Both of them felt relief in giving the reins to their sorrow.
"O my father! my father!" sobbed Wildney at length.

"What will he say?
He will disown me, I know; he is so stern always with me when he thinks I bring disgrace on him." Eric thought of Fairholm, and of his own far-distant parents, and of the pang which _his_ disgrace would cause their loving hearts; but he could say nothing, and only stroked Wildney's dark hair again and again with a soothing hand.
They sat there long, hardly knowing how the time passed; Eric could not help thinking how very, very different their relative positions might have been; how, while he might have been aiding and ennobling the young boy beside him, he had alternately led and followed him into wickedness and disgrace.

His heart was full of misery and bitterness, and he felt almost indifferent to all the future, and weary of his life.
A loud knocking at the door disturbed them.

It was Carter, the school servant.
"You must pack up to go this evening, young gentlemen." "O no! no! no!" exclaimed Wildney; "_cannot_ be sent away like this.

It would break my father's heart.