"I don't quite know how to answer that, Mr. Denton,"
"Have you done anything that you wouldn't repeat if the need arose?"
"I have not, sir," replied Dick with great earnestness.
"Do you feel, in your own soul, that you have done anything to discredit the splendid old gray uniform that you wear?"
"I do not, sir."
"Answer this, or not, as you please. Don't you feel wholly convinced that your class has done you an injustice which it would reverse instantly if it knew all the circumstances?"
"I feel certain that my classmates would restore me at once to their favor, if they knew the full circumstances."
"Have you felt obliged to refuse them any information for which a class committee had asked, Prescott?"
"Yes, sir."
"Let me do some hard thinking, my lad. Ah, now, as I look back to the night when you were obliged to report Mr. Jordan for being outside the guard lines, I had myself that night assigned you to official duty near the guard lines. You were to intercept plebes who might try to run the guard, and to send them back to their tents."