Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/342

 and righted" as in the last chapters. But this was not the world of romance but of reality. That day never came. After several years he became tired of waiting, sick of his undeserved disgrace, and, in short, found the role of hero wasn't what it was cracked up to be. So one day at the decennial reunion of the class he turned up and made a little speech. "I know you are all surprised to see me here. I know you think I have no right to show my face, but I have. I hate to do my old friend Charlie a bad turn, but the fact of the matter is, he was guilty of the thing for which I have suffered so long and the time has come when he must confess it."

Whereupon Charlie brought suit for libel, and as his accuser had no shred of evidence to back the serious accusation he was obliged to pay $5,000 damages, which broke him, and which Charlie "with characteristic generosity forthwith turned over to charity," the newspapers said, which had given the case extensive notoriety. Charlie became a prominent and successful citizen.