their sole reason for walking at the moment would be entirely
hygienic, that he too must be striding from the same cause?

Dr. Holmes tells us that when James and Thomas converse there are really
six talkers. First, James as James thinks he is, and Thomas as Thomas
thinks he is. Second James as Thomas thinks him, and Thomas as James
thinks him. Finally, there are James and Thomas as they really are.
Since this is neither an autobiography nor an inspired story, the
world's view of Peter Stirling must be adopted without regard to its
accuracy. And because this view was the sum of his past and personal,
these elements must be computed before we can know on what the world
based its conclusions concerning him.

His story was as ordinary and prosaic as Mr. and Mrs. Pierce seemed to
think his character. Neither riches nor poverty had put a shaping hand
to it. The only child of his widowed mother, he had lived in one of the
smaller manufacturing cities of New England a life such as falls to most
lads. Unquestionably he had been rather more shielded from several forms
of temptation than had most of his playmates, for his mother's isolation
had made him not merely her son, but very largely her companion. In
certain ways this had tended to make him more manly than the average
fellow of his age, but in others it had retarded his development; and
this backwardness had been further accentuated by a deliberate mind,
which hardly kept pace with his physical growth. His school record was
fair: "Painstaking, but slow," was the report in studies. "Exemplary,"
in conduct. He was not a leader among the boys, but he was very
generally liked. A characteristic fact, for good or bad, was that he had
no enemies. From the clergyman to the "hired help," everybody had a
kind word for him, but tinctured by no enthusiasm. All spoke of him as
"a good boy," and when this was said, they had nothing more to say.

One important exception to this statement is worthy of note. The girls
of the High School never liked him. If they had been called upon for
reasons, few could have given a tangible one. At their age, everything
this world contains, be it the Falls of Niagara, or a stick of chewing
gum, is positively or negatively "nice." For some crime of commission or
omission, Peter had been weighed and found wanting. "He isn't nice," was
the universal verdict of the scholars who daily filed through the door,
which the town selectmen, with the fine contempt o