point the potato which Mrs. Norris had been steadily roasting,
+burst into flame and had to be plunged into the fire; a grateful
+accident, for now she was willing to sit down on the camp stool brought
+for her and to confine herself to the slicing of the bread.</p>
+
+<p>What passed until the meal was finished was of slight significance. It
+was a decidedly detached party, the two couples being brought together
+chiefly through Mrs. Norris; and when Nancy and Tom had finished a
+banana which they had divided in the jolly picnic way, Tom stood up. "Do
+you realize," he asked Nancy, "that this is a wishing carpet we've been
+sitting on? Let's take it down by the creek and see where it will take
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear," said Mrs. Norris, not at all displeased. "And now where are
+you and Mary going?"</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to look for crocuses in the garden of the Queen of the
+Fairies," replied Furbush. "They ought to be up now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, take along this flashlight: it's getting awfully bosky-wosky in
+there." And then Mrs. Norris was left alone with Julia, whom she
+entertained with an animated and brilliant account of Titania and
+Oberon.</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall we go?" asked Tom when they were seated on the magic motor
+rug.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go to Libya!" said Nancy promptly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Libya! Well, I suppose we might as well go there as anywhere. You
+realize, of course, that we won't go until I put my foot on the
+carpet"&mdash;his left foot was straggling over the edge.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you'd better keep it there for a few minutes, then, until we
+are sure that we really want to go. As a matter of fact, I think it is
+rather nice right here in Woodbridge," and she smiled up at him.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy had, of course, smiled upon a great many young men without
+precipitating a proposal of marriage, but then, the young men had
+probably not woven her image into their future hopes and fears as
+thoroughly as he had. Also the hour and the place lent their potency to
+her smile. The soft spring evening, happily extended by Daylight Saving,
+the noisy little creek running by their feet, and the staunch ally of
+all such projects, the great round moon, all combined to weave a spell,
+just as Mrs. Norris planned that they should.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had come to the picnic prepared to speak his mind, not doubting that
+an opportunity would be given him. He had not memorized a speech, but
+was ready to trust to the inspiration of the moment. His cause was an
+honest one; he might expect the gift of tongues, but the starting gun
+had now been fired, the race was on, and he was not granted the gift of
+tongues. A little preparation might not have been amiss, after all.</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with you about Woodbridge. In fact, I think had rather go on
+living here than anywhere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> else in the world, provided one thing." He
+had plunged in without the gift of tongues.</p>
+
+<p>It was not so dark but that Tom could see the colour come into her face.
+"Provided what, Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Provided I can have you, Nancy. Provided you can love me as I love
+you." He had come nearer her, and although he had brought both feet upon
+the magic carpet, they remained stationary. "You mean more to me than
+anything I have ever known. I used to wonder how I could ever think more
+of anyone than I thought of Woodbridge and the Star and the different
+boys in college, but that was nothing compared to this." Nancy was
+tracing a series of geometrical patterns upon the magic carpet with a
+bit of stick. "I wish I could do something to show you how much I care
+now." Still Nancy said nothing. "And, oh, Nancy, what you could do for
+me! With you to help me, I think I could do anything. But I know I need
+you. Nancy, will you marry me?"</p>
+
+<p>Nancy was hardly prepared for this. She had, since the social service
+fiasco, acknowledged to herself that she had grown in that short space
+very fond of Tom. She looked forward to seeing him, and when he was gone
+she went over with pleasure what he had said and how he had looked. She
+liked his drollery and his strength, she admired his poise and
+self-reliance; and she had the greatest respect for his teaching
+ability, of which she had received direct proof. Still, she was not at
+all sure that she wished to marry him. After all, she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> really known
+him only something over a month, and it was not the Whitman way to hurry
+into anything&mdash;least of all into matrimony.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't ask me that, Tom."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Nancy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I cannot accept; not now."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that perhaps you can later? For of course I shall never grow
+tired of asking you."</p>
+
+<p>The moon had climbed a little and had turned a silvery yellow. It
+flooded the rock and the people moving about on it, but Nancy and Tom
+remained in shadow. "Tell me, Nancy," he said, leaning over and covering
+with his own the hand upon which she was resting, "tell me that I may
+ask you again, for, dear Nancy, I cannot lose you." She did not draw her
+hand away immediately and when she did so she did it gently.</p>
+
+<p>"You're awfully good, Tom," she said and Tom's heart swelled at the
+softness of her tone. Then she climbed to her feet, and&mdash;Tom picking up
+the magic carpet, which had become soaked through with the dampness of
+the creek bank&mdash;they made their way back to the rock.</p>
+
+<p>And so ended their first love scene. That Tom's behaviour will appear
+tepid, in these vigorous days, is to be feared. His own contemporaries,
+of both sexes, will almost certainly be the first to point out that had
+they been in his place nothing would have kept them from proceeding from
+the tame seizure of Nancy's hand to some bolder action. Tom, however,
+helping Nancy along over the rocks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> and sticks was happily oblivious of
+his unconventionality. The beauteous evening did, in very truth, seem
+calm and free to him, though the party on the rock was making a little
+too much noise to have the holy time quiet as a nun, breathless with
+adoration. His mind turned to the scrap of Wordsworth he had lately
+memorized, and though he was a trifle annoyed to find that he couldn't,
+even now, perhaps when he most wanted it, remember all, the phrase
+"comfort and command" stayed with him and did nicely for the whole.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+XIII</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">TOM telephoned to Mrs. Norris the next day to make certain that he might
+see her. He felt that she was an ally in the matter of Nancy, and it was
+important to get her advice.</p>
+
+<p>He found her knitting by the yellow lamp in the library. "Well, Tommy
+dear," she said, looking at him with a quizzical smile, "was the picnic
+a success?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Norris, you are wonderful. When I think how much I owe to your
+generation. After all, I think a woman is loveliest at fifty."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, flatterer!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you know you cannot get that fine <em>savoir vivre</em> before."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear me, how much more <em>savoir vivre</em> I'll have when I'm eighty.
+What an old charmer I'll be then! Will you come to see me when I'm
+eighty, Tommy?"</p>
+
+<p>"What a question!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hope you won't take me off on any old wishing carpet and put me
+down in a damp, horrid place and give me tonsilitis."</p>
+
+<p>"Who has tonsilitis?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy, of course, and you gave it to her, you bad thing."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Tonsilitis! He remembered now the damp rug and also certain sniffles
+that had required, from time to time on the homeward trip, the
+administration of a diminutive handkerchief with a pretty "N"
+embroidered, he knew, in the corner. So that is the way he would look
+after her!</p>
+
+<p>"What can I do about it?" It was true that Mrs. Norris was taking it
+very calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do? Why, you can't do anything but wait until she gets over it. You
+might go and see her when she begins to pick up."</p>
+
+<p>"I caught cold myself." He had at least been true to that extent.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you doing anything for it? Remind me when you go, and I'll give you
+some Squim. It's something new, and it did wonders for Mary."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think it might be nice for me to send Nancy some?" asked Tom,
+laughing. Tonsilitis was seldom fatal, after all; and what an excellent
+excuse to visit her it would be when she was getting better!</p>
+
+<p>"Tommy, dear, haven't you something to tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not really."</p>
+
+<p>"Not anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, hardly anything." He was sitting near her, and now he leaned
+forward and whispered, "I asked her to be my wife, and she refused." It
+was not said, however, in the tone one would expect for such an unhappy
+message. Mrs. Norris looked at him curiously. "She said she couldn't
+answer me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> now, but as good as gave me permission to ask her again&mdash;and
+when a girl talks that way, isn't it as good as settled?"</p>
+
+<p>It did look promising, certainly. But then, there was Henry. "What about
+Henry?" she asked. "How does he feel?"</p>
+
+<p>"What has he to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh my, he has a lot to do with it. He's more than just a brother, you
+know. He's her father and mother."</p>
+
+<p>"And aunt, maiden aunt, as well."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Norris laughed. "Henry's to be reckoned with, though, just like
+Marshal Ney&mdash;or was it Cincinnatus? I never can remember."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Mrs. Norris, what am I to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you must just be very nice and thoughtful to Nancy and as decent
+as you can be to Henry, and pray the Good Lord will help you."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you pray for me, too?" Tom had played too much baseball not to
+appreciate the value of organized cheering.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'll pray for you." And then Tom jumped up and planted a
+thoroughgoing kiss&mdash;which was designed for the cheek, but which, upon
+her turning quickly, was delivered, in a manner that even Leofwin would
+have applauded&mdash;upon her neck.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>On the sixth day Nancy sat up for a while during Miss Albers' hour and a
+half off. There was an abutment at one end of her room which overlooked
+the Whitman garden and carried the eye on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> down the hill until it rested
+on the factory in Whitmanville&mdash;the factory which made the garden
+possible for her. There was a letter in her lap from Tom. It had come
+with his roses and it asked her to go with him to the boat race. There
+was also a book in her lap, but she made no effort to read it; it was so
+much easier just to gaze out of the window and let her mind wander where
+it would.</p>
+
+<p>Henry knocked and entered. "Well, this is very nice. Do you really feel
+a lot better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever so much, thank you. I think probably I'll get up in a day or two."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you'll want your tonsils out now, won't you?" The question of
+a tonsilectomy had been a moot one for years. Nancy had always been
+anxious to have them out, having been told that it was merely a case of
+"snip, snip, and a day on ice cream." Henry, who regarded tonsilectomy
+skeptically as a fad, and who knew, furthermore, that it was a major
+operation for adults and that old Mrs. Merton hadn't walked straight
+since she had had hers out, was strongly opposed. This had, in fact,
+been an exceedingly sore point with them, and the amount of unhappiness
+engendered by it was considerably in excess of that which would have
+resulted from an operation when it was first suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have to wait, of course, until I get well over this. It isn't like
+a rheumatism, you know." Nancy had learned the jargon thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>Well, that subject was now disposed of, and Henry, with the directness
+of a trained economist,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> abruptly went into the main object of his call.
+There had been certain features about Nancy's delirium which had
+astonished and annoyed him, and he had come with the express purpose of
+discussing them should he find Nancy strong enough. He now decided that
+she was strong enough. "Do you realize that when your fever was high you
+talked at a great rate?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I vaguely remember mumbling and grumbling."</p>
+
+<p>Henry did not relish his task, but he felt it to be his duty&mdash;and Henry
+had never been one to shirk his duty. "You talked a great deal about
+this Tom Reynolds," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" Nancy was aware that she coloured. She was aware also of a sudden
+sinking sensation, not dissimilar to the one that comes from a too rapid
+drop in an elevator. So Henry had come to her at the first possible
+moment to protest against "this Tom Reynolds." "He has had a bad
+recitation," she thought, "and now he is going to take it out on me,"
+and then she called her brother a hard and inelegant name, as people
+will when angry with their dearest relatives. Had Nancy been of a
+satirical nature she might have made something of her brother's adoption
+of Freudian methods; but she was not, and she knew only direct-fire
+warfare.</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy," Henry went on, leaning towards her, "surely you are not in love
+with that man?"</p>
+
+<p>Had Tom been a head hunter with tin cans in his ears, Nancy would have
+loved him at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am," she said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Henry stared at her. It was clear she meant what she said. Then he
+glanced at the letter and the book that lay in her lap, as people will
+notice small things at such times. He guessed in whose handwriting the
+letter was, and&mdash;the book was <em>Sonnets from the Portuguese</em>! She had
+even taken to sentimental rubbish!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh Nancy, can't you see that he is not worthy of you? Who are his
+people? Where is he from? I wouldn't give <em>that</em> for his future here.
+He's lazy, and he's filled you up on a lot of poetry. Nancy, think well
+of it before it's too late." She was gazing out the window, hardly
+hearing him. She had confessed aloud, before Henry, that she loved Tom.
+Henry was going on. "If you won't think of yourself, perhaps you can
+think of Henry Third? What is to become of him if you go?"</p>
+
+<p>Nancy turned to look at him. She felt giddy now, and she thought she was
+going to cry. It would not do, however, to make a scene, when up to this
+point she had acquitted herself so well. "You mean that I should give up
+my life to look after your son?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't be melodramatic. We know one another so well it isn't
+necessary. I am not asking you to give up your life. I am asking you not
+to throw it away, and in the meantime you have certain definite
+obligations here. You are more than an aunt to Henry. Life here with him
+will be far better for you than being the wife of that uncertain boy."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She allowed it to pass, but it gave the final flick to her anger. "You
+are the kind of person, Henry, who is so monumentally selfish that you
+think everybody who dares to cross you in any way is himself
+monumentally selfish too. Now you come to me in a protective r&ocirc;le to
+save me from 'this Tom Reynolds' with a mass of ill-natured slander&mdash;and
+lies&mdash;because if I go to him you will have to get a new housekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't interrupt me, please. It would be the same, no matter who came.
+You would find some dreadful fault in anyone. You always have been
+jealous of every man that ever came here and if you had your way you
+would keep me here for life." Nancy paused, but her brother did not
+offer to speak. She had asked not to be interrupted, and he would be
+quite sure that she was through before he spoke again, but he could not
+conceal his anger. Nancy noticed it, and her own anger increased. "I
+don't think I'd mind it so much, if you didn't pretend that it was all
+for my good. That is nothing but rank hypocrisy. Just what have you ever
+done to make my life pleasant here? You are never interested in what I'm
+interested in, outside of Harry. This lecture business you just laughed
+and sneered at. I admit it was ridiculous, but you wouldn't lift your
+finger to make it less so. I admit, also, that I would appreciate a
+little attention once in a while, but it would never occur to you to
+give me any pleasure unless you had to, to get some for yourself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> When
+you really want to give me a good time you sit down and talk to me about
+your miserable old Labour class and what a wonderful lecture you gave
+them. Well, Henry, that time is past, and I am going to have my own life
+from now on." And the tears which she had been fighting back were no
+longer to be denied.</p>
+
+<p>Henry was entirely put out, and he awkwardly got up. Now was clearly not
+the time to renew the attack. Nothing that Nancy had said was of the
+slightest significance, except her lack of interest in his work. There,
+indeed, was a sorry confession of inability to forget herself in the
+greatest interest of her nearest relation. Poor wilful girl! Well, he
+had done his duty. No one could charge him with unbrotherliness.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy had also got up. "Please go away," she sobbed; and Henry, without
+further word, did so.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy crawled back into bed and had her cry out. What a brute he
+was&mdash;and what a god was Tom! What a miserable snob Henry was about
+family&mdash;and then for him to say that Tom had no future! Had Tom been a
+member of his wretched old Grave, he would have had a very different
+view of it. That was the cause of nine-tenths of his dislike, anyway.
+Tom was in the rival club and Henry never could see any good in anyone
+connected with it. What a miserable, juvenile business! Had not Tom
+frankly confessed his need of help? Henry had never in any way indicated
+that she could be of service to him, except to order his meals and keep
+him comfortable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> But Tom had thrown himself upon her. He "needed"
+her&mdash;that had been his word. With her to help him he felt that he could
+do anything. What a career for a girl! That would be living indeed.</p>
+
+<p>She thought of his unanswered letter and climbed out of bed at once.
+"Dear Tom," she wrote, and again the tears came into her eyes, "Thank
+you so much for the lovely flowers. They are by my bed and I can enjoy
+them all day long. It is awfully nice of you to ask me to the Boat Race
+and I accept with pleasure. I don't think there will be any question
+about my being able to make it. In two weeks I should be perfectly well
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be lovely to see you and I can do so at any time now.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"As ever,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;" class="smcap">"Nancy."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The final draft of the letter was composed only after three preliminary
+ones. Nancy found it extremely difficult to get just the right tone. She
+couldn't put too much warmth into it, and yet it mustn't be too cold. So
+she sat at her desk, copying and recopying, and only succeeded in
+finishing it when Miss Albers returned.</p>
+
+<p>"I've done it at last," she announced proudly, her cheeks aflame. Miss
+Albers, fortunately one of the few surviving members of the Good Nurse
+family, saw the situation immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I see you have," she said. "Isn't that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> fine! Now I think you are
+entitled to a nice nap." And when Tom arrived, post-haste upon receipt
+of Nancy's note, he was met at the front door with the news of her
+relapse.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+XIV</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">WHEN Tom reached the Whitman house on the day of the race, he found it
+full. He had seen Nancy only once since her illness; and as her room had
+then been filled with people, his call was not remarkable. He had not
+failed to notice, nevertheless, that the colour came into her face as he
+entered the room; and there had been other auspicious signs which had
+had an exciting effect upon his pulse. This call had been made only two
+days before the race, and it was then clear that Nancy could not go with
+him. A Philadelphia cousin had, however, announced her arrival&mdash;a
+particular friend of hers being in the Woodbridge boat&mdash;and would Tom
+mind taking her? Uncle Bob Whitman had wonderful seats, being an
+Overseer, but he wasn't going to be able to use them, and&mdash;of course Tom
+would be only too happy to take her.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy, pale and lovely, was serving tea, but she found time to thank him
+again for his goodness about the Philadelphia cousin, and then she took
+him over to be presented. On the way across the room they passed Henry.
+Tom, who stared at him, missed the tell-tale blush on Nancy's cheeks.
+Instead, he only saw Henry shift his eyes calmly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> from Nancy to him and
+bow coldly. Tom bowed as coldly in his turn, and then Nancy left him
+with the Philadelphia cousin.</p>
+
+<p>Lily Griffin, the Philadelphia cousin, gazed at him steadily from under
+the floppy expanse of her black hat. She was sitting on a low cane
+covered bench before the fireplace, and her legs, which were encased in
+light grey silk stockings and which terminated in slippers of the same
+colour, her legs, let it be relentlessly repeated, were the most
+conspicuous things in the room. Over her shoulders were the thin strings
+of an undergarment that Tom thought was generally concealed. Still, one
+couldn't be at all sure about such things from one day to the next.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind taking my cigarette?" she asked, handing him the stub.</p>
+
+<p>"So you know Platt Raeburn," he began amiably when he had returned from
+his pretty task.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"He's an awfully nice boy. I know him quite well." Platt was in the
+Star; and Lily, who knew a great deal about such things, immediately
+suspected that Tom was also. How else would a professor know a crew star
+"quite well"? Her interest in Tom rose. He had, as a matter of fact,
+attractive eyes; and that cerise-coloured knitted tie with a pearl
+stickpin might indicate much.</p>
+
+<p>"Platt is a nice boy, isn't he?" she continued with a shade more
+enthusiasm. "We went on the most wonderful party this Easter. He wasn't
+in training then, you know, and I have never seen any one funnier<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> than
+he was. We were at the Greysons' in Ardmore, and Platt thought he was
+insulted by the butler when he took Platt's cigarette off a table and
+threw it in the fire. It was burning the table, but old Platt didn't
+know that, and he knocked the man down."</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been funny," said Tom, who had heard the story before.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was a scream. I thought I'd die laughing. It was really awfully
+bad of him, though, don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know," said Tom boldly. "I don't think it was so very bad.
+You've got to expect that sort of thing nowadays."</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy, I didn't think you'd say that. Aren't you a professor here, or
+something?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, something."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but I always thought&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing. Say, just between you and I, don't you think this is
+rather slow?" and she gave him a look that showed he was making good.</p>
+
+<p>The hospitality they were accepting was, of course, his own Nancy's, and
+to be strictly honourable he should have defended everything, but with
+certain definite reservations in his mind he replied, "Deadly."</p>
+
+<p>"That dreadful old creature over there actually eyed me when I smoked
+that last cig." The dreadful old creature was Mrs. Conover, who found it
+difficult to reconstruct herself to the present century.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> "I should
+think it would be awfully stupid living here. Now, isn't it really?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it isn't half bad."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can see you're a highbrow, like all the rest of them. Personally,
+I couldn't stand it. I'm too independent, I guess. What a sweet dog."
+Clarence was before her, arrayed in the Woodbridge colours. "I love
+dogs. I've the sweetest little Boston bull bitch at home. She won a
+silver flask for me last year." She was examining Clarence with the eye
+of a practised dogwoman. "Do you know anything about Airedales?" Tom
+didn't. "I suspect his tail is wrong," she said. "Now run along,
+sweetie," she called to Clarence; "momma can't have a baby with wrong
+tail." Clarence received this incredulously, but a complication was
+averted by the arrival of Nancy. "We were just criticizing your dog, my
+dear. Why don't you have his tail fixed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked Nancy. She hated the thought of
+anything having happened to Clarence.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's too long. You should have two inches at least cut off." The
+picture of Clarence going around with his tail done up in a bandage was
+a delightful one, and Nancy laughed.</p>
+
+<p>Lily appealed to Tom. "Isn't she heartless?" But before Tom could answer
+the slightly embarrassing question, the cruel one announced that they
+had better be on their way, as the race started at five and it was then
+half-past four. So they hustled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> into the Whitman motor and drove to
+Center, where the new observation train was already filling.</p>
+
+<p>The race with Hartley was always one of the great spring events, but the
+new observation train made it more of an event than ever. People gloated
+over it as though they had never seen a train before, much to the
+amusement of Lily, whose attendance at New London had been frequent.
+Many paused admiringly at the engine and, as they passed on up the line
+of a dozen cars, loudly proclaimed their admiration of the entire
+arrangement. "They are just like prairie schooners," said one young man,
+to Lily's huge delight, for she had never before seen so much
+provincialism all at once. The platform was thick with people rushing to
+find their cars at the last minute. All was hurry and excitement and
+colour and laughter. The orange of Woodbridge and the olive of Hartley
+were everywhere. Each person boldly displayed his colours, whether with
+flowers or feathers, and it was clear that earth had few greater
+pleasures than this. Then the engine tooted and rang its bell, and with
+a convulsive wrench they were off, amid the cheers of everyone.</p>
+
+<p>Tom and his Lily were seated between the Hartley cheering section and
+the Woodbridge cheering section, in the very choice seats which Mr.
+Whitman naturally commanded and Tom, although he thought boat racing a
+much overrated sport and resented its being preferred to baseball, felt
+a distinct thrill as they passed out upon the river bank and up to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> the
+starting point. Only the cold unseasonable wind which swept down the
+course, riffling the water and chilling every one to the bone, marred
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>They arrived at the starting point, and the occupants of the new cars
+wrapped what little they had around them. Quite obviously, the race
+could not be rowed until the wind died. There was nothing to do but just
+sit and wait.</p>
+
+<p>The Hartley cheering section immediately climbed down upon the bank,
+with the exception of one young man who was left with his head lolling
+over the side of the car next to Tom. Friendly remonstrance had been
+futile. He had refused to move and had elected to slumber. "I think he's
+sweet," said Lily, gazing over at him. "Tell me, do you have much
+trouble getting liquor here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Tom. Already the spell of the day was wearing off.</p>
+
+<p>"I've learned, to my sorrow that you can't be too careful. Such a time
+as I had last month! I went out to a luncheon party&mdash;May Stephens&mdash;you
+know her? Well, just before luncheon I was astonished to see cocktails
+appear. I didn't think May had any stock, but there she was just the
+same, jiggling the shaker up and down. Well, at the first sip I thought
+something was funny, but there was nothing to do about it; and then May
+gave me a dividend, and although it nearly killed me, I managed to get
+it down, and then when we were all through she asked us how we liked it.
+Well, I told her I thought it was a little funny, and then she
+announced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> what I knew all along; that she had made it herself. 'I made
+it out of spirits of nitre,' she said. 'Did you boil off the ether?'
+someone asked, and she said she hadn't! Well, we hadn't got hardly
+started at lunch when one of the girls passed right straight out and
+then we all began feeling trembly and queer, and then the next thing I
+knew I was at home in bed, and I wasn't up and about for a week. Wasn't
+that awful?"</p>
+
+<p>Tom's enthusiasm was ebbing fast. What a prodigious bore this race was
+going to be! The wind was blowing up his legs, and his light spring
+overcoat was far from ample. The seats were too close together and were
+of a granite hardness; but he and Lily were wedged into the back and
+could not escape without treading upon the toes of half of Woodbridge's
+notables. So he sat still and tried to smile brightly at the conclusion
+of her story.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know?" Lily continued, "I think you have a lovely smile."</p>
+
+<p>"Goody," replied Tom, and smiled again, this time rather archly.</p>
+
+<p>Lily was examining him between half closed lids. "And I think you have
+nice eyes, too&mdash;particularly the lashes. They are so long and silky."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's a great secret, of course," replied Tom, "and you mustn't
+tell even your mother"&mdash;Lily giggled&mdash;"but I think you have the
+prettiest way with you I have ever seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me, you are funny. Now you must keep me warm."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The car, it has been pointed out, was full of Woodbridge notables, and
+any warming of the young lady would not have been looked upon with
+favour. Nor would Tom have cared to warm her had they been quite alone
+at the North Pole. What an ordeal this was getting to be, and how lucky
+was Nancy, comfortably seated before the fire! How good would that
+particular fire be, and what a soft and fragrant place to ask a certain
+question! What a contrast Nancy made to this miserable girl beside him!
+Nancy at the time happened to be repairing certain ravages that the tea
+had made upon her nephew's best blue suit, but the scheme of Tom's
+thoughts was not spoiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Bad man, you're not showing me any kind of a time."</p>
+
+<p>Tom was exasperated. A group in front of them had built a fire. "How
+would you like to go down there?" he asked. "Can you climb down over the
+side here?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Course I can."</p>
+
+<p>Tom climbed over the railing, dropped to the ground, and, turning his
+ankle, cried "Ouch!" loudly enough to waken the young Hartley man whose
+head was lolling over the adjacent railing. The youth looked up and
+beheld the lovely Lily poised, apparently preparing to fly into his
+arms. He reared himself up. "Come, lovely girl," he cried, "I love you."
+And then as she swooped by, he made a grab at her and tore her dress.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You bad boy," she cried, with little discretion, "you tore my dress."</p>
+
+<p>"You bad boy," repeated the young Hartley man, "yuhtoradress,
+yuhtoradress."</p>
+
+<p>Tom had managed to hurry her away, although his ankle hurt him
+considerably, but not until all the notables had seen the performance.
+What a mortifying affair. No doubt many supposed that he was the one who
+had torn the dress.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, Lily met a friend at the fire, and Tom was free for the
+time being. Would the wind never die down? The flag on the coach's
+launch was not quite so active. There was a rumour that they would start
+at six-thirty. Only half an hour more. Well, he could stand that. Lily
+seemed to be having a time with her new young man, and he limped over to
+a neighbouring fire where there were fewer Lilies and more heat. There
+he met a classmate of whom he was particularly fond; and before he knew
+it the starter's launch had put out into the river, and the parties
+around the fires were scampering back aboard the train. With
+considerable difficulty he followed Lily up over the side, for his foot
+was now swollen and painful. Finally, however, they were seated again,
+buoyed up with the thought of the race's being at last under way&mdash;when
+the starter's boat retired from the scene, and word arrived that the
+race would not be rowed until seven.</p>
+
+<p>Tom could not cover his disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you are very polite!" said Lily.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sorry," replied Tom, his ankle throbbing.</p>
+
+<p>"In fact I think you're horrid."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said Tom. Lily looked her rage and half turned her back on him.
+Well, that was something to be thankful for, at any rate.</p>
+
+<p>They sat there in ever-increasing gloom. Some of the Lilies gamboled
+back to shiver over the fires, but even they were beginning to droop.
+Tom's Lily would have joined them&mdash;her new friend was not a wet
+smack&mdash;but Tom, with his throbbing ankle, did not offer to go, and she
+was too proud to suggest it. So they sat and waited.</p>
+
+<p>The race was eventually rowed. At the starter's gun the train gave
+another convulsive jerk, which sent Tom's injured foot flying against
+the side of the car, and the crowd fanned into life its jaded
+enthusiasm. Out in the gathering dusk the two crews inched their way
+along. It was not quite clear which was which, the blades both showing
+black, and though Lily was certain she had located Platt and cheered
+lustily for his boat, subsequent evidence indicated that he was in the
+other. The two cheering sections woke to frenzy, and the notables' car
+was swept with confusion. Lily was beside herself and kept jumping to
+her feet with an appealing cry of "Oh Platt!" Tom looked over at the
+Hartley car at one point and saw that his friend had apparently had
+fresh access to his source of refreshment, for he was now blissfully
+asleep, cheek on the railing.</p>
+
+<p>At the two-mile stake&mdash;with a final mile to go&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> boats were even,
+but both sides were jubilant, for from each section it clearly showed
+that the home crew was ahead. Then the train shot behind a heavily
+timbered point, and when the view of the river was again free, the
+Woodbridge shell was half a length behind and obviously beaten. A pang
+of disappointment shot through Tom. Oh, well, it was a fitting climax to
+the day. There they were, slipping back and back. They were splashing
+badly, and one of the Woodbridge men was obviously not pulling his
+weight. Then the Hartley boat flashed over the finish amid the tooting
+of countless automobiles along the banks, a winner by a length and a
+quarter.</p>
+
+<p>The Hartley people had given way to a transport of joy, while their
+coxswain crawled along his shell throwing water over the chests and
+faces of his men. The two boats floated idly about, their crews bowed
+forward, gasping in agony for strength. To the men in the Hartley boat
+came the faint sound of their grateful supporters. They had won&mdash;and
+what was an enlarged heart or, possibly, a damaged kidney, to such
+glory? The half hysterical screams of their Lilies were sweet
+compensation. As for the Woodbridge crew, well, they would have to
+swallow their dose as best they could&mdash;and wait for next year.</p>
+
+<p>The young Hartley man next to Tom woke up. "'S the race over?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's over," shouted Tom, for no one else heard him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Thank God," he shouted hoarsely, and went back to sleep&mdash;a sentiment
+which cheered Tom so much that Lily, on the homeward trip, decided he
+wasn't quite such a dumb-bunny, after all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+XV</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap">SCARCELY a day went by now without Tom's tracing his steps to the Norris
+house. He seldom bothered any more with the formality of the door: going
+around to the terrace side, he walked into the drawing-room unannounced.
