CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
MISSING LINKS.
For three hours that night the two friends, arm-in-arm, paced the empty streets, saying little, brooding much, yet gaining courage at every step.

The touch of his guardian's arm thrilled Roger now and again with a sensation of hope and relief in the midst of his dejection which almost surprised him.

He had lost his brother; but was not this man as good as a brother to him?
Would life be quite brotherless as long as he remained at his side?
The tutor, for his part, experienced a strange emotion too.

The opening day had brought a crisis in his life as well as in that of his ward.

It was a day to which he had long looked forward, partly with the dread of separation, partly with the joy of a man who has honestly done his work and is about to render up his trust.