By this time Gerald Eversley’s trouble had become known in the house, and a good many different opinions were expressed about it. Had the boys been perfectly acquainted with the facts, it is possible that they would have taken the same view of them as Mr. Brandiston. But as it was, starting with the general prepossession of boys in a schoolfellow’s favour as against a master, and looking upon the case as one of strong but not overwhelming probability, they were inclined to think that it was ‘hard luck upon Eversley’ to be sent on so grave a charge before the head master. Boys are not incapable of harbouring unfounded suspicions themselves, as Gerald Eversley’s experience in the matter of the Sunday boxing had shown; but they are unwilling that other people, especially masters, should harbour them. They strongly held, too, that a boy’s word ought always to be taken; and so it ought, if boys never told lies. In Gerald Eversley’s case, they argued that he was too clever to stand in need of unfair procedure in examinations. And, though he was not popular and had no intimate friend but one, they had formed the impression that he was a boy who would not cheat or lie. It was an impression only; but the impressions of boys, as of women, are worth more than their reasons, or rather they are reasons not yet spoiled by imperfect expression. Nevertheless, it was with an anxious, awful foreboding that Gerald Eversley looked forward to the ordeal of meeting the head master. He had not as yet come much into contact with Dr. Pearson. On two or three occasions he had received prizes, and with them a few kind, complimentary words from him. But for the most part, after the manner of boys, he regarded the head master as not a being of the same flesh and blood as himself and other boys. In the chapel--that one sacred meeting-ground where a head master can make himself known to all his pupils--he was wont to listen with solemn and attentive reverence to Dr. Pearson’s sermons. He hoped next term to get into Dr. Pearson’s own form, and so to come under his immediate notice. But he debated with a trembling heart how Dr. Pearson would deal with the charge of dishonesty laid before him by Mr. Brandiston. A brief interval occurred before he was summoned into Dr. Pearson’s presence.