"
Eric heaved a deep sigh.
"I'm not come to reproach you. You don't give me a friend's right to
reprove. But still, Eric, for your own sake, dear fellow, I can't help
being sorry for all this. I did hope you'd have broken with Brigson
after the thrashing I gave him, for the way in which he treated me. I
don't think you _can_ know the mischief he is doing."
The large tears began to soften the fire of Eric's eye, "Ah!" he said,
"it's all of no use; you're all giving me the cold shoulder, and I'm
going to the bad, that's the long and short of it."
"Oh, Eric! for your own sake, for your parents' sake, for the school's
sake, for all your real friends' sake, don't talk in that bitter
hopeless way. You are too noble a fellow to be made the tool or the
patron of the boys who lead, while they seem to follow you. I _do_ hope
you'll join us even yet in resisting them."
Eric had laid his head on the table, which shook with his emotion. "I
can't talk, Monty," he said, in an altered tone; "but leave me now; and
if you like, we will have a walk to-morrow.
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