next few years represent the real trying-out period,
and each member of the Class measures up his fellow-members by what they
have done since college. The mere fact of being members of the same
Class is the bond. I don't care what you did in college, Hamlen; but I
sha'n't let you get away from me until you tell me what you've done
since, or until you promise that I shall see you when next you come to
Boston. The fact that I didn't know you in college makes me the more
keen to know you now."

"I thank you a thousand times!" Mrs. Thatcher cried impulsively. "What
you have said in five minutes will do more to set Mr. Hamlen right than
weeks of argument from me. I found him to-day in a veritable paradise
which he has built here, and where he has lived alone practically since
he left college. I am trying to persuade him to come back into the world
again, and you can help me to accomplish it."

Hamlen was visibly affected by Huntington's cordiality. "This has been a
bewildering day," he said. "For over twenty years I have lived alone,
nursing a resentment toward college and life in general until it has
come to be a religion. This afternoon Mrs. Thatcher finds me
unexpectedly and begins to batter down my defenses; now Mr. Huntington,
without realizing it, attempts to complete the demolition. Don't wonder
that I'm not myself to-night; but I thank my classmate for what he has
said, just as I thank Mrs. Thatcher for her earlier efforts."

"Mr. Huntington," Thatcher remarked, "you have given Stevens and me a
new idea of the value of a college degree. I wasn't especially keen
about having my boy go to college, but now, by George! I wouldn't have
it otherwise."

"Huntington is a living propagandum for Harvard," Cosden said lightly,
realizing the desirability of leading the conversation into a less
serious channel. "My degree represents simply an additional tool to use
in carving out success, to him it means idolatry. If Huntington's house
was on fire, I should expect to see him climbing down the firemen's
ladder in his pink pajamas with his precious sheepskin under his arm
carried as tenderly as a mother would a child."

"Oh, you may make light of it," Huntington replied good-naturedly, "but
Hamlen and I are treading on sacred ground. The one weakness of college
life is that the opportunities it offers come before we are competent to
appreciate or embrace them. That is what brings about the condition
which he has misunderstood