"You don't think that I stole it," faltered Ralph. It seemed so horrible that it unnerved him, and made him lose his firm resolution for the moment. It would be only for a little while: presently the old grit would come back, and he would be firm enough. But the greatest may flinch for the moment--recoiling from the horror of the accusation or suspicion--and others may put down their agitation to a wrong cause, think it the evidence of a guilty conscience, and condemn them untried. "You don't think that I stole it?" he faltered, as if pleading that Warren would not think so poorly as that of him. But the monitor replied gravely: "I don't think anything about it, Rexworth. I don't want to think, for if I did, I should think wrong, perhaps. I can only act on the thing as I know it. You lost your pocket-book, you said. You were in a terrible mess over the loss. You, yourself, said to me that you hoped no one would look inside it if they picked it up; and I, with my own eyes, saw this note fall out of it just now, the note I suppose Mr. Delermain lost, and which you declared that you had not seen. I must tell the Head. I only wish that it were not part of my work to have to do so." Then the old resolution came back. Ralph's self had not deserted him, and he spoke, quietly and calmly, so that all the dormitory could hear his troubled tones. "Thank you, Warren. I value your friendship, which makes doing your duty so hard a thing for you, and I quite understand that you cannot give me that friendship now, while this thing is over me. I know it looks very bad against me. I have some enemy here, and that enemy has been just a little too clever for me." Just as he spoke his eyes caught sight of Charlton, standing looking so white and scared, and the thought came: Had he done this? He seemed to avoid his gaze. Ralph paused only a moment, and then went on-- "There is one thing, however, that I can do to prove that I value your friendship, and that is take the task of speaking from you. If you choose to wait until after prayers, I will tell the Head myself, in open school, and you can all hear me do it." Warren hesitated for a moment. He hated to have to do the task, and if Ralph would tell himself, it would do just as well. "Very well," he said, "if you will do that, I have no objection; and, look here, you fellows," he added, turning to the others, "do, for mercy's sake, keep this to yourselves, all of you; or it will be all over the school, and it is not a nice thing to have connected with our Form. We may have been a bit wild, but we have never had a thing like this before, and I would have done anything rather than have had it now." He turned away as he spoke, and the others followed slowly, leaving Ralph there alone--alone with his pocket-book, and the note which had come from it.