Fathers of Men (1912) by E. W. Hornung

A boarding school tale which Hornung considered his finest work. Jan Rutter, a stable boy, is admitted to a public school, wrong accent and all. Unknown to him, Heriot, the house master, knows the secret which Rutter is desperate to keep, half-inclined as he is to run away. Their first meeting leaves Heriot and his sister in a quiet discussion. "But you admit the public school is a crucible," she argued. "And what's a crucible but a melting-pot?" " A melting-pot for characteristics, but not for character!" he cried. "Take the two boys upstairs: in four or five years one will have more to say for himself, I hope, and the other will leave more unsaid; but the self that each expresses will be the same self, even though we have turned a first-rate groom into a second-rate gentleman. 'The Child, ' remember, and not the school, 'is father of the Man