"You can rustle it somewhere. I'm borrowing right now.""It's different with you. I'm used to doing without things. Don't worry about me. I'll get along."James came with a touch of embarrassment to the real object of his visit. "I say, Jeff. I've had a tough time to win out. You won't-- you'll not say anything--let anything slip, you know--something that might set the fellows guessing."His cousin was puzzled. "About what?"
"About the reason why Mother and I left Shelby and came out to the coast.""What do you take me for?"
"I knew you wouldn't. Thought I'd mention it for fear you might make a slip.""I don't chatter about the private affairs of my people.""Course not. I knew you didn't." The junior's hand rested caressingly on the shoulder of the other. "Don't get sore, Jeff. I didn't doubt you. But that thing haunts me. Some day it will come out and ruin me when I'm near the top of the ladder."The freshman shook his head. "Don't worry about it, James. Just tell the plain truth if it comes out. A thing like that can't hurt you permanently. Nothing can really injure you that does not come from your own weakness.""That's all poppycock," James interrupted fretfully. "Just that sort of thing has put many a man on the skids. I tell you a young fellow needs to start unhampered. If the fellows got onto it that my father had been in the pen because he was a defaulting bank cashier they would drop me like a hot potato.""None but the snobs would. Your friends would stick the closer.""Oh' friends!" The young man's voice had a note of angry derision. Jeff's affectionate grin comforted him. "Don't let it get on your nerves,J. K. Things never are as bad as we expect at their worst."The junior set his teeth savagely. "I tell you, sometimes I hate him for it. That's a fine heritage for a father to give his son, isn't it? Nothing but trouble and disgrace."His cousin spoke softly. "He's paid a hundred times for it, old man." "He ought to pay. Why shouldn't he? I've got to pay. Mother had to aslong as she lived." His voice was hard and bitter.
"Better not judge him. You're his only son, you know.""I'm the one he's injured most. Why shouldn't I judge him? I've been a pauper all these years, living off money given us by my mother's people. I had to leave our home because of what he did. I'd like to know why I shouldn't judge him."Jeff was silent.
Presently James rose. "But there's no use talking about it. I've got to be going. We have an eat to-night at Tucker's."PART 2
Jeff came to his new life on the full tide of an enthusiasm that did not begin to ebb till near the close of his first semester. He lived in a new world, one removed a million miles from the sordid one through which he had fought his way so many years. All the idealism of his nature went out in awe and veneration for his college. It stood for something he could not phrase, something spiritually fine and intellectually strong. When he thought of the noble motto of the university, "To Serve," it was always with a lifted emotion that was half a prayer. His professors went clothed in majesty. The chancellor was of godlike dimensions. Even the seniors carried with them an impalpable aura of learning.
The illusion was helped by reason of the very contrast between the jostling competition of the street and the academic air of harmony in which he now found himself. For the first time was lifted the sense of struggle that had always been with him.
Theoutstandingnotesofhisboyhoodhadbeenpovertyandmeagerness. It was as if he and his neighbors had been flung into a lake where they must keep swimming to escape drowning. There had been no rest from labor. Sometimes the tragedy of disaster had swept over a family. But on the campus of the university he found the sheltered life. The echo of that battling world came to him only faintly.
