Brockhurst joined them.
"Well, the smoke's rolled away," said Brockhurst, who likewise had missed out. "It's over—all over. Now we'll settle down to peace and quiet—relax."
"The best time's coming," said Hungerford. "We'll live as we please, and really enjoy life. It's the real time, every one says so."
"Yes," said Brockhurst, rebel to the last, "but why couldn't it come before, why couldn't it be so the whole four years?"
"Well, now, old croaker," said Hungerford with a little heat, "own up the old college comes up to the scratch. We've surrendered the sophomore society system, and the seniors showed to-day that they could recognize honest criticism. That's pretty fine, I say."
"You're pretty fine, Joe," said Brockhurst to their surprise. "Well, it's good enough as it is. It takes an awful lot to stir it, but it's the most sensitive of the American colleges, and it will respond. It wants to do the right thing. Some day it'll see it. I'm a crank, of course." He stopped, and Stover felt in his voice a little note of bitterness. "The trouble with me is just that. I'm impractical; have strange ideas. I'm not satisfied with Yale as a magnificent factory on democratic business lines; I dream of something else, something visionary, a great institution not of boys, clean, lovable and honest, but of men of brains, of courage, of leadership, a great center of thought, to stir the country and bring it back to the understanding of what man creates with his imagination, and dares with his will. It's visionary—it will come."