"And so I'm going home." The girl twisted her hands nervously and there was a choke in her voice as she concluded. The young instructor did not remonstrate; it was one of the few reasonable statements the impossible student had uttered, and she was a very honest young instructor.
"Who advised you to come?" she asked, in a voice which was meant to be sympathetic, but which was in reality very fierce; for the young instructor had been touched by the story of the hopelessly stolid student and was filled with an unreasoning anger toward someone. "Who advised you to come?" she repeated.
The girl traced patterns on the desk top and answered wearily, "The principal and the high-school teachers at home. You see, no girl had ever gone to college from our town, and they knew father would send me."
"But they must have known you could n't do the work. Did you have trouble in high school?"
The girl nodded. "I did n't get on very well in Latin or mathematics, but I did n't mind the other things, and I wanted to come. I read lots of books about college and the girls always had such good times. I - I wanted to come."
"And last year you had so much trouble; why did you come back? Did you make many friends?" The young instructor's voice was softer now; visions of her own successful college career floated before her and she had a still fiercer desire to lay violent hands on those who had wrought this small tragedy.
The impossible student shook her head, and slow tears rose to her eyes. "No, I had n't any friends," her voice hardened a little; "I never had time to make them. When I first came the girls used to ask me to study with them, but I was too slow and never could help, and by and by they stopped asking me. I could n't do any of the other things they did either, except play basketball, and, of course, I had conditions, so I could n't do that; and then I never had time. Sometimes I thought I would n't come back again, but they say it's easier after freshman year, and I meant to start all over. There was a girl I wanted to know this year, so I went to the hall where she was and I thought we were going to be friends, but girls don't like stupid people, and, besides, I got two more conditions. I guess college is n't just what the books say it is and - I'm going home."