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•——— Recto Runninhead ———• 287 ———— Chapter Twenty-Five ———— Poor Boys Who Have Become Rich p The next morning, Cora lay in bed late, sleeping off the combined effects of her late-night wakefulness and the previous evening’s debauch of eating and dancing. A music student named Irene Hinnes woke her with several sharp raps on the door and handed her a tartly worded note from Miss Chapin. Cora was being summoned to the music room “at once.” A sour feeling in the pit of her stomach reminded her of the many withering lectures she had endured from her piano instructor over the past year and a half. She added in pencil on the back of the note: “The fiend awfully unwell, Miss Hims, too much last night.” Cora threw on some barely buttoned clothes and made her appearance in the music building . Cracking open the door of Miss Chapin’s teaching studio as cautiously as she could, she was astonished to find her instructor in a mild mood. There was to be no chewing out after all. In fact, it was the opposite. Miss Chapin quietly told her that Professor Ritter had been so impressed by her virtuoso performance at the Soirée Musicale two weeks before that he had just agreed to choose Cora to perform her Liszt piece [ 287 ] Cyrus Judson’s grandfather, Cyrus W. Field (at right, with long hair), wields a sword labeled “Elevated railroad grabber” on the June 1884 cover of America’s most popular humor magazine . Courtesy of the Library of Congress. 288 •——— verso runninghead ———• as the final number at the graduation recital. The final number was an honor reserved for the best student in the School of Music. Cora’s jaw must have hit the floor when she heard this news. She thought back to the dark days of late April the year before, when Miss Chapin had been so “thoroughly disgusted” with her horrible scales and the new piece for the concert that Cora had broken down in tears in her lesson. Me? The Careless Practicer? The Vile Player? I’m playing after Georgina Hayman? She grew even more amazed as Miss Chapin praised her courage for handling her stage fright. Not only had Cora played her piece with no mistakes, she had played with a relaxed body, with great beauty of expression, and entirely free from the stiffness and keyboard mannerisms that had plagued her playing in the past.1 In short, her performance of the Allegro and Presto in the Weber piano quartet had been both professional and artistically mature—it was superb. Cora left Miss Chapin’s music studio in a rush to share this news with Minnie and Lydia, her joy charged with a frightening shot of adrenaline as she thought about the moment when she would have to step out onstage again in front of all those faces. Her parents would be there. The audience would include students, faculty, trustees, parents, and the general public—and a reporter for the New York Times. Later in the morning, Cora inked an update to herself on the back of the summons, “9:15 a.m. all peace oh! joy.” All her hard work finally meant something—she would now be known at college for being a wonderful musician, not for being notorious. b That evening, Cora welcomed her birthday guests to the public parlors of Vassar’s Main Building. Five young men were announced and shown upstairs: W. P. Caire, C. M. Eastmeade, Wendell Booth, Harry Reynolds, and Cyrus F. Judson. Two of the regular gang, Mr. Sutton and Mr. Hasbrouck, were not invited; Cora and her friends could not expect to have seven men come to college, as they were supposed to have only one visitor each. They were already one over the limit as it was. Harry, a junior in Yale’s class of ’87, and Cyrus, a year behind him in the class of ’88, were playing hooky from school—they had no vacation at this time.2 They decided to blow off several days of classes fewer •——— chapter twenty-five ———• •——— Recto Runninhead ———• 289 than three weeks before their final exams to travel several hours from New Haven by train. Cora was flattered and delighted. Unlike Harry, who was short and stout, Cyrus Field Judson was almost six feet tall and extremely thin. He had bright red hair and lived in his grandfather’s mansion at 123 East Twenty-first Street in New York on Gramercy Park...

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