by slow and
fatal degrees, were developing into passions.

Hazlet had come to Camford not so much innocent as ignorant. He had
never learnt to restrain and control the strong tendencies which, in the
quiet shades of Ildown, had been sheltered from temptation. A few
months before he would have heard with unmitigated horror the
delinquencies which he now committed without a scruple, and defended
without a blush. None are so precipitate in the career of sin and folly
as backsliders; none so unchecked in the downward course as those to
whom the mystery of iniquity is suddenly displayed when they have had
none of the gradual training whereby men are armed to resist its
seductions.

Who does not know from personal observation that the cycle of sins is
bound together by a thousand invisible filaments, and that myriads of
unknown connections unite them to one another? Hazlet, when he had once
"forsaken the guide of his youth, and forgotten the covenant of his
God," did not stop short at one or two temptations, and yield only to
some favourite vice. With a rapidity as amazing as it was disastrous,
he developed in the course of two or three months into one of the most
shameless and dissipated of the worst Saint Werner's set. There was
something characteristic in the way in which he frothed out his own
shame, boasting of his infamous liberty with an arrogance which
resembled his former conceit in spiritual superiority.

Julian, who now saw less of him than ever, had no opportunity of
speaking to him as to his course of life; but at last an incident
happened which persuaded him that further silence would be a culpable
neglect of his duty to his neighbour.

Montagu, of Roslyn School, came up to Camford to spend a Sunday with
Owen, and Owen asked Julian and Lillyston to meet him. They liked each
other very much, and Julian rapidly began to regard Montagu as a real
friend. In order to see as much of each other as possible, they all
agreed to take a four-oar on the Saturday morning, and row to Elnham; at
Elnham they dined, and spent two pleasant hours in visiting the
beautiful cathedral, so that they did not get back to Camford till
eleven at night.

Their way from the boats to Saint Werner's lay through a bad part of the
town, and they walked quickly, Owen and Montagu being a little way in
front.

A few gas-lights were burning at long intervals in the narrow lane
through which they had to pass, and as they walked unde