days passed, Steve's manner became more
natural and he ceased looking at Tom as though, to quote the latter's
unspoken simile, he was a new sort of an animal in a zoo! But some
constraint still remained, and, after awhile, Tom accepted the situation
and grew accustomed to it. By that time he had grown too proud to ask
for an explanation. The two chums spent less time together as a result,
Steve becoming more dependent on Roy for companionship and Tom on Harry.
When they were all four together, which was very frequently, it was not
so bad, but when Steve and Tom were alone conversation was apt to
languish.

Tom at first was inclined to blame Steve's "Daley Schedule" for the
change, for that schedule had quite altered Steve's existence. He lived
by a strict routine which he followed with a dogged determination quite
foreign to his ways as Tom knew them. He got up on time in the morning,
reached the dining-hall almost as soon as the doors were opened, spent a
scant twenty minutes there and then went directly back to his room to
browse over his recitations for the day. Once Tom found him there
hunched up in a corner of the window-seat while the chambermaid, viewing
his presence distastefully, draped the furniture with bedding and did
her best with broom and duster to discourage him from a repetition of
the outrage. Between ten and eleven on three days a week Steve put in an
hour of study in the room. On other days he managed to snatch two
half-hour periods in the library between recitations. At six he was
almost invariably awaiting the opening of the doors for dinner, and well
before seven he was at his table again. Usually he studied until nine,
although now and then he closed his books at half-past eight and
followed Tom to Number 17 Torrence. Roy called him the Prize Grind and
interestedly inquired what scholarship he was trying for. Steve accepted
the joking with a grim smile.

It wasn't easy. For the first few days he had to drive himself to his
work with bit and spur. His feet lagged and he groaned in
spirit--perhaps audibly, too--as he approached his books. But he did it,
and little by little it became easier, until, as Mr. Daley had
predicted, it had become a habit with him to do certain things at
certain hours and he was uncomfortable if his routine was disarranged. I
don't think Steve ever got where he loved to study, but he did
eventually reach a pride of attainment that answered quite as well. He
found as time