The narrator tells us that he's sorry to hear that the girl has been arrested. He's been watching her for a long time, but she's a good person, he says. The teacher, however, has been worried about the girl's friendship with the teacher, and has been trying to get her to be friends with him. The girl likes the teacher too, the narrator says, and she likes him too. The narrator is sorry that he didn't tell the girl about his marriage, but he says that if the marriage were to come out, the parents wouldn't want to be quiet about it. If it were known that the teacher was having an affair with a student, the teachers would be fired, and the parents would be furious. He says that he can't cover for the teacher from the parents' point of view, but that if his marriage were known, there could be students or teachers who wouldn' t be so hush-hush about the marriage. He asks the narrator not to pry too much more about the situation, but to whisper that it's just a matter of time before the teacher is fired and the girl is dumped.