Then it seemed to him, as Claire again passed the window, that he did not know her at all. He had once talked to a girl who resembled her, but that was long ago. He could understand a Gomez-Dep and appreciate a brisk sports-suit, but this girl was of a world unintelligible to him. Her hair, in its dips and convolutions, was altogether a puzzle. "How did she ever fix it like that?" Her low evening dress--"what was it made of--some white stuff, but was it silk or muslin or what?" Her shoulders were startling in their bare powdery smoothness--"how dare that young pup dance with her?" And her face, that had seemed so jolly and friendly, floated past the window as pale and illusive as a wisp of fog. His longing for her passed into clumsy awe. He remembered, without resentment, that once on a hilltop in Dakota she had coldly forbidden him to follow her. With all the pleasure of martyrdom--to make quite sure that he should realize how complete a fool he had been to intrude on Miss Boltwood--he studied the other guests. He gave them, perhaps, a glory they did not have. There were girls sleek as ivory. There was a lean stooped man, very distinguished. There was a bulky man in a dinner coat, with a semi-circle of mustache, and eyes that even at a distance seemed to give impatient orders. He would be a big banker, or a lumberman. It was the easy friendliness of all of them that most made Milt feel like an outsider. If a servant had come out and ordered him away, he would have gone meekly ... he fancied. He straggled off, too solidly unhappy to think how unhappy he was. In his clammy room he picked up the algebra. For a quarter-hour he could not gather enough vigor to open it. In his lassitude, his elbows felt feeble, his fingers were ready to drop off. He slowly scratched the book open---- At one o'clock he was reading algebra, his face still and grim. But already it seemed less heartily brick-red. He listlessly telephoned to Claire, in the morning. "Hello? Oh! Miss Boltwood? This is Milt Daggett." "Oh! Oh, how are you?" "Why, why I'm--I've got settled. I can get into the engineering school all right." "I'm glad." "Uh, enjoying Seattle?" "Oh! Oh yes. The mountains---- Do you like it?" "Oh! Oh yes. Sea and all---- Great town." "Uh, w-when are we going to see you? Daddy had to go East, left you his regards. W-when----?" "Why--why I suppose you're awful--awfully busy, meeting people and all----" "Yes, I am, rather, but----" Her hedging uncomfortable tone changed to a cry of distress. "Milt! I must see you. Come up at four this afternoon." "Yes!"