, and why you did not sing your part of
the program?"

"That's two questions," murmured Pellams. He could not look at Mrs.
Perkins, to whom he had made certain solemn promises before that very
trip; but his adversary had turned toward her with a look of righteous
triumph. So deftly that even Pellams barely saw it, Katharine reached
across him and peppered the forkful of rarebit just before the lips of
Miss Meiggs closed over it. His answer was overlooked.

Mrs. Perkins took the sufferer up to her own room and Katharine vanished
somewhere with Smith. When the tables were removed, a girl sat at the
piano; her song finished, she struck briskly into the "Hot Time," and
every one turned to Pellams. He sang the rag-time as though he were
bursting with fun, while the Chapter sat before him, beaming its
innocent gratitude. But the Glee Club man was singing to one guest
alone, and he could not see her, or Smith either. When two songs had
failed to bring her into view, he stole off upstairs unmolested and lay
for some time with his door locked, grinning before sleep.

They hammered at his door next morning with appeals for his appearance
at first-hour recitation, and fraternal reminders that he hadn't
sufficient stand-in to cut. Foo went clanging the bell through the
halls, dodging the shoes that flew at him through the door of a man who
had nothing before the fourth hour, and the rush and hurry of late
breakfast-time filled the house. But Pellams lay smoking in his narrow
bed, engaged in the novel task of solving a point of etiquette. The
affair of the night before was to be his final appearance in local
society. His experience in small-talk with Miss Meiggs confirmed his
decision to live a college life into which co-education did not enter
outside his class-rooms. Yet, having once departed from the mode of such
a life, he found himself under an obligation. A co-ed had found him in
trouble and had done the "white" thing by him at a critical moment; even
Jimmy Mason, over at the Hall, could not have stood by him any better.
In an obligation to Jimmy there was no problem--only the matter of time
to do his part--but with a co-ed, Pellams felt that it was different.
She was not a feature of his life. To the woman-hater's mind, if a man
has become indebted to a girl, honor bids him pay the debt, the sooner
the better. He need never see the girl again, once the score is even.
This philosophy evolved, it took another cigarette to dec