Page:Lefty o' the Bush.djvu/100

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"That's right," he agreed, "and he can't always pick a gentleman, or a man of his own class, for an antagonist."

She looked at him quickly. "Do you think Tom Locke is a gentleman?"

"Oh, I don't know about that; it's doubtful, considering the company he's with."

"Do gentlemen never play baseball?"

"Certainly—in college games."

"But they never play professionally?"

"I wouldn't say that, you know," was his slow answer. "Some college men go in for professional baseball after graduating. Almost always, they need the money to give them a start in some chosen profession or business. But not all college players are gentlemen, by any means; far from it. At Harvard, even though baseball and football players and members of the track team were decidedly popular in a general way, there were none of them in my set, and I didn't see fit to associate with them much."

Even as he said it, he flushed a bit, knowing she, like many others in Kingsbridge, must be fully aware of the fact that his exasperated father had removed him from Harvard in his sophomore year to avoid the disgrace of his suspension, or possible expulsion, because of certain wild esca-