"He may have for all I know. Now I'll bury him. He will be eminently successful--I like that word eminently. You see he has no sense of humor, and especially no imagination to hinder him." Brockhurst, in one of his quixotic moods, began to gesture to the stars as he abandoned himself to the delights of his conceit. "Oh, that's a wonderful thing, to have no imagination--the saving of commonplace minds. If Wiggin had an imagination he would never have written a line, he would have perceived the immense distances that separated him from the Olympians. Instead he read Stevenson, Dumas, Kipling, and, unafraid, wrote little Stevenson echoes of Dumas, capsule Kiplings. He'll go out in the world, nothing will frighten him. He will rebel against nothing, for he hasn't an idea. He will choose the woman he needs for his needs, persuade himself that he's in love, and then persuade her. And he'll believe that's a virtuous marriage. He'll belong to the conservative party, the conservative church, and will be a distinguished subordinate, who will stand for tradition, institutions, and will be said to resemble some great man. Then he'll die, and will be pointed to as a great example. _Requiescat in pace._" "Off with his head," said Stover appreciatively. "Now he's finished, own up, Brocky, that you are furious that you did not buckle down and beat him out." "Of course I am--damn it," said Brockhurst. "I know I did right, but no one else will ever know it. And the strange thing is, Dink, the best thing for me is to have missed out." "Why, in Heaven's name?" "If I had made the chairmanship, I should probably be tapped for Bones--one of the successful. I might have become satisfied. Do you know that that is the great danger of this whole senior business?" "What?" "The fellow who wears his honors like a halo. He's made Bones or Keys, he's a success in life. Nothing more awaits him. 'I was it.'" "Still, you would have liked it." "Sure; I'm inconsistent," said Brocky, with a laugh. "It's only when I don't get what I want that my beautiful reason shows me I shouldn't have had it." "Well, there's no danger of either of us disappearing under the halos," said Stover shortly. "I'm not so sure about you," said Brockhurst. The casual doubt aroused strange emotions in Stover. "I thought you didn't believe in them," he said slowly. "I don't. I don't believe in organizations, institutions, traditions--that's my point of view," said Brockhurst. "But then I'm in the world to be in revolt." "You once spoke of the society system--the whole thing as it exists in America--" said Stover, "as a sort of idol worship. I never quite understood your meaning."