At this moment the old servant came in and asked Howard if he would
take lunch.

"Yes; I won't go into Hall," said Howard. "Lunch for two--you can
stay and lunch with me, Jack; and I will give you a lecture about
your sins."

The boy said, "Yes, thanks very much; I'd love to."

Jack Sandys was a pupil of Howard's in whom he had a special
interest. He was the son of Frank Sandys, the Vicar of the
Somersetshire parish where Mrs. Graves, Howard's aunt, lived at the
Manor-house. Frank Sandys was a cousin of Mrs. Graves' deceased
husband. She had advised the Vicar to send Jack to Beaufort, and
had written specially commending him to Howard's care. But the boy
had needed little commendation. From the first moment that Jack
Sandys had appeared, smiling and unembarrassed, in Howard's room, a
relation that was almost filial and paternal had sprung up between
them. He had treated Howard from the outset with an innocent
familiarity, and asked him the most direct questions. He was not a
particularly intellectual youth, though he had some vague literary
interests; but he was entirely healthy, good, and quite
irresistibly charming in his naivete and simplicity. Howard had a
dislike of all sentimentality, but the suppressed paternal instinct
which was strong in him had been awakened; and though he made no
emotional advances, he found himself strangely drawn to the boy,
with a feeling for which he could not wholly account. He did not
care for Jack's athletic interests; his tastes and mental processes
were obscure to him. Howard's own nature was at once intellectual
and imaginative, but he felt an extreme delight in the fearless and