It then became more fully apparent than ever, that, although Edwin was among them without being _of_ them, no boy in the school was more deeply honored and fondly loved than he.

Even the elastic spirits of boyhood could not quite throw off the shadow of gloom which his illness cast over the school.
Very tenderly they nursed him.

All that human kindness could do was done for him by the stranger hands.

And yet not all; poor Edwin had no father, no mother, hardly any relatives.

His only aunt, Mrs.Upton, would have come to nurse him, but she was an invalid, and he was often left alone in his delirium and agony.
Alone, yet not alone.