Basil the son of Richard was the guilty man, and Basil the son of Richard kicked himself and called himself a fool.
Not publicly, though.

In the Den, despite the blushes his tennis had caused, he did his best to keep up his swagger and restore confidence by a few acts of special audacity; and the Den was forgiving on the whole.
They did feel sore for a day, and showed it; but gradually they came back to their allegiance, and made excuses for their hero of their own accord.
If truth must be told, Dick was far more concerned as to the possible effect of his public humiliation on his election at "the Sociables," which was now only a day off.
Braider told him, with rather a long face, that his chances had been rather shaken by the affair, and that there was again some talk of pushing Culver against him.

This alarming news drove all immediate projects of virtue out of Dick's head.

Not that membership of the club was his one ideal of bliss; but, being a candidate, he could not bear the idea of being defeated, particularly by a young ruffian like Culver.
So he indulged in all sorts of extravagances on the last day of his probation, and led Heathcote on to the very verge of a further punishment in order to recover some of the ground he had lost with the "select" twenty.
After school he could settle to nothing till he knew his fate.

He dragged the unsuspecting Heathcote up and down the great Quadrangle under pretext of discussing Tom White's boat, but really in order to keep his eye on the door behind which the select "Sociables" sat in congress.
Heathcote saw there was a secret somewhere, and, feeling himself out of it, departed somewhat moodily to Pledge's study.