“I am very glad you think that,” I said with a deep feeling of thankfulness for his words. “I feel that I was such an innocent ass.”
“There are some worse things than innocence,” he replied, then added very gravely, laying his hand on my knee, “My friend, I think that, as you would say yourself, you behaved very well.”
I have never received any praise, even in boyhood days when one longs for praise, that so filled my heart with gratitude as this.
“I am very proud that you can approve,” I said, and we left that subject by mutual consent.
We both sat thinking for a time, and then he said, “I can see no good reason why your brother should not serve the Government, if——”
“Thank God for that,” I broke in.
“Yes, I think we ought to thank God for it. At the same time, badly as he has acted—he has acted badly you know?”
“I know it. So does he.”
“I am glad he feels it. I was going to say,” he continued, “that we must not take it all too seriously. I think his is simply a case of delayed development.”
“I don’t know that I quite understand.”