The others went away, but Brogten still lingered in Kennedy’s rooms, and, rising, took him by the hand. They both remembered another scene in these rooms, when they two were together,—the torturer and the tortured; but it was different now.
“The worst thing that haunted me, Kennedy, when you were saving my life, was the thought of my wickedness to you. I fear it can never be repaired; yet believe me, that from this day forth I have vowed before God to turn over a new leaf, and my whole effort will be to do all for you that ever may be in my power! Do you forgive me?”
“As I hope to be forgiven,” he replied.
Yet it was part of Brogten’s punishment in after days to remember that his hand had set the stone moving on the steep hill-side, which afterwards he had no power to stay. It would not come back to him for a wish, but leapt, and rushed, and bounded forward, splintering and splintered by the obstacles in its course, till at last— Could it be saved from being dashed to shivers among the smooth rocks of the valley and the brook?
Chapter Twenty Six.
Hazlet’s Vision.
“And ride on his breast, and trouble his rest
In the shape of his deadliest sin.”
Anon.
Before the scholarship, came the Little-go, so called in the language of men, but known to the gods as the Previous Examination. As it is an examination which all must pass, the standard required is of course very low, and the subjects are merely Paley’s Evidences, a little Greek Testament, some easy classic, Scripture History, and a sprinkling of arithmetic and algebra.