The Professors House
seen his colleague in such an unbecoming light before.
Crane was narrow, but he was straight; a man you
could count on in the shifty game of college politics.
He had never been out to get anything for himself.
St. Peter would have said that nothing about the
vulgar success of Outland’s idea could possibly
matter to Crane, beyond gratifying his pride as a
teacher and friend.
The park was deserted. The arc-lights were turned off. The leafless trees stood quite motionless in the light of the clear stars. The world was sad to St. Peter as he looked about him; the lake-shore country flat and heavy, Hamilton small and tight and airless. The university, his new house, his old house, everything around him, seemed insupportable, as the boat on which he is imprisoned seems to a sea-sick man. Yes, it was possible that the little world, on its voyage among all the stars, might become like that: a boat on which one could travel no longer, from which one could no longer look up and confront those bright rings of revolution.
He brought himself back with a jerk. Ah, yes, Crane; that was the trouble. If Outland were here to-night, he might say with Mark Anthony, My fortunes have corrupted honest men.
—150—
