bring good to us all out of this sorrow! As for yourself, I hope
that your guardian's resentment will be short-lived, and that you will
let me hear of your welfare. Count on me as a friend, in spite of all.

"Yours always,--

"T. Frampton."

"In spite of all!" groaned poor Jeffreys, as he crushed the letter into
his pocket. "Will no one have pity on me?"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

WHAT A DAY FOR JONAH!

The six months which followed Jeffreys' introduction into the classical
atmosphere of Galloway House passed uneventfully for him, and not
altogether unpleasantly. He had, it is true, the vision of young
Forrester always in his mind, to drag him down, whenever he dwelt upon
it, into the bitterest dejection; and he had the active spite and
insolence of Jonah Trimble daily to try his temper and tax his patience.

Otherwise he was comfortable. Mrs Trimble, finding him steady and
quiet, treated him kindly when she had her own way, and indifferently
when her son was with her. The boys of the second class maintained the
mysterious respect they had conceived for him on the day of his arrival,
and gave him wonderfully little trouble or difficulty.

He had his evenings for the most part to himself, and even succeeded,
after something like a battle-royal with the Trimbles, in carrying his
point of having one "evening out" in the week. It nearly cost him his
situation, and it nearly cost Jonah a bone-shaking before the question
was settled. But Jeffreys could be stubborn when he chose, and stood
out grimly on this point. Had it not been for this weekly respite,
Galloway House would have become intolerable before a month was over.

He heard occasionally from Mr Frampton; but the one question which
would have interested him most was generally passed over. Mr Frampton
probably considered that any reference to Forrester would be painful to
his correspondent, and therefore avoided it. At last, however, in reply
to Jeffreys' entreaty to know where the boy was and how he was
progressing, the head-master wrote:--

"I really cannot tell you what you want to know about Forrester, as I
have heard nothing of him. His father, as you know, is an officer in
India, and his only relative in England was his grandmother, to whose
house at Grangerham he was removed on leaving here. The last I heard
was a month after he had left here, when he was reported still to be
lingering. His grandmother, so I heard, was very ill. He himself,