Page:The plastic age, (IA plasticage00mark).pdf/318

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
294
THE PLASTIC AGE

was fonder of her than he was of any girl that he had ever known but that he did n’t know whether he was in love with her or not. “I have learned to distrust my own emotions,” he wrote, “and m} own decisions. The more I think the more be¬ wildered I become. I am afraid to ask you tc marry me for fear that I ’ll wreck both our lives and I’m afraid not to ask you for the same reason Do you think that time will solve our problem; I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”

She replied that she was willing to wait just sc long as they continued to correspond; she said thal she could no longer bear not to hear from him. Sc they wrote to each other, and the tangle of theii relations became more hopelessly knotted. Cynthh never sent another letter so unguarded as her first but she made no pretense of hiding her love.

As Hugh sank deeper and deeper into the bog o; confusion and distress, his contempt for his col lege “education” increased. One night in May h expressed that contempt to a small group of seniors

“College is bunk,” said Hugh sternly, “pur bunk. They tell us that we learn to think. Rot I have n’t learned to think; a child can solve ; simple human problem as well as I can. Colleg has played hell with me. I came here four year ago a darned nice kid, if I do say so myself. I wa chock-full of ideals and illusions. Well, colleg has smashed most of those ideals and knocked th