Then he rushed around the Union looking for Carl. He found
him staring at a fan of cards, which he was holding like a hand of
bridge.

"What luck?" Hugh cried.

Carl handed him the cards. "Lamp those," he said, "and then explain.
They've got me stopped."

He had thirteen bids, one from every fraternity in good standing,
including the so-called Big Three.

When Hugh saw the Nu Delta card he yelled with delight.

"I got a Nu Delt, too." His voice was trembling with excitement. "You'll
go with me, won't you?"

"Of course, Hugh. But I don't understand."

"Oh, what's the dif? Let's go."

He tucked his arm in Carl's, and the two of them passed out of the Union
on their way to the Nu Delta house. Later both of them understood.

Carl's good looks, his excellent clothes, his money, and the fact that
he had been to an expensive preparatory school were enough to insure him
plenty of bids even if he had been considerably less of a gentleman than
he was.

Already the campus was ringing with shouts as freshmen entered
fraternity houses, each freshman being required to report at once to the
fraternity whose bid he was accepting.

When Carl and Hugh walked up the Nu Delta steps, they were seized by
waiting upper-classmen and rushed into the living-room, where they were
received with loud cheers, slapped on the back, and passed around the
room, each upper-classman shaking hands with them so vigorously that
their hands hurt for an hour afterward. What pleasant pain! Each new
arrival was similarly received, but the excitement did not last long.
Both the freshmen and the upper-classmen were too tired to keep the
enthusiasm at the proper pitch. At nine o'clock the freshmen were sent
home with orders to report the next evening at eight.

Carl and Hugh, proudly conscious of the pledge buttons in the lapels of
their coats, walked slowly across the campus, spent and weary, but
exquisitely happy.

"They bid me on account of you," Carl said softly. "They didn't think
they could get you unless they asked me, too."

"No," Hugh replied, "you're wrong. They took you for yourself. They knew
you would go where I did, and they were sure that I would go their way."

Hugh was quite right. The Nu Deltas had felt sure of both of them and
had not rushed them harder because they were too busy to waste any time
on certainties.

Carl stopped suddenly. "God, Hugh," he exclaimed. "Just suppose I had
offered the Alpha Sigs that cash. God!"