"He asked where you were going, not how you were," Mrs. Schwartz said. "If you were sick, you wouldn't be here."

As Wellington sat down to wait, what he presumed was Eugenie's little sister descended upon him. She stepped on his white buck shoes, untied his bow tie, mussed his hair, poked her fist in his eye, and jumped in his lap. "Get off me, kid, you shed," Wellington hissed.

The lump across the room protectively growled. "Grump."

"Oh for God's sake," Wellington said, to no one in particular.

At the party, Annie pushed him toward the mob of people and shrieked, "Look, gang. It's a Hahvuhd man." Trying to pull it off, Wellington affected a graceful bow, but he received only blank stares from the assemblage. Wellington began to feel uneasy, and looked around the room for Eugenie. She was talking animatedly to two large male specimens who seemed to keep their eyes fixed on the region between her chin and waist.

"Wellington, this is George and Steve," Eugenie said. The two hulks regarded him emptily, and Wellington realized he could not possibly begin a discussion that would lead anywhere. He heard music in the background, and in desperation he said, "Would you like to dance--Eugenie, I mean?"

On the floor, Wellington had trouble keeping time to the jerky rhythms, but he found that holding Eugenie could be quite pleasant indeed. And, he told himself as he ruminated in his Thayer Hall room, that's what I did most of the rest of the vacation, in one posture or another.

He wrote, "Dear Eugenie, I'm sorry I haven't written in so long, but I've been awfully busy with finals and everything. But don't think I've forgotten you. I may have a bad memory, but it's not that bad.

"I was telling my roommates about you the other night, but they didn't believe me. Could you send me a picture of yourself? Do you have one from the waist up?

"I still can't forget the good times we had last vacation. Especially at night, it all comes back to me. I remember the night before Christmas your mother confused me with some other guy. I understand now why you are so popular.

Kennedy was here last week."

Wellington was going to sign it, "Love," but he demurred, thinking, perhaps that too will come with time. Feeling tired and vaguely dissatisfied, he went to bed.