28
THE ANCIENT GRUDGE
He collected his note-books, knocking to the floor a tablet that he did not stoop to pick up, and left the room singing cheerfully.
Floyd tried to overthrow his own instinctive conviction that in Jim Hobart Stewart had recognized his kindred spirit and companion. Failing in this, he tried to suppress or at least dismiss from mind a smarting little jealousy of Jim. As the days passed, that became the task to which he schooled himself; he could not escape from a hurt, surprised feeling that an important element in college life which he had taken for granted was denied him. The paths of the two room-mates had already diverged; they drew no nearer together as the year passed.
