obs would. Your friends would stick the closer."

"Oh' friends!" The young man's voice had a note of angry derision.

Jeff's affectionate grin comforted him. "Don't let it get on your
nerves, J. K. Things never are as bad as we expect at their worst."

The junior set his teeth savagely. "I tell you, sometimes I hate him
for it. That's a fine heritage for a father to give his son, isn't it?
Nothing but trouble and disgrace."

His cousin spoke softly. "He's paid a hundred times for it, old man."

"He ought to pay. Why shouldn't he? I've got to pay. Mother had to as
long as she lived." His voice was hard and bitter.

"Better not judge him. You're his only son, you know."

"I'm the one he's injured most. Why shouldn't I judge him? I've been a
pauper all these years, living off money given us by my mother's people.
I had to leave our home because of what he did. I'd like to know why I
shouldn't judge him."

Jeff was silent.

Presently James rose. "But there's no use talking about it. I've got to
be going. We have an eat to-night at Tucker's."

Part 2

Jeff came to his new life on the full tide of an enthusiasm that did not
begin to ebb till near the close of his first semester. He lived in a
new world, one removed a million miles from the sordid one through which
he had fought his way so many years. All the idealism of his nature went
out in awe and veneration for his college. It stood for something he
could not phrase, something spiritually fine and intellectually strong.
When he thought of the noble motto of the university, "To Serve," it was
always with a lifted emotion that was half a prayer. His professors went
clothed in majesty. The chancellor was of godlike dimensions. Even the
seniors carried with them an impalpable aura of learning.

The illusion was helped by reason of the very contrast between the
jostling competition of the street and the academic air of harmony in
which he now found himself. For the first time was lifted the sense of
struggle that had always been with him.

The outstanding notes of his boyhood had been poverty and meagerness.
It was as if he and his neighbors had been flung into a lake where
they must keep swimming to escape drowning. There had been no rest from
labor. Sometimes the tragedy of disaster had swept over a family. But
on the campus of the university he found the sheltered life. The echo of
that battling world came to him only faintly.

He began to make tentative f