Chapter XIA few weeks into the fall semester of 1932, John Smith realized that he had been unsuccessful in his fight to keep Colin Stander out of the English graduate program. After summer vacation, Stander returned to campus as if he were entering an arena in triumph; and when he saw Smith in the corridors of Jesse Hall, he bowed his head in an ironic bow and grinned wickedly at him. Smith learned from Jim Holland that Dean Rutherford had delayed last year's official vote and that it had finally been decided that Stander would be allowed to sit his preliminary orals again, with his examiners to be chosen by the department chair.
The battle was then over, and Smith was ready to concede defeat; but the fight did not end. When Smith met Loomis in the corridors or at a department meeting or
