He felt in his pocket for a small bunch of keys, but could not find them.
“There! I have left my keys in my desk. Wait a moment, boys, and I'll be back,” and he started for the classroom.
“What a dastardly thing that attempt last night was,” said one of the company.
“I guess Roy knows who it was well enough," remarked Tom Shealey, “but cousin or no cousin, if he did such a thing to me, I would have to get a very satisfactory explanation, or by the nine gods he would pay dearly for it.”
“But Henning is too generous to take any further notice of it,” said a boy named White, “but I wonder whether Mr. Shalford will move in the matter at all.”
“Haven't the least idea,” said Shealey. “I do not see what he could do exactly. It seems to me it were better to let the matter drop, and I am sure that is Roy's wish too. Treat it with the silent contempt it deserves.”
Which speech shows that Shealey was not always consistent.
Ambrose agreed with him, although at the time he was furiously angry. As Joseph in the play he was close to Richelieu, and beneath the disguising grease-paint on Henning's face he saw the hot
flushes of passion rise, for a moment. Ambrose thought that Roy was going to address the interrupter, but he saw him check himself in time to save a scene that would indeed have been memorable.
“Go on, Roy,” Ambrose had whispered. “A great statesman, Joseph, that same Lysander.”