Fraternities did not wish to number more than sixteen or eighteen
undergraduates. That meant only four or five to be chosen from each
Freshman class, and that number of "nice" girls was not hard to find,
girls who were not only well dressed, and lively and agreeable in
themselves, but who came from large, well-kept, well-furnished houses
on the right streets of La Chance; with presentable, card-playing,
call-paying, reception-giving mothers, who hired caterers for their
entertainments; and respectably absentee fathers with sizable
pocketbooks and a habit of cash liberality. The social standing of the
co-eds in State Universities was already precarious enough, without
running the risk of acquiring dubious social connections.
If Sylvia had been a boy, it is almost certain that the deficiencies
of her family would have been overlooked in consideration of her
potentialities in the athletic world. Success in athletics was to the
men's fraternities what social standing was to the girls'. It must be
remarked parenthetically that neither class of these organizations
had the slightest prejudice against high scholastic standing. On the
contrary it was regarded very kindly by fraternity members, as a
desirable though not indispensable addition to social standing and
physical prowess.
But Sylvia was not a boy, and her fine, promising game of tennis, her
excellence in the swimming-pool, and her success on the gymnasium
floor and on the flying rings, served no purpose but to bring to her
the admiration of the duffers among the girls, whom she despised,
and the unspoken envy of the fraternity girls, whose overtures at
superficial friendliness she constantly rebuffed with stern, wounded
pride.
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