He liked knowing that Gothic architecture, with its upward trend, was peculiarly appropriate to universities, and the idea became personal to him.

The silent stretches of green, the quiet halls with an occasional late-burning scholastic light held his imagination in a strong grasp, and the chastity of the spire became a symbol of this perception.
"Damn it all," he whispered aloud, wetting his hands in the damp and running them through his hair.

"Next year I work!" Yet he knew that where now the spirit of spires and towers made him dreamily acquiescent, it would then overawe him.

Where now he realized only his own inconsequence, effort would make him aware of his own impotency and insufficiency.
The college dreamed on--awake.

He felt a nervous excitement that might have been the very throb of its slow heart.