+If no one was at home, he sat down with a magazine or book in the
+library or drummed at the piano. Then, possibly, he would go before
+anyone arrived; but the house which was so friendly to him and so full
+of Nancy, was far dearer to him than her own, for Henry's hostility was
+too marked to make his visits there other than difficult.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that he came unexpectedly upon Mrs. Norris, Mary, and Nancy
+when he walked into the library on the day following the race; and then
+he regretted his free and easy entrance. For Mary was in tears and was
+receiving the comfort of her mother and friend. Tom backed hurriedly
+out, muttering an inarticulate apology and cursing himself for an
+awkward fool. Mary saw him, however, and with a sob brushed past him in
+the hall and went upstairs. Her mother who swept after her like a large
+and stately galleon in her black silk dress, was more troubled than he
+had ever seen her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+Still, as she passed, she told him not to mind. And then he was alone
+with Nancy.</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth is the matter?" he asked. Nancy, too, was thoroughly
+upset.</p>
+
+<p>"Just look at that," she said, and pointed to an article in a New York
+evening paper. "Woodbridge Professor Drowns," ran the headlines.
+"Overtaken by Cramps After Eating Cherries and Milk." It appeared that
+Professor Furbush had defied the popular fear of the fatal combination
+and, in order to make his defiance complete, had promptly gone in
+swimming after eating it. The tragedy had occurred at the country house
+of relatives; and though a number of people were present, they took his
+cries for help as a joke until it was too late. The account went on to
+explain that it was more sad even than it might at first appear, for it
+was generally supposed that the dead man had been engaged to marry Miss
+Mary Norris, daughter of the Acting President of Woodbridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, isn't that dreadful," said Tom. It is always a little hard to know
+what should be said in such circumstances. If the one who has just died
+is close to us, we don't think about what to say at all, but if it is
+only an acquaintance and we are merely a little thrilled by his going,
+it is difficult; for decency requires a solemn look and a shocked word.
+So Tom did what he could to be decent; and Nancy, who was staring with
+half averted face out upon the garden, made no reply. She, of course,
+knew all the secrets of Mary's heart and must be sharing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> her sorrow.
+Accordingly, any words from him, other than sympathetic ones for Mary's
+loss, would be untimely. Perhaps, even, she would insist upon remaining
+in sisterly spinsterhood! "It's awfully tough, isn't it," Tom added.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Nancy, somewhat faintly, from the curtains. Nancy seemed
+very much upset. Tom knew that Furbush had been a frequent visitor at
+her house, and probably she had grown fond of him. He was not at all
+aware, however, that Furbush's affair with Mary had progressed so far.
+He could not picture Furbush marrying Mary&mdash;or anyone else, for that
+matter&mdash;and he doubted whether Furbush would have married her. Still, it
+appeared that Mary had cared for him, and now her little romance was
+over.</p>
+
+<p>"It's awfully hard on Mary, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Furbush was gone. Who would take his place? His place, an Assistant
+Professorship&mdash;there was now a vacancy! A flood of excitement swept
+through him. But how foolish to expect that it would fall to him. He had
+taught but one year, and he was only twenty-five. People still spoke of
+Harry Spear's having been given his Assistant Professorship at the end
+of three years as a record-breaking performance. He knew perfectly well,
+furthermore, that he had not made a startling success of it; not the
+kind of success that makes a man jump from a Captaincy to a
+Brigadiership. Still, he thought he stood quite as well as the other
+young instructors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> in the department; and his "outside connections" were
+considerably better. After all, a man's career in college counted for
+something. And so, although he knew that the thing was impossible and
+that what they would do would be to go outside for an older man, he
+luxuriated for a moment in the picture of the Dean congratulating him on
+his success. An Assistant Professorship and Nancy! The two were linked
+in his mind as the sum-total of desire; and since he could think of
+Nancy without thinking of the Assistant Professorship, but could not
+think of the Professorship without thinking of Nancy, it is to be
+supposed that Nancy came first.</p>
+
+<p>And there she was now, over by the window, painfully aware of the garden
+and fidgeting ever so little with the curtain. Perhaps this might not be
+such a bad time to repeat his question, after all. Had she not of her
+own free will come to the Norris house, at which she knew that he was
+almost a daily visitor? There was in that something to give him heart.
+As if he hadn't enough evidence without it!</p>
+
+<p>"You will admit, though, Nancy, that it was an awfully stupid thing for
+him to eat the cherries and milk, won't you? Everyone knows that it
+can't be done." Tom moved over nearer to her, but she did not answer
+him. Instead, she fixed her eyes steadily on the bulging root of an elm
+in the garden. She must concentrate everything on that to keep from
+being an utter fool. But what an hour it had been! First the dreadful
+news about Furbush and that thing in the paper, and then Tom's
+unexpected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> entrance. How wonderful he looked as he came into the room;
+he had been so self-possessed, and she should have been such a ninny in
+his place!</p>
+
+<p>Tom took a step nearer. "Nancy," he said very tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>The root was waving now; it <em>would</em> become indistinct. How gentle he
+was, and how different from Henry! "Nancy!" he repeated. Then the root
+became altogether blurred and meaningless, and she felt him take her in
+his arms and kiss her. "Darling Nancy," he was saying; and, somehow, to
+her great relief, she found an apparently adequate reply.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>It was decided that a long engagement was altogether unnecessary, a
+decision which was without repeal, in view of the absence of parental
+supervision. Why waste the perfectly good summer? Why indeed? And so the
+wedding was set for a few days after Commencement.</p>
+
+<p>"That will give me just about enough time to get ready," said Nancy,
+"and I really think you must get a new cutaway."</p>
+
+<p>Then at last Commencement was over. The electricians bore away for
+another year the last of the class numeral signs which had hung from
+their respective Headquarters. The Headquarters themselves had been
+swept and cleaned and restored to their owners, and one by one the
+dwellers, in Tutors' Lane prepared to board up their houses for the
+summer and depart for the mountains or for the shore.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The wedding alone kept most of them in Woodbridge. Few there were that
+had not some pleasant memory of Nancy, and the sacrifice of a day or two
+of vacation was counted as little. Furbush's dramatic end had held the
+centre of the Woodbridge stage, but it was now forced into the
+background by the question: Was Tom good enough for Nancy? It was
+generally agreed that he was getting the best of it, but not many
+thought that she was altogether throwing herself away upon him. Nancy
+might have married anyone, it was pointed out, and having had so much
+responsibility, she could have graced the board of a much older man.
+Instead, she had chosen a young instructor&mdash;a pleasant enough boy,
+perhaps but still unproved. Well, Nancy would make the most of him,
+there was no question of that, and of course he was a great friend of
+the Norrises and it was known that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee herself
+approved of the match. So they would hope for the best, and Nancy was a
+dear girl.</p>
+
+<p>Tom was in perfect accord with the last sentiment, and it will perhaps
+be charitable to draw a veil over his behaviour at this time. Such names
+as "Mrs. Mouse" and "Boofly Woofly" are all very well when whispered
+teasingly into the delighted ear of one's intended, but they hardly
+stand the light of unromantic day. They have even been known to set up
+opposing currents of emotion in breasts not so nicely attuned, and to
+inspire such expressions as "Fish!" or even "Blat!" It may well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> be a
+considerate office, therefore, not to submit our lovers to the graceless
+manners of the unsympathetic, but to let them enjoy their artless
+passages unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>One of these, alone, might be risked. Nancy had confidingly told him
+that she had all the faith in the world in his future, and he heard her
+gratefully. "Why, the way you talked to those men at the mill shows
+clearly enough what you can do," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Tom coloured slightly, but let the moment pass without explanation. When
+he had first done so it was with the mental reservation that he would
+laughingly explain it some day, and he would, too, but it wasn't yet
+just the right time. So he stooped and kissed her affectionately; and
+then, as he was hatless at the time, she was reminded of something she
+had long wanted to tell him.</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't look out, Tom, you will be perfectly bald in five years."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've done everything I can, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, all you have to do is to brush it five minutes in the morning and
+five minutes at night."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten minutes a day! I should be exhausted."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I shall do it for you, then." Whereupon the scene acquired an
+excess of sentiment at once.</p>
+
+<p>Certain more mundane passages may be observed, however, without any
+particular offence.</p>
+
+<p>The passages that took place around the opening of the wedding presents
+were possibly as diverting as any. Tom, whose mind's eye was ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> upon
+the little colonial house in Tutors' Lane, now his property, was perhaps
+more concerned than most grooms are in the furnishing of his nest. He
+found himself greatly elated when he or his bride would draw forth some
+shining prize of a silver bowl or plate&mdash;until they began getting too
+many of them&mdash;and correspondingly depressed when some many-coloured
+glass lamp or strange dish would appear. What on earth could they do
+with them? Dear old Mrs. Conover, for example, sent a large Bohemian
+glass jar of a peacock-eyes pattern. It would have to be on view when
+she called, and as they had no way of knowing when that would be, it had
+to be on view all the time.</p>
+
+<p>From Omaha came an ominous package which made Tom shudder. Would his
+sister contrive to mortify him? He could picture her pleasure in doing
+so, and when the package was opened and out came two china parrots, Tom
+thought the pleasure was hers. A note which came with the birds
+explained that they were very fashionable in Omaha at the time and that
+all Omaha had them on its dinner table. To Tom, his sister's gift and
+note could hardly have been worse, but Nancy kissed him and told him not
+to be stupid, that the parrots were nice; and Tom was so flustered he
+couldn't tell whether they were or not. At any rate, Nancy wrote a
+charming, sisterly little note, and Tom was more pleased with his future
+than ever.</p>
+
+<p>The silver tea service which arrived early from Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee was among the grandest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> presents that Nancy received from
+outside the family. She was particularly grateful for it, since it
+enabled her to leave her mother's with Henry and thus avoid a discussion
+which would have been unendurable at the time. It was true that Henry's
+wife had had a tea service herself and that it was now his; but it was
+not so fine as the Whitman one, and Henry would have regarded its
+removal with a jaundiced eye. His wife's silver, however, was quite a
+bit more handsome than the family silver, and he relinquished the latter
+with a gesture so graceful that any further donation of property to the
+hymeneal happiness seemed almost fulsome. Still he did make a further
+contribution&mdash;a costly set of John Stuart Mill.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after she announced her engagement Nancy was waited upon by
+the Misses Forbes. Their mission was one of obvious importance, for they
+seldom moved out of their warm little house, excepting, of course, Miss
+Jennie, who was quite indifferent to the outside and marched forth
+almost without a thought. They wore, furthermore, a serious
+demeanour&mdash;even Miss Jennie, whose assumption of a cavalier manner
+didn't quite hide her excitement. She was carrying a small parcel neatly
+done up in white tissue paper; and when, after a period of rocking, she
+launched upon the little speech she had prepared, her liver-spotted old
+hands opened and closed over it. "You must know, my dear," she said,
+"that we are going to miss you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> very much. Of course, you are not really
+going away"&mdash;the little colonial house was in truth only a quarter of a
+mile farther from their house than Nancy's present one&mdash;"yet it can't be
+quite the same, and we want to mark your going with our love and best
+wishes. So we have brought you the Burnham lace for you to keep and hand
+down to your children, and may God bless you, my dear, and keep you."
+Then they all had a quiet turn at their handkerchiefs, and the Burnham
+lace passed into the House of Reynolds.</p>
+
+<p>Leofwin also called and delivered his gift in person. Tom was
+fortunately in the room at the time, and the somewhat painful scene was
+not protracted. It was the first meeting they had had since Leofwin had
+offered his hand and been rejected, and even Leofwin was constrained.
+Nancy wondered if Elfrida were to have her trip to Italy, but she could
+not put the question without appearing unmaidenly since she knew so well
+the only condition of the trip; and as Woodbridge had not many girls
+that were eligible for Leofwin's love, the prospect was indeed black.
+"Your happiness is all I ask," he said in a low tone, and, despite the
+theatrical diction, even Tom was touched by his sincerity. "You know, of
+course," he went on, "that I am not in a position now to make an
+adequate expression of my wishes"&mdash;it <em>was</em> rather affecting even though
+nobody present quite knew what he meant&mdash;"but I have brought you the
+best I have. It is of small<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> material value, but its sentimental value
+is great. I did all my best work with it." Whereupon he handed her a
+paint brush.</p>
+
+<p>With considerable of a to-do, Mrs. Norris announced the gift of a
+grandfather's clock. "There is no use, Nancy dear, in dragging it around
+from house to house, and I'm having it sent to your new one."
+Accordingly, when the expressman announced its arrival everyone
+proceeded to the little colonial house in Tutors' Lane. Then
+difficulties arose. To begin with, it was too tall for any room in the
+house; and after a great deal of staggering around with it, trying it
+first in this place and then in that, a gorgeous wooden plume which
+stuck up from its head had to be removed. Then it was discovered that
+there were no works in it, Mrs. Norris having bought only the case,
+supposing of course that the thing was complete. When finally the parts
+had all been assembled and adjusted&mdash;which was in the second year of
+Tom's and Nancy's married life&mdash;it was learned that the ways of the
+clock were nearly as eccentric as those of its donor, for when it went
+at all, the hands made the downward journey with so much rapidity that
+they were exhausted at the bottom and in no condition for the return
+trip. The end came one morning when the clock, which was known as "Aunt
+Helen," was discovered to have died at six-thirty; and, all horological
+assistance having been summoned in vain, it was suffered to stand in its
+corner, untouched except by dust cloths, its hands forever pointing at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+six-thirty, an eloquent warning of the end of indolence.</p>
+
+<p>Although perhaps Mrs. Norris's contribution to the future life of our
+lovers was not distinguished by that perfect satisfaction which we all
+strive to furnish with our wedding gifts, her services at the wedding
+itself were invaluable. Nancy naturally turned to her for assistance
+with the thousand and one preliminaries that the bride's mother usually
+performs, and, moving in her own wondrous ways, Mrs. Norris saw to
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>The night before the wedding arrived, and she gave a dinner for the
+bridal party. As, after considerable discussion, Nancy had consented to
+have the reception at the Norris house, Mrs. Norris relieved the minds
+of her people in the kitchen by having a buffet supper&mdash;and using paper
+napkins.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy was grateful for this, for she was extremely tired, and the
+simpler everything could be, the better. So the supper was eaten all
+over the house and out on the terrace, and when the last paper napkin
+had been crumpled up, and the entire party had been brought together to
+drink the bride's health, and her future husband's, and their mutual
+healths, in the Dean's 1854 champagne, the party was whisked off up to
+the college church for rehearsal.</p>
+
+<p>Upon arriving there, Nancy being engaged momentarily with Mary, who had
+heroically consented to be her maid of honour, Tom stole away by
+himself. Before the church the ridge sloped gently away, giving an
+unobstructed view of the valley.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> The evening was a perfect one, and Tom
+enjoyed one of those rare moments when one feels in complete accord with
+everything. All around him were the sights and sounds of bucolic
+tranquillity; and within, apart from the comfortable effects of the
+Dean's wine and cigar, were such melting thoughts as we may only guess
+at. Life was now just beginning for him&mdash;and how good it was!</p>
+
+<p>The sun died in ever darkening carmine. Tom flicked the ash from his
+cigar and held it up against the light. It matched perfectly. A long
+zeppelin-like cloud hung, apparently motionless, a little higher up. Tom
+moved his cigar up to it and cocked one eye. Again perfect harmony. But,
+even as he looked, the cloud thinned out at one end and spoiled it a
+little. Oh, well, it was perfect, anyway.</p>
+
+<p>Behind him came the strains of the church organ and the voices of the
+bridal party. They were calling him. He paused deliciously, drinking in
+the last moments of his freedom. And then, throwing away his cigar, he
+passed quickly up the hill and into the lighted church.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="box">
+<p class="center"><em>NEW BORZOI NOVELS</em><br />
+<em>FALL, 1922</em></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">The Quest</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Pio Baroja</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">The Room</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>G. B. Stern</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">One of Ours</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Willa Cather</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">Mary Lee</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Geoffrey Dennis</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">The Promised Isle</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Laurids Bruun</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">The Return</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Walter de la Mare</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">The Bright Shawl</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Joseph Hergesheimer</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">The Moth Decides</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Edward Alden Jewell</em></span></p>
+
+<p class="novels"><span class="smcap">Indian Summer</span><br />
+<span class="indent"><em>Emily Grant Hutchings</em></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+<div class="tnbox">
+<p class="tn">Transcriber's Note:<br />
+<br />
+The book title on the cover shows "Tutor's", while inside is "Tutors'";
+and whereas "Woodbridge Center" is spelled thus, the alternative
+spelling "centre" is used elsewhere.</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="hr5" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tutors' Lane, by Wilmarth Lewis
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tutors' Lane, by Wilmarth Lewis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tutors' Lane
+
+Author: Wilmarth Lewis
+
+Release Date: March 7, 2008 [EBook #24771]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TUTORS' LANE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
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+
+
+
+
+
+
+    TUTORS' LANE
+
+    Wilmarth Lewis
+
+    Alfred A. Knopf
+    New York--1922
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.
+    _Published, September, 1922_
+
+    _Set up and printed by the Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton, N. Y._
+    _Paper supplied by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York, N. Y._
+    _Bound by the H. Wolff Estate, New York, N. Y._
+
+    MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+    To
+    Helen and Wilson Follett
+
+
+
+
+    _LORD TOLLOLLER: "... of birth and position I've plenty;
+    I've grammar and spelling for two,
+    And blood and behaviour for twenty."_
+
+        IOLANTHE.
+
+
+
+
+Tutors' Lane
+
+
+A SYLLABUS
+
+
+Having once, for a few months, had a literary column in a newspaper, I
+have come to admire those authors who place at the beginning of their
+books a "word" in which the whole thing is given away. The time that
+those words saved me in writing my reviews--time which otherwise would
+have been lost in reading the books--enabled me to write this book; a
+consummation which may have, in its heart, a significant kernel, and
+which certainly shows how funny the world is, after all.
+
+Now, as to this book and what it is all about, I frankly am at a loss.
+That's the difficulty of being too near it. Whether it is realism,
+naturalism, or merely restrained romanticism, I simply do not know. It
+is awkward not knowing, for in the battle of the schools now raging I
+should like to take sides. I should like either to charge with the
+romantics, or defend with the realists. It must be good fun being pushed
+and shoved around, with someone's elbow in your eye and someone else's
+hatpin in your ear, and everyone crying, in the words of a recent
+heroine, "I want to be outraged." But, for the present at least, I must
+be content, like little Oliver Twist, to look hungrily on.
+
+The story which trickles through the book starts out bravely enough. Of
+this much, at least, I can be moderately sure. For a short time it looks
+as though something might come of it; but nothing really does. It is all
+so terribly obvious. There are no obstacles such as one finds in real
+fiction; there is no love spasm in Chapter XXV. There is no Chapter XXV
+at all! And so it must be perfectly clear that those who insist upon
+having their love spasms will be bored to death by _Tutors' Lane_ and
+should on no account be allowed to look at it. There is love, of course,
+in an academic community; one frequently sees evidences of it; but it is
+love under control, properly subordinated to the all important business
+of uniting youth and learning--and to snatching time for an occasional
+rejuvenating flutter in the sacred fount itself.
+
+So the syllabus is little more than a nervous shake of the hand and a
+timid statement of a few negative "points"--a disheartening, if not
+positively dangerous, affair. That there are lurking beauties, however,
+peeping shyly out like johnny-jump-ups and wild raspberry blossoms,
+there appears to be some evidence on the jacket. Meanwhile, the course
+is open, the bell is ringing to class, and the instructor, turning over
+the text to Chapter I, is prepared to meet whatever scholars God, in his
+greater wisdom, has been pleased to set before him.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Tom Reynolds, Instructor in English in Woodbridge College, walked along
+Tutors' Lane in the gathering dusk of a March afternoon. Persons whose
+knowledge of collegiate dons is limited to the poverty-stricken,
+butterfly-chasing genus created by humorous scenario writers would be
+surprised to learn that our hero--for such he is to be--was young, sound
+of wind and limb, and at the present moment comfortably clothed in a
+coon-skin coat. The latter touch might be accounted for by such persons
+on the basis of an eccentric city cousin generously disposed to casting
+off his garments when only half worn, but the other two points must
+convince them of the faithlessness of the whole account, and their
+acquaintance with the young man will accordingly end with the first
+paragraph.
+
+Woodbridge College, as a matter of fact, has never been without a few
+young men of this type in its Faculty. Situated in southern New England,
+it has roots which extend well back into the Eighteenth Century, and its
+traditions, keeping pace with its growth, rival in dignity and
+picturesqueness those of its larger neighbours. Whereas they have
+expanded from Colleges to Universities, Woodbridge has been content to
+restrict its enrolment to six hundred; and instead of making entrance
+easier it has, if anything, made it harder. Accordingly, the College
+holds its head high, not unconscious that the quality of its instruction
+and of its graduates is unsurpassed.
+
+The Founders of the College placed their first building on the crest of
+a smallish plateau which commands a view of the Blackmoor Valley.
+Succeeding generations have scattered its buildings haphazardly about,
+but, thanks to the generosity of a Woodbridge son, the meadow land which
+slopes away from the crest down to the Lebanon River, sixty acres in
+all, was bought and given to the College; and upon this land the future
+College is to rise. There is a good deal of rather vague talk about this
+new college--of the quadrangle which is to solve all dormitory and
+recitation problems, and which is to shine with beauty. But at present
+the meadow is sacred to athletics, and the elaborate new boat house,
+completed last spring, seems to make the quadrangle less of a
+probability than ever.
+
+Tutors' Lane is the main artery of the place. It passes through the
+college green and on down the hill through a row of faculty houses until
+it reaches the village of Woodbridge Center, or, as it is usually
+called, Center. It is a famous street--famous for its elms, which
+supply, as it has not infrequently been pointed out, the dignity of a
+nave; famous for the doorways and windows of its colonial houses; and
+famous for the distinction and propriety of its inhabitants.
+
+It is one of the Woodbridge traditions that these houses are inviolate.
+Assistant Professors' wives, upon taking up residence in Tutors' Lane,
+are tactfully warned that it is not the thing to alter them. There may
+be an occasional painting, yes; but innovations in the way of building
+are not to be thought of. People who have to build are advised to do it
+elsewhere; certain streets are provided for the purpose--High Street,
+for example--and though of course they are not Tutors' Lane, doubtless
+they are livable enough. In fact, High Street is distinctly coming into
+its own, thanks, of course, to the High Street Cemetery. For a mortal
+existence in Tutors' Lane is followed by an immortal one in the High
+Street Cemetery, and though perhaps those who spend mortality in the
+Street can hardly expect to enjoy immortality in the Cemetery,
+nevertheless, no one can take from them the satisfaction of being the
+neighbours of the oldest families who are doing so. Property is steadily
+rising in High Street, accordingly, and now Assistant Professors and
+their wives do well indeed to settle there.
+
+Tutors' Lane is not particularly wide for such an important
+thoroughfare. Two vehicles can pass without difficulty, but it is well
+for them not to rush by. If they are in a hurry, they had better take
+either Meadow Street, which skirts the athletic field, or High Street,
+which is wide and oiled and designed for heavy traffic. Tutors' Lane is
+not oiled, and heaven forfend that it ever should be, for its
+foundations go far back into the past, farther perhaps than any one
+dreams. No less a person than old Mrs. Baxter is authority for the
+statement that it follows the course of an old Roman road. It is
+incredible, of course, and opens up a vista of pre-Columbian discovery
+more astonishing than any to be found in the Book of Mormon, but Mrs.
+Baxter was a noted controversialist in her day and, true or false, she
+succeeded in handing down the story to the present generation.
+
+People who think of an ordinary row of city houses have no conception of
+Faculty Row. For one thing, the lots are of widely different sizes.
+Some, like the one owned by the Misses Forbes, daughters of the
+geologist, are modest affairs with forty-foot fronts. Others, like Dean
+Norris's, cover two acres. Those built before 1800 have their
+birth-years painted carefully over their doorways, and it is an
+unwritten law that younger houses may not claim this privilege. Many are
+sheltered by box hedges, and none but has its garden--in which flowers
+other than hollyhocks, mignonette, larkspur, stock, and bachelor's
+buttons are considered slightly _nouveaux venus_.
+
+As to the occupants of these houses, volumes many times the size of this
+one might be written. Suffice it for the present, however, that they are
+quite superior to the general indifference of the outside world, and
+that, like the dwellers in Cranford, though some may be poor, all are
+aristocratic.
+
+To Tom Reynolds, walking along Tutors' Lane in the dusk of a March
+afternoon, the scene was considerably different from the verdant one
+just sketched. Instead of peeping out behind their holly hocks and
+vines, the houses were still defensively wrapped up against the ice
+which besieged their walls. Storm doors could not yet be dispensed with,
+and here and there some practical soul--doubtless connected with the
+Physics Department--had by means of a railing insured himself against
+the painful mortification of an icy step. Walking is never good in
+Tutors' Lane during the winter. Cement walks are not laid, and temporary
+boards smack a little too much of a makeshift. Arctics are the
+invariable rule, but even so the going is not easy, and it is
+particularly bad at this time of year, for now it is that arctics, which
+never seem able to last through a winter, suddenly give out at the heel
+and fill with mud and slush.
+
+Tom walked on until he came to the Dean's driveway, and then he turned
+into it. During his college days he had spent a considerable amount of
+time at the Dean's house, and now, in the first year of his
+Instructorship, he was there more than ever. His own home in Ephesus,
+New York, being at the present time occupied by a stepmother for whom he
+had no particular affection and a father whose interests were in the
+drygoods rather than the scholastic line, he scarcely thought of himself
+as having a home other than that made for him by the Dean's wife. It was
+true that there was an older sister whose husband was a lawyer in
+Omaha, but she had never approved of his bringing up, and, since she was
+convinced that he had been spoiled beyond repair, their separation was
+merciful. At Christmas the family exchanged cheques, and Tom dutifully
+sent what the Telegraph Company called a "Yule Tide Message," tastefully
+decorated free of charge. But there family ties ended.
+
+They had really ended sixteen years ago when the nine-year-old Tom had
+been led up to take a terrified look at his mother's dead face and had
+then been allowed to escape to the rear of the house for a season of
+uncontrollable weeping. From that time on until five years later when he
+came in contact with Mr. Hilton, Instructor in English at the High
+School, he had led the life of a "queer" boy. Devoted to reading and
+content, in default of other youth who interested him, to stay by
+himself, he was a hopeless enigma to his father, whose memories of
+youth, strengthened by contemporary examination of his "cash boys," were
+of a radically different sort. But with the attainment of High School
+and Mr. Hilton the world changed. For the first time since his mother's
+death Tom met a congenial spirit. Mr. Hilton was gay, he was humorous,
+he noticed important things which other people were too stupid to notice
+or to appreciate. He was forever having amusing misadventures; and
+before long he took Tom off with him for week-end walks, and they had
+amusing misadventures together. No one else existed for Tom, and
+anything he suggested became law. In this way Tom came to play baseball
+sufficiently well to be allowed in his senior year the privilege of
+standing in the right field of the School team.
+
+Mr. Hilton was a Woodbridge man, and, after earnest discussion with Mr.
+Reynolds, he obtained permission for Tom to go to Woodbridge. The
+financial problem was a simple one, for Tom had awaiting him in trust a
+comfortable income from his mother's estate, and having him away would
+be cheaper for Mr. Reynolds. Beginning with Sophomore year, therefore,
+the previously dull curriculum took on a romantic hue, since by means of
+it Ephesus could be left behind forever. Studying became a "stunt," and
+he swept through examination after examination as though they were
+novels or ball games, until at length he found himself at Woodbridge.
