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society, a high honor.  First, while I felt certain that I had done satisfactory work in most of my classes, I did not consider it so high above the average.  Remember that I was primarily interested in the courses in art and the others, with notable exceptions, were little more than necessary evils.  And second, I had a friend named Seeley Mudd who took a dim view of me as a student.  He himself was a fine scholar and highly serious about the University.  Not knowing that I often studied into the wee hours, he thought I was nonchalant about my work and sometimes scolded me.  The handwriting on the note resembled his.  I concluded that this was his joking way of urging me to study harder.  It was hilarious and I was not about to give him the satisfaction of thinking I had fallen for the joke.

So I ignored ignored it. When I next saw Seeley, I did not mention the message. I expected him to ask a casual question about Phi Beta Kappa that would give him away.