ferent person from the Boller
without it. The bold manner fled. He was suppressed, obsequious; even
his clothes seemed to shrink and grow humbly dun. We entered so
quietly that the doctor, bending over his desk, did not hear us, and we
had to cough apologetically to apprise him of our presence.

"David Malcolm, sir--a new freshman," Boller said.

The doctor rose. I saw a little man with a very large head covered
with hair which shot in all directions in scholarly abandon. His neck
seemed much too thin to carry such a weight, but that, I think, was the
effect of a collar much too large, and a white tie so long that its
ends trailed down over an expanse of crumpled shirt. The doctor's
black clothes looked dusty; the doctor himself looked dusty, yet the
smile with which he greeted me was as warm as the sunshine breaking
through the mist.

"This is splendid," he cried, shaking my hand fervently. "Mr. Malcolm,
you are welcome. You make the thirty-ninth new man this year--a record
in our history. McGraw is growing. Have I not predicted, Mr. Boller,
that McGraw would grow?"

To this Boller very readily assented, and the doctor, rubbing his hands
with delight at his vindication, placed a chair for me at his side and
began talking rapidly, not of me, nor of my plans, but of the
university. He did mention incidentally that he had heard of me
through his dear friend, Mr. Pound--a man of whom the university was
proud--yet, though I was sure Mr. Pound had spoken well of me, he made
no mention of it. I was of interest to him simply because by my coming
I had broken the records of McGraw's freshman class. Last year it
numbered thirty-eight; this year, thirty-nine. Through me the
university had taken another stately step onward. He showed me the
blue-print and explained it in detail. He spoke so earnestly that in a
moment he had abandoned the subjunctive mood, and was describing the
buildings as though they actually existed--here the new dormitory,
there the chemical laboratory, the gymnasium, the chapel. So potent
was his imagination that when I was dismissed and stood again on the
steps, I found myself sweeping the campus in search of the beautiful
structures which he had pictured for me. Not finding them, I was prey
to disappointment, so small did the McGraw that was appear beside the
McGraw that should be. I began to suspect that those other
universities upon which Mr. Pound looked with such contempt might
r