I only hope and trust that no other change for the worse is going on in your character." And so he talked on till the boy's sorrow was undisguised.

"Come," he said gently, "let us kneel down together before we part." Boy and master knelt down humbly side by side, and, from a full heart, the young man poured out his fervent petitions for the child beside him.
Eric's heart seemed to catch a glow from his words, and he loved him as a brother.

He rose from his knees full of the strongest resolutions, and earnestly promised amendment for the future.
But poor Eric did not yet know his own infirmity.

For a time, indeed, there was a marked improvement; but daily life flowed on with its usual allurements, and when the hours of temptation came, his good intentions melted away, so that, in a few more weeks, the prayer, and the vows that followed it, had been obliterated from his memory without leaving any traces in his life..