t, coming from Kenrick, was base and cruel, and he
knew it to be so.

"Thank you for the allusion," said Walter; "I deserve it, I own, but I'm
surprised, Kenrick, that _you_, of all others; should make it. _That_,
I admit, was an act of sin and strange folly for which I must always
feel humiliated, and implore to be forgiven. And every generous person
_has_ long ago forgiven me and forgotten it. But in _this_ case, if you
weren't in such a silly rage, I could show you that I've done nothing
wrong. Only I know you wouldn't listen _now_, and I shan't
condescend--"

"_Condescend_! I like that," said Kenrick, interrupting him with a
scornful laugh, which made Walter's blood tingle. "_You_ condescend to
_me_, forsooth." Higher words might have ensued, but at this moment
Henderson, still pursued by Whalley, came running up, and seeing that
something had gone wrong, he said to Kenrick--

"Hallo, Damon! what has Pythias been saying to you?"

Kenrick vouchsafed no answer, but turning his back on them, went off
abruptly.

"He's very angry with you, Evson," said Whalley, "because he thinks
you've been telling Jones and that lot his family secrets."

"I've done nothing whatever of the kind," said Walter, indignantly. "I
admit that I did thoughtlessly mention it to Power; and one other
overheard me. It never occurred to me for a moment that Kenrick would
mind. You know I wouldn't dream of speaking about it ill-naturedly, and
if that fellow wasn't blind with rage I could have explained it to him
in about five minutes."

"If you merely mentioned it to Power, I'm sure Kenrick would not so much
mind. I'll tell him about it when he's cooler," said Whalley.

"As you like, Whalley; Kenrick has no business to suspect me in that
shameful way, and to abuse me, and treat me as if I was quite beneath
his notice, and cast old faults in my teeth," answered Walter, with deep
vexation. "Let him find out the truth for himself. He can, if he takes
the trouble."

Both the friends were thoroughly angry with each other; each of them
imagined himself deeply wronged by the other, and each of them, in his
irritation, used strong and unguarded expressions which lost nothing by
repetition. Thus the "rift of difference" was cleft deeper and deeper
between them; and, chiefly through Kenrick's pride and precipitancy, a
disagreement which might at first have been easily adjusted became a
serious, and threatened to become a permanent, qua