And we await a reply from "Dear Arthur"--the fifth and last of our little
group. But no; there are two or three others--as you have just seen.




4

_COPE IS CONSIDERED_


A few days after the mathematical tea, Basil Randolph was taking a sedate
walk among the exotic elms and the indigenous oaks of the campus; he was on
his way to the office of the University registrar. He felt interested in
Bertram Cope and meant to consult the authorities. That is to say, he
intended to consult the written and printed data provided by the
authorities,--not to make verbal inquiries of any of the college officials
themselves. He was, after all, sufficiently in the academic tradition to
prefer the consultation of records as against the employment of _viva voce_
methods; and he saw no reason why his new interest should be widely
communicated to other individuals. There was an annual register; there was
an album of loose sheets kept up by the members of the faculty; and there
was a card-catalogue, he remembered, in half a dozen little drawers. All
this ought to remove any necessity of putting questions by word of mouth.

The young clerk behind the broad counter annoyed him by no offer of aid,
but left him to browse for himself. First, the printed register. This was
crowded with professors--full, head, associate, assistant; there were even
two or three professors emeritus. And each department had its tale of