It seemed to be considered that Brown had
put himself in a bad light by trying to throw the blame on Jones. Jones,
they said, should not have been bounced without Brown, and probably the
best thing would have been not to bounce either. The irritating thing
about this latter view was that it was exactly what West had thought in
the first place, before pressure was applied to him.
In the still watches of the night the young man was harried by
uncertainties and tortured by stirring suspicions. Had he been fair to
Jones, after all? Was his summary action in regard to that youth
prompted in the faintest degree by personal dislike? Was he conceivably
the kind of man who is capable of thinking one thing and doing another?
The most afflicting of all doubts, doubt of himself, kept the young man
tossing on his pillow for at least an hour.
But he woke with a clear-cut decision singing in his mind and gladdening
his morning. He would take Jones back. He would generously reinstate the
youth, on the ground that the public mortification already put upon him
was a sufficient punishment for his sins and abundant warning for others
like-minded.
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