第16章 GRAND CROSS OF THE CRESCENT(2)

Accordingly, it followed that to a man who since the seventeenth century knew of no event, of interest, Cyrus Hallowell, of the meat-packers' trust, was not an imposing figure.And such a man the son of Cyrus Hallowell was but an ignorant young savage, to whom "the" history certainly had been a closed book.And so when Peter returned his examination paper in a condition almost as spotless as that in which he had received it, Doctor Gilman carefully and conscientiously, with malice toward none and, with no thought of the morrow, marked" five."Each of the other professors and instructors had marked Peter fifty.In their fear of Chancellor Black they dared not give the boy less, but they refused to be slaves to the extent of crediting him with a single point higher than was necessary to pass him.But Doctor Gilman's five completely knocked out the required average of fifty, and young Peter was "found"and could not graduate.It was an awful business! The only son of the only Hallowell refused a degree in his father's own private college--the son of the man who had built the Hallowell Memorial, the new Laboratory, the Anna Hallowell Chapel, the Hallowell Dormitory, and the Hallowell Athletic Field.When on the bulletin board of the dim hall of the Memorial to his departed grandfather Peter read of his own disgrace and downfall, the light the stained-glass window cast upon his nose was of no sicklier a green than was the nose itself.Not that Peter wanted an A.M.or an A.B., not that he desired laurels he had not won, but because the young man was afraid of his father.And he had cause to be.Father arrived at Stillwater the next morning.The interviews that followed made Stillwater history.

"My son is not an ass!" is what Hallowell senior is said to have said to Doctor Black."And if in four years you and your faculty cannot give him the rudiments of an education, I will send him to a college that can.And I'll send my money where I send Peter."In reply Chancellor Black could have said that it was the fault of the son and not of the college; he could have said that where three men had failed to graduate one hundred and eighty had not.But did he say that? Oh, no, he did not say that! He was not that sort of, a college president.Instead, he remained calm and sympathetic, and like a conspirator in a comic opera glanced apprehensively round his, study.He lowered his voice.

"There has been contemptible work here, "he whispered--"spite and a mean spirit of reprisal.I have been making a secret investigation, and I find that this blow at your son and you, and at the good name of our college was struck by one man, a man with a grievance--Doctor Gilman.Doctor Gilman has repeatedly desired me to raise his salary." This did not happen to be true, but in such a crisis Dotor Black could not afford to be too particular.

"I have seen no reason for raising his salary--and there you have the explanation.In revenge he has made this attack.But he overshot his mark.In causing us temporary embarrassment he has brought about his own downfall.I have already asked for his resignation."Every day in the week Hallowell was a fair, sane man, but on this particular day he was wounded, his spirit was hurt, his self-esteem humiliated.He was in a state of mind to believe anything rather than that his son was an idiot.

"I don't want the man discharged," he protested, "just because Peter is lazy.But if Doctor Gilman was moved by personal considerations, if he sacrificed my Peter in order to get even....""That," exclaimed Black in a horrified whisper, "is exactly what he did! Your generosity to the college is well known.

You are recognized all over America as its patron.And he believed that when I refused him an increase in salary it was really you who refused it--and he struck at you through your son.Everybody thinks so.The college is on fire with indignation.And look at the mark he gave Peter! Five! That in itself shows the malice.Five is not a mark, it is an insult! No one, certainly not your brilliant son--look how brilliantly he managed the glee-club and foot-ball tour--is stupid enough to deserve five.No, Doctor Gilman went too far.And he has been justly punished!"What Hallowell senior was willing to believe of what the chancellor told him, and his opinion of the matter as expressed to Peter, differed materially.

"They tell me," he concluded, "that in the fall they will give you another examination, and if you pass then, you will get your degree.No one will know you've got it.They'll slip it to you out of the side-door like a cold potato to a tramp.