und
himself easily included in the adventurous young matron's party. He
had not the elegance of some of the taller and slenderer men in the
scholar's gown, but the cap became his handsome face. His affair with
Bessie Lynde had given him a certain note, and an adventurous young
matron, who was naturally a little indiscriminate, might very well have
been willing to let him go about with her party. She could not know how
impudent his mere presence was with reference to Bessie, and the girl
herself made no sign that could have enlightened her. She accepted
something more that her share of his general usefulness to the party;
she danced with him whenever he asked her, and she seemed not to scruple
to publish her affair with him in the openest manner. If he could have
stilled a certain shame for her which he felt, he would have thought he
was having the best kind of time. They made no account of by-gones in
their talk, but she had never been so brilliant, or prompted him to so
many of the effronteries which were the spirit of his humor. He thought
her awfully nice, with lots of sense; he liked her letting him come back
without any fooling or fuss, and he began to admire instead of despising
her for it. Decidedly it was, as she would have said, the chicquest sort
of thing. What was the use, anyway? He made up his mind.

When he said he must go and dress for the Tree, he took leave of her
first, and he was aware of a vivid emotion, which was like regret in
her at parting with him. She said, Must he? She seemed to want to say
something more to him; while he was dismissing himself from the others,
he noticed that once or twice she opened her lips as if she were going
to speak. In the end she did nothing more important than to ask if he
had seen her brother; but after he had left the party he turned and saw
her following him with eyes that he fancied anxious and even frightened
in their gaze.

The riot round the Tree roared itself through its wonted events. Class
after class of the undergraduates filed in and sank upon the grass below
the terraces and parterres of brilliantly dressed ladies within the
quadrangle of seats; the alumni pushed themselves together against the
wall of Holder Chapel; the men of the Senior class came last in their
grotesque variety of sweaters and second and third best clothes for the
scramble at the Tree. The regulation cheers tore from throats that grew
hoarser and hoarser, till every class and every f