ceton! He admitted he had done a good
deal for himself. Of course, Squibs was right and he was abnormally
selfish; only it was too bad Betty couldn't have thought so. He had
tried to make her and had failed, he told himself, because Betty
couldn't understand selfishness.

He avoided during those last days every chance of seeing her alone; but
even in the presence of others he was aware of an alteration in her
manner, to be traced, doubtless, to the night of his difficult
confession. She was kinder, but her eyes were often puzzled, as if she
couldn't understand why he didn't want to see her alone.

He counted the moments, anxious for Blodgett and the enveloping
atmosphere of his marble-and-mahogany office. That would break the last
permanent tie. He would return to Princeton, naturally, but for only a
day or two now and then, too short a time to permit its influences
appreciably to swerve him.

Without meaning to, he let himself soften on the very edge of his
departure when the class sang on the steps of Nassau Hall for the last
time, then burned the benches about the cannon, and in lock step, hands
on shoulders, shuffled slowly away like men who have accomplished the
interment of their youth.

A lot of these mourning fellows he would never meet again; but he would
see plenty of Goodhue and Wandel and other useful people. Why, then, did
he abruptly and sharply regret his separation from all the others, even
the submerged ones who had got from Princeton only an education taken
like medicine and of about as much value? In the sway of this mood,
induced by permanent farewells, he came upon Dalrymple.

"There's no point saying good-bye to you," George offered, kindly.

Of course not. They would meet each other in town too frequently,
secreting a private enmity behind publicly worn masks of friendship.
George was wandering on, but Dalrymple halted him. The man was a trifle
drunk, and the sentiment of the moment had penetrated his narrow mind.

"Not been very good friends, George, you and I."

Even then George shrank from his apologies, since he appreciated their
precise value.

"Why don't you forget it?" he asked, gruffly.

Dalrymple nodded, but George knew in the morning the other would regret
having said as much as he had.

Immediately after that sombre dissolution of the class George said
good-bye to the Baillys. Although it was quite late they sat waiting for
him in the study, neat and serene as it had been o