The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-04-27

There is nothing cloistral about the
University Of Chicago except Its
architecture. AS she went out Rose
felt that the presence of fat abbot
or a lady prloress in the corridor
outside the recitation-room would have
fitted In admirably with the look OF
the warm gray walls and the carven
pointed arches Of the window and
door easements, the blackened oak OF
the doors themselves.
She wasn't fully conscious Of 1t on
this March morning, but something
had happened that made a difference.
If she'd been ascending an impercep-
tible gradient for the past months,
today she had come to recognizable
step up and taken 1t. Oddly enough,
the thing had happened back there in
the classroom as she stood before the
professors desk and caught his eye
wavering between herself and the
scrawny girl who wanted to ask a
question about Robespierre. There
had been more than blank, helpless
evaporation in that look of his, and
1t had taught her something. She
| couldn't have explained what.
She went swinging along alone, her
shoulders back, confronting the warm
March wind, drawing long breaths into
her good deep chest. She had just
had, psychlcally speaking, a birthday.
She played a wonderful game Of
basketball that afternoon, and it was
after five o'clock when, at the con-
clusion of the game and cold shower,
rub, and a somewhat casual re-
sumption of her clothes, she emerged
from the gymnasium. High time that
she took the quickest way of getting
home, unless she wanted to be late for
dinner.
But the exhilaration of the day per-
sisted. She felt like doing something
out of the regular routine. Even a
preliminary walk of a mile or so before
she should cross over and take the
elevated, would serve to satisfy her
mild hunger for adventure.
So, with her notebooks under her
arm and her sweater-jaczet unfasten-
ed, at a good four-mile swing she
started north. In the purlieus Of the
university she was frequently hailed
by friends Of her own sex or the other.
But though she waved cheerful re-
sponses to their greetings, she made
her stride purposeful enough to dis
courage offers of company. They all
seemed young to her today. All her
student activities seemed young. AS
if, somehow, she had outgrown them.
The feeling was none the less real
after she had laughed at herself for
entertaining it.
She noticed presently that it was a
good deal darker than it had any
right to be at this hour, and the sudden
fall of the breeze and a persistent
simmer of lightning supplied her with
the explanation. When she reached
Forty-seventh street, the break Of the
storm was obviously a matter Of
minutes, so she decided to ride across
to the elevated-it was another mile,
perhaps-rather than to walk across
as she had meant to do.
She found quite group Of people
waiting on the corner for a car, and
the car itself, when it came along,
was crowded. So she handed her
nickel to the conductor over some
body's shoulders, and moved back to
the corner of the vestibule, which
did very well until the next stop,
where half dozen more prospective
passengers were waiting. They were
in hurry, too, since it had begun in
very downright fashion to rain.
The conductor had been chanting,
"Up in the car, please p in q per-