h up twenty thefts? You enlist the whole strength of my conscience
against you, lest I should seem to screen you for my own sake. Faugh!
your very touch sickens me!--go!"

"O Kenrick, don't be so angry; I didn't mean to say it; I didn't know
what I was saying; I am driven into a corner by shame and misery. I
know I have been a mean dog; but even if you tell of me, don't crush me
so with your anger, for indeed, indeed, I _have_ been grateful, and have
loved you, Kenrick. But oh, don't tell, I implore, I entreat you, Ken.
How little I thought that I should have to speak to you like this!"

But Kenrick could only say--"_You_ the thief; _you_, the _last_ fellow
of all I should have suspected; _you_ whom I have called friend, O
heavens! Yes, I know that I've done you harm by bad example, I know
that I've much to answer for but at any rate I never taught you to be a
thief."

"But one thing comes of another, Ken; it all came of my being so much
with those brutes, and going to Dan's; it all came of that. I shouldn't
have thought myself that I could do it or do half the bad things I
_have_ done, two months ago. It all came of that; and you used to go
with those fellows, Ken, and you went with me to Dan's;" and the boy
wrung his hands, and wept, and flung himself on his knees. "I must tell
all, if you tell of _me_."

"Say that again," said Kenrick, spurning him scornfully away, "say it
once again, and I go straight to Dr Lane. Poor worm, you don't
understand me, you don't seem to have the capability of a high thought
in you. I tell you that nothing you can say of me shall shake my
purpose. I am going now."

But before he could get his straw hat Wilton had clasped him by the
knees, and in a voice of agony was beseeching him to relent.

"It's all true, Kenrick; I am base, I know it; I have quenched all
honour in me. I won't say that again, but do, for God's sake, forgive
me this once, and not tell of me. O Kenrick, have _you_ never had to
say forgive? Do, do, pity me, as you hope to be forgiven; don't ruin
me, and give me a bad name; I am so young, so young, and have fallen
into bad hands from the first."

He still knelt on the floor, exhausted with the violence of his passion,
hanging his head upon his breast, sobbing as if his heart would break.
It was sad to see him, a mere child still, who might have been so
different, long a little reprobate, and now a convicted thief. His face
bathed in tears, his voice