III.
Princeton had a bad football season, so one sour Monday, Mr. Percy Wrackham asked Val to take himself off, together with the irritating sound of “Hot-cha-cha” which he frequently emitted. Val was somewhat proud of being fired; he had, so to speak, stuck it out to the end. That same month his mother died and he came into a little money.
The change that ensued was amazing; it was fundamental as well as ostensible. Penniless, he had played the young courtier; with twenty thousand in the bank he revived in himself the psychology of Ward McAllister. He abandoned the younger generation which had treated him so shabbily, and, using the connections he had made, blossomed out as a man of the world. His apprenticeship had been hard, but he had served it faithfully, and now he walked sure-foot
