times a week.

"Of course I don't. What's prestige, at best?"

"Some people say that you're just a rather original politician."

He roared with laughter.

"That's what Fred Sloane told me to-day. I suppose I have it coming."

One afternoon they dipped into a subject that had interested Amory for
a long time--the matter of the bearing of physical attributes on a man's
make-up. Burne had gone into the biology of this, and then:

"Of course health counts--a healthy man has twice the chance of being
good," he said.

"I don't agree with you--I don't believe in 'muscular Christianity.'"

"I do--I believe Christ had great physical vigor."

"Oh, no," Amory protested. "He worked too hard for that. I imagine that
when he died he was a broken-down man--and the great saints haven't been
strong."

"Half of them have."

"Well, even granting that, I don't think health has anything to do with
goodness; of course, it's valuable to a great saint to be able to stand
enormous strains, but this fad of popular preachers rising on their
toes in simulated virility, bellowing that calisthenics will save the
world--no, Burne, I can't go that."

"Well, let's waive it--we won't get anywhere, and besides I haven't
quite made up my mind about it myself. Now, here's something I _do_
know--personal appearance has a lot to do with it."

"Coloring?" Amory asked eagerly.

"Yes."

"That's what Tom and I figured," Amory agreed. "We took the year-books
for the last ten years and looked at the pictures of the senior council.
I know you don't think much of that august body, but it does represent
success here in a general way. Well, I suppose only about thirty-five
per cent of every class here are blonds, are really light--yet
_two-thirds_ of every senior council are light. We looked at pictures
of ten years of them, mind you; that means that out of every _fifteen_
light-haired men in the senior class _one_ is on the senior council, and
of the dark-haired men it's only one in _fifty_."

"It's true," Burne agreed. "The light-haired man _is_ a higher type,
generally speaking. I worked the thing out with the Presidents of
the United States once, and found that way over half of them were
light-haired--yet think of the preponderant number of brunettes in the
race."

"People unconsciously admit it," said Amory. "You'll notice a blond
person is _expected_ to talk. If a blond girl doesn't talk we call her a
'doll'; if a light-haired man is silen