She assured Mr Cobb that ‘although quiet and very dignified he is a most friendly boy, of sweet nature, and every inch a gentleman, withal very modest and unassuming, yet very self-reliant too’.97 Dutifully, signing himself ‘Thomas S. Eliot’, her son transcribed a list of the recent courses he had taken and the books he had studied.98 Some of these, such as The Principles of Rhetoric by Adam Sherman Hill, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard College, were also on the Milton curriculum. Emphasising ‘clearness’, ‘force’ and ‘ease’ in expression, Hill, though no ‘Anglomaniac’, was aware of charges of American ‘provincialism’. His book is full of quotations from great writers, illustrating stylistic merits, and sometimes demerits. ‘Browning at his best’, for instance, is presented as ‘a master of the suggestive style’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ as a model of concision. Reading such books in the wake of Curd’s New Method of English Analysis, Tom grew even more used to absorbing literature through illustrative snippets. Years later, the use of resonant quotations became part of his allusive compositional technique, but in the short term he was taught not just how to write but also that Harvard academics including ‘Professor L. B. R. Briggs’, ‘Professor G. L. Kittredge’, ‘Dr Royce’ and ‘President Eliot’ were themselves authorities on writing.99 Schools like Milton Academy were designed to get boys accustomed to sharing Harvard assumptions. Soon Tom would encounter these professors for himself.

For a while it seemed touch and go whether he would proceed to Milton or head straight to Harvard. His parents had gone so far as to rent rooms for him ‘in a private house on Mt Auburn Street’ in Cambridge, a well-appointed location very handy for Harvard Yard, and favoured by some of the most prosperous students.100 In August 1905, however, Lottie Eliot made arrangements to visit Milton with Tom, and it was fixed that he would be admitted as a boarding pupil in the Upper School. He was to reside in Forbes House, a substantial brick building whose supervising matron was Mrs Margaret Gardner Chase. Mrs Eliot was concerned that, even in such a small matter as the way Tom stowed his belongings in his room, he should perpetrate no ‘infringement of rules to which Mrs Chase would object’. Anxious that he should not be expected to participate in ‘strenuous sports’ because of his ‘physical limitations’, his mother asked to be informed by telegraph ‘Should Tom ever be ill’. Consulting her son-in-law Alfred Sheffield (familiar with modern Harvard), she felt on the whole that Tom should not repeat subjects at Milton at which he had excelled at St Louis. This is why, among other things, he applied himself to Physics during this final schooling. Tom’s Physics notebook, signed by the Milton Physics teacher, Homer W. Lesourd, still survives at the school, but all his other records are lost, so we cannot be certain what else he studied. It is likely, however, that he was well taught. Lesourd had Harvard connections and would soon publish his Principles and Formulas of Elementary Physics. Milton Academy prided itself on its standards and attracted the children of ambitious, often rich parents eager for their sons to enter Harvard. Tom’s brother was sure Milton friendships would benefit Tom.

Arguably, the social connections he made at Milton mattered more to Tom than the Physics or other subjects he learned there. A fellow Forbes House pupil was Scofield Thayer, scion of a wealthy Massachusetts family. This young New Englander had been schooled in his home town of Worcester, but entered Forbes House in 1905. Like Tom he was good at Latin and had literary interests. Though Thayer did not reach Harvard until later, their paths would cross afterwards in decisive ways. Another Forbes House boy was the overweight Howard Morris, whose nickname ‘Fat’ may date from his schooldays.101 Both aiming for Harvard, Tom and Morris got on well enough to share accommodation there.