of the best-looking girl students in the place--knew them well enough,
it appeared, to speak of them not merely by their first names but by
abbreviations of these. He had become fashion's sprig, a "fusser" and
butterfly, and he reproached his roommate for shunning the ladies.

"Well, the truth is, Fred," said Ramsey one day, responding
darkly;--"well, you see the truth is, Fred, I've had a--a--I've had an
experience--"

So, only, did he refer to Milla.

Fred said no more; and it was comprehended between them that the past
need never be definitely referred to again, but that it stood between
Ramsey and any entertainment to be obtained of the gentler but less
trustworthy sex. And when other Brethren of the "frat" would have
pressed Ramsey to join them in various frivolous enterprises concerning
"co-eds," or to be shared by "co-eds," Fred thought it better to explain
to them privately (all being sacred among Brethren) how Ramsey's life,
so far as Girls went, had been toyed with by one now a Married Woman.

This created a great deal of respect for Ramsey. It became understood
everywhere that he was a woman-hater.





Chapter XIV

That early spring of 1915 the two boys and their friends and Brethren