it brings along with it the
respect and good will of all the men from whom you wrested it. At
college as much as in any business office a smile will beget a smile,
willingness to work will reap willingness to reward--and Alma Mater, if
only you prove your love for her by working for her, will return your
love tenfold."

He reached over the desk and touched my arm.

"I don't mean to be just rhetorical," he continued. "I have been through
the same inner struggle and wonder and repugnance that you have--and I
know how deeply you feel it. Well, I worked blindly ahead at the things
that college gave me to work at--the football team and the newspaper and
all that--and soon enough I knew that I had been working into manhood by
the only right road. Manhood is a matter of disposition, not of work.
There's a place for manhood in your little college world. Go and find
that place--and give it all that is manly and courageous in you."

I left him, I confess, doubting his words a little to find that place of
which he spoke so feelingly.

Well, perhaps I would find it. Perhaps an opportunity would spring up
from out of the sing-song ordinariness of my daily life--and what would
I do then?

XII

THE HEART OF JUDEA

My promise to Mr. Richards brought more than one result. The first of
them was a serious quarrel with my Aunt Selina. Her horror at the idea
of my spending the summer at a slum-settlement was beyond curbing. She
had planned that I should accompany her and Mrs. Fleming-Cohen upon a
trip to Europe. They did not need me; they would be in no way dependent
on my company ... and I flatly declined. Aunt Selina, outraged at my
actual intentions, left for France a week earlier than she had
expected--and, in high indignation, gave me leave to do "whatever I
pleased by way of disgracing her reputation."

Her letter from the steamer warned me to bathe every day in very hot
water, lest I should be contaminated by the filth of that section of the
city which I had chosen for my summer home ... and to be sure and give
her warmest regards to that delightful Mr. Trevelyan!

I lost no time in moving into Mr. Richards' company at the East Side
settlement. I was given a room there which was small, dark, but neat
and comfortable enough. College had no sooner closed than I was settled
in it, ready for the two months of work which had been allotted me.

In return for my board and lodgings, the settlement demanded all my
time. T