But he’d never thought to be,
At a full-fledged Radcliffe tea,
The only—only—only—only—man.”
III
THE FIRST “IDLER”
“Who’s going to the Idler?” cried Clarissa one morning to a group around the bulletin board.
Then a little Freshman spoke up timidly, “Why, can any of us go? I thought that it was a club meeting.”
“Oh, the Idler is the only unexclusive institution that I’ve struck in this part of the world. Just sign the constitution and you’re in it for life. Come, you must join; we must make our class felt.”
Pressing nearer the board, one of the group read aloud that all Radcliffe students, regular or special, were invited to a meeting of the Idler Club on Friday afternoon at half-past four in the Auditorium.
Accordingly, they were all in their places before the appointed hour. The Auditorium was overflowing, and some girls even had chairs in the aisles. Ruth and Julia leaned on the ledge of the window opening from the conversation room.
“Why don’t they begin?” asked Ruth impatiently, at quarter of five. But even as she spoke there was a lull in the conversation, and a rather commanding figure rose on the platform.