If ever a father-heart beat in a bachelor's breast, Lloyd Fenneben had such a heart.
“I want to settle about Thanksgiving Day,” Vic said. “I had a moral right to play on the team in that game, but I had to get the legal right by force. Professor Burgess refused to permit me to play until I MADE him do it.”
Fenneben's eyes were smiling. “Why didn't you knock him down and fight it out with him?”
“Because he's not in my class. When I fight I fight men. And, besides, I was in a hurry. If I'm expected to apologize to Professor Burgess or be expelled, I want to know it,” Vic added, hotly.
He knew he would not apologize, and he wanted the sentence of expulsion to come quickly if it must come.
“We never expel boys from Sunrise. They have done it themselves sometimes. Nor do we ever exact an apology. They offer it themselves sometimes. In either case, the choice lies with the boy.”
“What do you do with a fellow like me?” Vic looked curiously at the Dean.
“If a boy of your build wants to meet only men when he fights, we take it he is something of a man himself, and therefore worth too much for Sunrise to lose.”
Oh! blessed power of the college man to lead the half-tamed boy into the stronger places of life; nor shove him to the dangerous ground where his feet must sink in the quicksand or the mire!
Vic sat looking thoughtfully at the man before him.