I had run into this
sort of thing at Phil's rooms, had suffered from the curious inability
of the undergraduate, even when he longs himself to escape, to end a
visit--take his hat, say good-by simply, and go. It doesn't strike one
offhand as a social accomplishment of enormous difficulty; yet it must
be--it so paralyzes the social resourcefulness of the young.

Phil introduced me to Mr. Kane, and Mr. Kane drooped his right
shoulder--the correct attitude for this form of assault--grasped my
hand, and shattered my nerves--with the dislocating squeeze which young
America has perfected as the high sign of all that is virile and
sincere. I sank into a chair to recover, and to my consternation Mr.
Kane, too, sat down.

"Jimmy's just come to us," said Phil, relighting his pipe. "He passed
his entrance examinations in Detroit last spring, but he had to finish
up a job he was on out there before coming East. So he has a good deal
of work to make up, first and last. And it's all the harder for him,
because he's dependent upon himself for support."

"Oh," said Jimmy, "what I've saved'll last me through this year, I
guess."

"Yes," Phil agreed; "but it's a pity to touch what you've saved." He
turned to me. "You see, Hunt, we're talking over all the prospects.
Aren't we, Jimmy?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jimmy. "Prof. Farmer thinks," he added, "that I may
be making a mistake to try it here; he thinks it may be a waste of time.
I'm kind of up in the air about it, myself."

"Jimmy's rather a special case," struck in Phil, dropping into a Morris
chair and thrusting his legs out. "He's twenty-two now; and he's already
made remarkably good as an expert mechanic. He left his home here over
six years ago, worked his way to Detroit, applied for a job and got it.
Now there's probably no one in New Haven who knows more than this young
man about gas engines, steel alloys, shop organization, and all that.
The little job that detained him was the working out of some minor but
important economy in the manufacture of automobiles. He suggested it by
letter to the president of the company himself, readily obtained several
interviews with his chief, and was given a chance to try it out.

"It has proved its practical worth already, though you and I are far too
ignorant to understand it. As a result, the president of the company
offered him a much higher position at an excellent salary. It's open to
him still, if he chooses to go back for it. But J