“Well, I certainly hope you will. If I came back I’d surely need you.”
“But you are coming, aren’t you, sir?” asked Stuart.
“I can’t say. You see, I was engaged for this season only. Although it wasn’t set down in the contract, it was naturally understood that a renewal of the contract depended on my success with the team this fall. Well, I don’t know how the Committee on Athletics view the result. In some ways we had a good season. We won five games, lost two and tied one. We got through without injuries worth speaking of, although the credit for that isn’t mine. If we had won yesterday’s game I might fairly claim success. Between you and me, I still claim it. But the Committee may not look at it as I do. Results are what count, Harven, and there’s no getting around the fact that we didn’t win our big game.”
“Oh! But we didn’t lose it, either, sir. That ought to mean something, I’d say. Besides, I guess all the fellows think that you did mighty well. I do, anyway. I thought, of course, you were coming back.”
“Perhaps I shall,” replied the coach, smiling.
“Not that you’d care much, I suppose,” added Stuart. “I guess you wouldn’t have much trouble finding a job!”
“Perhaps not, but it doesn’t do a coach any good to change too often. I’ve been at it four seasons and this is my third place. That doesn’t sound very well, does it? I was at Erskine College the year after I graduated and then I went to Fisherville and stayed two. I left there because Manning offered me more money, and I needed it. I don’t expect to spend my life as a football coach, Harven, but while I’m at it I want to do the best I can. I’ve got a sort of a law practice back home, but it’s only the start of one, and I can’t afford to depend on it yet. You see, there’s a family at home, too, and they have to live.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you were married, sir!”
“I’m not. The family consists of my mother and two sisters, unmarried. One of my sisters looks after the office while I’m away, but there isn’t much to do, unfortunately. My town’s a smallish one and there are two lawyers already established there. It’s slow work to build a practice, Harven, in a place like that.”