CHAPTER XV.
HOME AGAIN "O far beyond the waters The fickle feet may roam, But they find no light so pure and bright As the one fair star of home; The star of tender hearts, lady, That glows in an English home," F.W.F.
That night when Eric returned to No.

7, full of grief, and weighed down with the sense of desolation and mystery, the other boys were silent from sympathy in his sorrow.

Duncan and Llewellyn both knew and loved Russell themselves, and they were awestruck to hear of his death; they asked some of the particulars, but Eric was not calm enough to tell them that evening.

The one sense of infinite loss agitated him, and he indulged his paroxysms of emotion unrestrained, yet silently.

Reader, if ever the life has been cut short which you most dearly loved, if ever you have been made to feel absolutely lonely in the world, then, and then only, will you appreciate the depth of his affliction.
But, like all affliction, it purified and sanctified.