rl received
invitations from most of the fraternities, and they stuck together,
religiously visiting them all. Hugh hoped that they would "make" the
same fraternity and that that fraternity would be Nu Delta. They were
together so consistently during the rushing period that the story went
around the campus that Carver and Peters were "going the same way," and
that Carver had said that he wouldn't accept a bid from any fraternity
unless it asked Peters, too.

Hugh heard the story and couldn't understand it. Everybody seemed to
take it for granted that he would be bid. Why didn't they take it
equally for granted that Carl would be bid as well? He thought perhaps
it was because he was an athlete and Carl wasn't; but the truth was, of
course, that the upper-classmen perceived the _nouveau riche_ quality in
Carl quite as clearly as he did himself. He knew that his money and the
fact that he had gone to a fashionable prep school would bring him bids,
but would they be from the right fraternities? That was the
all-important question.

Those last three days of rushing were nerve-racking. At night the
invited freshmen--and that meant about two thirds of the class--were at
the fraternity houses until eleven; between classes and during every
free hour they were accosted by earnest fraternity men, each presenting
the superior merits of his fraternity. The fraternity men were wearier
than the freshmen. They sat up until the small hours every morning
discussing the freshmen they had entertained the night before.

Hugh was in a daze. Over and over he heard the same words with only
slight variations. A fraternity man would slap a fat book with an
excited hand and exclaim: "This is 'Baird's Manual,' the final authority
on fraternities, and it's got absolutely all the dope. You can see where
we stand. Sixty chapters! You don't join just this one, y' understand;
you join all of 'em. You're welcome wherever you go." Or, if the number
of chapters happened to be small, "Baird's Manual" was referred to
again. "Only fifteen chapters, you see. We don't take in new chapters
every time they ask. We're darned careful to know what we're signing up
before we take anybody in." The word "aristocratic" was carefully
avoided, but it was just as carefully suggested.

It seemed to Hugh that he was shown a photograph of every fraternity
house in the country. "Look," he would be told by his host, "look at
that picture to the right of the fireplace. That