As the bright, anxious young face looked up
at the window where the women sat, the older one thought she could
read the future in it, and she sighed. It was a face which
attracted, broad-browed, clear-eyed, and honest, but not a strong
face--yet. John McLean had only made beginnings; he had accomplished
nothing. Mrs. Anderson, out of an older experience, sighed, because
she had seen just such winning, lovable boys before, and had seen
them grow into saddened, unsuccessful men. Yet he was full of
possibility; the girl was hoping against hope that Brant and the
fourteen other seniors of Skull and Bones would see it so and take
him on that promise. She was not pretending to herself that anything
but Johnny McLean's fate in it was the point of this Tap Day to her.
She was very young, only twenty also, but there was a maturity in
her to which the boy made an appeal. She felt a strength which
others missed; she wanted him to find it; she wanted passionately
to see him take his place where she felt he belonged, with the men
who counted.
The play was in full action. Grave and responsible seniors worked
swiftly here and there through the tight mass, searching each one
his man; every two or three minutes a man was found and felt that
thrilling touch and heard the order, "Go to your room.
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