ening, with Power, and Henderson, and
Eden; their meeting would fitly inaugurate his return to the better
feelings of past days; but it was not destined that the meeting should
take place; nor was it till many evenings afterwards that Kenrick sat
once more in the pleasant society of his old friends.

When Walter had at last made good his escape, playfully refusing to be
imprisoned any longer, Kenrick rose and paced the room. He could hardly
believe his own happiness; it was the most delightful moment he had
experienced for many a long day; the scholarship, so long the object of
his hope and ambition, was now attained; impossible as it had seemed, it
was actually his, and, at the same moment, the truest friend of his
boyhood--the friend for whose returning respect and affection he so long
had yearned--was at last restored to him.

With an overflowing heart he sat down to write to his mother, and
communicate the good news that he was reconciled to Walter, and that
Power and Walter had resigned the scholarship in his favour. He had
never felt in happier spirits than just then; and then, even at the same
moment, the cup of sincere and innocent joy, so long untasted, was, with
one blow, dashed away from his lip.

For at that moment the post came in, and one of his fags, humming a
lively tune, came running with a letter to his door.

"A letter for you, Kenrick," the boy said, throwing it carelessly on the
table, and taking up his merry song as he left the room. But Kenrick's
eyes were riveted on the letter: it was edged with the deepest black,
and bore the Fuzby post-mark. For a time he sat stupidly staring at it:
he dared not open it.

At length he made an effort, and tore it open. It was a rude, blurred
scrawl from their old servant, telling him that his mother had died the
day before. A brief note enclosed in this, from the curate of the
place, said, "It is quite true, my poor boy. Your mother died very
suddenly of spasms in the heart. God's ways are not as our ways. I
have written to tell your guardian, and he will no doubt meet you here."

Kenrick remained stupefied, unable to think, almost unable to
comprehend. He was roused to his senses by the entrance of his fag to
remove his breakfast things, which still lay on the table; and with a
vague longing for some comfort and sympathy, he sent the boy to Walter
with the message that Kenrick wanted him.

Walter came at once, and Kenrick, not trusting his voic