hrough the key-hole, and
prepared to spring on him before he could make his escape. Not getting
much, the man at last opened the cup-board door, where Carter had just
time to conceal himself behind a great-coat. The great-coat took the
plunderer's fancy; he took it down off the peg, and there stood Carter
before him! Billy--for it was he--stood absolutely confounded, as though
a ghost had suddenly appeared; and Carter, after enjoying his
unconcealed terror, collared him, and hauled him off to the police
station. He was tried soon after, and finally confessed that it was he
who had taken the cricket-money too; for which offences he was sentenced
to transportation. So Eric, dear Eric, at last your name was cleared."

"As I always knew it would be, dear old boy," said Wildney.

Montagu and Wildney found plenty to make them happy at Fairholm, and
were never tired of Eric's society, and of his stories about all that
befell him on board the "Stormy Petrel." They perceived a marvellous
change in him. Every trace of recklessness and arrogance had passed
away; every stain of passion had been removed; every particle of
hardness had been calcined in the flame of trial. All was gentleness,
love, and dependence, in the once bright, impetuous, self-willed boy; it
seemed as though the lightning of God's anger had shattered and swept
away all that was evil in his heart and life, and left all his true
excellence, all the royal prerogatives of his character, pure and
unscathed Eric, even in his worst days, was, as I well remember, a
lovable and noble boy; but at this period there must have been something
about him for which to thank God, something unspeakably winning, and
irresistibly attractive. During the day, as Eric was too weak to walk
with them, Montagu and Wildney used to take boating and fishing
excursions by themselves, but in the evening the whole party would sit
out reading and talking in the garden till twilight fell. The two
visitors began to hope that Mrs. Trevor had been mistaken, and that
Eric's health would still recover; but Mrs. Trevor would not deceive
herself with a vain hope, and the boy himself shook his head when they
called him convalescent.

Their hopes were never higher than one evening about a week after their
arrival, when they were all seated, as usual, in the open air, under a
lime-tree on the lawn. The sun was beginning to set, and the rain of
golden sunlight fell over them through the green ambrosial fo