"Mr. Lowington hates me now, after what I have done."
"O, far from it!" exclaimed the chaplain. "It will be a greater satisfaction to him than to you to forgive you. You are no longer of the opinion that you were unfairly used in the distribution of the offices, I suppose."
"Mr. Agneau, I was beside myself when I resisted the principal. I should not have done it if I had been in my right mind."
"You were very angry."
"I was—I was not myself."
"Anger often makes men crazy."
"You don't understand me, Mr. Agneau."
"Indeed, I do. You mean that you deluded yourself into the belief that you had been wronged, and that you ought not to obey the orders of your officers, and of the principal. The force that was used made you so angry that you did not know what you were about," added the sympathizing chaplain.
"In one word, Mr. Agneau, I had been drinking," said Shuffles, with something like desperation in his manner, as he bent his head, and covered his face with his hands.
"Drinking!" gasped the chaplain, filled with horror at the confession.