“Succeeded?” Mr. Haynes smiled. “Hang it, Harven, I almost believe I could have! Anyway, I like to think so.”
“Just the same, there’s no reason for you to take any of the blame, Mr. Haynes,” said Stuart. “I thought I knew it all, and I didn’t. The fellows oughtn’t to have made me captain. I didn’t have the head for it. That’s been proved twice over. I showed rotten judgment lots of times. It was a good thing for the team that I was chucked.”
“You weren’t chucked,” said the coach earnestly. “No one—I, least of all—wanted you to resign. That letter to you was badly conceived and badly written. All any one wanted was to get things running smoothly, but the Committee went about it the wrong way. When you offered your resignation I protested against its acceptance. So did Wilson and McColl. But the majority of the Committee were against us. The majority had put themselves in a hole, and rather than crawl out they pulled the hole in on top of ’em. I felt all along that if you and I could pull together we could go a long way, Harven, but I didn’t know how to manage you. Well, all that’s ancient history now. There were mistakes made on both sides, mistakes that aren’t likely to be made again, I guess. Because, Harven, you’ve got good sense and you’re fair, and you know that I was right about the two things that caused the most friction between us. I mean the abolishment of training table and the injustice of barring Le Gette from the team because of something he had done to offend you personally. I made plenty of mistakes, but on those two things I was right. Isn’t that so?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Stuart honestly. “The fellows were in better shape this year than they were last. There wasn’t any slump this year, and last year there was. And about Le Gette, why, he—I found out just the other day that he didn’t do what I thought he did.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” replied the coach heartily. “And even if he had, Harven, I still would have been right in not sacrificing him to your personal animosity. Don’t you agree with me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good! I’m not ‘rubbing it in,’ Harven. I’m not always right in my premises and judgments, any more than any one else is, but I wanted to know that you recognized that in those things I was right and that you were fair enough and frank enough to say so. Because if it should happen that we were to work together again next fall it would make it easier for both of us. Perhaps I haven’t expressed myself very clearly, but I guess you get what I’m driving at.”
“Yes, sir. But I don’t believe I’ll be playing next year.”
“What? Why not?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” answered Stuart vaguely.