ay the fun and the payment alike.

The truth was, that the morning when Harold threw away from him the
thought of his brother's danger, and broke all his promises to him in the
selfish fear of a rebuke from the clergyman, had been one of the turning-
points of his life, and a turning-point for the bad. It had been a
hardening of his heart, just as it had begun to be touched, and a letting
in of evil spirits instead of good ones.

He became more than ever afraid of Mr. Cope, and shirked going near him
so as to be spoken to; he cut Ellen off short if she said a word to him,
and avoided being with Alfred, partly because it made him melancholy,
partly because he was afraid of Alfred's again talking to him about the
evil of his ways. In reality, his secret soul was wretched at the
thought of losing his brother; but he tried to put the notion away from
him, and to drown it in the noisiest jokes and most riotous sports he
could meet with, keeping company with the wildest lads about the parish.
That Dick Royston especially, whose honesty was doubtful, but who, being
a clever fellow, was a sort of leader, was doing great harm by setting
his face against the new parson, and laughing at the boys who went to
him. Mrs. King was very unhappy. It was almost worse to think of Harold
than of his sick brother; and Alfred grieved very much too, and took to
himself the blame of having made home miserable to Harold, and driven him
into bad company; of having been so peevish and unpleasant, that it was
no wonder he would not come near him more than could be helped; and above
all, of having set a bad example of idleness and recklessness, when he
was well. If the tears were brought into his eyes at first by some
unkind neglect of Harold's, they were sure to end in this thought at
last; and then the only comfort was, that Mr. Cope had told him that he
might make his sick-bed very precious to his brother's welfare, by
praying always for him.

Mr. Cope had talked it over with Mrs. King; and they had agreed that as
Harold was under the regular age for Confirmation, and seemed so little
disposed to prepare for it in earnest, they would not press it on him. He
was far from fit for it, and he was in such a mood of impatient
irreverence, that Mr. Cope was afraid of making his sin worse by forcing
serious things on him, and his mother was in constant fear of losing her
last hold on him.

Yet Harold was not a bad or unfeeling boy by nature; and