Parmenter applied himself with renewed energy to the work of the term, and especially to the task of perfecting himself in his Sophomore oration.
He was passionately fond of oratory. Often, sitting or walking alone, he imagined himself on the prize stage in the midst of his triumph.
Before him in these visions stretched the long aisles of the crowded church, the pews bright with the evening costumes of the ladies, the air heavy with the fragrance of many flowers. All eyes were upon him. Every ear was attentive to catch the sounding sentences that fell from his lips.
The rustle and stir that passed through the audience at some telling point in his oration swept up pleasantly to his senses; the involuntary burst of applause at some brilliant climax rolled like a wave of delight into his soul; and when, finally, he bowed and retired, there were the marked and ribboned bouquets falling in sweet showers on the stage to attest his popularity; there was the long roll of applause rising and dying and rising again, only to be drowned at last in the music of the orchestra.
Oh, it was a splendid scene, a knightly test, a thrilling triumph! To anticipate it, to see it all in imagination as he did, left Parmenter in an exalted state for hours.
But his days were far from being happy. The anxious face of Charley Lee haunted him wherever he went. The old love for his friend was still strong enough in his heart to awaken sincere pity.
He tried a dozen times to bridge over the awkward restraint that separated them; and although Charley was always anxious to assist him, somehow the effort never succeeded. Though neither young man knew it, success lay only in a radical change of the conditions that surrounded them. Since they had been partners in transgression, they must needs be partners in expiation before they could hope to count upon a complete renewal of their old relations.
Lee’s apparent mental uneasiness became the source of deep annoyance to Parmenter at last. Still feeling himself to be the cause of it, still unable to banish it, it irritated him to such an extent that he avoided his old friend’s society lest he should, by open reproof or sharp rebuke, cut the last tie of friendship.
So day after day the two drifted apart, and by and by a new factor entered into the problem of their estrangement.