ner and buried my face
to hide my fear's approach. I should have waited to see how others
acted, how others fought--and then, at best I should have fought along
in a half-hearted, half-dreading fashion. Even now, I had nothing to
fight for. I knew what Judaism was--and that it was for the God and the
people of Judaism that I should be making my little fight--but--

I turned about and saw the eyes of the two freshmen glued upon me.
Frank's especially--and they were beginning to fill with a troubled
distrust which I had never allowed to be there before. I could not fail
Frank. I would do what I could.

"All right," I said, drawing on my coat. "Go ahead home and get to bed.
I will see what I can do."

I went with them across the campus to the other freshman's room. Frank
would sleep there for the night, though he usually went back to his
parents. I think he did not have the heart tonight to face them, and
when they asked their usual breathless questions of the day's work and
play, lie to them and hide from them the galling incident. He did not
seem to feel the insult for his own sake; he was thinking, rather, of
his mother and of how she would feel, should she ever know.

"Good night," said the other freshman soberly.

"Good night," said Frank--and I felt in his voice all of the cheery
obligation of friendship. He was expecting wonders of me.

Walking on alone, across the open gloominess of deserted paths and night
winds in the shrubbery, a thousand foolish fears tramped by my side and
sang into my ears. I had hidden my empty spirit from those two boys--but
I could not hide it from myself. I wondered what sort of a fight was
ahead of me, and how long it would last, and what would be the final
result. Those two men, Sayer and Braley, were among the most influential
of the class. They were members of my senior society. They could hold me
down by sentimental ties of brotherhood, much as Trevelyan had been held
down by his fraternity mates; failing that, they could use their
popularity, their clinch upon college opinion to force me literally into
silence. They could run me out of college, if they pleased. I knew this,
did not deny it to myself as I went forward to the first skirmish.

Once I turned around and almost retreated to my rooms. But the
remembrance of the sting that was in Frank's reproachful look would not
let me do that.

So I came to the steps of the big Y. M. C. A. building. They were many,
these white s