It was not merely that she would have to part with Eric, "but that bright boy," thought Fanny, "what will become of him?
I have heard strange things of schools; oh, if he should be spoilt and ruined, what misery it would be.

Those baby lips, that pure young heart, a year may work sad change in their words and thoughts!" She sighed again, and her eyes glistened as she raised them upwards, and breathed a silent prayer.
She loved the boy dearly, and had taught him from his earliest years.
In most things she found him an apt pupil.

Truthful, ingenuous, quick, he would acquire almost without effort any subject that interested him, and a word was often enough to bring the impetuous blood to his cheeks, in a flush, of pride or indignation.

He required the gentlest teaching, and had received it, while his mind seemed cast in such a mould of stainless honor that he avoided most of the faults to which children are prone.

But he was far from blameless.