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 "polish." He commented: "You can work in anywhere, boy; you know how to meet 'em all!"

Dave did know, since Alice had taken him in his freshman year out of the meager round of contacts, which naturally would have been the lot of a minister's son working his way through Northwestern, and had gradually, through four years, made him accustomed to the acquaintance of the prosperous and "worldly" people who frequented the big house on Sheridan road.

Often, when meeting a prospective customer and realizing that he was getting along with the prospect easily and favorably, Dave would feel a sudden, sharp pang of conscience at the thought that Alice had prepared him for this success.

He did not quickly separate Alice's interest from his own; he had formed the habit of including hers with his so completely that it startled him to discover, during the round of the day, how much he had cast from his life. Particularly toward evening, when the hour came at which he always had telephoned her, he felt lonely and lost. And the week-day mornings, when he had classes with Alice, became most difficult in another way.

At that wretched midnight, when she had left him sitting in the cab beside Willard, he had thought in his dismay: "Have I ended college for her?"

Of course he knew that she had barely three months more of attendance at classes to win her degree; but this only weighted his guilt if now she dropped out.

But Alice did not drop out. On Monday morning, as usual, she appeared in her car at the edge of the campus. The difference was that he did not meet her;