whispered--"spite and a mean
spirit of reprisal. I have been making a secret investigation, and I
find that this blow at your son and you, and at the good name of our
college was struck by one man, a man with a grievance--Doctor Gilman.
Doctor Gilman has repeatedly desired me to raise his salary." This did
not happen to be true, but in such a crisis Doctor Black could not afford
to be too particular.

"I have seen no reason for raising his salary--and there you have the
explanation. In revenge he has made this attack. But he overshot his
mark. In causing us temporary embarrassment he has brought about his own
downfall. I have already asked for his resignation."

Every day in the week Hallowell was a fair, sane man, but on this
particular day he was wounded, his spirit was hurt, his self-esteem
humiliated. He was in a state of mind to believe anything rather than
that his son was an idiot.

"I don't want the man discharged," he protested, "just because Peter is
lazy. But if Doctor Gilman was moved by personal considerations, if he
sacrificed my Peter in order to get even...."

"That," exclaimed Black in a horrified whisper, "is exactly what he did!
Your generosity to the college is well known. You are recognized all
over America as its patron. And he believed that when I refused him an
increase in salary it was really you who refused it--and he struck at
you through your son. Everybody thinks so. The college is on fire with
indignation. And look at the mark he gave Peter! Five! That in itself
shows the malice. Five is not a mark, it is an insult! No one, certainly
not your brilliant son--look how brilliantly he managed the glee-club
and foot-ball tour--is stupid enough to deserve five. No, Doctor Gilman
went too far. And he has been justly punished!"

What Hallowell senior was willing to believe of what the chancellor
told him, and his opinion of the matter as expressed to Peter, differed
materially.

"They tell me," he concluded, "that in the fall they will give you
another examination, and if you pass then, you will get your degree. No
one will know you've got it. They'll slip it to you out of the side-door
like a cold potato to a tramp. The only thing people will know is that
when your classmates stood up and got their parchments--the thing they'd
been working for four years, the only reason for their going to college
at all--YOU were not among those present. That's your fault; but if you
don't get your degree