some concern, "Where can be our little
deliverer? Sure he can have met with no accident, that he has not
returned with the rest!" "No," said one of the servants; "as to that,
Harry Sandford is safe enough, for I saw him go towards his own home in
company with the Black." "Alas!" answered Mr Merton, "surely he must
have received some unworthy treatment, that could make him thus abruptly
desert us all. And now I recollect I heard one of the young gentlemen
mention a blow that Harry had received. Surely, Tommy, you could not
have been so basely ungrateful as to strike the best and noblest of your
friends!" Tommy, at this, hung down his head, his face was covered with
a burning blush, and the tears began silently to trickle down his
cheeks.

Mrs Merton remarked the anguish and confusion of her child, and catching
him in her arms, was going to clasp him to her bosom, with the most
endearing expressions, but Mr Merton, hastily interrupting her, said,
"It is not now a time to give way to fondness for a child, who, I fear,
has acted the basest and vilest part that can disgrace a human being,
and who, if what I suspect be true, can be only a dishonour to his
parents." At this, Tommy could no longer contain himself, but burst into
such a violent transport of crying, that Mrs Merton, who seemed to feel
the severity of Mr Merton's conduct with still more poignancy than her
son, caught her darling up in her arms and carried him abruptly out of
the room, accompanied by most of the ladies, who pitied Tommy's
abasement, and agreed that there was no crime he could have been guilty
of which was not amply atoned for by such charming sensibility.

But Mr Merton, who now felt all the painful interest of a tender father,
and considered this as the critical moment which was to give his son the
impression of worth or baseness for life, was determined to examine this
affair to the utmost. He, therefore, took the first opportunity of
drawing the little boy aside who had mentioned Master Merton's striking
Harry, and questioned him upon the subject. But he, who had no
particular interest in disguising the truth, related the circumstances
nearly as they had happened; and though he a little softened the matter
in Tommy's favour, yet, without intending it, he held up such a picture
of his violence and injustice, as wounded his father to the soul.

CHAPTER VIII.

Arrival of Mr Barlow--Story of Polemo--Tommy's repentance--Story of