A nice beginning this to his new reign! Riddell saw it all clearly now, when it was too late.

Why ever had he not seen it as clearly at the time?
Was it too late?
Riddell went to the door again and looked down the passage.

The young malefactors were out of sight, but their footsteps and voices were still audible.

Hadn't he better summon them back?
Had not he better, at any cost to his own pride, own that he had made a mistake, rather than let the discipline of Willoughby run down?
He took a few hurried steps in the direction of the voices, and was even making up his mind to run, when it suddenly occurred to him, "What if, after all, their story _had_ been true, and the calling of them back should be a greater mistake even than the letting of them off ?" This awkward doubt drove him back once more to his study, where, shutting the door, he flung himself into his chair in a state of abject despondency and shame.
Twenty times he determined to go to the doctor at once, and refuse for an hour longer to play the farce of being captain of Willoughby.

And as often another spirit kept him back, and whispered to him that it was only the cowards who gave in at a single failure.
From these unpleasant reflections the summons to first school was a welcome diversion, and he gladly shook off the captain for an hour, and figured in his more congenial part of a scholar.