+
+Tom's college life after the first year had been as pleasant as college
+life ever is. At the start, his career was like that of most boys
+entering Woodbridge from a high school. His "funny" clothes and mildly
+awkward manners indicated that, as yet, he hardly spoke the same
+language as his more fortunate classmates who had been privately
+prepared for their higher education. He had heard something, of course,
+as everyone has, of the celebrated democratic tendency that obtains at
+Woodbridge. It was disconcerting, therefore, to be eyed by these young
+men as though he were a too strange bird who had somehow wandered into
+the zoo proper instead of staying, where he belonged, in the aviary. He
+had been possessed, however, with the desire to "make good," and so
+avoided the little group of cynics that, in every class, leave their
+alma mater with gall and bitterness in their hearts. As it was, he came
+to admire the happy, well-dressed majority. There was an easiness of
+manner about them that charmed him. They were reserved and did not dull
+their palms with entertainment of each new-hatch'd comrade, but when
+they did accept one it appeared to be a thoroughgoing performance. They
+were the _jeunesse doree_; but Tom frankly hoped that he might qualify
+for something as fine.
+
+Tom had, as a matter of fact, qualified, and in the spring of his Junior
+year he had been awarded the outward and visible sign of a successful
+Woodbridge career--an election to Star, one of the two Senior Clubs.
+
+This is not the place for a discussion of these two Clubs. Furthermore,
+they who know anything at all about Woodbridge know about them. They
+know well enough, without any reminder here, that an election to either
+is the first prize in the college social life, and they know,
+furthermore, that their influence extends over into graduate life,
+colouring it pleasantly to the end of one's days. The reticence which
+the members of the Clubs feel in regard to them--a reticence found
+highly amusing by outsiders--extends to the Woodbridge community, and
+there is, accordingly, a somewhat formidable atmosphere about them which
+is vaguely felt by all. But here we must let the affair rest. They are
+not to play any other part in our story than to shed their benign
+influence over the hero, and we may dismiss them except for an
+occasional inevitable reference, with a brief statement. When, in his
+Sophomore year, he had made the baseball team, it had been conceded that
+Tom's chances of "coming across" were good, and when, later, it was
+discovered that he read books not prescribed in the college courses, he
+was "sure." The baseball, however, had come first, for it is true at
+Woodbridge, as well as in Ephesus, that baseball adds lustre to letters.
+Why he had chosen Star rather than Grave--for the choice had been given
+him--is a matter so intimately connected with the outstanding
+characteristics of the two Clubs that an explanation would promptly lead
+to the discussion above declined. Let it suffice, therefore, that he
+"went" Star because of good and sufficient reasons, and we shall have
+done with this delicate business.
+
+Then the war had come; and now, after two years of service and a year in
+a graduate school, Tom was back, an infant member of the Faculty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tom loitered up the walk to the Dean's house to make the pleasure of his
+arrival the greater. The Norris house, a somewhat solemn brown-stone
+structure built in the 'thirties, fascinated him. He found it impossible
+to stay away for long; and now, as he rang the bell, his pulse quickened
+with the thought of the rooms about to be opened to him.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+Tom stepped into the hall and threw his hat, muffler, and overcoat upon
+the hall bench. "Lovely day, isn't it, Norah?" he said to the maid who
+had let him in, receiving her "Yes, Mr. Reynolds" with a smile and a
+nod, and passing directly into the library.
+
+"Why, hello, Tom," said a girl on the sofa facing the fireplace. Before
+her was a tea wagon and she was at present pouring a cup for a slightly
+stiff person in knickerbockers.
+
+Tom shook hands with his host, lately Dean of Woodbridge and now, in the
+absence of the President, acting in his place. He then turned to the
+first gentleman, who, cup in hand, was making slow backward progress to
+his seat. "How do you do?" Tom said with a slight bow.
+
+"How are you, Reynolds," the other replied, hardly noticing him.
+
+"Henry and father have just come back from curling and they say it is
+perfectly rotten," continued the girl on the sofa. "Let's see, Tom, you
+take one lump, don't you?"
+
+He declined on the grounds of just having had tea and retiring to a
+table in the rear of the tea group, idly picked up a copy of the _London
+Times Literary Supplement_ that was lying on it. Henry, who had
+apparently been interrupted, proceeded with a description of the various
+characters that had taken part in the curling.
+
+Tom's interest in the _Times_ was not very great, but his interest in
+Henry Whitman's story was even less, and he frankly allowed his gaze to
+wander over the books that covered the walls of the room. They were one
+of the things that fascinated him in the house. They extended from the
+floor to the ceiling and encircled the entire room, yielding only to the
+wide, high fireplace and the five windows. A small section encased in
+glass housed a few of the Dean's first editions and presentation copies,
+but Tom rather resented it, breaking as it did the harmony of the whole
+and pulling the eye to it with its reflecting panes. He had from the
+first made the mental reservation that, were the house his, he should
+take away that glass.
+
+The dark blue velours sofa upon which Mary Norris was sitting, facing
+the fire, he called "The Bosom of the Norris Family," and when there
+were no heavy people like Henry Whitman about, he would occasionally
+throw himself upon it, carefully pointing out each time the pretty
+significance of his act. Behind the Bosom was a large and weighty desk
+covered with a multitude of personal letters, belonging for the most
+part to Mrs. Norris, a cheque-book open and face down in mute obeisance
+to the blotter, newspaper clippings, spectacle cases, scissors, and ash
+trays. In a neighbouring corner stood a table with imperfectly stacked
+current magazines, a work basket filled with knitting, and a lamp
+crowned by a broad shade of silk with threads hanging from it, which,
+when twirled, stood out and looked like a miniature wheat field with the
+wind running through it. The lamp on the table by which Tom was sitting
+was an old-fashioned silver affair but recently converted to
+electricity. Its shade was high and dignified, and it had been
+discovered that when lifted from its place it could be worn as a turban.
+
+The fireplace carried on its mantel a running commentary upon the
+changing details of family interest. At present, flanking the little
+French clock upon its centre was a variety of old glass, Eighteenth
+Century rum and whiskey flasks recently collected by Mrs. Norris. There
+were, additionally, a porcelain image of two farmers, _dos a dos_, one
+with rosy cheeks and flashing eye labelled "water," and the other,
+haggard and ill-favoured, labelled "gin"; also a brace of saturnine
+china cats. Above the mantel stretched an expanse of oak panelling which
+supported the portrait of Mrs. Norris's great-great-grandfather in a
+heavy gilt frame. The old gentleman, who looked amiably out from his
+starched neckcloth, had been a delegate to the Continental Congress and
+a jurist of distinction. Beside him on a table were some papers,
+obviously of the first importance, for they were plastered with seals, a
+copy of Coke on Lyttleton, and an inkpot with a quill sticking out of
+it. His arm was lying lightly on the table, his cherubic face smiling
+back at its observer wherever he stood; and Tom imagined that his next
+move would be, after the manner of his great-great-granddaughter, to
+rise with a sweep and tip over the inkpot.
+
+The colour in the room was chiefly contributed by the deep red curtains
+which hung beside the windows and which brought out and emphasized each
+object of kindred colour in the room. In this way were made conspicuous
+the turban-like shade, a lacquered calendar rest upon the desk, a
+footstool, and even the British Colonies on a globe hiding unobtrusively
+in a corner. The heavy Persian rugs echoed the note so generously that
+the books with reddish bindings stood out from their fellows and played
+their part in giving to the whole a richness that made the room
+remarkable.
+
+Tom gazed at the group before him. Henry Whitman, Assistant Professor of
+Economics at thirty, a member of Grave, was telling a story of an
+Italian in Whitmanville who, when he curled, used only the broadest
+Scotch. When Tom had met Henry in his ingenuous days he threatened to be
+overwhelmed by the calm indifference of Henry's manner. The Whitman Air,
+inherited from a line of distinguished forebears, all but swamped him.
+It was as perfect and finished as some smooth old bit of jade, and as
+hard; a "piece" to be carefully handled, admirable only to the
+initiated. Tom had not yet, in the course of his initiation, come to
+find it admirable, although he quite appreciated its authenticity.
+Harry's father, of the same name, had been one of the College's chief
+luminaries in the preceding Administration, known wherever Political
+Economy, as such, was known. _His_ father before him had produced the
+Whitman Woollen Mills, which supported Whitmanville, and though they
+were at present in the hands of an uncle and various cousins, their
+beneficent influence was obviously felt by Henry. Everything about him
+suggested comfort and nourishment. There was in his eye a look which
+implied intimacy with beagle-hunting in Derbyshire, and the way he used
+his hands positively suggested candle light at dinner. The
+knickerbockers that he wore gave out a delightful heathery smell, a
+smell which is at its best when mingled, as at present, with the smell
+of superior pipe tobacco. His stockings would naturally be objects of
+curiosity to anyone familiar with the Whitman Mills, just as the pearls
+around the neck of a famous jeweller's wife would be, or the soap in the
+tub of a famous soap-maker. They were, as a matter of fact, excellent
+stockings of the heaviest, woolliest kind, and Whitman had bought them a
+year and a half ago in Scotland, whither he had gone after his wife's
+death. He still wore a mourning band about his arm in her honour, and a
+black knitted tie; and there was every reason to believe that he would
+continue to do so another year and a half. For the Whitmans always had
+mourned hard.
+
+The girl on the sofa was a thoroughly healthy person of twenty-four. She
+played excellent female tennis, and her golf was better than that of
+half of the male members at the club. Yet she had none of the mannish
+mannerisms that so often accompany an "athletic" girl. At the present
+time she was submitting herself to a rigorous course in "housekeeping"
+majoring in cooking and minoring in accounting, and she had taught
+Sunday School ever since she had been graduated from Miss Hammond's
+School at Mill Rock some six years ago. People instinctively liked her
+unless they were bored by obvious wholesomeness. And although no one
+ever thought of her as being particularly pretty--she was somewhat too
+dumpy to be thought that--people noticed her hair, which was a most
+fashionable shade of red. Then, of course, in as much as she had Mrs.
+Norris for a mother, one could never be entirely sure that she might not
+burst forth in some altogether unexpected and delightful manner. Her
+impromptu _bataille des fleurs_, for example, was still remembered in
+Woodbridge although it took place nearly sixteen years ago. Somewhere
+her attention had been caught by the picture of a cherub, or possibly
+seraph, perched on a cloud and pouring from a cornucopia great masses of
+flowers upon the delighted earth. The idea seemed such a lovely one that
+when, in the spring, her mother gave a card party out on the terrace,
+she determined to give the ladies a delightful surprise. For weeks
+before it she despoiled the garden, keeping her plans miraculously
+secret, and storing her treasures away in a waste-basket, in lieu of the
+cornucopia. And then, when the ladies were twittering away happily
+beneath, she stepped out upon her porch clad only in a Liberty scarf
+borrowed from her mother's wardrobe--the young creature in the picture
+confined itself to a ribonny dress which floated charmingly about
+it--and discharged her flowers. She was prepared for astonishment in her
+audience, and her reception was all she could ask; but what she was not
+prepared for was the insidious decay which had set in among the blooms,
+and which robbed them entirely of their natural colour and fragrance,
+transforming them into a composition recognized by polite people only
+upon their lawns. It had been Mary's first encounter with the baffling
+thaumaturgy of chemistry; and to the end of her days her confidence in
+it was never wholly restored.
+
+Henry Whitman at last finished his story and rose to go. The Dean, who
+was a genial soul, and who, with his generous embonpoint and his
+knickers, looked at present a little like Mr. Pickwick, regarded him
+affectionately. He had retired from the college two years before, but
+upon the President's departure for Europe on a six months' leave, he had
+been called from retirement to act in his place because of the great
+respect the College had for his temperate judgment, a quality at that
+time particularly useful in college affairs, stirred as they were by the
+contentions of the advocates of a larger Woodbridge. It was the Dean's
+duty to keep these malcontents, these radicals--some of whom were
+powerful--in their places. Quality not quantity had ever been the
+Woodbridge cry, and it should remain so as long as he had any power. In
+other respects, however, he was as gentle as one could well be. In the
+matter of motoring, for example, he was so gentle that to the untutored
+eye he might seem almost timid. He had viewed the rise of the motor car
+with all the misgivings of a lover of the Old Ways, long refusing to
+accompany his wife on her hectic flights, but at last he had consented
+to buy an electric. For three dreadful weeks he ran it in agony or
+apprehension. It was not that he might run into people: there was no
+danger there, for even if he had bumped into some one, the damage would
+have been only very trifling. No, the terrible thought was what the
+reckless people might do who would crash into him. So at the end of the
+three weeks he abandoned the lever and, bringing Murdock in from the
+stable, definitely transformed him into his chauffeur. The picture that
+he presented was, he realized, somewhat sedate, but at least he was no
+longer taking foolhardy chances, and he could now, furthermore, see
+something as he went along. "When are you expecting Nancy?" he asked
+Henry.
+
+"Oh, I supposed Mary had told you. Why, she is coming day after
+tomorrow. Henry Third is very much excited. He has been making a
+collection for her as a present. I didn't know anything about it until
+the other day when Annie told me. It seems that he has been very much
+impressed by a postal card from his Aunt Nancy showing a California
+orange grove, and so he has been collecting orange pips ever since! He
+now has over ninety and he is afraid she will arrive before he can get a
+hundred. It seems to be a rule of the collection that his pips can only
+be taken from oranges he's eaten, and as he only gets one a day at his
+breakfast, there is no help for him."
+
+"Oh, for heaven's sake, Henry, send him up here and I'll let him eat out
+his hundred," said Mary.
+
+"Fine person you are," laughed Whitman, "ruining my son's good habits."
+
+They had passed out into the hall when the bell rang violently two or
+three times.
+
+"That must be mamma," said Mary, and going to the door, she opened it
+for a majestic lady who swept into the room, talking volubly as she
+began peeling off the shawls and capes in which she was wrapped.
+
+"Why, Henry, dear, what on earth are you doing here? You never come to
+see us any more, and I am so anxious, too, to ask you all about the
+stabilized dollar and these new vitamines. Susan!" she called suddenly
+in the general direction of the upper floors. Then, addressing no one in
+particular, "I must find out about the salted almonds that the Dean
+asked for last night," and she started for the kitchen.
+
+"I ordered them this morning, Gumgum, myself, when I was ordering
+everything else. I had them on my list."
+
+"You did?" and Mrs. Norris burst into the most contagious laughter.
+"Tom, I wish you'd stop my daughter calling me that horrid name. It's
+disgusting. I'm going to call her 'Snuffles.'"
+
+"I really must go, Aunt Helen," said Whitman, starting for the door. The
+"Aunt" was a heritage of an earlier and more innocent day and not an
+indication of blood relationship. "Uncle Julian" had, however, been
+allowed to lapse, upon Henry's accession to the Woodbridge Faculty.
+
+"Oh dear," replied Mrs. Norris. "Well, I'm coming down to see Nancy as
+soon as she gets back, and then you've got to come up here for dinner.
+It will be such a relief having her here for the party. And now," she
+added, putting her arm through Tom's, "I must have a little talk with
+Tom. I suspect he needs a pill, and I'm going to give it to him. Come
+here, Tommy, dear, and let me look at you," and she pulled him back into
+the library.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Mrs. Norris was about to force Tom down upon the Bosom when her eye was
+caught by the cheque-book on the table. "Oh, land," she exclaimed, "why
+didn't I give Henry his cheque! I've owed him for those German Socialist
+books he got me for I don't know how long, and here I've forgotten to
+give it to him. I must send Susan after him with it right away," and
+going over to a bell by the fireplace, she pushed it until Susan
+appeared. Then, looking at Tom, with her sweetest smile she asked, in
+her quietest voice, "Why don't you like Henry?"
+
+"Why, I don't mind Henry."
+
+"Oh, come now, Tommy." She moved over to "her" chair under the yellow
+lamp and, picking up the knitting immediately set the needles flying and
+clicking over one another. "You know you can't bear him. He is a little
+cut and dried--that's the trouble with him, I think--but then, as far as
+I can make out, you people in the classics and literatures are just as
+bad."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Norris."
+
+"You are too. You are perfectly dreadful. Why, I can remember as well as
+anything, old Professor Packard standing up before that fireplace and
+saying, 'Helen,' says he, 'no gentleman is worthy the name who doesn't
+know his Horace.' 'Stuff,' says I, 'that's utter nonsense. You might as
+well say a gentlemen is not worthy of the name unless he knows his
+French for "fiddle-dee-dee"----like the Red Queen,'" and still knitting
+busily, she rocked with laughter.
+
+Tom dropped into a chair beside her, threw one leg over the arm, and,
+pipe in hand, gazed at her affectionately. She was about the age his own
+mother would have been, he thought, in the immediate neighbourhood of
+sixty. But his own mother, who he knew had become reconciled to the life
+of Ephesus, could never have arrived at sixty with the imperious
+disregard for convention that was so perfectly Mrs. Norris's. Upon her
+face at present, as she looked down at her knitting, was a smiling
+benignity that would have recommended itself to the Virgin at Chartres;
+and at the same time her hair--what modest growth there was left--was
+uncurling itself from behind and threatening to pull down the whole
+structure after it. It was perfect, Tom told himself, and were he a
+sculptor commissioned to make her bust, he would do her just like that.
+
+"Nancy, I sometimes think, is the worst person in the world to look
+after Henry. It's bad for her and bad for him. What he ought to do is to
+go out and get another wife and leave Nancy alone to do as she pleases.
+I have a good mind to take her with me to Athens next winter myself.
+What with Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee taking her to California this
+winter and my taking her to Athens next, Henry will have to get
+married."
+
+There had been rumours abroad lately that Henry had about arrived at the
+same conclusion himself and that Mary Norris was receiving serious
+consideration as a candidate, but there was nothing in Mrs. Norris's
+manner that suggested a knowledge of it, and Tom correctly concluded
+that it was just another of those idle rumours that live their luxurious
+day in Faculty Row.
+
+"Oh, my no," said Tom, "that wouldn't do at all. Why, another marriage
+would completely upset Henry's System that he's always talking so much
+about. It's almost certain she couldn't stand it, you know, and then
+where would Henry be? Suppose, for example, that she forgot to have his
+senna tea for him at night or didn't care about playing cribbage for
+three-quarters of an hour after dinner? Now Nancy, apparently, gives
+perfect satisfaction. She adores little Henry and she manages the house
+so well that there isn't a single thing to bother big Henry. But they
+say--"
+
+"Stop it, Tommy. You've been listening again to that horrid old Mrs.
+Conover. Her husband was a perfect old Scrooge, and now that she's rid
+of him, poor dear, she feels that she's got to expand and make up for
+lost time----" Her voice, which had become more and more drowsy, as if
+bored with what it had to say, trailed off and died. Then, with renewed
+interest, she exclaimed, "I wonder what they are going to do about
+Poland?"
+
+Tom had learned that an answer to these startling questions and comments
+of Mrs. Norris was not required. There was no harm, however, in saying
+the first thing that came into one's head, as in a psychological test,
+and he accordingly now answered, "Paderewski."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Norris quietly. Then brightening up: "How is your work
+going, Tommy?"
+
+"Why, it's going pretty well."
+
+"They get rather difficult about this time of year, don't they?"
+
+"They do! Oh my, I've had an awful time with them lately. I've muffed
+Carlyle and Transcendentalism completely."
+
+"Oh, no! Why that's Emerson and all those Concord people. Still, I
+suppose Louisa Alcott is getting a little old-fashioned."
+
+"You should have seen the set of papers I got back today. There it was,
+all that I had given them, in great heavy undigested lumps--"
+
+"Like footballs," suggested Mrs. Norris.
+
+"Once I was funny with them," went on Tom, "and I may say that I was
+properly punished. They put it all down in their notebooks and then
+mixed it up with everything they shouldn't have mixed it up with--and I
+shall never be funny again."
+
+"I shall give you _at least_ two grains----"
+
+"Then there are the young men who get off all the stale old facts and
+expect an A. One of them came to me yesterday, when I had given him a C,
+and whined around my desk until I finally told him I did not consider
+his performance remarkable in a young man of eighteen, however much so
+it might be in a poll parrot of the same age."
+
+"Now that was wrong. Were there other boys around?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, you simply must not go do that kind of thing. They'll hate it."
+
+"I know it was wrong, but I am rather amused by it. As a matter of fact,
+I can stand anything but the ones who think they can fool me with a lot
+of embroidery and gas. They're insulting----"
+
+"Why, Tommy, you were doing the same thing yourself only three or four
+years ago. You mustn't get so snufty so soon."
+
+"Of course, at times when I've had a good recitation I wouldn't trade
+places with anyone. It's a kind of ecstasy. It's like all sorts of
+rushing, exciting things--like a high tide, or a close race, or a fire;
+really it is. Then you go to the other extreme and you ask yourself what
+on earth is the use of so futile a business, and what right has a young
+man with anything to him whatever to waste his time with it. Better go
+and make bird cages or hair nets or--or--hot water bags, and make some
+money. When I feel that way I sometimes go out along the ridge, just at
+dusk, you know, or into the woods--"
+
+"You do? Why, I think that's awfully romantic of you; like
+Chateaubriand, you know." Then, dreamily, "He used to go out and lean on
+a pedestal and let the moon shine down on him through the trees. I
+think Nancy is a little that way herself."
+
+There was a pause, during which the young educator's difficulties were
+brushed aside.
+
+"Do you realize that I haven't seen Nancy since leaving college?"
+
+"Why, that's strange."
+
+"No: you see she had left for the west before college opened in the
+fall, and I hadn't been back between then and the time I graduated. As a
+matter of fact, the last time I saw her was in this house. It was the
+night of our Senior Prom. I took Mary, you know, and Teddy Roberts took
+Nancy, and when it was over we came in here and had a cooky contest in
+the kitchen. Nancy could put a whole one of those gingersnaps you always
+have into her mouth without breaking it."
+
+"Oh dear. I'm afraid she has the Billings mouth."
+
+"We then got to talking about growing moustaches, and Nancy bet Teddy
+she could grow one before he could."
+
+"How disgusting! That's what comes of all this emancipation. Marcus
+Aurelius has a lot to say about it. I must look that up. Did she win?"
+
+"As I remember it, she was in a fair way to, but the war came along, and
+we left before it could be settled."
+
+Mrs. Norris stopped knitting and looked at Tom with amused curiosity
+through her tortoise-shell spectacles, which had slid rather farther
+down her nose than usual. "I forget. Didn't you use to see a good deal
+of Nancy at one time?" she asked.
+
+"Only just here," he replied.
+
+"Oh," said Mrs. Norris, and went on with her work.
+
+At this point the Dean entered, dressed for dinner.
+
+"Oh dear, I'm not ready at all," cried Mrs. Norris, jumping up; and her
+knitting, worsted, and bag spilled out upon the floor. "Tommy, tell
+Norah to put on a plate for you."
+
+"I can't really, Mrs. Norris. This is Thursday night, you see, and I'm
+going around to the Club." Then as his hostess disappeared up the
+stairs, he hurried into his overcoat and, indulging in only a small
+fraction of his usual recessional with the Dean, he was gone.
+
+Outside, walking down the long driveway that led to Tutors' Lane, Tom
+slowed his pace. Overhead, Betelgeuse was making the most of its recent
+publicity, unobstructed by vagrant clouds. Tom gazed up at it with a
+certain air of proprietorship. He had known Betelgeuse years ago and
+personally had always preferred its neighbour Rigel, which had received
+no publicity at all. As a small boy some one had given him a Handbook of
+the Stars, with diagrams of the constellations on one page and chatty
+notes about them opposite. He had lain on his back out in the fields,
+with opera glasses to sweep the heavens and a flashlight to sweep the
+diagrams until he had reconciled the two. This had been in the summer,
+and although his observations had extended to the autumn stars, the
+winter constellations had suffered. Still, he knew the great ones and,
+weather permitting, he would gaze upon them and their neighbours with
+awe, the greater, perhaps, for his unfamiliarity with their diagrams.
+
+Tom occasionally gave parlour lessons in astronomy, and he had given one
+to Nancy on the night of his Senior Prom, the night of the cooky
+contest. He had looked out and seen that the summer stars were up, and
+had spoken of it, to the boredom of Mary and Teddy Roberts. But Nancy
+wanted Scorpio pointed out, and from Scorpio they naturally progressed
+to the others until Nancy sneezed and the kitchen window had to be shut.
+Then, as it was getting light anyway and the waffles were ready, they
+stopped the lesson. Tom, however, with the true teacher's instinct, had
+sent her a copy of his Handbook of the Stars, and at his Training Camp
+he had received a note of thanks. It was the only note he had ever
+received from her, and he found it remarkable. She had thanked him
+without the barrage of gratitude usual among young ladies on such
+occasions. There had been something masculine in the directness of it,
+and yet there was no doubt that she had been pleased. In closing, she
+looked forward to seeing him back at Woodbridge when the war was over.
+There had been no fine writing about his Going to the Flag. Tom had been
+impressed by the amount left unsaid, and he had saved the letter until,
+in moving about, it had been lost. He was annoyed when he missed it, but
+on second thought he wondered if it were not just as well. For, on
+later inspection, it might not have proved so remarkable, after all.
+
+Well, the war was now over, and he was back at Woodbridge. It would be
+very pleasant indeed if she had gone ahead as she gave promise of doing;
+and why in the world shouldn't she? When he was in college Nancy had
+been admittedly the first of Woodbridge young ladies. To take her to a
+dance was to have the ultimate in good times, there was no need to worry
+about her getting "stuck," and in addition to the thrill of taking a
+popular girl one could enjoy all the advantages of a stag. One could
+flit from flower to flower until surfeited with beauty and then retire
+for a smoke or other innocent diversion without the haunting fear that
+possibly Dick or Bill was circling around and around in ever-deepening
+gloom with one's elected for the night. Nancy had permanently impressed
+herself upon the imagination of discerning Woodbridge youth, and it was
+hardly extravagant that Tom should look forward to her return.
+
+Let it, therefore, without further evasion, be stated at once that he
+did look forward to her return.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Nancy Whitman arrived at Woodbridge Center as planned, and her brother
+and nephew were at the station to meet her, the latter with his
+collection of ninety-six orange pips in a candy box.
+
+In describing Juliet it will be remembered that the author said nothing
+about her colour or dimensions, but described her indirectly, and
+succeeding generations have had their attention called to the merit of
+the performance. We know, for example, that she taught the candles to
+burn bright, and, furthermore, that she seemed to hang upon the cheek of
+night like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear--most probably a pearl. So,
+in describing Nancy, perhaps it would be effective to point out that the
+snow began thawing as soon as she arrived, that the motor which carried
+her home from the station purred along without the "knock" that had been
+troubling it, and that Tutors' Lane was less bumpy as they passed over
+it. But such a description, being dangerously near burlesque, however
+refined and genteel, must not be thought of for a moment in connection
+with a prominent resident of Tutors' Lane. It is something of a pity,
+nevertheless, that it must be given up, for Nancy was not particularly
+pretty, as young men nowadays measure beauty, and were it possible, the
+truth might have been hidden. She was something too elfish--and then
+there was the Billings mouth already mentioned. Gertrude Ellis, who
+spent much of her time with her aunt in New York and who had a proper
+care for her person, thought it a ridiculous pose for Nancy not to have
+something done about her freckles. It was such a simple matter nowadays
+to have them removed that obviously only a poseuse would tolerate them.
+Still, men were so unobserving about things that they didn't seem to
+mind them at all, and Gertrude got nowhere when she once tried to
+discuss Nancy with a senior.
+
+"Oh, Nancy is so wonderful that she could look like a leopard and people
+wouldn't care," he had said. "It's funny about her, isn't it? She's not
+good looking, and yet she's so nice everyone's crazy about her. You have
+to hand it to a girl that's like that."
+
+Henry Third, or Harry, as everyone but his father called him, had
+immediately given his collection and been rewarded. He had on his best
+suit for the occasion and the tie his aunt had sent him on his seventh
+and latest birthday. He was a handsome, sturdy boy, and his father
+expected a Phi Beta Kappa key of him and an enthusiasm for Marx and John
+Stuart Mill. His aunt's plans were vague, but altogether different. At
+present she was inclined to favour the family business, with the
+understanding that when he was established at its head he should give a
+beautiful chapel with a Magdalen tower to the College. His own goal was
+the Woodbridge football team and, after that, a locomotive on the run to
+New York.
