Frank’s quest for Elsie was vain, but he found she had been stopping at one of the hotels. Her name was on the register. When he asked for her, however, he was informed that she had left that day. The clerk could not tell him whither she had gone, save that her trunk had been taken to the railway-station. But this was enough to make him feel certain she had left New Haven.
There was a pain in Frank’s heart when he turned toward his rooms in Vanderbilt. Quite alone, he paused by the fence. There were lights all about him in the windows of the college buildings. A few were dark and unlighted, but it was the gleam of the lighted ones that gave him a feeling of sadness and desolation. He knew many of the students had started for their homes that night, while to-morrow there would be a grand exodus. Going home! The thought thrilled the vibrating chords of his heart. He had no home to which he could go.
The sky was thickly studded with stars, gazing down upon him like a million gleaming eyes. He leaned on the fence and gazed up at them, and he fancied they gave him their sympathy.
“Elsie!” he murmured; “where are you? Why did you leave me without a word?”
Many, many times, he had lingered there at the fence, with stanch, true friends about him. It was there he had discussed football, baseball, sports of all kinds, and talked over the gossip of the college. Now he was alone!
Finally he turned toward Vanderbilt and climbed the stairs to his room. This was his only home, but now it seemed lonely and deserted.
He lighted the gas in his study and stood there looking around. It was a pleasant room, yet the time was approaching when it would know him no more. The walls were adorned with pictures, flags, photographs, and the many curios he had gathered in his wanderings about the world. His desk was standing open, the pigeonholes stuffed with the various things which were of value to him alone. There were papers and letters upon it. Before it stood the office chair, with an easy rocker close at hand.
In a window alcove was a long, easy seat, piled with cushions. Over the window in big white letters was the word, “Yale.” Magic word, dear to the heart of every loyal lover of Old Eli! Near the window was the well-filled bookcase, containing many well-thumbed volumes. Through the portières he could look into the adjoining room and see the square table on which lay the photographs he had inspected in company with Inza.
Frank sat down in the rocker and fell to thinking of many things, but his mind would always revert to Elsie and her strange and hurried flight from New Haven.
“The time has come!” he finally exclaimed. “This is my last year at college, and soon I must go out into the world for myself. I must choose between Elsie and Inza. Perhaps I have done wrong not to choose before, but the friendship of both girls has been very dear to me.”