tly over. There was a clamor for a dance, there was a
glance that passed between them--on his side despair, on hers regret,
and then the evening went on, with the reassured beaux and the eternal
cutting in.

At quarter to twelve Amory shook hands with her gravely, in the midst of
a small crowd assembled to wish him good-speed. For an instant he lost
his poise, and she felt a bit rattled when a satirical voice from a
concealed wit cried:

"Take her outside, Amory!" As he took her hand he pressed it a little,
and she returned the pressure as she had done to twenty hands that
evening--that was all.

At two o'clock back at the Weatherbys' Sally asked her if she and Amory
had had a "time" in the den. Isabelle turned to her quietly. In her
eyes was the light of the idealist, the inviolate dreamer of Joan-like
dreams.

"No," she answered. "I don't do that sort of thing any more; he asked me
to, but I said no."

As she crept in bed she wondered what he'd say in his special delivery
to-morrow. He had such a good-looking mouth--would she ever--?

"Fourteen angels were watching o'er them," sang Sally sleepily from the
next room.

"Damn!" muttered Isabelle, punching the pillow into a luxurious lump and
exploring the cold sheets cautiously. "Damn!"

*****

CARNIVAL

Amory, by way of the Princetonian, had arrived. The minor snobs, finely
balanced thermometers of success, warmed to him as the club elections
grew nigh, and he and Tom were visited by groups of upper classmen who
arrived awkwardly, balanced on the edge of the furniture and talked of
all subjects except the one of absorbing interest. Amory was amused at
the intent eyes upon him, and, in case the visitors represented some
club in which he was not interested, took great pleasure in shocking
them with unorthodox remarks.

"Oh, let me see--" he said one night to a flabbergasted delegation,
"what club do you represent?"

With visitors from Ivy and Cottage and Tiger Inn he played the "nice,
unspoilt, ingenuous boy" very much at ease and quite unaware of the
object of the call.

When the fatal morning arrived, early in March, and the campus became
a document in hysteria, he slid smoothly into Cottage with Alec Connage
and watched his suddenly neurotic class with much wonder.

There were fickle groups that jumped from club to club; there were
friends of two or three days who announced tearfully and wildly that
they must join the same club, nothing sh