+
+They were met at the door by Annie, Harry's nurse, and by Clarence,
+Harry's Airedale. Clarence, who immediately dominated the scene,
+rendering Nancy's greeting to Annie vain and perfunctory, was a
+three-year-old with a frivolity of manner that ill became his senescent
+phiz. Upon its grizzled expanse there would pass in amazing succession
+the whole range of canine passion, rage, love, urbanity, shame,
+drollery, ennui, and, most frequent of all, curiosity. At present all
+his energy was devoted to expressing unmitigated pleasure, the dignity
+of which exhibition was continually being marred by sliding rugs. But it
+is almost certain that he didn't care a rap for his lost dignity. His
+mistress was back after an unconscionable absence, and there was every
+reason to believe in the reappearance of the superior brand of soup
+bones, a matter in which of late there had been too much indifference.
+
+Nancy luxuriated in her renewed proprietorship of the old house, her
+home, and the home of her family even before the British officers seized
+it for their quarters in 1812. There was a hole to this day in the white
+pine panelling above the fireplace in the dining room, which, tradition
+held, had been made by a British bullet discharged after a discussion of
+the family port. She had found something depressing in the rococo
+civilization of Southern California. There was an insufficient
+appreciation of Mr. Square's Eternal Fitness of Things. The spirit of
+Los Angeles, for example, was the same as that of the picnic party
+which, lunching on Ruskin's glacier, leaves its chicken bones and
+eggshells to offend all subsequent picnickers. At Woodbridge people did
+not make public messes of themselves. If they picnicked on a glacier
+they did up their eggshells in a neat package, which, in default of a
+handy bottomless pit, they took home with them and put in their garbage
+pails. That's the way nice people behaved, and what on earth was there
+to be gained by behaving otherwise?
+
+So Nancy was glad to be home and see again the family things she had
+grown up with and loved. She was glad to see Henry, who appeared in his
+turn glad to see her; but her feelings upon being restored to her nephew
+were much deeper than either. Harry mattered more to her than anyone
+else in the world. Her mother, who had died five years ago, when Nancy
+was twenty, had been particularly devoted to him; and this would have
+been sufficient reason in itself for commending him to her tenderest
+care.
+
+Such was the family that would have met the casual eye of a stranger: a
+young professor in extremely comfortable circumstances, with a brilliant
+future and an enviable son, living in a fine old house administered by a
+younger sister, the favourite daughter of the town. Beneath the surface,
+however, and unknown except to a few, was a conflict of wills that only
+an exterior made up of strong family pride and respect for the
+established order could have withstood.
+
+On the evening of the day on which Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee--the
+grandeur of whose name was never reduced by the omission of a single
+syllable--asked Nancy to go to California, Nancy had talked it over with
+Henry.
+
+"It would be nice to go, for I haven't really been away since Mother
+died. I confess I'd like it, but she's not coming back until March, and
+that seems a long time to leave Harry and the house."
+
+Henry had leisurely put his cigar into his mouth, had puffed
+luxuriously, and had then continued to gaze at his paper without saying
+anything.
+
+Nancy hated this indifference, and she knew that Henry knew that she
+hated it. It was like his whistling. At times, when for some reason or
+other he wished to be disagreeable, he would start quietly whistling
+behind his paper, apparently for his sole enjoyment. It was as if, in
+view of the coldness of his audience, he were forced to express himself
+in a humble and subdued manner, but express himself he must. The tunes
+that he chose were The Rosary, The Miserere, Tosti's Good-bye, Gounod's
+Ave Maria. There would be an occasional lapse into the jazz song of the
+moment, and quite frequently a sacred number. The songs themselves
+exasperated her, but what was unbearable were the trills and improvised
+fireworks. She would leave the room thoroughly angry, and would fancy
+that as she ascended the stairs the tune swelled slightly and acquired
+even more airs and graces.
+
+So now, as he deliberately smoked his cigar without noticing her, her
+anger rose. He was so smug, so self-sufficient--she wanted to stick a
+pin into him.
+
+"It isn't, of course, as if the house were not in capable hands," she
+went on, "for Katie and Julia are perfectly responsible, and Annie
+couldn't be better." Henry put down his paper, blew a cloud of smoke,
+and, looking blandly at her, twisted his mouth so that he might enjoy
+the luxury of biting his cheek.
+
+"Well?" burst out Nancy. "I don't see why you need be so irritating
+about it?"
+
+"Why, don't be foolish," he replied with an amused smile; "do just what
+you want, of course." To Nancy, the smile spoke a great deal more. "How
+fatuous you are," it said, "with your devotion to my son and to me. Let
+a lollypop in the way of a trip to California come along, and away you
+go as if you didn't have a responsibility in the world. There's a firm
+nature for you."
+
+She had fled to Mrs. Norris, as always in an emergency, and, receiving
+reassuring words, she had gone, but not without tears and misgiving and
+not without an unforgettable memory of Henry's behaviour.
+
+She had frankly discussed her Henry Problem with Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee. "I can't seem to reach any middle ground with him," she
+had said. "Either I feel terribly because things go so wrong, so much
+worse than when Mother was alive, or else I am furious with him. Then I
+am overwhelmed with mortification and make up my mind that I _will_ get
+on with him, no matter what happens. And of course he can be perfectly
+lovely when he wants to be--and then he will deliberately go and do some
+horrid thing which makes me want to go away and--drive an auto stage, or
+something."
+
+As a matter of fact Nancy would on these occasions, retire and invest
+herself in some such romantic, emancipated, role. Possibly she would be
+a great surgeon. Having gone through her preliminary training with
+unprecedented speed, she had established herself as a famous
+specialist--of the brain. People who had gone wrong in their heads would
+be brought to her by their desperate friends and relatives. If she only
+would help them out. She did usually, although heaven knew that she was
+but one little woman to so many brains, and as she worked chiefly under
+God's guidance, anyway, she had to conserve her strength. However, she
+operated steadily from eight in the morning until eight at night with
+only a light lunch in between--possibly only a water cracker. She saw
+herself in the operating room with her rubber gloves and her knives.
+There was a hazy cloud of white-robed nurses and distinguished surgeons
+who, attracted from all over the world, had come to see her miracles for
+themselves. A form was on the table, with head shaved. She was to go
+into his cerebellum and take out a tumor which had caused deafness,
+dumbness, and blindness. She would probably have to make two hundred
+stitches or more in sewing him up, but she always had been good at
+needlework, and it gave her no concern. She picked up her saw--but to
+her horror she found she couldn't bear to stick it in!
+
+Or she was a famous lawyer, strongly reminiscent of Portia, specializing
+in pleading for widows and orphans. She had a secretary to handle her
+correspondence, who explained that as Miss Whitman was able to work
+chiefly by the grace of God--her health was none too robust, and it was
+necessary for her to put her trust in Him--it really was not fair of
+them to expect her to handle their cases. However, the most outrageous
+ones she passed on to Nancy and it was by them that Nancy made her great
+reputation. Of course she took no fees, but as body and soul had to be
+kept together and the secretary's salary paid, she wrote syndicated
+articles for the papers, on religious and ethical subjects. Naturally
+she was an object of interest and curiosity and people thronged the
+court room when she pleaded. They saw a quiet woman, dressed in black,
+but when she began speaking you could hear a pin drop. There was a
+thrilling quality in her voice, much remarked by the press, and big
+lawyers pitted against her had been known to break down and weep, to the
+confusion of their clients. The judge--it was always the same one--had a
+big bushy beard, and, though of fierce and impartial mien at the
+beginning of the proceedings, he had been known time and again, as her
+address continued, to draw forth his large silk handkerchief and blubber
+into it. The gratitude of the widows--who extended in a long, black
+line, leading their army of white-faced little boys, looking strangely
+like Harry when he had the croup--was the one thing that she could not
+stand. She would not see them when it was all over, but she couldn't
+keep them from sending her flowers, and accordingly her apartment was
+always a bower.
+
+So mighty would these scenes be, so moving, and so pathetic, that Nancy
+would emerge entirely at peace with Henry and the world. They dwarfed
+the cause of her anger; they left her calm and serene, a cousin to the
+Superwoman.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first evening at home passed off very pleasantly indeed. Henry was
+charmingly interested in the details of her trip, and the usual cribbage
+session was doubled. Harry's progress at school and through the
+mumps--an illness which had torn his aunt--were duly recounted and the
+maids given a good bill of health. The state of Henry's classes was
+described at some length. They were slightly better than usual, it
+appeared, and his special course in Labour Problems was going perfectly.
+It was really making him famous, he told Nancy.
+
+That night in her room, as she sat at her desk writing her diary, she
+calmly told herself that the present tranquillity should last. She
+solemnly resolved to guard against every possible contingency that
+might lead to a "situation." She did not purpose to surrender her
+individuality; she would not become a dummy. But there _must_ be a
+middle ground where she could blend service to herself with service to
+her family. Life should be rich, but it ought also to be tactful. Surely
+this was not an impossible union. Very well, then, she would live richly
+and tactfully.
+
+Just exactly what she meant by living richly she didn't quite know. It
+would doubtless be somewhat clearer in the morning when she wasn't so
+sleepy. Americanization work in Whitmanville. That seemed to offer rich
+possibilities. There must be room for endless Uplift in Whitmanville.
+And what could be richer than Uplift? She would start a school, she
+thought, as she turned off the light and climbed into her four-poster.
+She would teach the women how to take care of their babies and the men
+how to take care of their women. But it must all be done tactfully. She
+must be eternally vigilant upon that score. Yet not so tactful as to
+become less rich. Nor yet so rich as to become less tactful.... Tact and
+riches--riches and tacks--tracts--striches--....
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The night following Nancy's return was the night of the Norris party,
+the party which is to Woodbridge what the Mardi Gras is to New Orleans,
+the Carnival to Rome, and what the Feast of the Ygquato Bloom was to the
+ancient Aztecs. It is always held on the twenty-first of March, Sunday
+of course excepted, and it is known as the Vernal. Not to be seen at it
+is too bad. Not to be invited--unlike the lupercals before mentioned it
+requires invitations--is a blight mercifully spared all but the most
+painfully outre. Of these the Coogans, who live in Center and whose
+connubial infelicities are proverbial, are an example. Tradespeople
+frequently bear witness to the marks of a man's fingers on Mrs. Coogan's
+fair--and by no means insignificant--arm, and it is common property that
+she drinks paregoric. It is quite clear, of course, that such people can
+not expect to be invited.
+
+The Vernal has always been "different." In the old days Mrs. Norris set
+her face against dancing, not upon any moral grounds, certainly, but
+because of its alleged dullness. Why couldn't people enjoy one another
+without flying into a perspiration? she asked; but, unfortunately for
+her plans for the establishment of an animated conversazione, the
+substitutes she had advocated were felt to be even duller. So, one by
+one, all her nice games were abandoned and only the charade is left.
+This however has gained in popularity, if anything, and certainly it has
+gained paraphernalia. Mrs. Norris's costume box has overflowed into a
+trunk, and from the trunk has spread into a closet, and the closet is
+now nearly filled. From this treasure the two captains select their
+colleagues' wardrobes, a duty discharged in advance of the performance
+by way of ensuring enough professionalism to prevent the party's
+collapsing at the start. In other words, Mrs. Norris, although luckless
+in the matter of "adverbs," memory contests, and backgammon tourneys,
+has established charades.
+
+It used to be a masquerade party, but because of certain unhappy
+circumstances which have recently befallen, it was decided this year to
+do without the masks and "Fancy dress." For the last few years people
+have been complaining a little of the necessity of getting something new
+each year. Mrs. Bates, for example, has exhausted the possibilities of
+her husband's summer bath robe. It served excellently at first as a
+Roman toga, and the next year it did well enough for Mephistopheles. By
+cutting away the parts ravaged by moths it passed as a pirate, but she
+despairs of any further alteration. Then, too, it would always be
+remembered that a stranger at the last Vernal had in all seriousness
+reproved old Professor Narbo, the Chemist, for not taking off his funny
+old mask when he already had done so, a mishap none the less enjoyed
+because the bringing of a similar charge to one's friends has been an
+inevitable jest among the wags for generations. Professor Narbo had been
+offended, and great is the offendedness of a Full Professor,
+particularly when he is a Heidelberg Ph.D. and parts his hair all the
+way down the back. The stranger had been crushed; and, all in all, it
+was as mortifying an affair as one could well imagine, and one which in
+itself would have been enough to do away with the masks--a
+long-discussed possibility--had not worse followed. Edgar Stebbins,
+Assistant Professor of History, was unfortunately a little too warmly
+devoted to the memory of the grape, or, more specifically, of the corn.
+Being mildly mellowed by something more than the memory of it, he found
+occasion to embrace a lady who was dressed in his period, the Late
+Roman, and to whom he was naturally drawn. The lady promptly screamed
+and unmasked; and the situation was not at all improved by its being
+discovered that she was the wife of Professor Robbins of the Latin
+Department, with which gentleman Mr. Stebbins was not on speaking terms.
+Mrs. Robbins, it seemed, had employed the squeaky voice so familiar at
+masquerade parties and had thus rendered her disguise complete. Upon her
+testimony it was learned that Mr. Stebbins's voice had been so roughened
+by drink that his own mother wouldn't have recognized it. Mr. Stebbins
+had withdrawn from the party and, at the end of the academic year, from
+the college as well, and his name is now only an appalling memory.
+
+In the morning Nancy hurried up to the Norrises' as soon as she could.
+She found Mary and her mother in the drawing-room. Mary was playing the
+piano while her mother sat in a distant chair, amiably shredding
+codfish, a pleasure which she would on no account yield to the kitchen.
+
+As soon as the rush of sisterly greeting was passed, all four--for the
+cod could not be left behind--repaired to the sofa in the library; and
+after the gaps in their correspondence had been filled, they came to the
+party. Mary was to be one of the charade captains and Tom Reynolds the
+other. Nancy, who was an inevitable member of the charade, was to be on
+Tom's side.
+
+"Tell me," she asked, "is he really as nice as you people make out?"
+
+"Oh yes," replied Mary, "he's one of us."
+
+"He used to scare me. He never would dance with me any more than he had
+to, and I always was afraid he would get that terribly bored look I've
+seen him get. I think probably he's conceited."
+
+"Oh dear, to hear you girls talk you'd think that a little honest
+boredom was the most dreadful thing on earth. Why, your fathers used to
+get so bored with us that----"
+
+"Now, Gumgum, you know that isn't sensible," broke in Mary severely--a
+regrettable habit which seems increasingly prevalent among our modern
+daughters--"unless you people were ninnies."
+
+"That was in Garfield's administration," replied Mrs. Norris absently,
+"or possibly a little before, in Hayes's--Rutherford B. Hayes. He did
+away with the carpetbaggers and all those dreadful people in the South."
+Then, more dreamily still, "His middle name was Birchard."
+
+"I know why you think he's conceited," Mary went on, warming up to the
+never-ending pleasure of analysis, "but it's because he's really
+diffident. Lots of people I know who people think are snobby are only
+just diffident."
+
+"What on earth do you mean by saying that Rutherford Hayes was
+diffident? He wasn't a bit. He was a very great philanthropist."
+
+"She's too awful today," exclaimed Mary, "with that smelly old fish and
+Rutherford Garfield. Gracious, I'd like to bury the old thing."
+
+"You horrid, ungrateful child, when I'm doing this for your lunch. We're
+just old Its, we mothers. I'm going to start an Emancipation Club for
+Mothers. The poor old things, they might just as well crawl away into
+the bushes like rabbits."
+
+There then followed a tender passage between mother and daughter, which
+ended in Mary's blowing down her mother's neck. A convulsive scream and
+a frantic clawing gesture in the direction of her daughter was the
+immediate reaction, much to the confusion of the codfish, which was only
+just saved by Nancy from a premature end upon the hearth.
+
+Following the rescue, the heroine, who had some shopping to do, began
+making motions of departure. "You must come as soon as you can after
+dinner to have Tom explain what you are to do. Gumgum thinks we ought
+to have a rehearsal, but Tom has a five o'clock, and I don't think it's
+necessary anyway. He's really awfully funny and clever, Nancy, and you
+must like him."
+
+"I hate clever people. I have nothing to say to them. I'm a perfect gawk
+when they're around, and I'm afraid I won't be able to stand him."
+
+As she walked on down to Center, however, it occurred to her that he
+might come in useful with the children of the parents in her
+Whitmanville school. He could teach them basketball and of course he
+could coach their baseball team. He would also be useful in taking them
+off on hikes and--But she hadn't seen him in ever so long, and he might
+not do at all. In fact, it was highly probable that he wouldn't do, for
+boys are suspicious of clever people, and he almost certainly wouldn't
+think of doing it. Or possibly he might, out of politeness, and then
+when he got bored with it he would decide to be funny with the boys, and
+they would get to hate him and tell their parents, who would come to her
+with sullen looks and threatening gestures and----
+
+When Nancy arrived in the evening, she found Tom distributing costumes.
+He was heavier, she noticed, and his forehead was higher. Some day she
+might get a chance to tell him how she saved Henry's hair simply by
+brushing it carefully. It was ridiculous to put a lot of smelly greasy
+stuff on it----
+
+She had shaken hands with him and received her costume which was an
+aigrette and a peacock-feather fan. "The word is 'draper,'" explained
+Tom, "and you are to be the Lady Angela. In the first syllable you have
+lost your pet Persian and, after explaining your loss to the little
+house-maid who is dusting around, you call in Merriam the detective. I
+am Merriam the detective and I arrive immediately after you are through
+calling me up on the telephone. The little maid goes over to the window
+and says, 'Goody, here comes Mr. Merriam the detective in a dray,' and
+then you go out to meet me, and that's the first act. Then I come on
+alone in the second act and investigate the room heavily, looking for a
+clue, you see. I have a theory that the little maid is the thief, and
+when you come in, as you do when I have said 'Ha, it is a match box,' I
+explain to you that----"
+
+"Oh, dear, I haven't any idea what I'm to do."
+
+"Well, you just go in and wave your fan disconsolately, and I'll do the
+rest. It will be dreadful, of course, but then, no one ever expects them
+to be otherwise. Now I think the best way is for us to run over it, and
+then little things will come to you."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+Downstairs the Dean and Mrs. Norris had begun receiving their guests,
+most of the receiving being done by the Dean. His wife, whose trail was
+like that of a runaway astral body, was here, there, and everywhere,
+calling, ordering, laughing.
+
+The Misses Forbes, invariably the first comers, had taken possession of
+front-row seats. This year Miss Edith had the Burnham lace--an heirloom
+whose glory could on no account be dimmed by a tri-partite division--and
+Miss Annie had the Burnham pearls. They were a modest string, perhaps,
+but they lived on after more spectacular ones became gummy. As for Miss
+Jennie, the youngest, aged sixty-five, she was something of a
+philosopher, being the community's sole theosophist, and she regarded
+her sisters' pleasure in their baubles with amusement. Nor could she be
+drawn into a discussion of their ultimate disposition, a nice problem,
+for other Burnhams and Forbeses were there none. "Why not give them to
+the museum?" she had once suggested, to the sorrow of her sisters, who
+hated to see her cynical side. Worse than that, she was a radical and
+had boldly come out for the open shop, or the closed shop, whichever was
+the radical one, and she talked very wildly indeed of Unions and
+Compensation Bills.
+
+Miss Elfrida Balch had arrived, and likewise her brother, the artist.
+Miss Balch was a lady of almost crystalline refinement. She was tall and
+fair, with a delicacy of complexion that stood in no need of retailed
+bloom. She might have passed for the daughter of a kindly old Saxon
+chieftain--it was, indeed, generally known that she sprang from the seed
+of Saxon kings--who, firm in the belief that no young man was her equal
+in birth or behaviour, had insisted upon her declining into a
+spinsterhood which increased in refinement as it did in service.
+Sentimental persons held that she came by that manner from association
+with Art in her brother's studio. Others, of a more sardonic turn, said
+that her manner was that of one who continually smelled a bad smell, and
+that if she got it by looking at her brother's pictures they didn't
+wonder.
+
+Leofwin Balch was not a personable gentleman. The early Saxon strain in
+him had taken the form of obesity, a tendency not confined, if we may
+trust the evidence of scholars, to descendants of Saxon kings. To those
+who had little sympathy with genius in its more alarming shapes, his
+fair chin whisker seemed an absurdity. The more discriminating, however,
+welcomed it. Anything might be expected of a man with a chin whisker
+which some one, with more imagination than restraint, had described as
+an "attenuated shredded wheat biscuit seen through a glass darkly."
+Leofwin's work had of late years suffered on account of a rheumatism
+which defied medicine. He had sacrificed his tonsils and nine teeth upon
+the altar of Art with little or no relief, and it was now feared by
+those closest to him, his sister and himself, that he would never again
+approach the promise given in his "Willows." "Willows" had received an
+honourable mention at the Exhibition--just which Exhibition, was a
+subject of controversy among the uninitiated--and had been purchased by
+a rich baronet in Suffolk. The Balches had seen it in his gallery, and
+it had become an open secret that hanging in the same room were a
+Constable and a John Opie.
+
+Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had arrived and was already with a group of
+the great around her chair. She was wearing the famous Lee-Satterlee dog
+collar, and her hair had been carefully dressed for the occasion. Such
+items alone would have borne witness to the importance of the Vernal,
+had she not in addition chosen to carry the Court fan. This fan, which
+was known as the "Court fan" to distinguish it from all other fans in
+the world, had been given her by the Court ladies when she and her
+husband, the late Ambassador, had departed upon the arrival of the new
+Administration's appointee. Its sticks were mother-of-pearl, encrusted
+with diamonds, and on its silk was the cruel story of Pyramus and Thisbe
+set forth in brilliant colours, but in what wondrous manner no one quite
+knew. For it was true that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee had walked with
+kings, danced with dukes, and played croquet with counts, and it was
+therefore inevitable that she should be regarded as the Empress of
+Woodbridge. She would have been considered so quite apart from the fact
+that she had great possessions--in addition to the Court fan and the dog
+collar--possessions which were commonly supposed to be destined for the
+college, the Lee-Satterlees having no issue. Accordingly, Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee was allowed liberties unthinkable in another; but, be it
+said to her credit, she never abused them. Since she, or at least her
+property, was to take such an active part in Woodbridge affairs when she
+passed into the next world, it was only reasonable that she should take
+an active part while she was still in this; and it is safe to say that
+no one knew more about college affairs than she. Still, no one ever
+thought of calling her a nuisance. When, occasionally, she did quietly
+suggest that possibly such-and-such a course might be a wise one or that
+such-and-such a man might be the one to appoint to such-and-such a
+vacancy, it would be discovered that, with singular insight, she had
+made a perfect suggestion. Whereas, therefore, it might be said that she
+was a despot, it was universally agreed that she was a benevolent one
+and an enlightened one, and many even went so far as to fear that her
+death might actually prove a loss.
+
+The library was filling fast. Mrs. Norris, casting a rather wild eye
+into it occasionally, would perhaps signal out an individual for a
+mission that somehow in the general run of things could not conceivably
+be completed. For example, her eye, on one of these expeditions,
+happened to alight on a gentleman of the Physics Department, a gentleman
+with a gold tooth and a loud laugh, who represented a somewhat larger
+group of instructors than the best Tutors' Lane families cared to
+acknowledge. The gentleman responded with an alacrity that did him
+credit, nor did he quail before the steady gaze of Mrs. Norris, which
+seemed to wonder if she hadn't been a little unwise in placing such
+trust in so uninteresting a vessel. She asked him, however, to see if
+the musicians had found a good place to put their hats and coats, and as
+there were several musicians, some of whom had not arrived, he was not
+restored to his nervous and too friendly mate until the charades were
+over.
+
+And now there was a suggestive flutter in the Dean's study, behind whose
+large folding doors the charades were to be acted. Gentlemen who were
+standing urbanely about moved into corners, with smiles calculated to
+impress all with their self-possession in even the first houses. The
+doors rolled open and a buzz of admiration greeted the _distraite_ Lady
+Angela, whose return from California had been acknowledged by but few of
+the audience. She went through her scene with the little maid, and when
+the doors were bumped together, Mr. Grimes of the Romance Languages, a
+noted success at anagrams, acrostics, and charades, announced, "Dray."
+After a few minutes the second act was done, in which it appeared that
+Mr. Merriam the detective had fallen madly in love with Lady Angela. In
+the midst of the scene the little maid was heard purring loudly
+off-stage, a purring which was explained by both lovers as the purring
+of the lost Persian. Mr. Grimes guessed "Purr" loudly at the close, and
+the final syllable, in which Mr. Merriam appeared disguised as a draper,
+was thus rendered stale and perfunctory. Mary's charade eluded Mr.
+Grimes's wit no more successfully, and the music was received with even
+more enthusiasm than usual.
+
+The Lady Angela, as a matter of fact, had been considerably flustered by
+the ardour of Merriam the detective's wooing. The rehearsal had not
+prepared her for anything so realistic, and she was annoyed. Art was
+art, of course, but she was no Duse, and she didn't care to be the
+object of such public passion. The fact that she was obliged to
+reciprocate his sentiments instead of slapping his face was also trying.
+Well, there was no reason to conceal her displeasure now; and when she
+found herself again in his arms--they were rather strong arms,
+incidentally, and he did dance well--she had little to say to him.
+
+It was not, fortunately, necessary for her to do a great deal of
+dancing, because of the visiting she naturally owed to her elderly
+friends, and once when Tom cut in she left him, excusing herself on the
+ground of having to see the Dean and Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee, his
+time-honoured bridge partner. The Dean took his bridge seriously and
+with extreme deliberation. Henry Whitman, on the other hand, who was one
+of his opponents, played with a rapidity amounting at times to frenzy,
+and he was fidgeted by anyone of more sober pace. His partner, old Mrs.
+Conover, in a cap with violet insertion, had some little difficulty in
+telling kings from jacks and hearts from spades and was inclined,
+furthermore, to be forgetful of the trump. Accordingly, Nancy remarked
+beneath her brother's rather terrible calm all these symptoms of a
+whistling bee when they were again at home.
+
+The Dean was halfway through a hand and was trying to choose a card from
+the dummy. He at length carefully lifted the king of spades from it as
+if it weighed a ton, and then, after looking at it soberly, put it back
+and scowled at his own hand. Henry, who had his card ready to throw down
+upon the table, slid it back into his hand with the look of resignation
+that has tranquillized our memories of the Early Christian Martyrs. The
+Dean rested his eye on the tempting king in the dummy and pursed his
+lips. He _would do_ it. Then he leaned over and played it with the air
+of a man who lays all in the lap of the gods. Mrs. Conover, who had been
+shuffling her cards around in ill-suppressed excitement, popped out a
+trump with a cry of triumph just as Henry's Ace of Spades covered the
+king. A dreadful scene followed. The Dean was all gallantry, Mrs.
+Conover all self-reproach, Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee all charm, and
+Henry all exasperation; and when, later in the same hand, his mind torn
+with the memory of his lost ace, he made a revoke and was quietly
+brought to account by the Dean, Nancy discreetly withdrew.
+
+Tom, who had seen her at the table with three people whom she met
+constantly and upon whom she hardly needed to make a call, felt
+decidedly snubbed. Was she, after all, so much a Whitman that she felt
+no need to obey the ordinary rules of decency? It seemed too bad, for
+his impression of her earlier in the evening had been decidedly
+different.
+
+Tom had sometimes wondered about love at first sight. What was it
+anyway? How did one feel? Was it like a blow between the eyes, a ball in
+the breast? Did one stagger and have to lie down, with a pulse coursing
+up to one hundred and five? What was it? When Tom first looked at Nancy
+in the costume closet he wondered if he were to be brought face to face
+with the answer. Certainly, little hints by the Norrises and Old Mrs.
+Conover would have put the idea into his head, had it not in the natural
+course of events found its way there unaided.
+
+And now Nancy had made it clear that she did not care to have anything
+to do with him. It was, he guessed, because of the too tender passage in
+the charade. He pictured himself arguing with her. "It is ridiculous to
+object to me because I played the part well. Would you have had me a
+stick and make the thing even more of a bore?" "No," coldly, "but you
+didn't have to have that part in it." "Well, it made it more
+interesting, and, besides, if you think that I put it in just for an
+excuse to put my arm around you, you're entirely mistaken and not the
+girl I thought you." This last thrust, which, in less skilful hands
+might have become mere petulance, was delivered with a rolling
+deliberation that would have wrung a Jezebel. Tom always did well in
+these conversations, but unfortunately, the present situation was not
+solved so easily. Nancy, he had found, was even more attractive than she
+had been when he was in college. They would, of course, see something of
+each other from time to time, and it would be tiresome not to be
+friendly. Besides, he guessed that she would be helpful in discussing
+his various problems. Mrs. Norris was splendid, of course, and he loved
+her dearly, but he found himself occasionally wishing for a somewhat
+younger listener and one not given over to quite so many nonsequiturs.
