what is proper? Here I go away with some of the most
cultured and well-known society people in New York--an absolute
triumph--and you use my home as a refuge for nasty little scum of the
slums. It isn't bad enough for you to spend your summer in such
disgusting company. You have to cap it all by bringing them up into my
own home. Think of the disgrace it would mean if any of these new
friends of mine were to discover it!"

"I have my own friends to consider," I told her patiently. "And this boy
is one of them. What did you tell him?"

"Tell him? What should I tell him?" She made a great show of shuddering.
"I told him to get out. To--to get out as fast as he could."

I looked at her evenly for as long a while as she could stand it. Then
her miserable pose gave way to pettishness, and she cried:

"And what's more, you'll have to get out yourself, if you insist on
trying any more of these outrageous things. I can't bear it, that's
all. You'll have to get out before you disgrace me!"

"I shall," I agreed, and, passing her, went into my own room and began
to pack.

We had a silent, sullen supper. At the end of it I told her that my
clothes were packed and that I intended moving on the morrow to
Trevelyan's empty suite, up at college. I would take none of the
furniture from my room, however, since I did not wish to inconvenience
her. I would not trouble her at all after tonight.

She may have thought this was pure bragging, she may have been
reconciled to it. At any rate she made no answer, and let me go to my
room without a word of comment.

And it was only two weeks later, when I was comfortably settled in my
room on the campus, that I received a stormy letter from her, calling me
a "most ungrateful monster of a nephew."

XV

COLLEGE LIFE

Across the hall from Trevelyan's rooms lived one of the college
"grinds." Now that I had moved there and came and went at all hours of
the day, I saw this man often.

Fallon--that was his name--stood fully six-feet four, and had about a
thirty-two-inch waist. He stooped until his thin shoulder blades were at
directly right angles to each other. He would never talk to any one he
met on his way; his nose was always deep in the book which he held
outspread. He was the most ferocious grind I have ever known.

Next to Fallon lived Waters, a cheery, well-dressed little person, who
had pink cheeks and no disturbing thoughts. Waters was a member of one
of the minor frate