But gradually his mental superiority asserted itself.

He took everything without tears and without passion, and this diminished the pleasure of annoying him.

One day when Barker had given him an unprovoked kick, he quietly said, "Barker, next time you do that, I'll tell Mr.Gordon." "Sneak! do it if you dare." And he kicked him again; but the moment after he was sorry for it, for there was a dark look in Owen's eyes, as he turned instantly into the door of the master's room, and laid a formal complaint against Barker for bullying.
Mr.Gordon didn't like "telling," and he said so to Owen, without reserve.

An ordinary boy would have broken into a flood of explanations and palliations, but Owen simply bowed, and said nothing.

"He stood there for justice," and he had counted the cost.