+Nancy seemed excellent material, but if she were going to be
+superior--Possibly it was because of Ephesus and the Reynolds Dry Goods
+Store. He turned away with a slightly bilious feeling. If it should
+prove that she was affected by that, then indeed would he be
+disappointed in her.
+
+He crossed the hall into the drawing-room, where a dozen or so couples
+were dancing in various stages of aesthetic intoxication. The saxophone
+and the violin were engaging in a pantomime calculated to add gaiety to
+the waning enthusiasm of the party, and he gazed at them in disgust. A
+young lady with hair newly hennaed and face suggestive of an over-ripe
+pear ogled him over her partner's elbow as they jazzed by. Let her dance
+on until she got so sick of him she was ready to scream, was Tom's
+thought.
+
+In one corner, obviously having a poor time, was Leofwin Balch. Tom sat
+down beside him.
+
+"It's too hot in here, don't you think?" he asked.
+
+"Much," replied Leofwin. "I think these parties get worse every year."
+These were soothing words. "Particularly those damned charades," he went
+on. "Now, my dear fellow, you know perfectly well that yours was a
+miserable failure."
+
+Tom found this a little trying. It was true that no one could be more
+deprecating of his effort than he, but, privately, he had a somewhat
+better opinion of it. As charades went, he thought it decidedly above
+the average; and the way he had examined the room, after the manner of
+Mr. William Gillette, and come upon the match box was proved amusing by
+the laugh it had brought.
+
+"Granted," he replied, with a shade of sarcasm, "it was a miserable
+failure."
+
+"Why, the way you made love to Miss Whitman was disgusting."
+
+Tom flushed. Had he really been as bad as that? Had he really just
+missed being put out of the house like that clown Stebbins? Were they
+all now, all these people sitting around so innocently in groups, were
+they all blasting his name as a cheap cad? "What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"Why, you went at it like a puling babe. Why didn't you put some fire
+into it--kiss her feet or bite her neck? Then you would have made us sit
+up and take notice. You college people are a lot of old women, anyway."
+
+Tom, with bounding relief, started to confess the apparent inability of
+most college people to bite ladies in the neck, when he observed a
+startling change in his companion. From the passionate leprecaune of the
+moment before he had become even as a little child. His hand, which was
+resting elegantly on the arm chair, stole up into his chin whisker, amid
+which it wistfully strayed. There crept into his Saxon eyes that light
+of resigned suffering which inspires such exquisite anguish in the
+friends of Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. In short, his entire being
+proclaimed to all who would but look, a great quiet man in love. Tom's
+eyes followed his and rested upon--Nancy! He rose in disgust and,
+walking away, suddenly came face to face with her. Then, without
+thinking of his resolve to let her severely alone, he reached out his
+hand and cut in.
+
+What a fool he was! Obviously she didn't want to dance with him, and
+here he was forcing himself upon her. It made him look so common, so
+pushing, so like an Ephesus drygoods clerk. Some one barged into him,
+surged into him, from the rear, causing him to stumble. "Sorry," he
+muttered. They started on, just out of step. He tried to get into step
+by speeding up, and their knees bumped together. Would no one ever cut
+in? Then the music stopped, and it appeared that the musicians were
+going to rest for a few minutes.
+
+"Let's sit down, shall we?" said Nancy. They settled themselves upon two
+gilt chairs with spindly legs. "Do you like your work here?" she asked
+pleasantly.
+
+What a very dull question! An expletive exploded inside Tom's head. "Oh,
+yes," he said. Then after a heavy pause, "How are you getting on with
+the stars?"
+
+"Oh, I learned the diagrams in that nice little book you sent me, but
+I'm afraid I've forgotten most of them now. I feel rather superior about
+Betelgeuse, though."
+
+"So do I. We might start a Betelguese Club."
+
+"What would we do at it?"
+
+"Oh, read papers. With Betelguese's power behind us we might do all
+sorts of things--have picnics and read tracts to the poor. When you see
+only college people, after a while you crave being illiterate, and I've
+thought recently that I'd like to enlist in the Navy or move to Alaska,
+or go over and work in the Mills. I'd buy a black shirt to work in and
+use a bandana--when I used anything--and take the nice extra room my
+laundress has in Whitmanville. She says her clothesline goes out fifty
+feet, and they have a phonograph. Don't you think that would be more
+attractive than trying to teach a lot of Freshmen Carlyle and
+Hawthorne?"
+
+"Lots, and there would be ever so much more money in it."
+
+"It would be a kind of social service work, wouldn't it? 'Woodbridge
+Professor Slaves in Mill to Earn Bread.' That would go big, all over
+the country."
+
+"Do you know, I've thought a little of doing some social work,
+seriously. I don't know anything about it, of course, but it has
+occurred to me that if I could get a group of people together we might
+have one of the Physiologist instructors give us some lectures. You see,
+the first thing in social work must be the health of the people, and I
+should think a good grounding in the fundamentals would be essential. As
+soon as we have their interest in their personal welfare we can get them
+to playing basketball, brushing their teeth, putting screens in their
+windows, and--so on. Naturally I don't know much about it, but it would
+seem as though there were a great opportunity for somebody."
+
+"Conditions in the town, on the west side, aren't too good."
+
+"Of course they're not. I have let my mind run on at a great rate about
+it, but I don't see why, if the right person got hold of it, the whole
+town couldn't be improved, made into a model mill town, you know--with
+playgrounds, and creches, and--" Again other model features failed her.
+
+"Well, why aren't you the proper person? I should think you could do it
+if anyone could. Your uncle would have to listen to you, and he probably
+would be all for it."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Rob is just as nice as he can be--but I couldn't do it all
+alone."
+
+"Well, now of course we have got into this thing pretty quickly, but I
+assure you I should like nothing better than to do something about it
+with you. After all, what is education in the finest sense, but the
+uplifting of the masses? You probably will want to think it over a
+little more before going ahead, but, really, I hope you will, and I hope
+you will let me join you."
+
+"There is no time like the present. Why dilly-dally? We both realize
+that this is a crying need. Then why not do something about it? If you
+will find out who is the best man for us, I'll provide the rest."
+
+At this point the musicians swung into Home Sweet Home, and Mrs. Norris
+hurried up to the embryonic workers. "The party is over now, my dears,
+and please help by going and getting your things. It's this awful
+standing around saying good-bye that is so trying," and with an emphatic
+push of her back comb she began hauling tables and chairs back into
+their normal places.
+
+Tom had only just time to assure Nancy that he would do his part when
+Mrs. Norris called to him again to help her with the dining-room rug;
+and with a quick handshake and a pleasanter nod than he would have
+thought could possibly have come to him half an hour before, Nancy
+Whitman was gone.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+In the morning Nancy's thoughts flew to the proposed social work. What
+on earth had she got herself into! Swept away, as usual, she had
+confided her plans for a life of service to a man she barely knew, one
+hour after she had decided to leave him alone! Well, there was nothing
+to do now but make the best of it. Their talk had, as a matter of fact,
+shown that she had been a little silly about the charade. He had
+unsuspected depth. That had been made clear by his conversation about
+education, and it was unlikely that anyone who felt as strongly as he
+did could be wayward in a charade. So it might turn out all right, after
+all, and she had better set about getting the workers.
+
+Mary, to her surprise, was a disappointment. It seemed that with her
+music, which she was studying seriously this year, with weekly trips to
+Boston for a lesson, she had no time. Others of her friends to whom she
+had naturally turned were unavailable for one reason or another, and the
+affair began to look discouraging. On the fourth day, however, while
+calling upon the Misses Forbes, she got an unsolicited recruit. Her mind
+being full of the idea, she was talking about it before she knew it;
+and to her astonishment, and a little to her dismay, Miss Jennie offered
+her services. "I cannot," she said, "talk to the operatives about their
+bodies, and, accordingly, it won't be necessary for me to attend the
+physiological lectures, but I think I can be of use later on. When we
+went to Miss Northcote's School we learned to weave mats and paint on
+china, and I can give instructions in them. In their turn they will
+instruct me, for I shall learn much about Housing Conditions and have an
+opportunity to examine at first hand the various industrial problems of
+the day. Who knows? when we are through, I may prepare a paper for the
+_Nation_." Her sisters indicated their disapproval by rocking
+hopelessly.
+
+Tom, too, had met with difficulties. Upon thinking the matter over he
+had little doubt as to its outcome. Enough of his Ephesus life remained
+with him to tell him that factory hands are not to be reached by
+lectures from academic ladies and gentlemen. He blushed, too, for
+certain sentiments he had expressed upon the essence of education, but
+they might be credited to the delicate frenzy of the dance and his
+unexpected reconciliation. It was, of course, all Nancy. He could not
+imagine himself proceeding upon such an affair with anyone else. Still,
+he found it necessary to placate his conscience for the time taken from
+the study of Beowulf which he was then making for his Ph.D. "All work
+and no play makes Jack a dull boy" seemed, after a somewhat desperate
+search, as sound a principle as any; and, furthermore, he would save
+time from his exercise by running around the cemetery--the classic
+running course--instead of playing squash at the Country Club. So that
+problem was settled.
+
+The young physiologist, however, upon whom he had been counting had
+developed appendicitis, and he didn't feel that he knew any of the other
+men in the department well enough to take their time for such a
+speculative cause. Then he met old Professor Sprig, a Star man of '65,
+who had been a celebrated physiologist in his time and who was now an
+almost equally celebrated eccentric. Having complained of the present
+status of the department and explained his problem, Tom was invited by
+the old gentleman to bring Nancy to his rooms. "You know, I suppose,
+where I live?" he asked with a crafty smile.
+
+Tom did know where he lived. The old four-story frame building in
+Whitmanville, the Diamond Building, the highest in the town, had been
+made famous by his residence. The top floor was said to be his apartment
+and it was commonly supposed that he kept chickens in it. There were
+some dreadful stories about midnight dissections, but cooler heads
+affirmed that if there were any chickens there at all, they were there
+as the companions and not as the helpless victims of a debauched old
+age. And now the two social workers were invited into these mysterious
+precincts! The news might swell the roster to disconcerting
+proportions. They should have to proceed with caution.
+
+"All we want, sir, is a most elementary discussion. Just enough so we
+can give the men and women in the Mills some simple facts about
+themselves. Then, with that as a starter, we can build up more
+intelligently."
+
+"I shall be glad to give you whatever you want. Shall we say Tuesday
+next? At eight o'clock? Don't dress, you know. Just come as you are.
+This is business," and with another of his sly smiles he moved on down
+the street.
+
+When Tom called for Nancy on Tuesday night he found her equipped with
+pad and pencils.
+
+"Henry doesn't think too highly of this performance, I may say," she
+said, smiling up at him, "but we simply couldn't have let people know
+where we are going. They would have swamped the whole thing. I must say
+I am a little afraid." She slipped her arm through his, and they hurried
+on down Division Street, which connects Tutors' Lane with Whitmanville.
+"If he only has chickens, I won't mind, but if he has bats I shall hate
+it. I confess I'm a perfect fool about bats. They're loathsome. What
+they really are, are hairy rats with wings like web feet, and they have
+the most _loathsome_ mouths."
+
+Tom was curiously excited. He felt buoyed up. It was like water-wings,
+he told himself. And when he tried afterwards to think of the things he
+had said, he could remember nothing except that he had quoted Alice's
+perplexity about bats eating cats when she was falling down the well,
+and that they had both laughed immoderately.
+
+The Diamond Building, on their arrival, presented a somewhat portentous
+picture. A Five, Ten, and Fifteen Cent store dimly showed forth strings
+of penny postal cards and piles of dusty candy in its macabre windows.
+The second floor was throbbing with the rich life of a poolhall, and as
+they passed the Christian Science rooms on the third floor they carried
+with them the strains of a therapeutic hymn. And then, at last, they
+were before a door which bore over its bell the pencilled legend, H.
+Sprig.
+
+They were admitted by a flunkey named Herbert. Herbert's period of
+usefulness in the laboratory had terminated with that of the Professor,
+and the latter had engaged him as a body servant, not only because of
+his proved capacity and loyalty, but because of the unusual shape of his
+head, upon which the Professor found it restful to gaze. He was black,
+was Herbert, and was at present clothed in gorgeous blue livery with
+gold buttons. He bowed the guests inside and led them through a narrow
+hallway to a comfortable room of generous size, the Professor's library.
+At one end was a long table, and behind it was Mr. Sprig, clad in a
+morning coat. Behind him on the walls were half a dozen diagrams of Man
+the Master, designed to gratify students whose thirst was for the
+anatomical. Before Mr. Sprig were a pitcher of iced water, a tumbler,
+and a sheaf of notes.
+
+Mr. Sprig rose as Nancy and Tom entered and bowed pleasantly, at the
+same time waving them to two chairs placed close together before his
+table. When they had seated themselves he bowed again, and, without more
+ado, began an address. He spoke in a low, deep, if somewhat quavery
+voice, and with an elegant ease of manner. It was his purpose, he
+explained, to give them an elementary course in the primary systems of
+the body, together with two supplementary lectures on hygiene, in order
+that they might go out and instruct the poor in the proper care of their
+bodies. Tonight he would have only time for the respiratory and
+circulatory systems, next time would come the digestive and excretory
+tracts, and he hoped to finish in six lectures. It was, of course, a
+broad subject and much water had passed under the bridge since his day,
+but with their generous help he hoped that the thing might be done.
+
+He talked for fifty minutes, that being a college period, and at its
+close he bowed again. He then came from behind the table and shook them
+warmly by the hand. "You will forgive a foolish old man, I know. You see
+I haven't given a lecture since I resigned eight years ago, and I
+thought I'd like to do it up brown. And now, Herbert"--for the elaborate
+old man had appeared at the close of the lecture--"please bring in the
+things."
+
+The "things" were some little round cup cakes, three wine glasses, and
+a large bottle of sauterne.
+
+"The summer we graduated," Mr. Sprig went on, "my classmate Curtis and I
+went abroad. We took a walking trip south of Bordeaux, and on that walk
+we discovered this wine. I have kept in touch with the people who make
+it ever since, and although I shall never get any more, I shall have
+enough to last me. You must try a glass, Miss Whitman. I assure you it
+will improve all of your systems!"
+
+When Nancy first looked at her watch it was nearly eleven.
+
+"You mustn't go, of course, until you have seen the chickens," said Mr.
+Sprig.
+
+The chickens! Under the charm of the softly lighted room, the old
+gentleman's quiet flow of half-whimsical, half-serious reminiscence,
+they had been carried back to the rosy days that were before their
+birth. Now they dreaded lest their host should show himself a little
+mad, after all.
+
+He lit a bedside candle, and at his request they followed him out upon a
+sun parlour. And there, indeed, was a wire-enclosed runaway with a
+white-washed shelf at the end supporting four sleeping forms. The candle
+moved nearer, and there they were--beyond any possible doubt, Plymouth
+Rocks.
+
+To see them at night was a nice problem, he explained. Being a little
+light-minded about sunshine, it seemed that they were unable to
+discriminate between heaven's high lamp and the electric one on the
+porch, and would dutifully arise when either appeared. Once down from
+their perch, they would refuse to return until the sun was removed; and
+when it chanced to be the one on the porch and was switched off, they
+were unable to return because their endowment of optic nerve was small
+and their homing instinct, so strong in bees and eagles, smaller. There
+was created, accordingly, an _impasse_, but Mr. Sprig, who knew his
+hens, circumvented it. He lit a bedside candle which merely troubled his
+friends' sleep.
+
+"The one on the extreme left is Helen of Troy. She is a stunning
+creature, as you can see. She produced an egg for me only this morning.
+Next is Malvolio. I confess I am partial to him. Then comes Little Nell.
+She is extremely demure and inclined to be sentimental. And last is
+Carol Kennicott, who chatters so much I am afraid I shall shortly have
+to pop her into a pie." He gazed at her affectionately. "Well," he
+continued as he led the way back into his library, "I have now shown you
+my treasures. They, of course, seem a little crazy to you, and I hope
+your lives will end so fully that you won't have to fall back on them.
+But in case either of you should find yourself old and foolish and
+alone, I can recommend them as pleasant and amiable companions. You will
+find them curiously simple--they are not offended if you don't call upon
+them or write them letters,--and then from time to time they yield up to
+you the shining miracle of an egg, for which they ask no recompense; and
+when they come to lay down their lives they do it with a gesture and
+make the day a feast."
+
+He was standing before the dying fire, surrounded by its genial light,
+as his guests withdrew. Near him, just touched by the firelight, were
+the crumbs of their supper and the stately old bottle which had given
+its bouquet to the room. Old Herbert, moving out of the shadow
+noiselessly and pleasantly, bowed them out, and as the vision faded one
+of the guests, at least, pictured the four friends on the sun porch
+readjusting themselves, after their fitful fever, to the gentle life of
+their home.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The following Thursday night Tom called at the Whitmans' to rehearse the
+lecture. Nancy's cousin Bob had arranged to have two rooms reserved for
+them during the Friday noon hour at the Mills, and they had agreed that
+the best way to prepare for the ordeal was to study their notes and get
+their material in final shape and then have a dress rehearsal on
+Thursday night. "After a while," Nancy had said, "when we work into the
+harness, we probably won't need to have one, but I don't think we can be
+too careful of this first lecture." This had been precisely Tom's
+opinion also.
+
+Tom had never seen Henry so amiable. In fact he seemed hard put to it to
+keep from unrestrained merriment, and Tom, who found the affair more
+alarming as it progressed, would have preferred avoiding him altogether.
+He knew that Henry was calling him callow, a lightweight, charges
+well-nigh proved by his present undertaking, and to save himself from
+rout he had to remember that Henry was a heavy Grave man and that his
+own participation was only a question of common courtesy to a lady,
+anyway. Nancy had set her heart upon the thing, and he would be a very
+indifferent friend to stand idly by and not lift a finger to help.
+
+"I believe," said Henry, "that we are to sit in the drawing-room. Nancy
+will stand in the far end of the library."
+
+"I see," replied Tom vaguely.
+
+"She feels that having the conditions rather trying tonight will help
+her tomorrow. Accordingly, she's going to speak first, and she wants me
+to excuse her for not being here when you arrived. By coming in formally
+and beginning her address without speaking to us, she hopes to get some
+of the feeling of the way it will be tomorrow." And with a somewhat
+hysterical noise he went to the stairway. "All right, Nancy."
+
+In a minute Nancy appeared on the stairs and, walking stiffly across
+into the library, she climbed upon a footstool at the far end. In front
+of her was an old violin stand. Upon it she put her notes. She then
+raised her face; and even at the distance it appeared flushed.
+
+"Fellow workers," she began.
+
+At this point Henry broke into uncontrollable laughter. "Excuse me,
+really, but it is too much. 'Fellow workers'--oh, dear me. Oh, oh, I am
+afraid I can't stand it. You must excuse me, really. Oh, dear me," and
+rising weakly, handkerchief in hand, he tottered from the room.
+
+Nancy, the picture of resigned despair, gazed at Tom. He felt slightly
+hysterical himself.
+
+"What are we to do?" she asked helplessly. As they were nearly fifty
+feet apart, the pitch of her voice was necessarily above that used in
+ordinary conversation and gave to her words considerable melodramatic
+force. A fresh shout of laughter descending from the stairs made the
+situation none the easier.
+
+Nancy was, indeed, thoroughly upset. What was to become of her
+independent life if this failed? How else could she express herself? Was
+it to collapse at the very start, before she could even approach her
+dreams for the future? To have it end ridiculously, to have her become a
+laughing stock, would be too cruel. No, she would fight for her liberty.
+
+"Why, the thing to do is to go on," replied Tom. Had those words been
+said at Marengo or Poitiers or Persepolis, they might today be learned
+by school children. They were of the stuff that wins lost causes. They
+stem defeat as effectively as fresh battalions.
+
+"Fellow workers," Nancy began again, and this time there was only
+respectful silence, "I have come to you today to tell you a little
+something about the machines which are forever your property, which were
+given to you by your Maker and which it is your sacred duty to keep in
+as good condition as possible. I mean your own bodies." She paused, and
+Tom nodded encouragement from the other room. "It has become my pleasant
+duty to come to you and tell you how you may keep these God-given
+machines. You are to regard me, in other words, as your friend and
+sister." The lecturer was here threatened by a dry, pippy, cough and
+the whole course was imperilled. However, she drove fiercely on.
+
+"At the outset you should have a brief working knowledge of such things
+as your heart and lungs, your pancreas, liver, big and little intestines
+and their juices; and I shall, accordingly, give you a brief idea of the
+various systems, beginning today with the circulatory and respiratory.
+Next time I shall hope to cover the digestive and excretory tracts, and
+I shall close with two talks on personal hygiene." This ended the
+preliminary matter, and the lecturer proceeded with the body of her talk
+in a somewhat more mechanical style. The respiratory system was
+dismissed in six minutes, although, in some curious way, Mr. Sprig had
+strung the same material out to half an hour.
+
+Before beginning upon the circulatory system, however, she sprang a
+surprise. "For your convenience," she explained, "I shall draw a diagram
+of the heart and its valves, and with your assistance I shall explain
+its action." After a little wrestling with the diagram, which _would_
+curl, she managed to pin it to the wall. She then proceeded, in red
+crayon, to draw a fully equipped heart. She finished with audible relief
+and, turning triumphantly--greeted Miss Balch and her brother Leofwin.
+
+"Dear me, I am afraid we are intruding," said Miss Balch, looking around
+with ingenuous charm.
+
+Henry, having heard the bell which the social workers had been too
+absorbed to hear, appeared at the door and relieved the situation
+temporarily. Leofwin, however, whose eye was naturally caught by the
+pictorial, was gazing at the circulatory system on the wall. "What on
+earth is that?" he asked, with more curiosity than was perhaps
+excusable. "It looks for all the world like some sort of impressionistic
+valentine."
+
+Nancy, for one reckless moment, was tempted to say that it was, but
+temperate judgment prevailed. After all, why need she be ashamed of what
+they were doing?
+
+"Tom and I are giving a course of lectures at the Mill, in hygiene, and
+we are just rehearsing a little; that's all. The valentine shows the
+heart action. Those arm things are the valves, you see."
+
+"But, really, you know, even a valve must have some perspective."
+
+"Well, of course, I'm no artist. The cut in the dictionary was very
+small, and when I enlarged it I tried to get the right proportions, but
+I just had my tape measure and----"
+
+"I shall help you. Elfrida will bear me out: I have always been
+interested in the lower classes, and I shall love to go with you and
+draw it when the time comes."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't let you do that."
+
+"Why not? I admit I've had no experience, but, after all, in a work of
+this kind, it is the spirit that counts, isn't it?"
+
+Elfrida had engaged Tom and Henry at a point as far distant as she could
+from her brother and Nancy, and she now asked Tom what he thought of
+Somebody's latest novel and made him lose track of their conversation.
+
+"Are you _really_ a realist?" asked Miss Balch.
+
+"No, I don't think I am."
+
+"Fancy," replied Miss Balch. "Then I think you would like a thing I got
+out of the library the other day by one of these new Russians. He has
+some dreadful name. Well, it is about this man, a peasant, who falls in
+love with this Bolshevist agent, and she uses the man, you see, as a
+tool. Then there is this other woman in it who----"
+
+Leofwin had adopted a very free-and-easy manner, it seemed to Tom.
+He was sitting with his legs crossed, hands folded, one arm over
+the back of his chair, half facing Nancy. He was being extremely
+bland and at his ease. It was the sort of thing one might do in
+a Russian drawing-room, perhaps, where the ladies doubtless didn't
+mind being bitten in a fit of passion, but it was decidedly not the
+way to behave in Woodbridge--although it must be confessed that an
+impartial observer might have failed to distinguish any marked
+difference in the way Tom himself was sitting, since he, too, had
+crossed his legs, folded his hands, and was half facing Nancy. It
+was clear that Nancy was painfully trying to do the honours. "You
+must let me see your pictures," Tom heard her say.
+
+"... Really, Mr. Reynolds, I think you might listen to me when I'm
+trying so hard to entertain you."
+
+"Why, I heard everything you said. All about this new Russian."
+
+"Sly boots!" said Miss Balch archly.
+
+Tom wondered what the proper reply was. What he wanted to say, in the
+same arch manner was "Puss Wuss!" but instead he just grinned brightly
+and let it be inferred that he was thinking of all sorts of clever
+things.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts, sir," cried Miss Balch.
+
+This was unbearable, especially since Henry was apparently enjoying it
+so much.
+
+"I hope you won't think me rude, but I was thinking of the great pile of
+uncorrected test papers at home on my desk, and I am afraid you will
+have to excuse me." He rose. The whole room rose.
+
+He started for the door, and Nancy hurried over to him. "Isn't it
+dreadful?" she seemed to say. Behind her, like Tartarin's camel, loomed
+Leofwin.
+
+"We'll meet here at twelve," Nancy said, and with an effort she managed
+to include the cavalier and irrepressible artist, who, beaming and
+bowing, showed in every corner of him his thorough approval of the whole
+arrangement.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+By a coincidence, the two men arrived at ten minutes to twelve. They
+found Nancy in a rather pathetic state of excitement. She had been
+running up and down stairs and from one room to another and she met them
+with the elaborate calm of one about to give himself up to a capital
+operation.
+
+"We have a nice day for it, anyway," she said bravely. Any agreeable
+condition, however remote it might at first appear from the business at
+hand, was welcome. "Tell me," she asked Tom, "do you think I'm dressed
+suitably?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Some social workers go down in the slums in the worst old clothes they
+can find, but I've heard that the people down there like to see nice
+things, so I compromised. This is just a gingham dress, you see, but I'm
+wearing my pearls."
+
+"I should think that's just right. Didn't Henry, the Labour expert, help
+you?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't bother him. He's not interested, you see."
+
+Leofwin, who had been fidgeting around for an opening, now burst forth.
+"I came early," he said, "to find out if I can't do the lungs too; I've
+been practising them along with the heart, you know, and I think it
+might go well dashing them in somewhere. What?" Leofwin's "what's" were
+noteworthy. They were in a higher key than the rest of his conversation,
+which was itself high, and he drew them out to almost exquisite lengths.
+They were nearly all that was left of his week-end with the patron in
+Suffolk.
+
+"Oh, dear me, no," replied Nancy with considerable spirit.
+
+"I think you will like my heart," he continued undismayed. "I've been
+doing them all morning. I dug up some priceless old Beaux Arts crayons.
+It will be nice when we get to the brain. It's awfully romantic, I
+find," and he gave Nancy a killing smile. She gazed at him placidly and
+then turned to Tom. "What time is it?" she asked.
+
+"Nearly twelve."
+
+At this point Edmund drove up, and with renewed palpitations the party
+proceeded to the Mill.
+
+As they passed in through the gates Tom noticed with sickening dread a
+huge sign in flaming letters, "ARE YOU PHYSICALLY FIT? _Mr. Reynolds of
+Woodbridge Will Address You----_" They were met by Bob Whitman, a hearty
+young man who had just been made an officer of the Company. He stared at
+Leofwin in amused bewilderment.
+
+"Mr. Balch is helping me with the diagrams," explained Nancy. "And now
+where do we go?"
+
+"Well, you'd better just sit here for a minute or two until they get
+settled with their lunches. I'll take you to where you go; and what's
+more, Nancy, I'll introduce you!" Nancy received the word "introduce" as
+a surgical case receives the initial injection of morphine. The first
+step had been taken, and nothing could save her. "As for you, Tom, your
+lecture room's over there, and I'll get the foreman to introduce you."
+
+"Don't think of it," said Tom quickly, "I'll just introduce myself; get
+to be one of them, you know what I mean. Just one of the boys."
+
+"Well, Miss Whitman, let's you and I get to be just one of the girls,"
+tittered Leofwin.
+
+"I think we might as well go in," said Nancy without noticing Leofwin's
+jest, which appeared singularly hollow.
+
+"You're sure you don't want some one to start you off, Tom?" asked Bob.
+
+Tom was certain of it; and before entering his room, he waited until
+Nancy's party had disappeared around the corner. He then opened the door
+and, going over to a man who was ruminating vacantly upon a huge chunk
+of bread, sat down. "There's going to be some sort of lecture here,
+today, isn't there?" he asked.
+
+"I dunno," replied the man.
+
+"Yeah, there is," spoke up a hand nearby. "I seen it on a sign this
+morning. Some guy from the college."
+
+"That's what I thought," said Tom. "I thought I'd just come in and see
+what he had to say. Can't stay very long, though," he added, looking at
+his watch. Then after a pause, "Pretty nice place you got here."
+
+"Oh, it's good enough, I guess."
+
+The room was a large one, filled with three or four dozen tables bearing
+complicated-looking machinery. There were twenty or thirty men sitting
+around solemnly chewing their food.
+
+"Pretty slow now, isn't it?" asked Tom.
+
+"Yeah, they laid off about a hundred last week."
