“Any man who will contemplate getting wet to prevent Bertrand Defarge from committing suicide is a chump,” Ready gravely declared.
Mason was angry, but he saw something in the face of the queer sophomore that prevented him from losing control of his temper.
“But, sah,” said the youth from South Carolina, “you do not know how much he counted on an election which did not come to him. I know all about it, for I was with him tap day. The hand that fell on my back was the hand he thought must tap him.”
“Which shows that he got just what was due him, my dear Mason. It’s not your place to worry over him in the least, and I think you have been wasting your valuable time chasing him about. Time, you know, is a precious jewel, and the man who wastes it when he can sleep or loaf makes an awful mistake. Come, Hocksie, let’s perambulate toward our boudoirs and prepare for chapel. Forget it, my boy. Let Defarge take care of himself.”
So Jack dragged Mason away, and they left Defarge standing there alone in the gray light of morning.
It had, in truth, been a wild night for Bertrand, but now the intense longing for absinth had passed from him, a grateful quietness had come upon him, and something seemed to tell him that never again would he be tempted to drink the stuff that was dragging him to destruction.
He went back to his room, but not to sleep, for Skelding soon followed him. Several times that night Gene had visited the room of Defarge, only to find the fellow out, and it was his fear that the influence of Merriwell had failed, in which case Bertrand might return a raving maniac. He was relieved when he found Defarge sitting there by the window in the morning light, quiet and calm, and unexcited.
Of course, Defarge was astonished when Gene appeared at that hour. Skelding told him how it happened that he was there.
“Well, I have had a bad night of it,” confessed Bertrand. “I was seized by a mad desire for that stuff last night, but the strange thing was that I could not drink it, no matter how hard I tried.”
Gene nodded, smiling.