37

Tuppy’s troubles reached their
climax in her senior year, when her
joie de vivre threatened to be seri-
ously affected, if she could not find a
sport which her interest would induce
her to pursue with the minimum of
inattention. She was still “required”,
when she signed up on the dotted line
for Sunbaths and Fencing. ‘The for-
mer Tuppy passed triumphantly, and
took heart of grace. In the latter, she
began well by purchasing the full
equipment, which she paraded in the
Library on lesson-evenings, vindicat-
ing to her friends the fashionable Mae
West bust. From her introductory les-
son, the romance of fencing captivated
Tuppy. “It is not a sport,’ said she,
“it is am art: life is short and art is



long, but if I can become good enough
to beat Herolzheimer in the Junior
Meet, that is all that matters. Tuppy
fortunately lost to Herolzheimer, and
continued to attend her lessons until
the last week of the year, when she
broke off an assaut with Monsieur
Fiems precipitantly, on discovering
her French unequal to the simple Eng-
lish sentiment: The tape of my tights
has burst.

On Garden Party afternoon, Miss
Petts remarked to Tuppy that her rec-
ords did not show that she had passed
the Freshman Swimming Test. Tuppy
promised faithfully to take it next day
at nine. On Commencement morning,
she remembered she had not gone
down to take her test, and a frantic
Tuppy fled to Yarrow to rout out Miss
Petts and drag her to the Gym. At
10.45, Ttuppy was endeavoring to stop
floating and sink for the second time.
At 10.55, Tuppy was being dressed by
the united efforts of Petts, Brady and
the woman in the basement. At
eleven, she slipped into the academic
procession as it entered Goodhart,
with a black cap crowning her lank,
streaming hair and the white dress
under her gown clinging damply to
her body. At precisely twelve o’clock,
Tuppy was being called to the plat-
form to receive the European Fellow-
ship. Her steps made a_ strange
squelching sound in the hushed audi-
torium. A gasping class observed her
pink legs rising out of rubber shoes, as
the black, decorous upper part of
Tuppy shook hands gravely with Miss
Park.



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