Had he avoided the girls persistently and obviously, he might have interested them intensely, for nothing is more difficult for a woman to understand than a woman-hater; and from the days of mother Eve the unknown is rumored to have had for her sex a powerful fascination.

But he tried to win their friendship by humbleness and kindness, and so only made himself the more cheap in their eyes.

"Fatty Peter," as they jokingly called him, epitomized in two words their contempt of him.
Nor did things mend when he went to Harvard.

Neither his mother's abilities nor his choice were able to secure for him an _entree_ to the society which Cambridge and Boston dole out stintedly to certain privileged collegians.

Every Friday afternoon he went home, to return by an early train Monday morning.