They sat there long, hardly knowing how the time passed; Eric could not help thinking how very, very different their relative positions might have been; how, while he might have been aiding and ennobling the young boy beside him, he had alternately led and followed him into wickedness and disgrace. His heart was full of misery and bitterness, and he felt almost indifferent to all the future, and weary of his life. A loud knocking at the door disturbed them. It was Carter, the school servant. “You must pack up to go this evening, young gentlemen.” “O no! no! no!” exclaimed Wildney; “_cannot_ be sent away like this. It would break my father’s heart. Eric, _do_ come and entreat Dr. Rowlands to forgive us only this once.” “Yes,” said Eric, starting up with sudden energy; “he _shall_ forgive us--_you_ at any rate. I will not leave him till he does. Cheer up, Charlie, cheer up, and come along.” Filled with an irresistible impulse, he pushed Carter aside, and sprang down stairs three steps at a time, with Wildney following him. They went straight for the Doctor’s study, and without waiting for the answer to their knock at the door, Eric walked up to Dr. Rowlands, who sate thinking in his arm-chair by the fire, and burst out passionately, “O sir, forgive us this once.” The Doctor was completely taken by surprise, so sudden was the intrusion, and so intense was the boy’s manner. He remained silent a moment from astonishment, and then said with asperity-- “Your offence is one of the most dangerous possible. There could be no more perilous example for the school, than the one you have been setting, Williams. Leave the room,” he added, with an authoritative gesture, “my mind is made up.” But Eric was too excited to be overawed by the master’s manner; an imperious passion blinded him to all ordinary considerations, and, heedless of the command, he broke out again-- “O sir, try me but once, _only_ try me. I promise you most faithfully that I will never again commit the sin. O sir, do, do trust me, and I will be responsible for Wildney too.” Dr. Rowlands, seeing that in Eric’s present mood he must and would be heard, unless he were ejected by actual force, began to pace silently up and down the room in perplexed and anxious thought; at last he stopped and turned over the pages of a thick school register, and found Eric’s name. “It is not your first offence, Williams, even of this very kind. That most seriously aggravates your fault.” “O sir! give us one more chance to mend. O, I feel that I _could_ do such great things, if you will be but merciful, and give me time to change. O, I entreat you, sir, to forgive us only this once, and I will never ask again. Let us bear _any_ other punishment but this. O sir,” he said, approaching the doctor in an imploring attitude, “spare us this one time for the sake of our friends.”