+
+"This laying-off stuff would have gone bigger a couple of years ago--in
+the army--wouldn't it?"
+
+"I'll say it would."
+
+"Have a cigarette?" said Tom. "What outfit were you in?"
+
+The prospect of free cigarettes and army talk, which already in less
+than three years had taken on a romantic glow, attracted the other men,
+who, as they finished their lunches, came up and joined the circle. Tom
+was holding forth in the centre; and when Bob Whitman glanced in on his
+way home he could see that Tom, by making his talk informal, was getting
+it across in great style.
+
+Once, during the conversation, Providence seemed to offer an opportunity
+of bringing in his lecture in such a way that no one would guess he was
+giving it.
+
+His conscience bothered him a little, and he plunged ahead. One of the
+men told how his bunkie at Base Six in Bordeaux had died of heart
+failure when under ether. In a somewhat parched voice Tom started to
+explain how this could come about, but in no time he was talking
+gibberish. "The aorta," he heard himself saying, "is the big main artery
+which comes out of one of the ventricles," and then he noticed the dazed
+look on the men's faces and, floundering hopelessly, managed to laugh it
+off. Well, he had tried to talk to them, anyway, and by consulting his
+watch he found that half an hour had gone by.
+
+After his third cigarette--he had come plentifully supplied--he looked
+at his watch again. He could go at last! It was ten minutes to one, and
+Nancy had probably finished long ago. "Apparently this guy isn't coming
+today. I've got to run along. Well, I've enjoyed this talk a lot," and
+with an inclusive smile and wave of the hand he went.
+
+Nancy wasn't back in the car, and starting off in the direction they had
+taken, he soon came to her room. There must have been a hundred women in
+it and it was Leofwin, not Nancy, who was talking to them.
+
+Tom opened the door quietly and sat down on a stool in the rear. Nancy,
+pale and helpless, was sitting on one side of a resplendent circulatory
+system drawn to illustrate the subtleties of the designer's art.
+
+"You will observe, ladies," Leofwin was saying in his purest Suffolk
+manner, "that shading is done with the crayon well back, like this." He
+made a few swift lines on the corner of the System and looked up with
+his bright, inquisitive smile. "Now are there any questions?" There was
+a stony silence, amid which the one o'clock whistle blew.
+
+The foreman, left in charge by Bob, rose. "I'm sorry, Miss Whitman, but
+I'm afraid we'll have to stop today."
+
+The worker's friend and sister bowed to him and, clutching her notes and
+her bag, with firmly set lips and eyes fixed, marched to the door.
+Leofwin followed, bowing pleasantly right and left, to the intense
+gratification of his audience, and the trio retired.
+
+"Jolly, wasn't it?" said Leofwin. "I'm sorry, though, we couldn't have
+had more time. I didn't get to foreshortening at all. However, I think I
+probably helped them a good deal. Sometime I'd like to tell them about
+etching, you know, and aqua--and mezzotints."
+
+Nancy received her assistant's remarks in complete silence. She was even
+unable to do more than nod a good-bye to him. But she shook Tom's hand
+in parting, and, with an air that might augur the worst, she asked him
+to come and see her on the next afternoon.
+
+Nancy was particularly charming, Tom thought when he was again with her,
+and what was even more to the point, he found that they were to be
+alone. She got his tea ready without difficulty--he was flattered that
+she remembered his formula--and they settled back for a good talk and
+laugh.
+
+"I wasn't civil to him, but I really don't care! Did you ever know a
+more dreadful person?"
+
+"Never. He's awful. But, tell me, how did it go until he took charge?"
+
+"Why, not so badly. But, oh, Tom I heard about you!"
+
+Tom flushed. "What did you hear?"
+
+"Well, Bob was here last night and he said he saw you through the
+window. He told us how you got them all around you and how you might
+have been talking about anything." She was wholly admiring.
+
+"Oh, I just talked to them," he said. "I never could have gotten away
+with anything formal."
+
+"Isn't it funny? I used to think that teaching must be the easiest thing
+in the world. I used to imagine myself lecturing to the whole college,
+but I can appreciate now what you and Henry are doing."
+
+Tom was anxious to have the conversation move upon firmer ground. He was
+also in the dark as to what the next move in the campaign was to be.
+
+Was it to be abandoned, or were they to try and carry on? The latter
+possibility seemed too fearful. How could he go into that room again?
+But one must proceed cautiously. It would never do, for example, to come
+out and treat the whole thing as a distinctly juvenile performance,
+something they had quite outgrown, until it was clear that they had
+outgrown it. Again, now was not the time to explain the real nature of
+his lecture. He could do that when the whole thing had become an
+amusing memory. "What are we going to do about Mr. Sprig?" asked Tom
+vaguely.
+
+"You mean are we going to keep on with the lectures?"
+
+"Well, yes."
+
+"What do you think? Last night I was so sick about the whole thing that
+I was ready to give it all up, but now I wonder if it isn't our duty to
+give it one more trial." Her words were disappointing, but the
+dispirited tone in which she said them was cheering, and Tom made so
+bold as to sing the lately revived "Duty, duty must be done, the rule
+applies to everyone, and painful though the duty be, to shirk the task
+were fiddle-dee-dee..."; a happy impulse, for when Henry arrived from
+his five o'clock he found Tom at the piano and Nancy sitting by him, the
+one in the role of the Mikado of Japan and the other as his
+daughter-in-law-elect.
+
+When, however, on the following Tuesday they again climbed down from the
+fourth floor of the Whitman building, the light had indeed gone out of
+the undertaking. Mr. Sprig's subject, the digestive and excretory
+tracts, had not been a propitious one for so critical a time. Leofwin,
+who had invited himself along, had been captivated by the decorative
+possibilities of the alimentary canal and had led the discussion
+following the lecture with a vigour and thoroughness trying for those
+unfamiliar with an artist's training. "Don't you think it might be fun
+to trace something all the way from the initial bite down?" he asked.
+"Let's take an olive, a green olive. 'Back to Nature by A. Green Olive:
+A Drama in Six Acts and any Number of Scenes.'"
+
+Tom was looking intently at the diagrams on the walls. At musical
+comedies and the movies, when embarrassing situations arose, one was, in
+a measure, prepared. The darkness, too, helped, and one could stare
+straight ahead until the relief, which was rarely long in coming,
+arrived. There was, finally, the comfort of numbers. But now they were
+only two--the artist and the scientist being immune to shame. It was,
+furthermore, extremely bright, everybody was out in the open, and
+although the amateurs had come prepared for a momentary brush with a
+bowel or two, they had no reason to expect a prolonged causerie upon
+even more intimate matters. Tom was, accordingly, hot with
+embarrassment, and he had reason to believe that Nancy was also.
+
+As Leofwin rattled on, with frankness ever more Elizabethan, Tom glanced
+at Nancy. She was examining the point of her pencil with as elaborate an
+interest as he had ever seen shown in any object. It seemed an
+altogether remarkable affair; but then, apparently, so was the eraser.
+They were complementary. A line could be made by the point, a delicate,
+straight line; and then, reversing the pencil, the line could be taken
+out by the eraser. The thing was complete.
+
+Tom became angry. What right had that great calf to subject Nancy to
+such an ordeal? He turned to her and said without lowering his voice,
+"This is rather dull, don't you think? Let's go out and see the hens."
+
+They went out, but couldn't very well see the hens, since they had no
+candle and were above deceiving them with the porch light. Accordingly,
+they stepped back into the little hallway that led to the library. To go
+on into the library was to expose themselves again to the mortification
+of the physiological vagaries of Leofwin. So they just stood in the
+little hallway. And then, they laughed.
+
+The relief of a thunderstorm on a stifling day is proverbial, as is the
+relief of finding one's handkerchief just before one sneezes; but what
+are these compared with the flooding joy that comes with release from an
+embarrassing situation with a young lady? The effect upon Tom was to
+make him excited; more so, perhaps, than he had ever been. It was the
+same swelling, throbbing excitement he had felt when, waiting in his
+room on the afternoon of his Election Day, he realized by the shouting
+of the crowd below that his election was coming.
+
+Nancy was really wonderful. From being curious about her, he had been
+swept into the Problem of Living with which he had found her somewhat
+pathetically struggling. It had absorbed him in the brief time that he
+had encountered it; and now that her first attempt at a solution had
+ended in ridiculous failure, she immediately rose above it in laughter!
+
+And how happy was the cause of their laughter, after all. An experience
+such as the one they had just come through must make or break a
+friendship. Their relationship could not remain the same; and with their
+laughter they had sealed the new bond.
+
+They said little as they strolled home, alone, in the clear night. It
+had in it the first suggestion of spring; and neither, apparently, found
+need to hurry.
+
+"Bob will have to straighten it out at the Mill," said Nancy, "and I
+shall write Mr. Sprig. I think we ought to send him something, don't
+you?"
+
+They had come to the Whitman gate. It was a high wooden structure,
+connected at the top, and in the spring it was covered with roses. The
+fanlight in the old doorway shone down the brick walk and touched
+Nancy's hair.
+
+"Of course we must."
+
+They shook hands and bade each other good night. And then, as Nancy
+turned from him and went up the lighted walk and into the house, Tom
+knew without any particular surprise and quite without a rising
+temperature, that he loved her.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Nancy emerged from her social service work with the feeling that she had
+added several chapters to the store of her experience. The sheep-like
+expression that covered the composite face of her group had brought home
+to her the ineffectiveness of her plan. One couldn't, it was clear, go
+down among the masses, no matter how thoughtfully dressed, with only an
+equipment of good will, and hope to do them much good. Nor was she, she
+now suspected, the person to attempt such a career. She fancied she saw
+inherent weaknesses in her character which would preclude a successful
+performance. She had been frightened, rather than inspired, by the women
+in that room, particularly by the women of her own age. "What right have
+you to come down here with your pearls and your simple gingham dress,"
+she felt they were asking, "and get off a lot of this college stuff to
+us?" What right indeed? She was convinced, in short, that she had been
+embarked upon a hopeless piece of snobbery, and, finding the whole
+business distasteful, it had not been difficult to discover her
+unfitness.
+
+The time had not been wasted, however. Not only had she satisfied
+herself that a career of Uplift was not for her, but she had made a
+friend into the bargain. Tom, she decided, had behaved beautifully
+through it; and in her humbled state of mind the offence she had taken
+at his acting in the charade became all the more odious. What a
+mean-minded girl she could be, to be sure; yet how perfectly he had
+risen above the situation. He had received her rudeness with an
+instinctive fineness that gave freshness to the Biblical admonition
+about the other cheek. He had returned good for evil, and in supporting
+her through the ordeal of the Uplift Plan he had proved himself a tower
+of strength.
+
+Tom and she, a few days after the final lecture, had gone together to
+the college book shop and picked out their present for Professor Sprig.
+They had dawdled over the shelves, pulling down a book here and another
+there, meeting every few minutes to show each other a possibility, and
+then putting it back. The thing could, of course, have been done much
+more quickly, but neither seemed in a hurry to find the right one, for
+they both liked books, and the shop was well-stocked, and the clerks did
+not descend like buzzards upon them. They at length selected a
+rag-paper, wide-margined copy of Calverley's _Verses and Fly Leaves_ and
+laughed at its inappropriateness for the physiologist. Still, they were
+confident enough that Mr. Sprig knew his Calverley quite as well as
+they, and that another copy would not be a burden. It had been a
+delightful two hours, and Nancy, at dinner, began a detailed account of
+it.
+
+But Henry was not interested. "It seems to me that you are seeing a
+good deal of Tom Reynolds, lately," was all that he said.
+
+And why shouldn't she see a good deal of Tom Reynolds? she asked
+herself. There was that in Henry's tone which opened up the old-time
+anger. Here he was, questioning her again, this time questioning her
+friends. He was questioning Tom!
+
+Had Henry wished to further the young man's chances with his sister to
+the best of his ability, he could not have chosen a more effective
+method. Tom, who had been doing very well on his own account, was now
+made doubly romantic through persecution. Nor do I think Nancy should be
+condemned as over-sentimental for feeling so, for if the reader--who
+cannot conceivably be thought over-sentimental--examine his own
+experience, I dare say he will find a parallel. In any event, Nancy was
+in a fair way to discover a tender interest in Tom, if, indeed, she had
+not already done so.
+
+But in the meantime, she must be true to herself and live richly. She
+had not yet determined what her new work would be, nor should she
+determine what it would be until she had considered the matter more
+dispassionately than she had the last one. Until the right thing was
+apparent, therefore, she would devote herself with more assiduity to the
+physical, mental, and spiritual progress of her nephew. After all, what
+finer work could there be than the rearing of a first-class American
+youth?
+
+Henry had sent his son to Miss West's kindergarten when he was scarcely
+four. Harry had not done well at the various cutting and pasting
+exercises, but he had been somewhat precocious at reading and was
+already advanced into the third reader. His orthographic sense, however,
+had not yet unbudded, and it was to the gentle fostering of this, in
+particular, that Nancy now committed herself. She also thought it high
+time that his musical education should commence, and the services of
+Miss Marbury were invoked. Harry, unlike the general run of his fellows,
+was wholly charmed with the prospect of playing, and the old piano was
+assailed with a diligence reminiscent of the youthful Haendel. So it
+happened that Harry was practising in mid-afternoon on the day when
+Leofwin Balch called, something over a week after the debacle of Nancy's
+social service career.
+
+Nancy, too, was at home and was much surprised and annoyed when her late
+assistant appeared. Not the least surprising feature of his call was his
+costume. Usually clad with a conspicuous and artistic carelessness, he
+was today arrayed like the lilies of the field. He was wearing a morning
+coat, faultlessly pressed, and in its buttonhole bloomed a gardenia. He
+carried a stick with a gold band around it, his spats were of a light
+and wonderful tan, and in his hand, in place of the usual greenish-brown
+veteran, he held a grey fedora of precisely the shape and shade worn by
+His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on the occasion of that happiest
+of events, his recent visit to our country.
+
+"I learned from your chauffeur that you were at home," said Leofwin,
+smiling graciously, "but I had no way of knowing that you were alone."
+
+He had actually been spying on her! "Why didn't you call up one of the
+maids?" replied Nancy with more asperity than was perhaps becoming in a
+hostess.
+
+"Delightful picture," laughed Leofwin, "but as a matter of fact you see
+I don't know any of them, what?" and he nodded pleasantly.
+
+Harry, who had progressed to the D scale at his second and latest
+lesson, was going over it with all the ardour of first love, and
+contributed a tinkly-winkly background which was vaguely disturbing. It
+was not near enough, however, to be quite recognizable, and Leofwin
+carried on without comment, supposing it to be a kind of funny clock, or
+something.
+
+"I called," he continued, "at this odd hour in the hope that I might
+find out how you are after our recent attempt to improve the lower
+classes." He drew his chair up nearer to Nancy as he spoke, and there
+was a tenderness in his tone that alarmed her, particularly in the way
+he emphasized "our."
+
+"I am quite well, thank you."
+
+"Oh, but I am glad to hear it," he said.
+
+The fervour of his words was nonsensical, but his intention, alas, was
+becoming clear.
+
+"If you will forgive me," he continued, "I shall begin at once upon the
+business at hand. We artists, you know, are sometimes accused of being
+unbusinesslike. Goodness only knows, I am a mere child at stocks and
+bonds and par and all those things, but the underlying essence of
+business I rather fancy I have--that is, quickness of perception. Now I
+quickly perceive that we are likely to be interrupted here at almost any
+minute." He paused and looked about a little wildly. "I do wish we might
+have a more secluded nook for our talk." Nancy, however, who was now
+prepared for the worst, did not offer more seclusion and her lover
+continued. "I wish we had some grotto where I could lead you. I would
+have it on the Libyan shore. Overhead would be the azure sky. Before us,
+stealing up the golden beach, would be the Mediterranean. What a
+colourful scene! Soft breezes would lull you to my mood, and on their
+spicy-laden breath would come the notes of faery music."
+
+While preparing for this call Leofwin had laboured over that conceit
+with all the diligence at his command; perhaps too diligently, for even
+he, had he not been blinded by zeal, might have seen that it was
+something too ornate to appeal to a rather practical young lady of
+twenty-five. It was much too ornate, that is certain; and it alone would
+have made him absurd had not fate joined forces against him and at
+precisely this point prompted Harry, who was for once impatient with his
+progress, to try to reproduce the larger music coursing through his
+soul. This he did by striking out wildly upon the keys in all
+directions; and at the same time the faithful Clarence, slumberingly
+waiting for his master's return to earthly matters, burst into full
+cry.
+
+"Good gracious, what is that?" cried Leofwin.
+
+Nancy sped to the door of the music room, while strange and crashing
+harmonies rang through the house. "Stop, Harry. Stop that dreadful
+noise. You mustn't do that. Some one is calling on me. I think you had
+better go out and play, anyway."
+
+"Oh, please, Auntie, please let me play the scales some more. Just for
+fifteen minutes."
+
+It would have taken a heart of flint to withstand such pleading. Nancy
+left the musician and went boldly back to her visitor.
+
+Leofwin was plainly annoyed by the interruption. He should now have to
+start all over again, and starting was difficult. As Nancy reappeared,
+however, the clouds rolled from his brow.
+
+"Is everything quite all right?" he asked solicitously.
+
+"Quite all right, thank you."
+
+"Well, in speaking just now of the Libyan grotto, I think I probably
+suggested the theme of my visit to you this afternoon. I confess, I am a
+passionate man. Things of the senses appeal to me more than to most; it
+is, of course, the artist within me. I am like a mountain torrent or the
+beetling crest of an ocean comber rushing, full-bodied, down
+upon--upon--the floor." He came to a full stop and stared with pursed
+lips at the object of his love, sitting unhappily before him. What the
+devil _do_ mountain torrents and ocean combers rush down upon? Nothing
+as domestic, surely, as a floor. The thing was unhappily met.
+
+"Please, Mr. Balch," said Nancy, rising, "please don't go any further. I
+really can't listen to you."
+
+"Nancy," he cried, attempting to seize her hand. "I must call you
+'Nancy.' I must call you more than that. With you by my side there will
+be nothing I cannot do. I shall make your name ring down the ages--like
+Madame Recamier, or--or, Mona Lisa. I already have planned a piece for
+us. You are to be Miranda, and I shall be Ferdinand. You are just
+emerging from your bath, and I am peering through the bushes at you----"
+
+The picture was such a dreadful one that Nancy could endure the
+situation no longer. From being anxious to let him down as easily as
+possible--for he was, after all, paying her a compliment--she wished the
+scene over at any cost. He was making the most holy of moments a
+travesty. She felt amazingly self-possessed.
+
+"I appreciate the honour of your intention, Mr. Balch"--the language was
+that of Jane Austen, whom she had just been reading--"but I cannot allow
+it to go on. In fact," she hastened to add, for he showed signs of going
+on, "I shall have to ask you to go."
+
+The D scale, laboriously achieved, floated in from the music room.
+Leofwin turned away and Nancy, standing aside for him, was dismayed to
+note that his little eyes were filled with sorrow and disappointment.
+
+"It is true," he said, "that I have for some time wanted you for myself,
+but of late another reason has been urging me on. If it hadn't been for
+it, I don't think I could have come to you. You see, it is my sister.
+She has set her heart upon a trip abroad; not an ordinary touristy trip,
+you know, but a real one--to Italy. We have now only enough money for
+one to go--I gladly resigned it to her--but she does not feel that she
+can leave me alone. If only you could have--but there, my dear, I'll not
+go on."
+
+Nancy was a little disconcerted by this sudden turn. The situation had
+become almost impersonal. "I'm sorry," she said. She wished that she
+could have thought of a better remark--a better one came in the night,
+when she was going over the whole affair--but he seemed grateful even
+for that.
+
+"Thank you," he said. "But Elfrida will be so disappointed. You simply
+can't imagine how this will spoil all her plans. But perhaps you will
+let me try again some time?"
+
+Harry was following his right hand with his left, an octave lower, with
+almost no success.
+
+"No, I am afraid not," said Nancy as they stood in the doorway. She
+softened her words, however, by holding out her hand.
+
+"Good-bye," he replied, gently taking it; and then, following the
+Continental custom, he stooped and kissed it, much to the amusement of
+two undergraduates who were at the time passing down Tutors' Lane.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+On the morning following the final lecture Tom woke early, and his mind
+flew to the miracle of the preceding night. He was now ablaze with
+Nancy! It was a dazzling business, but when had it happened? It had not
+been as though he had gazed too boldly into the sun and had fallen down,
+blinded by the light of it. It had, to date, been altogether painless.
+He had seen Nancy in various situations, some of them pleasant, some of
+them trying. He had liked the way she had met them; and then it dawned
+upon him that her behaviour was consistently good; and next he knew that
+it would always be so. This was a stupendous discovery, the more so
+since he was not aware of any such consistency in his own character. Had
+he not learned in elementary physics that unlike poles attract one
+another? He could even now picture a diagram in the book showing the
+hearty plus pole in happy affinity with the retiring minus pole, a
+figure which proved the thing beyond a doubt. Science, when made to
+serve as handmaiden to the arts, has its uses, after all, and Tom took
+comfort in its present service.
+
+Still, Nancy wasn't "cut and dried"; it would be a grave injustice to
+imagine her so. She was consistent in an ever new and charming way; she
+never obtruded her consistency. One would almost certainly never be
+bored with her; and yet one could depend upon her through thick and
+thin. He thought of the way the crew on a ferry boat throw their ropes
+over the great piles as they make fast in the slip. Nancy was such a
+pile--but what an odious figure! He thought of her face as he had first
+seen it on the night of the Vernal, when, slightly flushed and smilingly
+expectant, she had peered into the costume closet. A couplet floated out
+of Freshman English into his mind--something about a countenance which
+had in it sweet records and promises as sweet. He jumped out of bed to
+verify it, and found:
+
+    "A countenance in which did meet
+    Sweet records, promises as sweet."
+
+He read on:
+
+    "A creature not too bright or good
+    For human nature's daily food,
+    For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
+    Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles."
+
+There was one more verse, and the last two couplets covered everything.
+
+    "A perfect Woman, nobly planned
+    To warm, to comfort, and command;
+    And yet a Spirit still, and bright
+    With something of an angel-light."
+
+He turned the book down, open at this point, and resolved to memorize
+those lines.
+
+His youth and playtime had now left him for good. The time for
+half-hearted or three-quarters-hearted attempts to forge ahead were
+over. He had pledged his heart and shortly hoped to pledge his hand in
+the service of the loveliest young lady in the world, none less. At
+present he was only a young instructor; of promise, perhaps, but still
+unproved. The immediate goal in his academic career was an Assistant
+Professorship; and although, even under the most favourable
+circumstances, it would probably be a matter of at least three years
+before he got it, nevertheless he could at least make it plain that he
+was indubitably on the way to it, and that (giddy thought) he was even
+of the stuff that Full Professors are made on! And no time should be
+lost before this were shown. Dressing feverishly, he corrected some
+slightly overdue test papers; and when he appeared at breakfast his
+landlady's three other guests noted the spirit in his bearing and
+commented upon it when he left.
+
+There was to be a meeting of the Freshman English Department in the
+afternoon, and Tom found himself looking eagerly forward to it. He had
+no idea of the business that was coming up, but he was going to be
+extremely keen-eyed and watchful about it, whatever it was. The little
+slump which he had allowed to creep into his work recently was over. He
+wondered if any of his colleagues had noticed it, and in particular he
+wondered if Professor Dawson, Head of the Department, had noticed it.
+
+Professor Dawson was Tom's beau ideal of all that a university
+instructor should be. Tom had had him when in college, had taken
+everything that he taught; and he looked back upon the hours spent at
+his feet as among the best of his whole life. To teach like that was to
+be doing something indeed; and it was the picture of himself giving
+formal lectures in the Dawsonian manner that had finally led him into
+teaching. That Tom should have imitated as best he could the Dawsonian
+manner and method was, therefore, inevitable, but it none the less
+exposed him to the smiles of the Department. A member of it, a Professor
+Furbush, found occasion to refer to the Johnsonian anecdote anent sprats
+talking like whales; and, Tom hearing of it, there was brought into
+being one of the enmities which add zest to collegiate existence.
+Professor Dawson was a young man to be so celebrated, being only some
+fifteen years older than Tom himself. He was, of course, a Full
+Professor--the only Full Professor in Freshman English.
+
+Next in rank to him in the Department was Mr. Brainerd, a gentleman who
+was nearly as much Professor Dawson's senior as Dawson was Tom's. Mr.
+Brainerd was, however, only an Assistant Professor, and it was now
+understood by all that he would never be anything higher. Fifteen years
+ago when he produced his chef-d'oeuvre on Smollett his hopes had run
+high. At that time his fate hung in the balance. He could no longer be
+regarded as one of the "younger men," and his status was to be
+determined once and for all. The crowning glory of a Full Professorship
+could only go to one who had made some significant contribution to his
+subject. Would _Tobias Smollett_ be that? Into it had gone all that
+Brainerd could give, and it had, after a brief and generally indifferent
+appearance in the reviews, dropped out of sight. Then it was recognized
+that good old Burt Brainerd would have to putter through life as best he
+could. Mr. Brainerd felt no particular bitterness about it, certainly no
+bitterness towards the College. He had been disappointed in his
+publisher. He should have gone to Beeson, Pancoast with it; instead of
+to Trull. Trull hadn't pushed it at all: they merely announced it with a
+string of books on very dull subjects. Then, too, they had used a cursed
+small type. He had protested against this and had been told that a
+larger type would have made it much more expensive, would probably have
+necessitated doing the work in two volumes. They had had the calm
+assurance to talk to him of expense when he had consented to waive his
+royalties on the first five hundred copies!--an exemption, by the way,
+which they had not yet succeeded in working off. Well, that had been his
+main chance, and he now watched the rise of younger men with equanimity.
+And it must be confessed that he got a certain amount of cold comfort
+from the remembrance that on three several occasions good things had
+come to him from out of the west, and that he need not have remained
+"assistant" had he not elected to do so.
+
+Were it not for his wife, he might have become content. The library was
+a strong one, particularly in his field, and what more delightful end
+for a scholar than to browse at will in his period and write essays for
+the literary magazines? But Mrs. Brainerd chafed. Not having been a
+woman of means or of any particular position, she had been somewhat
+self-conscious in mixing with the great ones of the place. She had, at
+length, however, after a residence of nearly twenty years, decided that
+to live so was nothing; and she had boldly called upon Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee. She had found the great lady all charm and friendliness;
+but when, upon leaving, she had expressed the hope that Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee might be inclined to return her call, Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee had replied, "Thank you." "Is it 'Thank you, yes' or
+'Thank you, no'?" the rash woman had persisted. To which Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee had bowed, "Well, since you insist, I'm afraid it will
+have to be 'Thank you, no.'" Mr. Brainerd had felt the snub perhaps more
+than his wife, although he was most convincing in reassuring her that
+upon trying again, say with some one of the Whitman family, there would
+be small danger of such a rebuff. Mrs. Brainerd, however, had not tried
+again and had, with what stoicism she could command, resigned herself to
+the path God had ordered for her feet. So Mr. Brainerd's end at
+Woodbridge was not a brilliant one, but he did not shrink or cry aloud,
+and it was generally recognized that dear old Burt Brainerd was a good
+sport.
+
+The other Assistant Professor in Freshman English has already been
+mentioned--Jerome Furbush. He was a young man, a classmate of Henry
+Whitman, and rather intimate in consequence. He was, quite decidedly, a
+striking figure. Whereas the average member of the Faculty might have
+been taken for an ordinary business man in his working clothes, Furbush
+was obviously a man of temperament. Tall and lean, he had allowed his
+beard to grow into something of patriarchal proportions, or, more
+exactly, into one of those healthy spade-like growths which the French
+know so well how to develop. That it was a rich red only added to its
+distinction, and to his. He was noted for being a hard worker and a wit,
+but feeling about him was sharply divided. One could not be neutral;
+either one hailed him as a prophet and seer, or one hated him as an
+abandoned cynic, a vicious and arbitrary egoist whose presence in the
+community was a menace. There appeared to be evidence in support of
+either view. It was true that the Dean's office was frequently absorbed
+by problems of his making. He had a weakness, to illustrate, for calling
+his students liars and cheats upon, frequently, tenuous evidence; and
+the discussions that ensued were never amiable. On the other hand, a
+certain number of the most promising men in the class were invariably
+drawn to him and, taking up his battles, defended him against all
+detractors. The Permanent Officers had to admit that he got "results,"
+but they shook their heads. Jerome Furbush was notoriously a "case."
