CHAPTER IV 
     
    
   
   
    
     A TEA TABLE CONVERSATION 
     
    
   
   
    
     HE Williamson place, where Eric 
     
     boarded, was on the crest of the 
     
     succeeding bill. He liked it as 
     
    

    
     well as Larry West had prophesied that 
     
     he would. The Williamsons, as well as 
     
     the rest of the Lindsay people, took it for 
     
     granted that he was a poor college student 
     
     working his way through as Larry West 
     
     had been doing. Eric did not disturb this 
     
     belief, although he said nothing to con- 
     
     tribute to it. 
     
    

    
     The Williamsons were at tea in the 
     
     kitchen when Eric went in. Mrs. Wil- 
     
     liamson was the “ saint in spectacles and 
     
     calico ” which Larry West had termed 
     
     her. Eric liked her greatly. She was a 
     
     slight, gray-haired woman, with a thin, 
     
     sweet, high-bred face, deeply lined with 
     
    

    
     41