“Yes, but I would rather not say any more about it.”
“All right, Jack, I won’t urge you,” and the two went together into the main building and took their seats in the great schoolroom.
The boys had been at their tasks for some little time when the doctor sent in for Jack to come and see him in his study.
Jack left the room and was gone some little time, returning at length with the doctor who said:
“There is no blame attaching to this young gentleman for what has lately happened in the neighboring town and his rank is as high now as it ever was. I wish you to treat him with the same respect that you have always shown him and which he richly deserves.”
“H’m! that does not tell us very much,” muttered Harry to Arthur who sat next to him. “We always did like Jack but the mystery is no more clear than it was before.”
“I trust that there will be no repetition of the scene of this morning,” the doctor went on. “There may have been provocation on both sides but we will not allude further to this and the rest of you will forget it or at any rate not speak of it.”
“That is not so easy,” murmured Arthur to Harry. “It clears Jack in a way, at any rate, and that is enough for me.”
Jack went to his place and the doctor took his seat at his desk and matters went on as usual.
Herring gave Jack the blackest of black looks when next they met but Jack paid no more attention to this than if he had not seen it and Herring muttered something under his breath which Jack did not hear.