II-XIV

The day after Commencement I moved my
books and desk upstairs, to an empty room
where I should be undisturbed, and I fell to
studying in earnest. I worked off a year's
trigonometry that summer, and began Virgil
alone. Morning after morning I used to pace
up and down my sunny little room, looking
off at the distant river bluffs and the roll
of the blond pastures between, scanning the
Aeneid aloud and committing long passages
to memory. Sometimes in the evening Mrs.
Harling called to me as I passed her gate, and
asked me to come in and let her play for me.
She was lonely for Charley, she said, and liked
to have a boy about. Whenever my grand-
parents had misgivings, and began to wonder
whether I was not too young to go off to col-
lege alone, Mrs. Harling took up my cause
vigorously. Grandfather had such respect for
her judgment that I knew he would not go
against her.

I had only one holiday that summer. It
was in July. I met Antonia downtown on

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v?