usal.

"`De Vayne!' how that name haunts me; how full it is of horror--De
Vayne and Hazlet; and yet I hear that both have contributed to my
help. It gives me new life to know that human hearts can be so full
of forgiveness and of love.

"Starting almost for another world--without fortune, without friends,
with nothing but head and heart, the wreck of what I was--I sometimes
feel so sad that I could wish myself out of the world altogether.
Forgive me, then, for once more bringing before you a name which you
can only connect with the most unpleasant and sombre thoughts, and
pray for me that my efforts, (this time they are genuine and sincere),
to improve my life, my talents, and my fortune, may be crowned with
success.

"We sail in an hour or sooner, for I hear them weighing anchor now.
Good-bye. Accept my warmest thanks for all your kindnesses, and my
wishes, (ah! that they were worthier!) for your happiness in life, and
believe me, my dear Julian, your sincere and grateful friend--

"Vyvyan Bruce.

"_P S_--I am positively alone; not one soul is here even to bid me
good-bye. Eheu! jam serus vitam ingemo relictam!"

Julian read the letter many times; he was touched by its delicate and
eloquent sorrow--its fine and chastened thoughtfulness. He was no
longer in a mood to work, but closed his books, and watched the faces in
the fire. One thought filled him with joy and thankfulness; it was the
thought that, though of his friends and acquaintances so many had gone
wrong, yet God was leading them back again, by rough and thorny roads it
might be, but still by sure roads to the right path once more. Hazlet,
Bruce, Brogten--above all, his friend and brother Kennedy--were
returning to the fold they had deserted, were learning that for him who
has sinned and suffered, REPENTANCE IS THE WORK OF LIFE. And as these
thoughts floated through Julian's mind, the words of an old prayer came
back upon his lips--"That it may please Thee to strengthen such as do
stand; and to _comfort and help the weak-hearted, and to raise up them
that fall_; and finally, to beat down Satan under our feet."

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

A QUIET PROSPECT.

"Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est prorsus occupata."
Seneca, Epistolae 33.

Julian's third year at Camford was by no means the happiest period of
his life there, because the sad absence of Kennedy and De Vayne made a
gap in his circle of friends wh