after my enrollment, I met Ally Merton coming down
hill.

"Well, here I am, as I said I'd be," said he.

He was, as usual, dressed to perfection--not a minute ahead of the
style, not a minute behind ... gentle-voiced and deferential, learning
to be everywhere without being noticed anywhere.

"I see you're still eccentric in dress ... sandals ... shirt open at the
neck ... denim too ... cheap brown socks ... corduroys...."

"Yes, but look," I jested in reply, "I wear a tie ... and the ends pull
exactly even. That's the one thing you taught me about correct dressing
that I'll never forget."

"If I could only persuade you, Johnnie, of the importance of little
things, of putting one's best foot forward ... of personal appearance
... why create an initial prejudice in the minds of people you meet,
that you'll afterward have to waste valuable time in trying to remove?"

"Where are you putting up, Ally?"

"At the Phi Nus" (the bunch that went in the most for style and society)
"I'm a Phi Nu, keep in touch with me, Johnnie."

"Keep in touch with me," was Merton's stock phrase....

"Mr. Mackworth asked me particularly to look you up, and 'take care of'
you ... you made a hit with him ... but he's very much concerned about
you--thinks you're too wild and erratic."

* * * * *

The tinshop was a noisy place, as I have said before. It was as
uproarious as a boiler factory. All day long there was hammering,
banging, and pounding below ... but I was growing used to it ... as you
do to everything which must be.

Keeping Randall's books occupied a couple of hours each morning or
afternoon, whenever I chose. All the rest of the day I had free....

* * * * *

I had almost come to the conclusion that the girl I had seen in the
moonlight had been an apparition conjured up by my own imagination, when
I glimpsed her, one afternoon, walking toward Hewitt Hall, where the art
classes held session, in the upper rooms. I followed the girl, a long
way behind. I saw her go in through the door to a class where already a
group of students sat about with easels, painting from a girl-model ...
fully clothed ... for painting from the nude was not allowed. They had
threshed that proposition out long before, Professor Grant explained to
me, once,--and the faculty had decided, in solemn conclave, that the
farmers throughout the state were not yet prepared for that step....

I so