He went back to his place in the crowd, feeling incredibly happy.
That evening Mr. Dean said to him as he passed him in the dining-room: “It’s all right, David—the matter about which we had our talk. I’m going to have an interview with Wallace to-night, and I hope that he will recognize at once the benefit he is to derive from the arrangement. You and he can have room number nine to yourselves between eleven and twelve each day.”
The thought of the trust placed in him, of the freedom implied, and of the closer association with Wallace was pleasant to David. He hoped that Wallace would not be unfavorably disposed toward the plan. On that point Wallace himself a couple of hours later reassured him. David was getting ready for bed when there was a knock on his door and Wallace entered.
“Mr. Dean tells me that you have me on your back, Dave,” he said. “Pretty hard luck: I don’t see what there is in it for you.”
“Never mind about that,” David answered. “I hope you are going to like the arrangement, Lester.”
“Oh, it’s fine for me. All I can say is, I’ll try not to be any more trouble to you than is necessary.”
In spite of that excellent resolution, in the succeeding weeks Wallace was a good deal of trouble to David. Not only was he naturally dull at Latin, so that even the simplest matters had to be explained over and over to him, but he was restless and impatient. David would get absorbed in his own work and would suddenly remember that he had a duty to Wallace to perform. And a glance would show him Wallace sprawling on a bench with his eyes fixed vaguely on the opposite wall, or fiddling with his pencil or twirling his key ring on his finger, or scribbling the dates of such coins as he found in his pockets. Then it would be David’s part to say: “Buck up, Lester. What’s the matter? Need some help?” Usually Wallace thought that he did, and it would take David five or ten minutes to get him started and prove to him that he really did not.
“You wouldn’t quit at football just because tackling was hard to learn,” David said. “You oughtn’t to be any more willing to quit at Latin or anything else that you have to try.”
“Why aren’t you out playing football, Dave?” Wallace seemed not at all interested in taking the moral to heart.