There was a recessional, and then the crowds of students flooded the corridors and circulated under the fresh foliage of the campus. Randolph and Medora Phillips passed out with the rest of the assemblage. In the midst of one of the avenues of elms they noticed Cope as the center of a little group: two plain, elderly people (his parents, doubtless) and--and---- Medora Phillips looked twice. Yes, the other figure was Carolyn Thorpe, offering congratulations. Carolyn had returned to her post and her work the day before. "H'm," thought Medora, disposed to be miffed. Still, Carolyn had, after all, the same right to attend as anyone else. Medora and Basil Randolph added their congratulations to Carolyn's. Cope, still in academic garb, performed the necessary introductions. His air was eager, but cursory; smiling and ready, yet impersonal and cool; above all, expeditious. If his parents passed on with the impression that Medora Phillips and Basil Randolph were but casual acquaintances, worthy of nothing beyond brief formalities, the blame was his own. "I'm showing father and mother over the campus," he said, with an open smile and a wave with his diploma, as he edged away. The elders docilely took their cue, and moved away with him. "Well," said Randolph, "there _are_ buildings, of course; and fountains, and sun-dials, and memorial benches; but..." "They add nothing to him," pronounced Medora, as she looked back on the retiring party. "Did you expect them to?" he asked. "Charm, like guilt, is personal. Anyhow, there seems to be no brother," he added. "Well, come, Carolyn," said Medora, to her returned secretary, who was looking after the party too; "let's start for home. Good afternoon, Basil." "What nice, good, pleasant, friendly people they are!" breathed Carolyn. Randolph had strolled away, and Medora Phillips turned a studious glance on her companion. Carolyn was conceivably in a state of mind--keyed up to an all-inclusive appreciation. Did that foreshadow further verse?--a rustic rhapsody, a provincial pantoum? But Medora withheld question. Much as she would have enjoyed a well-consolidated impression of the visitors, she did not intend to secure it by interrogating Carolyn Thorpe. 33 _COPE IN A FINAL VIEW_ Cope, after a few days, followed his parents back to Freeford. He may have said good-bye to his landlady and to some of his associates in his department; but he contrived no set adieux for the friends who had done so much for him--or had tried to--through the past year. Basil Randolph and Medora Phillips had their last view of him when, diploma in hand, he led his parents away, over the campus. "Oh, well," said Randolph resignedly, "we were less important to him than we thought. Only a couple of negligible items among many. Entered in his ledger--if we _were_ entered--and now faded away to a dim, rusty, illegible scrawl...."