"I am truly sorry, Norris," the head-master said, as he entered, "for the injustice I did you; truly and heartily sorry. The affair caused me intense pain at the time; it has been on my mind ever since. Over and over again something has told me that you were innocent; and yet, thinking the case over again, my reason has always convinced me for the time of your guilt, for I could see no other possible solution of the mystery. I am glad indeed to find that I was mistaken, and that you were a victim of a piece of what I can only term villainy. The affair will be a lesson to me for my life, and henceforth I will never allow appearances, however apparently conclusive, to weigh against a uniformly excellent character. I trust that you will forgive my terrible error." "I don't see that you could have acted otherwise, sir," Frank said, "for even at the time, although I knew that I was innocent, I perceived that the proofs against me were so overwhelmingly strong that my guilt must appear a certainty to every one. I am happy indeed that I am cleared at last; and, after all, it has done me no harm. I have, of course, lost the University education which I looked forward to; but I think, after all, that the three years I have spent in America have in many ways done me more good than the University could have done." "Very likely, Norris," the doctor said; "they have in every sense of the word made a man of you, and a very fine man too, and I sincerely trust that no further cloud will ever fall upon your career. And now I want you to come up School with me, for I must publicly make amends for my error, and set you right before the School." As Frank followed Dr. Litter into the great schoolroom he felt infinitely more nervous than he had done in any of the dangers he had passed through in his journey across the plains. When the head-master was seen to enter the School accompanied by a gentleman, a silence of surprise fell upon the boys, for such an event was altogether unprecedented there. As in the stranger, who stood nearly as tall and far broader than the doctor, many of the boys in the upper forms recognised Frank Norris, a buzz ran round the School, followed again by the silence of excited expectation. Dr. Litter walked to his table at the further end of the School and then turned. "You will all stand up," he said. "Boys," he went on, "all of you in the Fifth Form, and those above it, and some of you in the under forms, will recognise in the gentleman who stands beside me your former schoolfellow Norris; those who do will be aware of the circumstances under which he left, and will be aware that I charged him with stealing a note of the value of ten pounds from my desk. I am happy to say that it has been proved that charge was entirely false."