"Have you, all this time, really been standing by me, yanking me out of all the messes I got in?"
"Well, that expresses it, perhaps."
"Then I've been way off," said Stover solemnly. "Why, sir, all this time I thought you were down on me, had it in for me, right from the first."
"From our first meeting?" said The Roman, with a little chuckle. "Perhaps, John, you didn't give me credit—shall I say, for a sense of humor?"
"Yes, sir." Stover looked a moment at his polished boot and then resolutely at The Roman. "Mr. Hopkins, I've been all wrong. I've been unfair, sir; I want to apologize to you."
"Thank you," said The Roman, and then because they were Anglo-Saxons they shook hands and instantly dropped them.
"Mr. Hopkins," said Stover after a moment, "I must have given you some pretty hard times?"
"You were always full of energy, John."
"I don't see what made you stand by me, sir."
"John," said The Roman, leaning back and caging his fingers, "it is a truth which it is, perhaps, unwise to publish abroad, and I shall have to swear you to the secret. It is the boy whose energy must explode periodically and often disastrously, it is the boy who gives us the most trouble, who wears down our patience and tries our souls, who is really the most worth while."