"They should command respect and not fear. By George, that's where I stand. All this rigmarole is ridiculous, and it's ridiculous that it ever affected me; it is of the middle ages--outgrown." Then a problem placed itself before him. Admitting that he had even the ghost of a chance of being tapped, ought he to go into a senior society feeling as he did about so many of its observances, secretly resolved on their elimination? Finally, a week before Tap Day, he decided to go to Judge Story and frankly state his case, letting him know that he preferred thus to give notice of his beliefs. When he arrived at the Story home the Judge was upstairs in his study. Jean, alone in the parlor, looked up in surprise at his expressed intention to see her father. Since her letter they had never been alone. Stover had avoided it with his shrinking from sympathy, and, perhaps guessing his temperament, she had made no attempt to go beyond the safe boundaries of formal intercourse. "Yes, indeed, Dad's upstairs," she said. Then she added a little anxiously: "You look serious--is it a very serious matter?" He hesitated, knowing instinctively that she would oppose him. "It's something that's been on my mind for a long time," he said evasively; and he added with a smile, "It's what you call my Quixotic fit." "It's about Skull and Bones," she said instantly. "Yes, it is." "What are you going to say?" "I'm going to tell him just where I stand--just what I've come to believe about the whole business." "And what's that?" "That Skull and Bones, which does a great good here--I believe it--also does a great deal of harm; all of which is unnecessary and a weakness in its system. In a word, I've come to the point where I believe secrecy is un-American, undemocratic and stultifying; and, as I say, totally unnecessary. I should always be against it." "But aren't you exaggerating the importance of it all?" she said hastily. "No, I'm not," he said. "I used to silence myself with that, but I see the thing working out too plainly." "But why speak about it?" "Because I don't think it's honest not to. Of course," he added immediately, "I have about one chance in a thousand--perhaps that's why I'm so all-fired direct about it." "I wish you wouldn't," she said, rising and coming towards him. "It might offend them terribly; you never know." He shook his head, though her eagerness gave him a sudden happiness. "No, I've thought it out a long while, and I've decided. It all goes back to that sophomore society scrap. I made up my mind then I wasn't going to compromise, and I'm not now." "But I want to see you go Bones," she said illogically, in a rush. "After all you've gone through, you must go Bones!" He did not answer this. "Oh, it's so unnecessary," she said. "No one but you would think of it!" "Don't be angry with me," he said, a little troubled. "I am--it's absurd!" she said, turning away with a flash of temper. "I'm sorry," he said, and went up the stairs.