+
+Phil Meyers, instructor, had been graduated from a small western college
+and had taken his Ph.D. at a large eastern university. He was what is
+known as a "monographist," a thesis-writer; and it had become apparent
+to all that he was not long for the Woodbridge world. Word had
+repeatedly come through the somewhat devious channels of information
+that he was "no good." His classes were doing shockingly bad work and
+they were articulate in their disapproval of him. The coming June would
+close his first appointment, and it had been tactfully broken to him
+that he need not expect another.
+
+Such was the personnel of the meeting in Mr. Dawson's office.
+
+"I have called you together today, gentlemen," said Mr. Dawson after the
+preliminary pleasantries, "to consider the advisability of changing our
+course next year. It has been brought to my attention that there has
+been some criticism of the course as it now stands. Although," he
+continued, gazing at the blotter before him, "I could have wished that
+this criticism might have been made first to me, rather than have
+reached me indirectly, I am grateful for it at any time and welcome this
+opportunity for discussing it."
+
+The air had become electrified. Everyone understood that the criticism
+referred to had come from only one source, Furbush, and that Dawson was
+administering to him a public rebuke. Dawson remained staring at his
+blotter when he finished, and there was complete silence for several
+seconds. "Well?" he asked, raising his eyes. "Don't hesitate, gentlemen.
+Although the course is largely of my making at present, there is no
+reason why it should remain so, and I'm sure no one will welcome an
+improvement more than I." Another pause. "Come, Jerry, won't you lead
+the discussion?"
+
+Furbush, who seemed to be waiting to be thus addressed, rather than to
+presume to take the floor from his superior, Mr. Brainerd, smiled
+charmingly. "I should frankly wish," he said, "that the discussion be
+opened by one of you gentlemen, for I feel that my judgment in such a
+matter is possibly not of much value. I confess that I am not in as warm
+sympathy as any of you"--by singling out Meyers at this point he lent a
+quietly insulting tone to his remarks--"with the present course. Were it
+left to me, I should do away with Wordsworth, substituting, possibly,
+Swinburne. I have sometimes wondered if we weren't underestimating the
+potential strength of the Freshman's mind by feeding him on too much
+pap. By the same token I am inclined to think that I should drop Carlyle
+and Hawthorne for Matthew Arnold and, perhaps, Cardinal Newman."
+(Furbush was a High Churchman of a militant dye.) "What I should, of
+course, do would be to divide the present first term between Spenser and
+Milton, instead of giving it all to Shakespeare." This last was said
+directly to Dawson. It had been Mr. Dawson's particular joy that he
+could give one whole term to Shakespeare.
+
+Tom was sitting keen-eyed and alert, but it would obviously be madness
+worse confounded to risk a contribution to this discussion, which was
+for Titans only. But he was thrilled by the duel before him, even though
+the outcome was never in doubt, since a show of hands would give a
+unanimous vote to Dawson whatever the issue. Mr. Dawson, however,
+declined the gage of battle altogether. He apparently merely wished
+Furbush to make public confession of the iniquity that was in him; and
+after noting out loud the changes recommended, he abruptly closed the
+meeting.
+
+"Well, Jerry, we shall think over what you have said, and a week from
+today we'd better get together again and act on it. At that time, too, I
+wish you people would come prepared with your questions for the final
+examination paper." He looked around pleasantly at the little group. "I
+guess that will be all today," he said.
+
+Tom had been nothing but a spectator at that meeting; but after the next
+he emerged radiant. The discussion of the first one had taken only a few
+minutes. It happened that Mr. Furbush was not able to be present; and it
+was announced incidentally, that he had been transferred to Sophomore
+English. Of his proposed changes nothing had been said, although another
+change was made. It appeared that Mr. Dawson had been teaching _The
+Winter's Tale_ for the past six years and that he wished the
+Department's permission to drop it for _Cymbeline_. Mr. Dawson explained
+that he was getting a little stale on _The Winter's Tale_, and the
+change was hurriedly made.
+
+What an object lesson was this for the keen-eyed young instructor! On
+the one hand was the Scylla of Mr. Brainerd and on the other was the
+Charybdis of Mr. Furbush. Lucky was he who could sail safely past the
+two; and he was a wise young instructor who determined to follow in the
+Dawsonian wake.
+
+The final examination paper was then discussed; and Tom, who had come
+fully prepared and was extremely wide-awake, had contributed the "spot"
+passage in Wordsworth in its entirety--the couplet,
+
+    "A countenance in which did meet
+    Sweet records, promises as sweet,"
+
+was included--and he had, furthermore, lent a most constructive hand in
+the framing of the Carlyle-transcendental question--a performance which
+he retailed to Mrs. Norris at the earliest moment, and which made the
+Assistant Professorship and Nancy seem definitely within his grasp.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Mrs. Norris was pleased with Tom's account of his success in the writing
+of the examination paper. Certain unsatisfactory rumours had come to her
+ears recently about his work. Henry Whitman, for example, had stated
+that Tom was loafing and that unless he picked up and showed improvement
+he might not receive a reappointment when his present term had expired.
+It is curious how everyone knows everyone else's business at Woodbridge.
+Each man has his grade stamped clearly upon him, for all, with the
+possible exception of the man himself, to see. A young man can raise
+this grade; and Mrs. Norris--who loved Tom almost as though he were her
+own--was hopeful for him.
+
+"All he needs, Julian," she said to the Dean when she told him of Tom's
+triumph, "is a guiding hand. I can't do it, because I'm too old, but I
+know someone who can." She was "straightening out" the library at the
+time, and as she said this she gave a chair a shove with her knee, which
+sent it flying into the books on the wall.
+
+"Mercy on us," cried the Dean, annoyed by this display of vigour, "who
+is it?"
+
+"Nancy."
+
+"Oh, pshaw, you're always trying to marry her off. You're the worst
+match-maker I know."
+
+Mrs. Norris laughed quietly. "You wait and see," was all she said; but
+she had settled in her mind upon a picnic.
+
+Mary, when approached upon the subject, had not been at all
+enthusiastic. "Why, it's much too early for a picnic," she had objected.
+
+"It is not at all. Everything is three weeks early this year, and that
+makes it about the middle of May. We'll have a lovely moon, too. It will
+be grand." And she proceeded to invite the guests, Nancy and Tom, and
+Furbush, for it was true that he had been most attentive to Mary of
+late. Mrs. Norris at first refused to go, but Mary insisted.
+
+"You will have to watch the fire, Gumgum, while we are off looking for
+sticks and things." And so she had gone, after all.
+
+Mrs. Norris's ideas of a picnic were large, the heritage of a day that
+knew few tins and miraculous powders that bloom into omelettes. She
+scorned them and brought along a generous store of raw steak and bacon
+and potatoes. A picnic without a fire and roasting meat was too
+namby-pamby for words; and though she would not now undertake to cook
+the food herself, because of a certain eccentricity of the knee joints,
+and since her daughter, despite her domestic science, declined to do so,
+she had brought along Julia the cook. Nothing but the big limousine
+would do for such an undertaking, and, as it was, Furbush had to nurse
+the steak in his lap. Mrs. Norris would have reached the picnicking
+ground in a procession of buggies, but at that Mary protested so
+vigorously that she was forced to resign.
+
+The picnic place was a pretty, slightly inaccessible rock overlooking a
+creek. Though actually not far from Woodbridge, as the road was
+overgrown and the turns sharp the motor had to proceed with a
+deliberation which made the trip justifiably difficult. The rock itself
+was about a hundred yards from the road; and since there was scarcely
+any path through the woods to it, there were made possible the pretty
+callings and hallooings, fallings-down and pickings-up, without which no
+picnic is quite perfect. Mrs. Norris, as a matter of fact, did more than
+her share of this. She had not gone more than thirty steps into the wood
+before she was completely lost; and by the time she had been safely
+brought to the rock her hat was well over on one side, her hair
+streaming down, and the torn fringe of her petticoat dragging along
+behind in the dirt. Julia and Horace, the chauffeur, however, had gone
+directly to the rock without the preliminary vagaries vouchsafed to
+their superiors, and by the time Mrs. Norris was finally captured they
+had succeeded in getting the supper well under way.
+
+Upon her arrival Mrs. Norris announced her intention of roasting a
+potato.
+
+"Gumgum, please sit down," begged her daughter. "You are only upsetting
+everything," and she laid an unfilial hand upon her mother's arm.
+
+"I am going to roast a potato," Mrs. Norris cried, shaking herself free
+and seizing upon a pared potato. "Tommy, get me a stick."
+
+"Isn't she awful," laughed Mary. "Don't you dare give her a stick, Tom."
+But Tom did dare, and Mrs. Norris, with her smiling benignity, stood
+waving the stick back and forth over the fire in time with the andante
+movement of her favourite Brahms sonata.
+
+"Well, we might as well get ready to eat that old stuff," said Nancy to
+Furbush. "Don't you dread it?"
+
+"I would not dread it, dear, so much, dreaded I not mother more," he
+replied, to Mary's intense gratification. But Tom, who heard the
+low-spoken words, thought them decidedly forced and disliked Furbush the
+more for them.
+
+Furbush's presence was undoubtedly a drawback to Tom's pleasure. How
+could he be natural with a person whom he disliked as much as he did
+Furbush and who he knew disliked him? Besides, he did not feel like
+being sprightly and picnicky with Nancy beside him. Instead, he felt
+homesick, or at least that is the way it seemed to him. Still, how could
+it be genuine homesickness when the object of his yearning was beside
+him? Nevertheless, there had been in his thoughts recently the picture
+of a certain small colonial house in Tutors' Lane, a house now for rent
+or for sale. Possibly, however, the contrast of such a life--the house
+would be furnished with highboys and gate-leg tables and oval, woven
+mats--with his present one at Mrs. Ruddel's furnished him with a genuine
+case of homesickness, after all. How perfect would life be in such
+surroundings! He liked to think of breakfast: He and Nancy, alone,
+except, of course, for the pretty, efficient maid--at their mahogany
+breakfast table. Nancy, busy with the coffee things at one end and he at
+the other--no, at the side--tucking away his grapefruit and bacon and
+hot buttered muffins and jam in the last few minutes before he dashed
+off up the hill to his eight-thirty. Good heavens, what a life that
+would be! He saw Nancy with the morning light on her hair and her
+pleasant, lively face--the nose with only the faintest possible trace of
+powder--bending over his cup; and then he realized that he was gazing at
+her now in the same position, only with the sunset light in her hair,
+and with a white porcelain cup receiving the coffee out of a thermos
+bottle, instead of a china cup from a swelling-silver pot.
+
+"Careful Tommy, you are dribbling it all over me."
+
+"Oh, Nancy, I'm so sorry. I ask you, isn't that stupid. Please excuse
+me."
+
+"A little lemon or a hot iron or soap and water will fix it, probably,"
+said Furbush.
+
+Tom looked over at Furbush. He hated his liquid tones, like honey
+dripping on a blue plush sofa. "How the hell do you get that way?" he
+wanted to ask--then he rounded out the sentence with certain phrases
+which had been current among our heroes along all war fronts from
+Kamchatka to Trieste. Even a milder remark was happily averted, for at
+this point the potato which Mrs. Norris had been steadily roasting,
+burst into flame and had to be plunged into the fire; a grateful
+accident, for now she was willing to sit down on the camp stool brought
+for her and to confine herself to the slicing of the bread.
+
+What passed until the meal was finished was of slight significance. It
+was a decidedly detached party, the two couples being brought together
+chiefly through Mrs. Norris; and when Nancy and Tom had finished a
+banana which they had divided in the jolly picnic way, Tom stood up. "Do
+you realize," he asked Nancy, "that this is a wishing carpet we've been
+sitting on? Let's take it down by the creek and see where it will take
+us."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Mrs. Norris, not at all displeased. "And now where are
+you and Mary going?"
+
+"We're going to look for crocuses in the garden of the Queen of the
+Fairies," replied Furbush. "They ought to be up now."
+
+"Well, take along this flashlight: it's getting awfully bosky-wosky in
+there." And then Mrs. Norris was left alone with Julia, whom she
+entertained with an animated and brilliant account of Titania and
+Oberon.
+
+"Where shall we go?" asked Tom when they were seated on the magic motor
+rug.
+
+"Let's go to Libya!" said Nancy promptly.
+
+"Libya! Well, I suppose we might as well go there as anywhere. You
+realize, of course, that we won't go until I put my foot on the
+carpet"--his left foot was straggling over the edge.
+
+"Perhaps you'd better keep it there for a few minutes, then, until we
+are sure that we really want to go. As a matter of fact, I think it is
+rather nice right here in Woodbridge," and she smiled up at him.
+
+Nancy had, of course, smiled upon a great many young men without
+precipitating a proposal of marriage, but then, the young men had
+probably not woven her image into their future hopes and fears as
+thoroughly as he had. Also the hour and the place lent their potency to
+her smile. The soft spring evening, happily extended by Daylight Saving,
+the noisy little creek running by their feet, and the staunch ally of
+all such projects, the great round moon, all combined to weave a spell,
+just as Mrs. Norris planned that they should.
+
+Tom had come to the picnic prepared to speak his mind, not doubting that
+an opportunity would be given him. He had not memorized a speech, but
+was ready to trust to the inspiration of the moment. His cause was an
+honest one; he might expect the gift of tongues, but the starting gun
+had now been fired, the race was on, and he was not granted the gift of
+tongues. A little preparation might not have been amiss, after all.
+
+"I agree with you about Woodbridge. In fact, I think had rather go on
+living here than anywhere else in the world, provided one thing." He
+had plunged in without the gift of tongues.
+
+It was not so dark but that Tom could see the colour come into her face.
+"Provided what, Tom?"
+
+"Provided I can have you, Nancy. Provided you can love me as I love
+you." He had come nearer her, and although he had brought both feet upon
+the magic carpet, they remained stationary. "You mean more to me than
+anything I have ever known. I used to wonder how I could ever think more
+of anyone than I thought of Woodbridge and the Star and the different
+boys in college, but that was nothing compared to this." Nancy was
+tracing a series of geometrical patterns upon the magic carpet with a
+bit of stick. "I wish I could do something to show you how much I care
+now." Still Nancy said nothing. "And, oh, Nancy, what you could do for
+me! With you to help me, I think I could do anything. But I know I need
+you. Nancy, will you marry me?"
+
+Nancy was hardly prepared for this. She had, since the social service
+fiasco, acknowledged to herself that she had grown in that short space
+very fond of Tom. She looked forward to seeing him, and when he was gone
+she went over with pleasure what he had said and how he had looked. She
+liked his drollery and his strength, she admired his poise and
+self-reliance; and she had the greatest respect for his teaching
+ability, of which she had received direct proof. Still, she was not at
+all sure that she wished to marry him. After all, she had really known
+him only something over a month, and it was not the Whitman way to hurry
+into anything--least of all into matrimony.
+
+"You mustn't ask me that, Tom."
+
+"Why not, Nancy?"
+
+"Because I cannot accept; not now."
+
+"You mean that perhaps you can later? For of course I shall never grow
+tired of asking you."
+
+The moon had climbed a little and had turned a silvery yellow. It
+flooded the rock and the people moving about on it, but Nancy and Tom
+remained in shadow. "Tell me, Nancy," he said, leaning over and covering
+with his own the hand upon which she was resting, "tell me that I may
+ask you again, for, dear Nancy, I cannot lose you." She did not draw her
+hand away immediately and when she did so she did it gently.
+
+"You're awfully good, Tom," she said and Tom's heart swelled at the
+softness of her tone. Then she climbed to her feet, and--Tom picking up
+the magic carpet, which had become soaked through with the dampness of
+the creek bank--they made their way back to the rock.
+
+And so ended their first love scene. That Tom's behaviour will appear
+tepid, in these vigorous days, is to be feared. His own contemporaries,
+of both sexes, will almost certainly be the first to point out that had
+they been in his place nothing would have kept them from proceeding from
+the tame seizure of Nancy's hand to some bolder action. Tom, however,
+helping Nancy along over the rocks and sticks was happily oblivious of
+his unconventionality. The beauteous evening did, in very truth, seem
+calm and free to him, though the party on the rock was making a little
+too much noise to have the holy time quiet as a nun, breathless with
+adoration. His mind turned to the scrap of Wordsworth he had lately
+memorized, and though he was a trifle annoyed to find that he couldn't,
+even now, perhaps when he most wanted it, remember all, the phrase
+"comfort and command" stayed with him and did nicely for the whole.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+Tom telephoned to Mrs. Norris the next day to make certain that he might
+see her. He felt that she was an ally in the matter of Nancy, and it was
+important to get her advice.
+
+He found her knitting by the yellow lamp in the library. "Well, Tommy
+dear," she said, looking at him with a quizzical smile, "was the picnic
+a success?"
+
+"Mrs. Norris, you are wonderful. When I think how much I owe to your
+generation. After all, I think a woman is loveliest at fifty."
+
+"Oh, flatterer!"
+
+"But you know you cannot get that fine _savoir vivre_ before."
+
+"Oh dear me, how much more _savoir vivre_ I'll have when I'm eighty.
+What an old charmer I'll be then! Will you come to see me when I'm
+eighty, Tommy?"
+
+"What a question!"
+
+"Well, I hope you won't take me off on any old wishing carpet and put me
+down in a damp, horrid place and give me tonsilitis."
+
+"Who has tonsilitis?"
+
+"Nancy, of course, and you gave it to her, you bad thing."
+
+Tonsilitis! He remembered now the damp rug and also certain sniffles
+that had required, from time to time on the homeward trip, the
+administration of a diminutive handkerchief with a pretty "N"
+embroidered, he knew, in the corner. So that is the way he would look
+after her!
+
+"What can I do about it?" It was true that Mrs. Norris was taking it
+very calmly.
+
+"Do? Why, you can't do anything but wait until she gets over it. You
+might go and see her when she begins to pick up."
+
+"I caught cold myself." He had at least been true to that extent.
+
+"Are you doing anything for it? Remind me when you go, and I'll give you
+some Squim. It's something new, and it did wonders for Mary."
+
+"Don't you think it might be nice for me to send Nancy some?" asked Tom,
+laughing. Tonsilitis was seldom fatal, after all; and what an excellent
+excuse to visit her it would be when she was getting better!
+
+"Tommy, dear, haven't you something to tell me?"
+
+"No, not really."
+
+"Not anything?"
+
+"Well, hardly anything." He was sitting near her, and now he leaned
+forward and whispered, "I asked her to be my wife, and she refused." It
+was not said, however, in the tone one would expect for such an unhappy
+message. Mrs. Norris looked at him curiously. "She said she couldn't
+answer me now, but as good as gave me permission to ask her again--and
+when a girl talks that way, isn't it as good as settled?"
+
+It did look promising, certainly. But then, there was Henry. "What about
+Henry?" she asked. "How does he feel?"
+
+"What has he to do with it?"
+
+"Oh my, he has a lot to do with it. He's more than just a brother, you
+know. He's her father and mother."
+
+"And aunt, maiden aunt, as well."
+
+Mrs. Norris laughed. "Henry's to be reckoned with, though, just like
+Marshal Ney--or was it Cincinnatus? I never can remember."
+
+"But, Mrs. Norris, what am I to do?"
+
+"Why, you must just be very nice and thoughtful to Nancy and as decent
+as you can be to Henry, and pray the Good Lord will help you."
+
+"Will you pray for me, too?" Tom had played too much baseball not to
+appreciate the value of organized cheering.
+
+"Yes, I'll pray for you." And then Tom jumped up and planted a
+thoroughgoing kiss--which was designed for the cheek, but which, upon
+her turning quickly, was delivered, in a manner that even Leofwin would
+have applauded--upon her neck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the sixth day Nancy sat up for a while during Miss Albers' hour and a
+half off. There was an abutment at one end of her room which overlooked
+the Whitman garden and carried the eye on down the hill until it rested
+on the factory in Whitmanville--the factory which made the garden
+possible for her. There was a letter in her lap from Tom. It had come
+with his roses and it asked her to go with him to the boat race. There
+was also a book in her lap, but she made no effort to read it; it was so
+much easier just to gaze out of the window and let her mind wander where
+it would.
+
+Henry knocked and entered. "Well, this is very nice. Do you really feel
+a lot better?"
+
+"Ever so much, thank you. I think probably I'll get up in a day or two."
+
+"I suppose you'll want your tonsils out now, won't you?" The question of
+a tonsilectomy had been a moot one for years. Nancy had always been
+anxious to have them out, having been told that it was merely a case of
+"snip, snip, and a day on ice cream." Henry, who regarded tonsilectomy
+skeptically as a fad, and who knew, furthermore, that it was a major
+operation for adults and that old Mrs. Merton hadn't walked straight
+since she had had hers out, was strongly opposed. This had, in fact,
+been an exceedingly sore point with them, and the amount of unhappiness
+engendered by it was considerably in excess of that which would have
+resulted from an operation when it was first suggested.
+
+"I'll have to wait, of course, until I get well over this. It isn't like
+a rheumatism, you know." Nancy had learned the jargon thoroughly.
+
+Well, that subject was now disposed of, and Henry, with the directness
+of a trained economist, abruptly went into the main object of his call.
+There had been certain features about Nancy's delirium which had
+astonished and annoyed him, and he had come with the express purpose of
+discussing them should he find Nancy strong enough. He now decided that
+she was strong enough. "Do you realize that when your fever was high you
+talked at a great rate?" he asked.
+
+"I vaguely remember mumbling and grumbling."
+
+Henry did not relish his task, but he felt it to be his duty--and Henry
+had never been one to shirk his duty. "You talked a great deal about
+this Tom Reynolds," he said.
+
+"Yes?" Nancy was aware that she coloured. She was aware also of a sudden
+sinking sensation, not dissimilar to the one that comes from a too rapid
+drop in an elevator. So Henry had come to her at the first possible
+moment to protest against "this Tom Reynolds." "He has had a bad
+recitation," she thought, "and now he is going to take it out on me,"
+and then she called her brother a hard and inelegant name, as people
+will when angry with their dearest relatives. Had Nancy been of a
+satirical nature she might have made something of her brother's adoption
+of Freudian methods; but she was not, and she knew only direct-fire
+warfare.
+
+"Nancy," Henry went on, leaning towards her, "surely you are not in love
+with that man?"
+
+Had Tom been a head hunter with tin cans in his ears, Nancy would have
+loved him at that moment.
+
+"Yes, I am," she said.
+
+Henry stared at her. It was clear she meant what she said. Then he
+glanced at the letter and the book that lay in her lap, as people will
+notice small things at such times. He guessed in whose handwriting the
+letter was, and--the book was _Sonnets from the Portuguese_! She had
+even taken to sentimental rubbish!
+
+"Oh Nancy, can't you see that he is not worthy of you? Who are his
+people? Where is he from? I wouldn't give _that_ for his future here.
+He's lazy, and he's filled you up on a lot of poetry. Nancy, think well
+of it before it's too late." She was gazing out the window, hardly
+hearing him. She had confessed aloud, before Henry, that she loved Tom.
+Henry was going on. "If you won't think of yourself, perhaps you can
+think of Henry Third? What is to become of him if you go?"
+
+Nancy turned to look at him. She felt giddy now, and she thought she was
+going to cry. It would not do, however, to make a scene, when up to this
+point she had acquitted herself so well. "You mean that I should give up
+my life to look after your son?"
+
+"Please don't be melodramatic. We know one another so well it isn't
+necessary. I am not asking you to give up your life. I am asking you not
+to throw it away, and in the meantime you have certain definite
+obligations here. You are more than an aunt to Henry. Life here with him
+will be far better for you than being the wife of that uncertain boy."
+
+She allowed it to pass, but it gave the final flick to her anger. "You
+are the kind of person, Henry, who is so monumentally selfish that you
+think everybody who dares to cross you in any way is himself
+monumentally selfish too. Now you come to me in a protective role to
+save me from 'this Tom Reynolds' with a mass of ill-natured slander--and
+lies--because if I go to him you will have to get a new housekeeper."
+
+"Nancy--"
+
+"Don't interrupt me, please. It would be the same, no matter who came.
+You would find some dreadful fault in anyone. You always have been
+jealous of every man that ever came here and if you had your way you
+would keep me here for life." Nancy paused, but her brother did not
+offer to speak. She had asked not to be interrupted, and he would be
+quite sure that she was through before he spoke again, but he could not
+conceal his anger. Nancy noticed it, and her own anger increased. "I
+don't think I'd mind it so much, if you didn't pretend that it was all
+for my good. That is nothing but rank hypocrisy. Just what have you ever
+done to make my life pleasant here? You are never interested in what I'm
+interested in, outside of Harry. This lecture business you just laughed
+and sneered at. I admit it was ridiculous, but you wouldn't lift your
+finger to make it less so. I admit, also, that I would appreciate a
+little attention once in a while, but it would never occur to you to
+give me any pleasure unless you had to, to get some for yourself. When
+you really want to give me a good time you sit down and talk to me about
+your miserable old Labour class and what a wonderful lecture you gave
+them. Well, Henry, that time is past, and I am going to have my own life
+from now on." And the tears which she had been fighting back were no
+longer to be denied.
+
+Henry was entirely put out, and he awkwardly got up. Now was clearly not
+the time to renew the attack. Nothing that Nancy had said was of the
+slightest significance, except her lack of interest in his work. There,
+indeed, was a sorry confession of inability to forget herself in the
+greatest interest of her nearest relation. Poor wilful girl! Well, he
+had done his duty. No one could charge him with unbrotherliness.
+
+Nancy had also got up. "Please go away," she sobbed; and Henry, without
+further word, did so.
+
+Nancy crawled back into bed and had her cry out. What a brute he
+was--and what a god was Tom! What a miserable snob Henry was about
+family--and then for him to say that Tom had no future! Had Tom been a
+member of his wretched old Grave, he would have had a very different
+view of it. That was the cause of nine-tenths of his dislike, anyway.
+Tom was in the rival club and Henry never could see any good in anyone
+connected with it. What a miserable, juvenile business! Had not Tom
+frankly confessed his need of help? Henry had never in any way indicated
+that she could be of service to him, except to order his meals and keep
+him comfortable. But Tom had thrown himself upon her. He "needed"
+her--that had been his word. With her to help him he felt that he could
+do anything. What a career for a girl! That would be living indeed.
+
+She thought of his unanswered letter and climbed out of bed at once.
+"Dear Tom," she wrote, and again the tears came into her eyes, "Thank
+you so much for the lovely flowers. They are by my bed and I can enjoy
+them all day long. It is awfully nice of you to ask me to the Boat Race
+and I accept with pleasure. I don't think there will be any question
+about my being able to make it. In two weeks I should be perfectly well
+again.
+
+"It will be lovely to see you and I can do so at any time now.
+
+    "As ever,
+        "NANCY."
+
+The final draft of the letter was composed only after three preliminary
+ones. Nancy found it extremely difficult to get just the right tone. She
+couldn't put too much warmth into it, and yet it mustn't be too cold. So
+she sat at her desk, copying and recopying, and only succeeded in
+finishing it when Miss Albers returned.
+
+"I've done it at last," she announced proudly, her cheeks aflame. Miss
+Albers, fortunately one of the few surviving members of the Good Nurse
+family, saw the situation immediately.
+
+"Why, I see you have," she said. "Isn't that fine! Now I think you are
+entitled to a nice nap." And when Tom arrived, post-haste upon receipt
+of Nancy's note, he was met at the front door with the news of her
+relapse.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+When Tom reached the Whitman house on the day of the race, he found it
+full. He had seen Nancy only once since her illness; and as her room had
+then been filled with people, his call was not remarkable. He had not
+failed to notice, nevertheless, that the colour came into her face as he
+entered the room; and there had been other auspicious signs which had
+had an exciting effect upon his pulse. This call had been made only two
+days before the race, and it was then clear that Nancy could not go with
+him. A Philadelphia cousin had, however, announced her arrival--a
+particular friend of hers being in the Woodbridge boat--and would Tom
+mind taking her? Uncle Bob Whitman had wonderful seats, being an
+Overseer, but he wasn't going to be able to use them, and--of course Tom
+would be only too happy to take her.
+
+Nancy, pale and lovely, was serving tea, but she found time to thank him
+again for his goodness about the Philadelphia cousin, and then she took
+him over to be presented. On the way across the room they passed Henry.
+Tom, who stared at him, missed the tell-tale blush on Nancy's cheeks.
+Instead, he only saw Henry shift his eyes calmly from Nancy to him and
+bow coldly. Tom bowed as coldly in his turn, and then Nancy left him
+with the Philadelphia cousin.
+
+Lily Griffin, the Philadelphia cousin, gazed at him steadily from under
+the floppy expanse of her black hat. She was sitting on a low cane
+covered bench before the fireplace, and her legs, which were encased in
+light grey silk stockings and which terminated in slippers of the same
+colour, her legs, let it be relentlessly repeated, were the most
+conspicuous things in the room. Over her shoulders were the thin strings
+of an undergarment that Tom thought was generally concealed. Still, one
+couldn't be at all sure about such things from one day to the next.
