CHAPTER XV
MISS LOU EMANCIPATED
Nature had endowed Scoville with a quick, active mind, and
circumstances had developed its power and capacity to a degree
scarcely warranted by his age. Orphaned early in life, compelled to
hold his own among comparative strangers since childhood, he had
gained a worldly wisdom and self-reliance which he could not have
acquired in a sheltered home. He had learned to look at facts and
people squarely, to estimate values and character promptly, and then
to decide upon his own action unhesitatingly. Although never
regarded as the model good boy at the boarding-schools wherein he
had spent most of his life, he had been a general favorite with both
teachers and scholars. A certain frankness in mischief and buoyancy
of spirit had carried him through all difficulties, while his apt
mind and retentive memory always kept him near to the head of his
classes. The quality of alertness was one of his characteristics. In
schools and at the university he quickly mastered their small
politics and prevailing tendencies, and he often amused his fellow-
pupils with free-handed yet fairly truthful sketches of their
instructors.
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