It was A. Z. Panoukian.
He said:
“Well, sir——”
They sat down together. Panoukian bore the old expression which had always overcast his face when there were discoverable laches in his conduct, and Old Mole felt himself groping for the mood of jocular severity with which he had been wont to meet that expression.
“Well, sir, I never thought——”
Old Mole found the formula:
“Panoukian, what have you been up to?”
“Well, sir, I’m jolly glad to have met you, because I didn’t know what you might have heard.”
“Pray, Panoukian, forget that I was ever your schoolmaster. I am no longer an academic person, though there are distressing traces of my old profession in my outlook.”
Panoukian had heard the story, and a grin spread across his face. That made things easier. He plumped out a full confession and personal history.