eaker in the process.

Howard was growing angry and haughty, but it was his way to be calm
when excited. He did not laugh with the stranger. Instead, he waited
until the joke had lost its amusement and then he turned soberly to
the youth with as patronizing an air as ever the other had worn:

"Son, you've got another guess coming to you about Allison Cloud.
You'll have the surprise of your young life when you see him, I
imagine. Why, he's been an A student ever since he came to this
college, and he has the highest average this last semester of any man
in his class. As for bluff, he's as clear as crystal, and a prince of
a fellow; and if you're looking for a spot where you can bluff your
way through college you better seek elsewhere. Bluff doesn't go down
in _our_ college. We have student government, and I happen to be
chairman of the student exec. just now. You better change your tactics
if you expect to remain here. Excuse me, I see a friend up at the
front of the car!"

With which remarks Howard Letchworth strode across the sprawling legs
of his fellow-traveller and departed up the aisle, leaving the elegant
stranger to enjoy the whole seat and his own company.

Thus did Clive Terrence introduce himself to Howard Letchworth and
bring dismay into the little clique of four young people who had been
enjoying a most unusually perfect friendship. Howard Letchworth, as he
stood the rest of the ride on the front platform of the car conversing
with apparent interest with a fraternity brother, was nevertheless
filled with a growing dismay. Now and then he glanced back and glared
down the aisle at the elegant sprawling youth and wondered how it was
that a being as insignificant as that could so upset his equilibrium.
But the assured drawl of the stranger as he spoke of Leslie and called
her a "speedy kid" had made him boil with rage. He carried the mood
back to college with him, and sat gloomily at the table thinking the
whole incident over, while the banter and chaffing went on about him
unnoticed. Underneath it all there was a deep uneasiness that would
not be set aside. The young man had said that the Clouds were very
wealthy. That Leslie was especially so. That when she was of age she
would have a vast inheritance. There had been no sign of great wealth
or ostentation in their living but if that were so then there was an
insuperable wall between him and her.

It was strange that the question of wealth had never come up