Certainly Lee’s appearance indicated the greater grief, but people said that was because he was at home. There he had every day to meet the sympathetic kindness of his mother, which was worse than any reproach could be; and there he had every day to see in his father’s face the pained look which spoke more eloquently than words.
Charley had not the firmness nor the mental and moral strength of Parmenter. He was kinder, more impulsive, more unselfish; but he depended more on circumstances to keep him at his best.
In the shadow of disgrace that had now fallen on him he grew despondent, even despairing. With the old companionship suddenly lost he became unspeakably lonely. He found it impossible to rise from beneath the burdens that had fallen on him.
All the gentle home influence, all the friendly sympathy and assistance of those who had been his companions in the better days, and who still loved him none the less for the shadows that rested on him—all these things were wholly unavailing. He weakened, wavered, and broke.
He neglected his studies, avoided the class-room on every pretext, lost his frank and cheery manner, fell back mentally and morally with startling rapidity. By and by it began to be whispered about that he was becoming addicted to intoxicating drinks.
One man had seen him drinking at a city bar. Another had met him late at night, going home with thick tongue and unsteady step. No pains were spared to turn him back; but father, mother, and friends labored, implored, and suffered in vain.
There was but one person in the world who, at this crisis, could have arrested young Lee’s course and brought him back to safety. That person was Parmenter—Parmenter as he had been in the old days, strong in friendship, forceful in will, undaunted by disaster.
He, by merely stretching out his hand, could have turned Charley Lee back toward manhood.
But no one thought of that. The gulf between the two young men had grown too wide. Besides, Parmenter was demoralized as well as Lee; he had not fallen in the same way, but certainly he had fallen.
He, too, was neglectful of his studies and remiss in his college duties. He avoided the companionship of his fellows and sank, day by day, into a state of listless self-sufficiency from which all the efforts of his friends failed to rouse him. Whispering tongues were again at work, bringing to his ears tales of remarks, and declarations made by Professor Lee and his wife, charging Parmenter with being the cause of their son’s downfall.