hool but had watched his clothes cut to ribbons before them, under the
knout. Not a boy but surmised the hideous state of his bruised body. And
yet, not a boy in the school offered the slightest sign of friendliness,
even of recognition. Loneliness he had known--was, indeed, to know
again--but never thereafter the loneliness that he endured in this
crowded school.

Of what Ivan bore during his first year in that harsh preparation for
his after life, it would be useless to write. The day's routine was long
and hard: its hours from early morning till nine at night; its subjects
the usual studies, with military drill, tactics, and history. Moreover,
at the end of the ordered day there was frequently guard-duty at the
door of the first form's secret club, which used pretended fear of
discovery as a means of keeping some younger boy awake till he should
fall asleep on his feet, and be carried into the club-room for the
punishment always inflicted for this military crime of "sleeping on
duty." This year the fourth form had one more cause of gratitude for the
existence of Ivan; for he was chosen for this vigil three nights to any
other boy's one. The consequence of this was that, between October and
April, he was in the hospital four times, always owing to an increase in
the low fever induced by physical and mental exhaustion. Through the
winter, Becker had made a few feeble attempts at protection, all of
which proved abortive. But finally, in the early spring, noting Ivan's
look of frailty, and fearing a breakdown that must be brought to the
notice of Prince Michael, he took the case in hand vigorously, and
procured for the boy at least unbroken sleep at night, though he could
force no other consideration from the scornful young brutes towards
their physically broken, mentally-raging victim.

It was, for Ivan, an added irony of Fate that, during this long period
of physical strain, the severest he was ever to know, his one hitherto
unfailing refuge should be denied him. And the trial culminated in a
shock as unexpected as it then seemed unendurable.

For many weeks the boy, while sedulously concealing the facts of his
school life, had nevertheless wondered that, during his Sundays with
her, his mother divined none of his unhappiness. But he himself failed
to perceive the burden which that same mother, hitherto as near to him
as he to her, was herself bearing. How should he guess that she was at
last obliged to concentrate h