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No hint came from him. Not long afterward, I was summoned to the office of the Dean of Women. When I entered, she said, "Miss Wright, you have not answered the invitation to join Phi Beta Kappa. Do I take it that you do not intend to accept?"

Convered with confusion, and unable to explain why I had not replied, I could only apologize and quickly find a flimsy excuse. Of course I wanted the treasured key.

Then, after the first blush of pride, there came a second thought: Now, certainly, I would be considered a long-hair and a wall flower. It is a truism to say that an intelligent woman seems to frighten off many men, or at least make them uneasy. Not that possessing a Phi Beta Kappa key necessarily signifies intelligence; I simply had a faculty for sopping up classroom lectures like a sponge and retaining the information long enough to pass the next examination-- after which, for the most part, I forgot it and went on to other matters. At the initiation, therefore, I was delighted