“Very well,” said Arthur; “thank you, Edgar, and I don’t like saying good-bye at all, you know; but we must; and, Edgar, won’t you do it, what we talked about?”
“And you remember what you promised about praying. Mind you do, Arthur. Good-bye.”
Then Arthur went away; and as he was walking homewards, there was more than one tear brushed away by his little hot, ink-stained hand, though it was not a heart-grief to him, and he did not know what a lonely, desolate feeling was in Edgar’s heart, as he watched him walking slowly away until the distance hid him from his eyes; for Arthur was the chief object in his heart just then.
The next day the play-ground at Mr. Carey’s school was quiet and empty, and the broad shadows fell softly on the silent grass. The sheep in the fields must have wondered at the stillness. And Mr. Carey was enjoying the half-yearly silence that reigned there.
Arthur had been looking forward to the holiday journey on the Continent with glowing expectation; he could hardly believe at first that he was really going to see the towns and countries of which he had learnt in his geography lessons. He tried to imagine the journey, and to see pictures of the places where they were going; but that was not very easy, as he had never been so far before as this last journey he had taken, and he knew nothing at all of travelling by sea; this he found out to be a very unpleasant reality; and he wished very much that, while he remained abroad with his aunt, the tunnel under the sea would be finished between Dover and Calais.
They had a very pleasant time in Switzerland. Then Arthur saw the deep blue lake with its solemn projecting mountains that swelled in great mounds around, and far down where the gleaming peaks of white made the blue look deeper; and in the evening, when the sun was hiding behind, and was throwing a flame-coloured glow on the grandeur around, he would stand on the terrace and feel the solemn hush that told the night was coming.
Several weeks were passed among the mountains, and it was not until just before the opening of the school that he found himself back at Myrtle Hill.
