or; 'and I hope Aubrey will try to
take comfort and spirit from it.'

'As if I could!' said Aubrey, impatiently, 'when it only makes me more
mad to see what a fellow they have shut up in here!'

'Not mad, I hope,' said Dr. May; 'but I'll tell you what it should do
for both of us, Aubrey. It should make us very careful to be worthy to
remain his friends.'

'O, Dr. May!' broke in Leonard, distressed.

'Yes,' returned Dr. May, 'I mean what I say, however you break in,
Master Leonard. As long as this boy of mine is doing his best for the
right motives, he will care for you as he does now--not quite in the
same despairing way, of course, for holes in one's daily life do close
themselves up with time--but if he slacks off in his respect or
affection for you, then I shall begin to have fears of him. Now come
away, Aubrey, and remember for your comfort it is not the good-bye it
might have been,' he added, as he watched the mute intensity of the
boys' farewell clasp of the hands; but even then had some difficulty in
getting Aubrey away from the friend so much stronger as the consoler
than as the consoled, and unconsciously showing how in the last
twenty-four hours his mind had acted on the topics presented to him by
Mr. Wilmot.

Changed as he was from the impetuous boyish lad of a few weeks since, a
change even more noticeable when with his contemporary than in
intercourse with elder men, yet the nature was the same. Obstinacy had
softened into constancy, pride into resolution, generosity made pardon
less difficult, and elevation of temper bore him through many a
humiliation that, through him, bitterly galled his brother.

Whatever he might feel, prison regulations were accepted by him as
matters of course, not worth being treated as separate grievances. He
never showed any shrinking from the assumption of the convict dress,
whilst Henry was fretting and wincing over the very notion of his
wearing it, and trying to arrange that the farewell interview should
precede its adoption.

CHAPTER XVII

Scorn of me recoils on you.
E. B. BROWNING

After the first relief, the relaxation of his brother's sentence had by
no means mitigated Henry Ward's sense of disgrace, but had rather
deepened it by keeping poor Leonard a living, not a dead, sorrow.

He was determined to leave England as soon as possible, that his
sisters might never feel that they were the relative of a convict; and
bringing Ella