. . . I am going up--for my final--Marmy.--I wonder--if
I'll--pass.' And then the words froze on her lips.
"It was persecution that did it--diabolical persecution and selfishness.
That was the worst day the college ever knew. At the funeral, when the
provost read, 'For that it hath pleased Thee to deliver this our sister
out of the miseries of this sinful world,' Big Wallington, the wildest
chap among the grads, led off with a gulp in his throat, and we all
followed. And that gold-spectacled sneak stood there, with a lying white
handkerchief at his eyes.
"I laid myself out to make the college too hot for him. In a week I had
every man in the place with me, and things came to such a pass that all
of us must be sent down, or Valiant resign. He resigned. He found another
professorship; but the thing followed him, and he was obliged to leave
the country."
When I finished the story, Mrs. Falchion was silent for a time, then,
with a slight air of surprise, and in a quite critical way, she said: "I
should think you would act very well, if you used less emotion. Mrs.
Valiant had a kind of courage, but she was foolish to die.
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