"Ah, Stover, all through?" said The Roman, as though the House had not just been blown asunder. "Hand in your paper."
Stover stiffly arose and handed him the foolscap. The Roman took it with a frowning little glance. At the top was written in big, defiant letters: "John H. Stover."
Below there was nothing at all.
Stover stood, swaying from heel to heel, watching The Roman.
"What the deuce is he looking at?" he thought in wonder, as The Roman sat silently staring at the blank sheet.
Finally he turned over the page, as though carefully perusing it, poised a pencil, and said in a low voice, without glancing up:
"Well, John, I think this will just about pass."
XXVI
The football season had ended victoriously. The next week brought the captaincy for the following year to Stover by unanimous approval. But the outlook for the next season was of the weakest; only four men would remain. The charge that he would have to lead would be a desperate one. This sense of responsibility was, perhaps, more acute in Stover than even the pleasure-giving sense of the attendant admiration of the school whenever he appeared among them.
Other thoughts, too, were working within him. Ever since the extraordinary outcome of his examination at the hands of The Roman Stover had been in a ferment of confusion. The Roman's action amazed, then perplexed, then doubly confounded him.