sulky rebel in a standing army? Any reason for not drumming him out?"
Drumming him out! Expelling him! Sending him back to the Norfolk rectory, and thence very likely straight back to the nearest stables! More light rushed over Jan. He had seen his enormity; now he saw his life, what it had been, what it was, what it might be again.
"Oh, sir," he cried, "I know I speak all wrong—I know I speak all wrong! You see—you see"
But he broke down before he could explain, and the more piteously because now he felt he never could explain, and this hard old man would never, never understand. That is the tragic mistake of boys—to feel they can never be understood by men!
Yet already the hard old man was on his feet again, and with one gesture he had cleared the throng from the diamond-paned windows, and laid tender hand upon Jan's heaving shoulder.
"I do see," he said, gently. "But so must you, Rutter—but so must you!"
