I'll stay and see him through the spring.

Very likely I shall look in on you in summer." Alec Trenholme went to bed not a little sleepy, but satisfied that he had given a clear account of the greater part of what had befallen him.
The next day he tramped as far as the railway to post the letter.
When Principal Trenholme received this letter he was standing in his library, holding an interview with some of his elder pupils.

He had a pleasant manner with boys; his rule was to make friends with them as much as possible; and if he was not the darling of their hearts, he was as dear to them as a pedagogue ever is to a class under his authority.
When he saw Alec's letter, his heart within him leaped with hope and quailed with fear.

It is only a few times during his life that a man regards a letter in this way, and usually after long suspense on a subject which looms large in his estimate of things.

When he could disengage himself, he tore it open, and the first question with which he scanned it concerned Alec only--was he in trouble?
had he carried out his threat of evil-doing?
or was it well with him?
Robert Trenholme was not now merely of the stuff of which men of the world are made.