Stuart wasn’t sure that Mr. Haynes was in town. He might, for all he knew, have hurried off home by this time. If he had done so, Stuart would be a whole lot relieved. At least, that’s what he told himself, only to retract it a minute later. He had something to say to the coach, something that had to be said sooner or later, and it would be a heap better to say it now and get it off his chest!
Mr. Haynes answered the door himself when Stuart had rung, Mr. Haynes in a faded blue dressing gown and slippers, a section of a morning paper in his hand. He didn’t seem at all surprised to find Stuart on the threshold, a fact proved by his greeting. “Hello, Harven,” he said cordially. “Come in. Throw your coat over the chair there. Rather a wet day, isn’t it? I expected you’d be over.”
Stuart preceded his host into the dim study and took one of the two chairs drawn close to the long windows. The little park before the house was dismal and sodden to-day. Mr. Haynes plowed his way through a litter of papers and sank into the opposite chair rescuing his pipe from the ash tray and reaching for his pouch.
“The Courant has a pretty good story of the game,” he said as he filled the bowl. “Have you read it?” Stuart nodded. “Gives you a lot of credit, Harven, but no more than you deserve. The way you drove the team in the first quarter was as nice a thing as I ever saw. I dare say you’ve wondered why I didn’t put you back in the second half, Harven.”
“No, sir, I haven’t. You said it would be Wheaton.”
The coach nodded. “Yes, I said that, but after your showing—” He paused and lighted his pipe. “I’m going to be honest. You ought to have gone back, Harven. I believe now that if you had gone back we might have won. I made a mistake. You see, Wheaton had worked mighty hard, fairly sweated for us for weeks, and I thought he deserved his reward. It doesn’t do, though, if you’re a coach, to let sentiment get at you. I ought to have known better. Well, it’s too late now. Of course, we might not have won, even if you had been in, but I shall always be bothered by the possibility. We put up a good game, though, and in several ways showed up better than Pearsall. For one thing, we were in better condition. And we have more ground gained to our credit. On the whole, Harven, we haven’t any cause to be sore over that game. We faced a good team, a better team than I’d suspected, and if we didn’t outplay them we came mighty close to doing it!”
“Yes, sir.” Stuart studied his hands a moment. Then, “When it comes to placing the blame for losing—for not winning, though—” he went on, “I guess I’ve got a good deal to do with that, Mr. Haynes. I guess if I hadn’t acted crazy and made things harder for you and thrown up my job—not that Jack wasn’t a mighty good captain, though: I don’t mean that, sir! But if things had gone smoother at the first——”
“I know, Harven. Between us we sort of botched the business, didn’t we? It wasn’t altogether your fault. Knowing you as I do now, I see that I was half to blame. I got a wrong impression of you when I took hold here. My mistake was in not trying to make a friend of you first of all. You didn’t give me much encouragement, but I should have tried. You see, Harven, I’ve learned since then that you are hard to drive but easily led. And you’re loyal. I tried to drive you. That was my first mistake, and maybe my biggest. I should have set out to win your friendship. I might not have succeeded, of course, but I should have tried.”
“I—I guess you would have,” muttered Stuart.