"How long have you been here ?" "Not very long, perhaps, but long enough to know that Dick Prescott and the rest have been doing all they can to make matters harder for me," Fred answered in a dispirited voice.
"As it happens, they have been doing nothing of the sort," replied the lawyer crisply.

"Come in here, Fred.

I have had the whole story of your doings, but it was on a pledge that I would give you another chance to show whether there's any good in you.

Fred, I can understand, now that you've always thought yourself better than most boys---above them.

The truth is that you've a long way to go to get up to the level of ordinary, decent, good American boyhood.