Suddenly he was startled violently from his reverie, for the door _was_ shut with a bang, and Kenrick, entering, flung himself in a chair, saying, with a vexed expression of voice, "Too late." It was but a set of verses which Kenrick had written for a prize exercise, and which he had just sent in too late. He had not lost all ambition, but he had no real friend now to inspirit or stimulate him, so that he often procrastinated, and was seldom successful with anything. But his accidental words fell with awful meaning and strange emphasis on poor Wilton's ear. Wilton had never heard of the Bath Kol, he knew nothing of the power that wields the tongue amid the chances of destiny; but fear made him superstitious, and, forgetting his usual dissimulation, he looked up at Kenrick aghast, without wiping away the traces which unwonted tears had left upon his face. "Why, Raven, boy, what's the matter?" asked Kenrick, looking at him with astonishment; "much _you_ care for my having a set of iambics too late." "Oh, is that all?" asked Wilton, still looking frightened. "All? Yes; and enough, too, for me. But"--stopping suddenly--"why, Raven, what's the row? You've been crying, by all that's odd! Why, I didn't know you'd ever shed a tear since you'd been in the cradle. Raven crying--what a notion! Crocodile tears, eh?" Wilton was ashamed to have been caught crying, and angry to be laughed at. He was leaving the room silently and in a pet, when Kenrick caught him, and, looking at him, said in a kindlier tone-- "Nonsense, Ra; don't mind a little chaff. What's happened? Nothing serious, I hope?" But Wilton was angry and miserable just then, and struggled to get free. He did not venture to tell Kenrick what had really been passing through his mind. "Let me go," he said, struggling to get free. "O, go, by all means," said Kenrick, with his pride all on fire in a moment; "don't suppose that I want you or care for you;" and he turned his back on Wilton, to whom he had never once spoken harshly before. The current of Wilton's thoughts was turned; he really loved Kenrick, who was the only person for whom he had any regard at all. Besides, Kenrick's support and favour were everything to him just then, and he stopped irresolutely at the door, unwilling to leave him in anger. "What do you want? Why don't you go?" asked Kenrick, with his back still turned. Wilton came back to the window, and humbly took Kenrick's hand, looking up at him as though to ask forgiveness. "How odd you are to-day, Raven," said Kenrick, relenting. "What were you crying about when I came in?" "Well, I'll tell you, Ken. I was thinking how much better some fellows are than I am, and whether it was _too late_ to begin afresh, and whether the door _was open_ to me still, when you came in, and said, `Too late,' and banged the door, which I took for an answer to my thoughts."