Emma Brabazon would come sometimes, and lift the little table to the bedside, and make tea at it. She was cheerful now, gay even, for a great care had been removed from her; she would call him Dr. Henry, or Professor Paradyne, and laugh over that back suspicion connected with the gold pencil, now safe in the Head Master's pocket. She confessed to him that she had had great fears, at the time Lord Shrewsbury was shot, that it might be her brother who had fired the pistol. "Not intentionally, to do harm, you know," she added; "but he was often down here, wandering about the plantation, in the hope of meeting me and getting money from me, and it was so easy for him to have picked up the pistol." "Be at rest," said Mr. Henry. "It was not your brother." Miss Brabazon was surprised at the assured tones. "You know who it was?" "It was one of the college boys. Do not ask me more, for that is all I can say." He intended to carry the secret with him to his grave. And might have done it, had it lain alone with him. Of all his casual visitors, he liked best to see the boys. He would cause them to sit close to him, and talk pleasantly of the journey of life on which, after this half-year, some of them would be entering. Not one but treasured his words; not one but would remember them to profit in the busy battle to come. CHAPTER XXVI. The End. A day in December. The fine old hall was decorated as for a festival. Ordinary signs and appurtenances were put out of it; desks were not; books, slates, ink, canes, all had disappeared. The boys wore their gowns; the masters were all suavity; and James Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, had a bit of blue ribbon in his button-hole, the badge of the Orville Prize. From his chair of state the Head Master had just announced him as the victor, and decorated him with its sign. It had been virtually known for some weeks that Talbot would have it, but this was the formal investiture. The term was drawing to its end: Mr. Henry, in his proximate dwelling, was drawing near to his. On the day but one following this, the school would disperse. Gall, Loftus major, Brown, Talbot, and others who have less concerned us, were quitting the place for ever. Mr. Henry had been considerably better for some days; he had been up, and even walked in the garden. It was the flickering of the candle's flame before going out.