“Huby insulted him.”
“Henshaw’s always insulting him,” broke in Monroe. “At the table he’s always saying nasty things. Ives couldn’t stand it any longer, Mr. Dean.”
“What was the remark that provoked the blow?”
Wallace repeated it as he remembered it; Monroe’s version was essentially the same.
“I am glad to have your evidence,” said Mr. Dean. “However, there is no question that Ives infringed the rules, and for that he will have to be punished.”
“It isn’t fair!” protested Monroe.
“Possibly not. Sometimes it is necessary to be unfair in the interests of discipline. At any rate, you both may feel that you have done Ives and me a service by telling me the facts in the case.”
Wallace and Monroe alike wondered what the service had been when after chapel they heard David’s name read out on the list of moral delinquents for the day: “Ives, disorder in dormitory, one sheet.” That meant an hour of work that afternoon on Latin lines.
David, hearing it, flushed with mortification. So Mr. Dean had chosen to judge him harshly. It was natural enough; so far as Mr. Dean had been aware, there were no mitigating circumstances.