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AFTER many years of faithful service, the professor had become president of the university, taken him a somewhat scandalously younger wife, and died, leaving a string of pompous titles to the wind, and a flourishing widow over thirty to the world. The wife of the head of the physics department, who was usually well up on such things, had prophesied that the president's widow would soon quit the little town for ever, but contrary to expert opinion, she continued living in the same house, nay, even maintained her former connections with the university. The unexpressed consensis of opinion was that this woman was too charming to be beyond suspicion, but yet her scutcheon was radiant with blotlessness. Propriety had been observed with a rigidity that was perhaps even a bit dogmatic, as in the case of her dismissing the chauffeur. And besides, she was left with a little girl, which was even more reassuring.

After the fitting period of black, and another fitting period of subdued colours, she gradually drifted into a superbness of attire which was perhaps not quite so fitting, but was still within the code. For she never appeared again in smart clothes; in fact, even the most unfriendly had to admit that she was almost matronly. A big-busted woman, she carried herself with firm dignity, and talked with a Southern accent in a voice that was rich and deep, and might even indicate that she had once been an instructress in elocution.

Within two years after her husband's death, she hdd acquired a unique position in the life of the university. There were fussy young girls who, as the expression goes, just idolized her. She was the unfailing chaperon at all school functions, since she had succeeded in the difficult task of both entering in with the feelings of the students and yet making them remember that she was not one of them.