After the exercises at the Stadium, Cosden, at Huntington's suggestion, took Hamlen with him to the Varsity Club, where the athletic heroes of past and present congregated. There was a motive back of the suggestion, and the effect on Hamlen of seeing these men, whose importance college ideals had magnified, in their present relation to the world and to their fellow-men, justified the experiment. Some of the old captains or record-holders showed unmistakably their continued pre-eminence; others had fallen back into the ranks after their temporary standard-bearing. Hamlen could understand it now: what they did in college was of importance only to the extent that it fitted them for what was to follow; it was the use they made of this fitting in the after-life which produced the permanent effect. This was the difference between the means and the end which Marian tried to explain to him in Bermuda. Then came Commencement as a crescendo. It would have meant little to Hamlen had it preceded Class Day, but each new experience gave him fuller understanding and richer enjoyment. He saw again the same members of his Class and felt now that he knew them; he met others, and was able to mingle freely as a fellow-classmate. On Class Day the alumni came as a unit, on Commencement they separated into Class groups, each with its own spread and reunion, offering greater opportunity for intimate exchanges of personal experience and mutual confidence. The climax came the following day with the boat-race at New London. The Thatchers had returned home immediately after Class Day with plans of their own still to be carried out, so Huntington and Cosden formed the body-guard which convoyed Hamlen to the great event. Huntington knew that he could not credit his friend's feverish anticipation wholly to the dawning interest in Harvard events, but was equally content to see how personal a triumph Philip's seat in the boat had become to him. Had Hamlen's nervousness been shared by his namesake and the other oarsmen the result of the race might have been foreshadowed! He changed his mind about going so many times that Huntington finally insisted upon a definite decision. "Of course I want to go," he explained; "but I never saw a Harvard crew win and I can't believe I'm going to now." "Perhaps you won't," was the frank disavowal of responsibility. "The worm must turn again some time, and it may be that this is the year, but Harvard has the habit of winning now, and that goes a long way." "It would kill me to see Phil lose!" Harden said with deep feeling. "Tell me," Huntington said,--"tell me frankly for my gratification, is your eagerness to see Harvard win to-morrow wholly on Phil's account, or have these days brought your crimson blood near enough to the surface to make you keen for the crew to win because it's a Harvard crew? Don't deceive yourself or me. I really want to know."