"There is one thing, however, that I can do to prove that I value your friendship, and that is take the task of speaking from you. If you choose to wait until after prayers, I will tell the Head myself, in open school, and you can all hear me do it."
Warren hesitated for a moment. He hated to have to do the task, and if Ralph would tell himself, it would do just as well.
"Very well," he said, "if you will do that, I have no objection; and, look here, you fellows," he added, turning to the others, "do, for mercy's sake, keep this to yourselves, all of you; or it will be all over the school, and it is not a nice thing to have connected with our Form. We may have been a bit wild, but we have never had a thing like this before, and I would have done anything rather than have had it now."
He turned away as he spoke, and the others followed slowly, leaving Ralph there alone—alone with his pocket-book, and the note which had come from it.
No, not quite alone, for Charlton still stood there regarding him with the same half-frightened, half sorrowful look; and at last Ralph, becoming aware of his presence, turned and looked at him.
"Well," he said, "what do you want? Why don't you clear off, like the rest have done?"
The boy backed away from him, as if almost frightened.
"And it was you, all the time," he said, in low tones. "You, whom I thought so noble and good! You took it, and then you dared to ask me if I had taken it, to hint that it was me. Oh, Ralph Rexworth, I did not think that there was any one as mean as you."