“Then my unpleasant task is over,” said Kenrick, “and I have no more to say. Oh, yes; I had forgotten, there was one very important thing I had to say, as Whalley reminds me. It is this: You know that the Noelites have kept other secrets before now, not always good secrets, I am sorry to say. But will you all now keep this an honourable secret? Will you not mention (for there is no occasion for it) to any others in the school, who it was that took the money? The matter will very soon be forgotten; do not let Wilton’s sin be bruited through the whole school, so as to give him a bad name for life.”
“Indeed we won’t, not one of us will tell,” said the boys, and they kept the promise admirably afterwards.
“Then we may all separate. You may bid Wilton good-bye now if you wish to do so, for he starts to-night, almost at once; the carriage is waiting for him now, and you will have no opportunity of seeing him again.”
They flocked round him and said “good-bye” without one word of reproach, or one word calculated to wound his feelings; many of them added some sincere expressions of their good wishes for the future. As for Wilton himself, he was far too much moved to say much to them, but he pressed their hands in silence, only speaking to beg Elgood to pardon his unkindness, which the little fellow begged him not to think of at all.
Charlie Evson lingered among the last, and spoke to him with frank and genial warmth.
“How you must hate me, Charlie, for annoying you so, and trying to lead you wrong!” said Wilton, penitently.
“Indeed I don’t, Wilton,” said Charlie; “I wish you weren’t going to leave. I’m sure we should all get on better now.”
“Don’t think me as bad as I have seemed, Charlie. I was ashamed at heart all the time I was trying to persuade you to crib and tell lies, and do like other fellows. I felt all the while that you were better than me.”
“Well, good-bye, Wilton. Perhaps we shall meet again some day, and be good friends; and I wish you happiness with all my heart.”
Charlie was the last of them, and Kenrick and Wilton were left alone. For Wilton’s sake Kenrick tried to show all the cheerfulness he could, as he went with him through the now silent and deserted court to the gate where the carriage was waiting.