would have been
less happy, and would have had fewer chances in school-life, if they had
not been fags at first, and thereby found friends and protectors in the
boys for whom they fagged. Kenrick, however, did not follow the good
example which had become almost traditional; for, filled as he was with
the spirit of wilful pride, and on bad terms with the order to which he
belonged, he either spoiled his fags by petting and pampering them, and
letting them see his own disregard for duty, or, if they did not take
his fancy, he snubbed and disregarded them--at any rate, did nothing
whatever to help them.

Kenrick was quite willing to have placed Charlie Evson in the first of
these classes, for he was a boy whom it was impossible to see and not to
like. His antagonistic position towards most of his own body, made him
the head of a sort of faction in the school, and he would have been
proud beyond measure to have had any boy like Charlie as one of his
followers. But Kenrick had better reasons for wishing to attach Charlie
to himself. Deeply as he had degenerated, disgraceful as his present
conduct was, Kenrick, in the secret depths of his soul, sighed and pined
for better things; though vice, and folly, and pride had their
attractions for him, he was still sick at heart for the purer atmosphere
which he had left. He looked at Charlie with vague hopes, for through
him he thought that he might yet perhaps, without lowering his pride by
actually seeming to have made any advance, bring about a reconciliation
with his best and earliest friends, bring about a return to his former
and more upright course.

But this was not to be. When a boy goes wrong he strews every step of
his downward career with obstacles against his own return; and he little
dreams how difficult of removal some of these obstacles will be. The
obstacle in this case was another little fag of Kenrick's, named Wilton.
I am sorry to write of that boy. Young in years, he was singularly old
in vice. A more brazen, a more impudent, a more hardened little
scapegrace--in schoolboy language, "a cooler hand"--it would have been
impossible to find. He had early gained the name of Raven from his
artful looks. His manner was a mixture of calm audacity and consummate
self-conceit. Though you knew him to be a thorough scamp, the young imp
would stare you in the face with the effrontery of a man about town. He
was active, sharp, and nice-looking, and there was not