“I’ll explain to him about you and Monroe,” said David.
“I wrote home about the stunts we were going to do, and father thought it was great. He’ll be awfully disappointed if I tell him I couldn’t take part because of being on probation.”
So David went on his mission of intercession. He pleaded Wallace’s cause as well as he could, but Mr. Dean remained unmoved.
“The boy has been loafing, and now he has to pay the penalty,” declared Mr. Dean. “And when he urges that it’s hard on Monroe, the only answer is that in most cases the innocent are involved with the guilty.”
“But if he really wrote an examination good enough to pass him, it seems hardly fair—”
“Do you think, David, that I am choosing to be unfair to Wallace?”
“No, I shouldn’t have said that; but Lester thinks that you’re being unfair to him.”
“He’s not willing to abide by consequences. It’s not a case for leniency, David.”
David delivered the message and received nothing but reproaches.