+
+"Would you mind taking my cigarette?" she asked, handing him the stub.
+
+"So you know Platt Raeburn," he began amiably when he had returned from
+his pretty task.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's an awfully nice boy. I know him quite well." Platt was in the
+Star; and Lily, who knew a great deal about such things, immediately
+suspected that Tom was also. How else would a professor know a crew star
+"quite well"? Her interest in Tom rose. He had, as a matter of fact,
+attractive eyes; and that cerise-coloured knitted tie with a pearl
+stickpin might indicate much.
+
+"Platt is a nice boy, isn't he?" she continued with a shade more
+enthusiasm. "We went on the most wonderful party this Easter. He wasn't
+in training then, you know, and I have never seen any one funnier than
+he was. We were at the Greysons' in Ardmore, and Platt thought he was
+insulted by the butler when he took Platt's cigarette off a table and
+threw it in the fire. It was burning the table, but old Platt didn't
+know that, and he knocked the man down."
+
+"It must have been funny," said Tom, who had heard the story before.
+
+"Oh, it was a scream. I thought I'd die laughing. It was really awfully
+bad of him, though, don't you think?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Tom boldly. "I don't think it was so very bad.
+You've got to expect that sort of thing nowadays."
+
+"Mercy, I didn't think you'd say that. Aren't you a professor here, or
+something?"
+
+"Yes, something."
+
+"Well, but I always thought----"
+
+"What?" with a smile.
+
+"Oh, nothing. Say, just between you and I, don't you think this is
+rather slow?" and she gave him a look that showed he was making good.
+
+The hospitality they were accepting was, of course, his own Nancy's, and
+to be strictly honourable he should have defended everything, but with
+certain definite reservations in his mind he replied, "Deadly."
+
+"That dreadful old creature over there actually eyed me when I smoked
+that last cig." The dreadful old creature was Mrs. Conover, who found it
+difficult to reconstruct herself to the present century. "I should
+think it would be awfully stupid living here. Now, isn't it really?"
+
+"No, it isn't half bad."
+
+"Oh, I can see you're a highbrow, like all the rest of them. Personally,
+I couldn't stand it. I'm too independent, I guess. What a sweet dog."
+Clarence was before her, arrayed in the Woodbridge colours. "I love
+dogs. I've the sweetest little Boston bull bitch at home. She won a
+silver flask for me last year." She was examining Clarence with the eye
+of a practised dogwoman. "Do you know anything about Airedales?" Tom
+didn't. "I suspect his tail is wrong," she said. "Now run along,
+sweetie," she called to Clarence; "momma can't have a baby with wrong
+tail." Clarence received this incredulously, but a complication was
+averted by the arrival of Nancy. "We were just criticizing your dog, my
+dear. Why don't you have his tail fixed?"
+
+"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked Nancy. She hated the thought of
+anything having happened to Clarence.
+
+"Why, it's too long. You should have two inches at least cut off." The
+picture of Clarence going around with his tail done up in a bandage was
+a delightful one, and Nancy laughed.
+
+Lily appealed to Tom. "Isn't she heartless?" But before Tom could answer
+the slightly embarrassing question, the cruel one announced that they
+had better be on their way, as the race started at five and it was then
+half-past four. So they hustled into the Whitman motor and drove to
+Center, where the new observation train was already filling.
+
+The race with Hartley was always one of the great spring events, but the
+new observation train made it more of an event than ever. People gloated
+over it as though they had never seen a train before, much to the
+amusement of Lily, whose attendance at New London had been frequent.
+Many paused admiringly at the engine and, as they passed on up the line
+of a dozen cars, loudly proclaimed their admiration of the entire
+arrangement. "They are just like prairie schooners," said one young man,
+to Lily's huge delight, for she had never before seen so much
+provincialism all at once. The platform was thick with people rushing to
+find their cars at the last minute. All was hurry and excitement and
+colour and laughter. The orange of Woodbridge and the olive of Hartley
+were everywhere. Each person boldly displayed his colours, whether with
+flowers or feathers, and it was clear that earth had few greater
+pleasures than this. Then the engine tooted and rang its bell, and with
+a convulsive wrench they were off, amid the cheers of everyone.
+
+Tom and his Lily were seated between the Hartley cheering section and
+the Woodbridge cheering section, in the very choice seats which Mr.
+Whitman naturally commanded and Tom, although he thought boat racing a
+much overrated sport and resented its being preferred to baseball, felt
+a distinct thrill as they passed out upon the river bank and up to the
+starting point. Only the cold unseasonable wind which swept down the
+course, riffling the water and chilling every one to the bone, marred
+the day.
+
+They arrived at the starting point, and the occupants of the new cars
+wrapped what little they had around them. Quite obviously, the race
+could not be rowed until the wind died. There was nothing to do but just
+sit and wait.
+
+The Hartley cheering section immediately climbed down upon the bank,
+with the exception of one young man who was left with his head lolling
+over the side of the car next to Tom. Friendly remonstrance had been
+futile. He had refused to move and had elected to slumber. "I think he's
+sweet," said Lily, gazing over at him. "Tell me, do you have much
+trouble getting liquor here?"
+
+"No," said Tom. Already the spell of the day was wearing off.
+
+"I've learned, to my sorrow that you can't be too careful. Such a time
+as I had last month! I went out to a luncheon party--May Stephens--you
+know her? Well, just before luncheon I was astonished to see cocktails
+appear. I didn't think May had any stock, but there she was just the
+same, jiggling the shaker up and down. Well, at the first sip I thought
+something was funny, but there was nothing to do about it; and then May
+gave me a dividend, and although it nearly killed me, I managed to get
+it down, and then when we were all through she asked us how we liked it.
+Well, I told her I thought it was a little funny, and then she
+announced what I knew all along; that she had made it herself. 'I made
+it out of spirits of nitre,' she said. 'Did you boil off the ether?'
+someone asked, and she said she hadn't! Well, we hadn't got hardly
+started at lunch when one of the girls passed right straight out and
+then we all began feeling trembly and queer, and then the next thing I
+knew I was at home in bed, and I wasn't up and about for a week. Wasn't
+that awful?"
+
+Tom's enthusiasm was ebbing fast. What a prodigious bore this race was
+going to be! The wind was blowing up his legs, and his light spring
+overcoat was far from ample. The seats were too close together and were
+of a granite hardness; but he and Lily were wedged into the back and
+could not escape without treading upon the toes of half of Woodbridge's
+notables. So he sat still and tried to smile brightly at the conclusion
+of her story.
+
+"Do you know?" Lily continued, "I think you have a lovely smile."
+
+"Goody," replied Tom, and smiled again, this time rather archly.
+
+Lily was examining him between half closed lids. "And I think you have
+nice eyes, too--particularly the lashes. They are so long and silky."
+
+"Well, it's a great secret, of course," replied Tom, "and you mustn't
+tell even your mother"--Lily giggled--"but I think you have the
+prettiest way with you I have ever seen."
+
+"Oh, dear me, you are funny. Now you must keep me warm."
+
+The car, it has been pointed out, was full of Woodbridge notables, and
+any warming of the young lady would not have been looked upon with
+favour. Nor would Tom have cared to warm her had they been quite alone
+at the North Pole. What an ordeal this was getting to be, and how lucky
+was Nancy, comfortably seated before the fire! How good would that
+particular fire be, and what a soft and fragrant place to ask a certain
+question! What a contrast Nancy made to this miserable girl beside him!
+Nancy at the time happened to be repairing certain ravages that the tea
+had made upon her nephew's best blue suit, but the scheme of Tom's
+thoughts was not spoiled.
+
+"Bad man, you're not showing me any kind of a time."
+
+Tom was exasperated. A group in front of them had built a fire. "How
+would you like to go down there?" he asked. "Can you climb down over the
+side here?"
+
+"'Course I can."
+
+Tom climbed over the railing, dropped to the ground, and, turning his
+ankle, cried "Ouch!" loudly enough to waken the young Hartley man whose
+head was lolling over the adjacent railing. The youth looked up and
+beheld the lovely Lily poised, apparently preparing to fly into his
+arms. He reared himself up. "Come, lovely girl," he cried, "I love you."
+And then as she swooped by, he made a grab at her and tore her dress.
+
+"You bad boy," she cried, with little discretion, "you tore my dress."
+
+"You bad boy," repeated the young Hartley man, "yuhtoradress,
+yuhtoradress."
+
+Tom had managed to hurry her away, although his ankle hurt him
+considerably, but not until all the notables had seen the performance.
+What a mortifying affair. No doubt many supposed that he was the one who
+had torn the dress.
+
+Fortunately, Lily met a friend at the fire, and Tom was free for the
+time being. Would the wind never die down? The flag on the coach's
+launch was not quite so active. There was a rumour that they would start
+at six-thirty. Only half an hour more. Well, he could stand that. Lily
+seemed to be having a time with her new young man, and he limped over to
+a neighbouring fire where there were fewer Lilies and more heat. There
+he met a classmate of whom he was particularly fond; and before he knew
+it the starter's launch had put out into the river, and the parties
+around the fires were scampering back aboard the train. With
+considerable difficulty he followed Lily up over the side, for his foot
+was now swollen and painful. Finally, however, they were seated again,
+buoyed up with the thought of the race's being at last under way--when
+the starter's boat retired from the scene, and word arrived that the
+race would not be rowed until seven.
+
+Tom could not cover his disappointment.
+
+"I don't think you are very polite!" said Lily.
+
+"Sorry," replied Tom, his ankle throbbing.
+
+"In fact I think you're horrid."
+
+"Good!" said Tom. Lily looked her rage and half turned her back on him.
+Well, that was something to be thankful for, at any rate.
+
+They sat there in ever-increasing gloom. Some of the Lilies gamboled
+back to shiver over the fires, but even they were beginning to droop.
+Tom's Lily would have joined them--her new friend was not a wet
+smack--but Tom, with his throbbing ankle, did not offer to go, and she
+was too proud to suggest it. So they sat and waited.
+
+The race was eventually rowed. At the starter's gun the train gave
+another convulsive jerk, which sent Tom's injured foot flying against
+the side of the car, and the crowd fanned into life its jaded
+enthusiasm. Out in the gathering dusk the two crews inched their way
+along. It was not quite clear which was which, the blades both showing
+black, and though Lily was certain she had located Platt and cheered
+lustily for his boat, subsequent evidence indicated that he was in the
+other. The two cheering sections woke to frenzy, and the notables' car
+was swept with confusion. Lily was beside herself and kept jumping to
+her feet with an appealing cry of "Oh Platt!" Tom looked over at the
+Hartley car at one point and saw that his friend had apparently had
+fresh access to his source of refreshment, for he was now blissfully
+asleep, cheek on the railing.
+
+At the two-mile stake--with a final mile to go--the boats were even,
+but both sides were jubilant, for from each section it clearly showed
+that the home crew was ahead. Then the train shot behind a heavily
+timbered point, and when the view of the river was again free, the
+Woodbridge shell was half a length behind and obviously beaten. A pang
+of disappointment shot through Tom. Oh, well, it was a fitting climax to
+the day. There they were, slipping back and back. They were splashing
+badly, and one of the Woodbridge men was obviously not pulling his
+weight. Then the Hartley boat flashed over the finish amid the tooting
+of countless automobiles along the banks, a winner by a length and a
+quarter.
+
+The Hartley people had given way to a transport of joy, while their
+coxswain crawled along his shell throwing water over the chests and
+faces of his men. The two boats floated idly about, their crews bowed
+forward, gasping in agony for strength. To the men in the Hartley boat
+came the faint sound of their grateful supporters. They had won--and
+what was an enlarged heart or, possibly, a damaged kidney, to such
+glory? The half hysterical screams of their Lilies were sweet
+compensation. As for the Woodbridge crew, well, they would have to
+swallow their dose as best they could--and wait for next year.
+
+The young Hartley man next to Tom woke up. "'S the race over?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, it's over," shouted Tom, for no one else heard him.
+
+"Thank God," he shouted hoarsely, and went back to sleep--a sentiment
+which cheered Tom so much that Lily, on the homeward trip, decided he
+wasn't quite such a dumb-bunny, after all.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+Scarcely a day went by now without Tom's tracing his steps to the Norris
+house. He seldom bothered any more with the formality of the door: going
+around to the terrace side, he walked into the drawing-room unannounced.
+If no one was at home, he sat down with a magazine or book in the
+library or drummed at the piano. Then, possibly, he would go before
+anyone arrived; but the house which was so friendly to him and so full
+of Nancy, was far dearer to him than her own, for Henry's hostility was
+too marked to make his visits there other than difficult.
+
+So it was that he came unexpectedly upon Mrs. Norris, Mary, and Nancy
+when he walked into the library on the day following the race; and then
+he regretted his free and easy entrance. For Mary was in tears and was
+receiving the comfort of her mother and friend. Tom backed hurriedly
+out, muttering an inarticulate apology and cursing himself for an
+awkward fool. Mary saw him, however, and with a sob brushed past him in
+the hall and went upstairs. Her mother who swept after her like a large
+and stately galleon in her black silk dress, was more troubled than he
+had ever seen her. Still, as she passed, she told him not to mind. And
+then he was alone with Nancy.
+
+"What on earth is the matter?" he asked. Nancy, too, was thoroughly
+upset.
+
+"Just look at that," she said, and pointed to an article in a New York
+evening paper. "Woodbridge Professor Drowns," ran the headlines.
+"Overtaken by Cramps After Eating Cherries and Milk." It appeared that
+Professor Furbush had defied the popular fear of the fatal combination
+and, in order to make his defiance complete, had promptly gone in
+swimming after eating it. The tragedy had occurred at the country house
+of relatives; and though a number of people were present, they took his
+cries for help as a joke until it was too late. The account went on to
+explain that it was more sad even than it might at first appear, for it
+was generally supposed that the dead man had been engaged to marry Miss
+Mary Norris, daughter of the Acting President of Woodbridge.
+
+"Why, isn't that dreadful," said Tom. It is always a little hard to know
+what should be said in such circumstances. If the one who has just died
+is close to us, we don't think about what to say at all, but if it is
+only an acquaintance and we are merely a little thrilled by his going,
+it is difficult; for decency requires a solemn look and a shocked word.
+So Tom did what he could to be decent; and Nancy, who was staring with
+half averted face out upon the garden, made no reply. She, of course,
+knew all the secrets of Mary's heart and must be sharing her sorrow.
+Accordingly, any words from him, other than sympathetic ones for Mary's
+loss, would be untimely. Perhaps, even, she would insist upon remaining
+in sisterly spinsterhood! "It's awfully tough, isn't it," Tom added.
+
+"Yes," said Nancy, somewhat faintly, from the curtains. Nancy seemed
+very much upset. Tom knew that Furbush had been a frequent visitor at
+her house, and probably she had grown fond of him. He was not at all
+aware, however, that Furbush's affair with Mary had progressed so far.
+He could not picture Furbush marrying Mary--or anyone else, for that
+matter--and he doubted whether Furbush would have married her. Still, it
+appeared that Mary had cared for him, and now her little romance was
+over.
+
+"It's awfully hard on Mary, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Furbush was gone. Who would take his place? His place, an Assistant
+Professorship--there was now a vacancy! A flood of excitement swept
+through him. But how foolish to expect that it would fall to him. He had
+taught but one year, and he was only twenty-five. People still spoke of
+Harry Spear's having been given his Assistant Professorship at the end
+of three years as a record-breaking performance. He knew perfectly well,
+furthermore, that he had not made a startling success of it; not the
+kind of success that makes a man jump from a Captaincy to a
+Brigadiership. Still, he thought he stood quite as well as the other
+young instructors in the department; and his "outside connections" were
+considerably better. After all, a man's career in college counted for
+something. And so, although he knew that the thing was impossible and
+that what they would do would be to go outside for an older man, he
+luxuriated for a moment in the picture of the Dean congratulating him on
+his success. An Assistant Professorship and Nancy! The two were linked
+in his mind as the sum-total of desire; and since he could think of
+Nancy without thinking of the Assistant Professorship, but could not
+think of the Professorship without thinking of Nancy, it is to be
+supposed that Nancy came first.
+
+And there she was now, over by the window, painfully aware of the garden
+and fidgeting ever so little with the curtain. Perhaps this might not be
+such a bad time to repeat his question, after all. Had she not of her
+own free will come to the Norris house, at which she knew that he was
+almost a daily visitor? There was in that something to give him heart.
+As if he hadn't enough evidence without it!
+
+"You will admit, though, Nancy, that it was an awfully stupid thing for
+him to eat the cherries and milk, won't you? Everyone knows that it
+can't be done." Tom moved over nearer to her, but she did not answer
+him. Instead, she fixed her eyes steadily on the bulging root of an elm
+in the garden. She must concentrate everything on that to keep from
+being an utter fool. But what an hour it had been! First the dreadful
+news about Furbush and that thing in the paper, and then Tom's
+unexpected entrance. How wonderful he looked as he came into the room;
+he had been so self-possessed, and she should have been such a ninny in
+his place!
+
+Tom took a step nearer. "Nancy," he said very tenderly.
+
+The root was waving now; it _would_ become indistinct. How gentle he
+was, and how different from Henry! "Nancy!" he repeated. Then the root
+became altogether blurred and meaningless, and she felt him take her in
+his arms and kiss her. "Darling Nancy," he was saying; and, somehow, to
+her great relief, she found an apparently adequate reply.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was decided that a long engagement was altogether unnecessary, a
+decision which was without repeal, in view of the absence of parental
+supervision. Why waste the perfectly good summer? Why indeed? And so the
+wedding was set for a few days after Commencement.
+
+"That will give me just about enough time to get ready," said Nancy,
+"and I really think you must get a new cutaway."
+
+Then at last Commencement was over. The electricians bore away for
+another year the last of the class numeral signs which had hung from
+their respective Headquarters. The Headquarters themselves had been
+swept and cleaned and restored to their owners, and one by one the
+dwellers, in Tutors' Lane prepared to board up their houses for the
+summer and depart for the mountains or for the shore.
+
+The wedding alone kept most of them in Woodbridge. Few there were that
+had not some pleasant memory of Nancy, and the sacrifice of a day or two
+of vacation was counted as little. Furbush's dramatic end had held the
+centre of the Woodbridge stage, but it was now forced into the
+background by the question: Was Tom good enough for Nancy? It was
+generally agreed that he was getting the best of it, but not many
+thought that she was altogether throwing herself away upon him. Nancy
+might have married anyone, it was pointed out, and having had so much
+responsibility, she could have graced the board of a much older man.
+Instead, she had chosen a young instructor--a pleasant enough boy,
+perhaps but still unproved. Well, Nancy would make the most of him,
+there was no question of that, and of course he was a great friend of
+the Norrises and it was known that Mrs. Robert Lee-Satterlee herself
+approved of the match. So they would hope for the best, and Nancy was a
+dear girl.
+
+Tom was in perfect accord with the last sentiment, and it will perhaps
+be charitable to draw a veil over his behaviour at this time. Such names
+as "Mrs. Mouse" and "Boofly Woofly" are all very well when whispered
+teasingly into the delighted ear of one's intended, but they hardly
+stand the light of unromantic day. They have even been known to set up
+opposing currents of emotion in breasts not so nicely attuned, and to
+inspire such expressions as "Fish!" or even "Blat!" It may well be a
+considerate office, therefore, not to submit our lovers to the graceless
+manners of the unsympathetic, but to let them enjoy their artless
+passages unmolested.
+
+One of these, alone, might be risked. Nancy had confidingly told him
+that she had all the faith in the world in his future, and he heard her
+gratefully. "Why, the way you talked to those men at the mill shows
+clearly enough what you can do," she said.
+
+Tom coloured slightly, but let the moment pass without explanation. When
+he had first done so it was with the mental reservation that he would
+laughingly explain it some day, and he would, too, but it wasn't yet
+just the right time. So he stooped and kissed her affectionately; and
+then, as he was hatless at the time, she was reminded of something she
+had long wanted to tell him.
+
+"If you don't look out, Tom, you will be perfectly bald in five years."
+
+"Well, I've done everything I can, and----"
+
+"Now, all you have to do is to brush it five minutes in the morning and
+five minutes at night."
+
+"Ten minutes a day! I should be exhausted."
+
+"Well, I shall do it for you, then." Whereupon the scene acquired an
+excess of sentiment at once.
+
+Certain more mundane passages may be observed, however, without any
+particular offence.
+
+The passages that took place around the opening of the wedding presents
+were possibly as diverting as any. Tom, whose mind's eye was ever upon
+the little colonial house in Tutors' Lane, now his property, was perhaps
+more concerned than most grooms are in the furnishing of his nest. He
+found himself greatly elated when he or his bride would draw forth some
+shining prize of a silver bowl or plate--until they began getting too
+many of them--and correspondingly depressed when some many-coloured
+glass lamp or strange dish would appear. What on earth could they do
+with them? Dear old Mrs. Conover, for example, sent a large Bohemian
+glass jar of a peacock-eyes pattern. It would have to be on view when
+she called, and as they had no way of knowing when that would be, it had
+to be on view all the time.
+
+From Omaha came an ominous package which made Tom shudder. Would his
+sister contrive to mortify him? He could picture her pleasure in doing
+so, and when the package was opened and out came two china parrots, Tom
+thought the pleasure was hers. A note which came with the birds
+explained that they were very fashionable in Omaha at the time and that
+all Omaha had them on its dinner table. To Tom, his sister's gift and
+note could hardly have been worse, but Nancy kissed him and told him not
+to be stupid, that the parrots were nice; and Tom was so flustered he
+couldn't tell whether they were or not. At any rate, Nancy wrote a
+charming, sisterly little note, and Tom was more pleased with his future
+than ever.
+
+The silver tea service which arrived early from Mrs. Robert
+Lee-Satterlee was among the grandest presents that Nancy received from
+outside the family. She was particularly grateful for it, since it
+enabled her to leave her mother's with Henry and thus avoid a discussion
+which would have been unendurable at the time. It was true that Henry's
+wife had had a tea service herself and that it was now his; but it was
+not so fine as the Whitman one, and Henry would have regarded its
+removal with a jaundiced eye. His wife's silver, however, was quite a
+bit more handsome than the family silver, and he relinquished the latter
+with a gesture so graceful that any further donation of property to the
+hymeneal happiness seemed almost fulsome. Still he did make a further
+contribution--a costly set of John Stuart Mill.
+
+A few days after she announced her engagement Nancy was waited upon by
+the Misses Forbes. Their mission was one of obvious importance, for they
+seldom moved out of their warm little house, excepting, of course, Miss
+Jennie, who was quite indifferent to the outside and marched forth
+almost without a thought. They wore, furthermore, a serious
+demeanour--even Miss Jennie, whose assumption of a cavalier manner
+didn't quite hide her excitement. She was carrying a small parcel neatly
+done up in white tissue paper; and when, after a period of rocking, she
+launched upon the little speech she had prepared, her liver-spotted old
+hands opened and closed over it. "You must know, my dear," she said,
+"that we are going to miss you very much. Of course, you are not really
+going away"--the little colonial house was in truth only a quarter of a
+mile farther from their house than Nancy's present one--"yet it can't be
+quite the same, and we want to mark your going with our love and best
+wishes. So we have brought you the Burnham lace for you to keep and hand
+down to your children, and may God bless you, my dear, and keep you."
+Then they all had a quiet turn at their handkerchiefs, and the Burnham
+lace passed into the House of Reynolds.
+
+Leofwin also called and delivered his gift in person. Tom was
+fortunately in the room at the time, and the somewhat painful scene was
+not protracted. It was the first meeting they had had since Leofwin had
+offered his hand and been rejected, and even Leofwin was constrained.
+Nancy wondered if Elfrida were to have her trip to Italy, but she could
+not put the question without appearing unmaidenly since she knew so well
+the only condition of the trip; and as Woodbridge had not many girls
+that were eligible for Leofwin's love, the prospect was indeed black.
+"Your happiness is all I ask," he said in a low tone, and, despite the
+theatrical diction, even Tom was touched by his sincerity. "You know, of
+course," he went on, "that I am not in a position now to make an
+adequate expression of my wishes"--it _was_ rather affecting even though
+nobody present quite knew what he meant--"but I have brought you the
+best I have. It is of small material value, but its sentimental value
+is great. I did all my best work with it." Whereupon he handed her a
+paint brush.
+
+With considerable of a to-do, Mrs. Norris announced the gift of a
+grandfather's clock. "There is no use, Nancy dear, in dragging it around
+from house to house, and I'm having it sent to your new one."
+Accordingly, when the expressman announced its arrival everyone
+proceeded to the little colonial house in Tutors' Lane. Then
+difficulties arose. To begin with, it was too tall for any room in the
+house; and after a great deal of staggering around with it, trying it
+first in this place and then in that, a gorgeous wooden plume which
+stuck up from its head had to be removed. Then it was discovered that
+there were no works in it, Mrs. Norris having bought only the case,
+supposing of course that the thing was complete. When finally the parts
+had all been assembled and adjusted--which was in the second year of
+Tom's and Nancy's married life--it was learned that the ways of the
+clock were nearly as eccentric as those of its donor, for when it went
+at all, the hands made the downward journey with so much rapidity that
+they were exhausted at the bottom and in no condition for the return
+trip. The end came one morning when the clock, which was known as "Aunt
+Helen," was discovered to have died at six-thirty; and, all horological
+assistance having been summoned in vain, it was suffered to stand in its
+corner, untouched except by dust cloths, its hands forever pointing at
+six-thirty, an eloquent warning of the end of indolence.
+
+Although perhaps Mrs. Norris's contribution to the future life of our
+lovers was not distinguished by that perfect satisfaction which we all
+strive to furnish with our wedding gifts, her services at the wedding
+itself were invaluable. Nancy naturally turned to her for assistance
+with the thousand and one preliminaries that the bride's mother usually
+performs, and, moving in her own wondrous ways, Mrs. Norris saw to
+everything.
+
+The night before the wedding arrived, and she gave a dinner for the
+bridal party. As, after considerable discussion, Nancy had consented to
+have the reception at the Norris house, Mrs. Norris relieved the minds
+of her people in the kitchen by having a buffet supper--and using paper
+napkins.
+
+Nancy was grateful for this, for she was extremely tired, and the
+simpler everything could be, the better. So the supper was eaten all
+over the house and out on the terrace, and when the last paper napkin
+had been crumpled up, and the entire party had been brought together to
+drink the bride's health, and her future husband's, and their mutual
+healths, in the Dean's 1854 champagne, the party was whisked off up to
+the college church for rehearsal.
+
+Upon arriving there, Nancy being engaged momentarily with Mary, who had
+heroically consented to be her maid of honour, Tom stole away by
+himself. Before the church the ridge sloped gently away, giving an
+unobstructed view of the valley. The evening was a perfect one, and Tom
+enjoyed one of those rare moments when one feels in complete accord with
+everything. All around him were the sights and sounds of bucolic
+tranquillity; and within, apart from the comfortable effects of the
+Dean's wine and cigar, were such melting thoughts as we may only guess
+at. Life was now just beginning for him--and how good it was!
+
+The sun died in ever darkening carmine. Tom flicked the ash from his
+cigar and held it up against the light. It matched perfectly. A long
+zeppelin-like cloud hung, apparently motionless, a little higher up. Tom
+moved his cigar up to it and cocked one eye. Again perfect harmony. But,
+even as he looked, the cloud thinned out at one end and spoiled it a
+little. Oh, well, it was perfect, anyway.
+
+Behind him came the strains of the church organ and the voices of the
+bridal party. They were calling him. He paused deliciously, drinking in
+the last moments of his freedom. And then, throwing away his cigar, he
+passed quickly up the hill and into the lighted church.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    _NEW BORZOI NOVELS_
+
+    _FALL, 1922_
+
+    THE QUEST
+    _Pio Baroja_
+
+    THE ROOM
+    _G. B. Stern_
+
+    ONE OF OURS
+    _Willa Cather_
+
+    MARY LEE
+    _Geoffrey Dennis_
+
+    THE PROMISED ISLE
+    _Laurids Bruun_
+
+    THE RETURN
+    _Walter de la Mare_
+
+    THE BRIGHT SHAWL
+    _Joseph Hergesheimer_
+
+    THE MOTH DECIDES
+    _Edward Alden Jewell_
+
+    INDIAN SUMMER
+    _Emily Grant Hutchings_
+
+
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |Transcriber's Note:                                         |
+    |The book title on the cover shows "Tutor's", while inside is|
+    |"Tutors'"; and whereas "Woodbridge Center" is spelled thus, |
+    |the alternative spelling "centre" is used elsewhere.        |
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tutors' Lane, by Wilmarth Lewis
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