“And I shall not attempt to detain you. Good-morning, sir!”
The next moment Lee was gone, and the friendship that had grown close and sweet between these young men through two years of college life had become a shattered and pitiful wreck.
Charley went down the section stairs and out on the campus, dazed and shocked. It was the cruellest blow his life had ever known. He would never have dreamed that Parmenter could say such things to him, or he such things to Parmenter.
He passed on across the campus with such a burden of sorrow and anger on his mind that he took no note where his steps were tending. He looked up finally, and found himself in front of President Mather’s door. By some connection of ideas a new thought flashed into his mind. He stopped to consider it.
“Why not?” he asked himself; “why not? It is right; it is just; there is no reason why one should suffer and not both. I will do it, and do it now, while I have the strength, and then he cannot taunt me with going free while he suffers alone!”
Charley walked rapidly up the steps and across the hall, and knocked at the president’s door. He was bidden to enter. The members of the faculty were still in the room, discussing Parmenter’s case. They looked up at Lee in curiosity and surprise. He advanced toward the president and said:
“Doctor Mather, I desire to say that I took part in the hazing of Freshman Van Loan in April.”
The professors and tutors stared at him in open-eyed astonishment.
“You did, Mr. Lee?” said the president interrogatively.
“And whatever punishment,” continued Charley, “anyone else receives for that offense, I should receive the same.”