ould separate them; there were
snarling disclosures of long-hidden grudges as the Suddenly Prominent
remembered snubs of freshman year. Unknown men were elevated into
importance when they received certain coveted bids; others who were
considered "all set" found that they had made unexpected enemies, felt
themselves stranded and deserted, talked wildly of leaving college.

In his own crowd Amory saw men kept out for wearing green hats, for
being "a damn tailor's dummy," for having "too much pull in heaven,"
for getting drunk one night "not like a gentleman, by God," or for
unfathomable secret reasons known to no one but the wielders of the
black balls.

This orgy of sociability culminated in a gigantic party at the Nassau
Inn, where punch was dispensed from immense bowls, and the whole
down-stairs became a delirious, circulating, shouting pattern of faces
and voices.

"Hi, Dibby--'gratulations!"

"Goo' boy, Tom, you got a good bunch in Cap."

"Say, Kerry--"

"Oh, Kerry--I hear you went Tiger with all the weight-lifters!" "Well, I
didn't go Cottage--the parlor-snakes' delight."

"They say Overton fainted when he got his Ivy bid--Did he sign up the
first day?--oh, _no_. Tore over to Murray-Dodge on a bicycle--afraid it
was a mistake."

"How'd you get into Cap--you old roue?"

"'Gratulations!"

"'Gratulations yourself. Hear you got a good crowd."

When the bar closed, the party broke up into groups and streamed,
singing, over the snow-clad campus, in a weird delusion that
snobbishness and strain were over at last, and that they could do what
they pleased for the next two years.

Long afterward Amory thought of sophomore spring as the happiest time of
his life. His ideas were in tune with life as he found it; he wanted
no more than to drift and dream and enjoy a dozen new-found friendships
through the April afternoons.

Alec Connage came into his room one morning and woke him up into the
sunshine and peculiar glory of Campbell Hall shining in the window.

"Wake up, Original Sin, and scrape yourself together. Be in front of
Renwick's in half an hour. Somebody's got a car." He took the bureau
cover and carefully deposited it, with its load of small articles, upon
the bed.

"Where'd you get the car?" demanded Amory cynically.

"Sacred trust, but don't be a critical goopher or you can't go!"

"I think I'll sleep," Amory said calmly, resettling himself and reaching
beside the bed for a cigarette.

"Sleep!