oaxed, or initiated, or intimidated, into
the condition of wickedness required of him before the house could
continue to go to the devil, as fast as it wished to do, and was doing
before. This was Mackworth's work, and Wilton acted as his Azazel, and
Kenrick did not interfere, though he knew or guessed all that was going
on; he did not interfere, he did not prevent it, he did not even
remonstrate at first, and afterwards he began by acquiescing, he ended
by--yes, the truth must be told--he ended in joining in it all. O
Kenrick, when human beings meet face to face before a certain
judgment-seat, there are some young souls who will have a bill of
indictment against you; the same who may point to Mackworth or to
Wilton, and say, as of old, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
Five new boys had come this half-year. Four of them had been sounded by
the rest of the house; one of them, named Stone, had come from a large
private school, and was prepared for whatever he might find in more
senses than one. Another, Symes, was a boy ill-trained at home, of no
particular principles, and quite ready to flow with the stream. A
third, Hanley, had come meaning to be good; he had been shocked when he
first heard oaths, and when he was first asked if he would mind telling
any of the regular lies--"crams" the boys called them--in the event of
any master questioning him; but his wounded sensibilities were very
quickly healed, and he had passed with fatal facility from disgust to
indifference, from indifference to toleration. The fourth, Elgood, was
a timid child, for whom no one cared either way, and whom they took care
to frighten into promising to do whatever he was ordered. A terrible
state of things--was it not? But, ah me! it was so once upon a time.
The fifth new boy in Mr Noel's house was Charles Evson; and with this
fifth new boy the devil's agents knew instinctively that they would have
a great deal of trouble. But they meant to bait their hook very
carefully, and they did not at all despair. Their task was made
peculiarly piquant by its very difficulty, and by the fact that Charlie
was one in whom their declared enemy, Walter Evson, was so nearly
concerned. They were determined by fair means or foul to win him over,
and make him their proselyte, until he became as much a child of sin as
they were themselves. But they proceeded to their task with the utmost
caution, and endeavoured to charm Charlie over to their vie