cial favorite at a large State University, that breathless
whirl of one engagement after another for every evening and for most
of the days, which is one of the oddest developments of the academic
life as planned and provided for by the pioneer fathers of those great
Western commonwealths; and she savored every moment of it, for during
every moment she drank deep at the bitter fountain of personal
vindication. She went to all the affairs which had ignored her
the year before, to all the dances given by the "swell men's
fraternities," to the Sophomore hop, to the "Football Dance," at the
end of the season, to the big reception given to the Freshman class by
the Seniors. And in addition to these evening affairs, she appeared
beside Jerry Fiske at every football game, at the first Glee Club
Concert, at the outdoor play given by the Literary Societies, and very
frequently at the weekly receptions to the students tendered by the
ladies of the faculty.

These affairs were always spoken of by the faculty as an attempt to
create a homogeneous social atmosphere on the campus; but this attempt
had ended, as such efforts usually do, in adding to the bewildering
plethora of social life of those students who already had too much,
and in being an added sting to the solitude and ostracism of those who
had none. Naturally enough, the ladies of the faculty who took most
interest in these afternoon functions were the ones who cared most for
society life, and there was only too obvious a contrast between their
manner of kindly, vague, condescending interest shown to one of the
"rough-neck" students, and the easy familiarity shown to one of those
socially "possible." The "rough-necks" seldom sought out more than
once the prettily decorated tables spread every Friday afternoon
in the Faculty Room, off the reading-room of the Library. Sylvia
especially had, on the only occasion when she had ventured into
this charming scene, suffered too intensely from the difference of
treatment accorded her and that given Eleanor Hubert to feel anything
but angry resentment. After that experience, she had passed along the
halls with the other outsiders, books in hand, her head held proudly
high, and never turned even to glance in at the gleaming tables,
the lighted candles, and the little groups of easily self-confident
fraternity men and girls laughing and talking over their teacups, and
revenging vicariously the rest of the ignored student-body by the
c