“So I have thought all along; in fact I knew it,” said Henning, “but why on earth did you do such a thing? Do you not know how much I have suffered from this? And you must know how terribly hard this was to bear.”
“I know very well. Why did we do it? I, for one, was thoroughly envious of your popularity. I was angry, as a good many others were, at your refusal to play baseball or football. I did not, and to tell you the truth, do not like you, and I wanted to do something to vex you. Of course I see these things now in a different light after confession. You know I have been to confession, don't you.”
“I suspected as much. I am glad of that. So you started the cowardly rumor against my honesty all the time knowing I was innocent.”
Henning was determined to be diplomatic, so the question was not put as in anger, or with any apparent excitement or resentment, but rather as if he were helping the boy make a full confession by suggesting to him facts known to both.
“Yes, I acted this way knowing you to be innocent," answered Stockley.
“Did you realize that you might have ruined me for life?”
“To be honest, I never dreamed of such a result. It was done simply to annoy you, and for no other reason, on my part.”
“Did you suggest this to Garrett or he to you?" asked Roy.
“To do him justice, I must say that we, Smithers and I, suggested it to him. We had a hard job to bring him over, in fact he never did really come over. He would never let the letter be circulated.”