Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/129

 champion the enterprise. It all reminded me of the last rehearsal of an amateur play when every one loses his temper and forgets his lines. It is one of the sure indications of a successful outcome of the performance. I knew for certain when I saw how wretchedly things seemed to be going that the result would be perfect.

I did not get to the party for an unfortunate and an unexpected telegram took me out of town on Thursday morning, and I did not get back to the house until Sunday evening. The girls had come and gone again, and the fellows were sitting around the fireplace talking it over, physically wrung out, but girding up their mental loins for the repair of their disorganized and wrecked studies. Everything had turned out all right. There had been no social blunders, no hitches in anything, nothing to regret. The girls had been charming, all of them, and pleased and complimentary beyond expression. They had thought the house delightful and had left money enough to buy a new rug to replace the worn one in the library, which had really been the one thing that had kept the furnishings of the place from seeming perfect. There was much self-congratulation and self-satisfaction on the part of every one, and much joy over the fact that it was all over and every one was alive. They had had a little time to take account of expenses,