The Mayor of Warwick

An ambitious young professor arrives at St. George's Hall, a small college above the New England city of Warwick, and immediately begins weighing its prospects against his own. The handsome Gothic buildings suggest English academic traditions, while their unfinished plan raises questions about the institution's future. A meeting beneath the maples brings a young woman into his first impressions of the place, joining personal attraction to professional calculation.

Herbert M. Hopkins sets this novel among college ambitions, civic status and relationships shaped by differences in rank. In a later winter scene, Mayor Emmet takes Lena, a servant in the bishop's household, on a sleigh ride toward Hillside. Their closeness is shadowed by his marriage and her unease about the impression her family might make. Detailed landscapes and the characters' private calculations give readers a study of how pride, affection and social standing complicate one another.