“I am very glad you are cleared,” he said. “You have behaved nobly.”
Arthur winced. He did not like to take the faintest meed of praise that was not strictly his due. The dean might have thought he deserved less, did he know that he had been only screening Hamish; but Arthur could not avow that tale in public. He glanced at the dean with a frank smile.
“You see now, sir, that I only spoke the truth when I assured you of my innocence.”
“I do see it,” said the dean. “I believed you then.” And once more shaking Arthur’s hand, he turned into the cloisters with Dr. Gardner.
“I have already offered my congratulations,” said the canon, good humouredly, nodding to Arthur. This was correct. He had waylaid Arthur as he went into college.
Arthur suffered them to go on a few steps, and then descended to the cloisters. Old Ketch was shuffling along.
“What’s this I’ve been a hearing, about that there drownded boy having come back?” asked he of Arthur, in his usual ungracious fashion.
“I don’t know what you may have heard, Ketch. He has come back.”
“And he ain’t dead nor drownded?”
“Neither one nor the other. He is alive and well.”