“I agree with you, sir,—now; but for a long time I wanted to let things take their course. It has been good for Deering. It has deepened his easy-going pleasant nature; or rather it has served to bring out the deep things that are in his nature.” “Yes, yes—that was right, I dare say. But that you have told me now makes my course perfectly clear. I am glad you have done so.” Chapin was shortly summoned to the Rectory. He had a brief and uncomfortable interview with Doctor Forester, and an hour later he boarded a train bound for Coventry, and was heard of at Deal School no more. Marsh and Thorndyke and one or two others were suspended for the rest of the term, and after this house-cleaning the school settled down to its normal life. One afternoon not long after these events Doctor Forester paused on the terrace of the Old School and looked over the playing-fields. The snows had melted, the frost was out of the ground, it was one of the first warm days of the Spring shortly before the Easter vacation, and the boys were playing ball for the first time, rushing the season as they commonly do. Doctor Forester liked baseball, for it gave him less anxiety than some other games. Morris had joined him as he stood on the terrace in the pleasant sunlight. Morris was an Old Boy, and the Head had a special feeling for him that for the most part he carefully concealed. He welcomed him now with a sympathetic nod. Just below them a rod or so away Jimmie Lawrence and Tony Deering were passing ball. “Good to see the baseball starting, eh? Who are those two boys just below us? Deering and Lawrence? I am getting blind, I fancy. I wish Deering were as good a baseball player as he is a good football player. Oh, yes, I know you like the other game. Look, how quick he is! I like that. By the by, I have thought often of what you told me of his keeping his mouth shut about Chapin’s trick in the Boxford game. It was like a Deering. His grandfather was just such a chivalrous fool—such a good Christian, Morris! I like a boy like that here. He will do something. I wonder what?” “Who knows, sir? We can count on him, I feel sure of that.” “And that is much. One muses of these boys now and then—what the future has for them. Yes—you do, I know. I envy you sometimes knowing them as you can and do. How much one wants to do for them, eh? That Deering, now—we must watch him. He will be worth while.” “Yes, I think so. We shall see, sir, just how.” “Yes, we shall see.” And still musing, the Doctor turned away. Morris stayed on for a long time watching the boys on the playing-fields. The Head Master had turned as he was about to enter the Old School and glanced again at his younger colleague, and a smile of quiet affection and satisfaction stole over his keen kindly face. CHAPTER X FINCH