You can pay the fine, young _gentleman_--if you wish." "Certainly," murmured Arthur.

"And now, let's go to lunch." "To dinner," corrected the father; "your mother and I have dinner in the middle of the day, not lunch." "To dinner, then.

Anything you please, pa, only let's go." When they were at the office and the father was about to enter the inner room to change his clothes, he wheeled and said: "Why ain't you at Harvard, passing your examinations ?" Arthur's hands contracted and his eyes shifted; in a tone to which repression gave a seeming lightness, he announced: "The exams, are over.
I've been plucked." The slang was new to Hiram Ranger, but he understood.

In important matters his fixed habit was never to speak until he had thought well; without a word he turned and, with a heaviness that was new in his movements, went into the dressing room.

The young man drew a cautious but profound breath of relief--the confession he had been dreading was over; his father knew the worst.