Langworth was a good man, but he knew I had him.  He hemmed and hawed, then covered his retreat in half-hearted anger at me....

“You know well enough, Johnnie Gregory, that all you boys did it for was to ’pull a stunt’—­indulge in a little youthful horseplay.”

“Granted—­but we have effected results!”

* * * * *

“What results? merely a lot of trouble for everybody!”

“The Civic Betterment League now has a chance afforded it to make good ... we’ve provided you with the indisputable data, the evidence ... it’s up to you, now, to go ahead.”

“So God help me, Johnnie, sometimes you make me wish I had never sponsored you here.”

* * * * *

The editor of the Globe made a right-about-face—­repudiating us.

Jack Travers, in the style of his beloved Brisbane, put an editorial in the school paper, the Laurelian, addressed to Blair, beginning, “Get back into the collar of your masters, you contemptible cur.”

* * * * *

The usual thing took place.  Most of the worst criminals were mysteriously given ample time to make their get-away ... probably aided in it.  The humorous side of the resulting investigation and trials of various minor malefactors were played up almost exclusively.

Little by little the town dropped back to its outward observance of not seeing in its civic life what it did not care to see, and which no one could radically remedy till human nature is itself different.

* * * * *

The school year was drawing to a close, my last year at Laurel.

Professor Black, of the English department, had assured me that, if I would tone down a bit, I could easily win a scholarship in his department, and, later, an assistant professorship.

But I preferred my rambling, haphazard course of life, which was less comfortable, but better for the freedom of mind and spirit that poets must preserve....

Dr. Hammond, when I had given him that luncheon on the borrowed money, had taken me aside and informed me that one of the professors—­an influential man on the Hill (beyond that, he refused to identify him further) had advised him, Hammond, not to accept the luncheon in his honour....

“We don’t approve generally of Gregory, on the Hill, you know....”

And Hammond had, he told me, replied—­

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Gregory is my friend, and Dr. Ward, our literary editor, looks on him as a distinguished contributor to the Independent, and a young writer of great and growing promise” ... so the luncheon was given ...  I wonder if the protesting professor was one of those invited, and if so, if he attended?...

I saw clearly that I could never fit into the formal, academic life of the college—­where professors were ashamed to be seen carrying packages and bags home from the stores, but must have them delivered ... for fear of losing their social status!