k, which was indignantly brushed away almost as soon as it had
started.

"Come," he said, "cheer up, man. I'm not going to tell of you; neither
Grayson nor any of the men shall know it, and at present not a soul has
a suspicion of such a thing except ourselves. Come--I've had my triumph
over you, for your sharp words in hall last term, before all the men,
and that's all I wanted. Don't let's be enemies any longer.
Good-night."

But Kennedy sat there passively, and when Brogten had gone away
whistling "The Rat-catcher's Daughter," he leant his head upon his hand,
and his thoughts wandered away to Violet Home.

O holy, ennobling, purifying love! He felt that if he had known Violet
before, he should not now have been in Brogten's power. He fancied that
the secret had oozed out; he fancied that men eyed him sometimes with
strange glances; he pictured to himself the degradation he should feel
if Julian, or De Vayne, or Lillyston ever knew of what weakness he was
capable. This one error rode like a night-mare on his breast.

But none of his gloomy presentiments on the score of detection were
fulfilled. Except to Bruce, and that under pledge of secrecy, Brogten
never betrayed what he knew, and the only immediate way in which he
exercised the influence which his knowledge gave him, was by claiming
with Kennedy a tone of familiarity, and asking him to card parties,
suppers, and idle riots of all kinds, in which Bruce and Fitzurse were
frequent visitors.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

BRUCE THE TEMPTER.

"Oui autrefois; mais nous avons change tout cela."--Moliere.

Bruce was disgusted with his second class in the Saint Werner's May
examination. He had quite flattered himself that he could not fail to
be among the somewhat large number who annually obtained the pleasant
and easy distinction of a first. He had not been nearly so idle as men
supposed, although he had managed to waste a large amount of time; and
if he could have foreseen that his name would only appear in the Second
class, he would have endeavoured to be lower still, so as to make it
appear that he had not condescended to give a thought to the subject.
As it was, he hoped that if he got a first, men would remark, "Clever
fellow that Bruce! Never opened a book, and yet got a first class;"
whereas now he knew that the general judgment would be, "Bruce can't be
half such a swell as one fancied. He's only taken a second."

His vanity was wounded, and he dete