not an empty vessel among honourable men. When men depicted their
villains, moving in the grateful spheres of life, he would be one of
their models; and though the thoughtlessness of youth had made him
the type haunting himself by day and night, the world never made a
distinction. Right and wrong were things that to him only murmured
in distrust; they would be blemishes exaggerated from simple error;
but the judgment of society would never overlook them. He must now
choose between a resolution to bear the consequences at home, or
turn his back upon all that had been near and dear to him,--be a
wanderer struggling with the eventful trials of life in a distant
land! Turning pale, as if frantic with the thought of what was
before him, the struggle to choose between the two extremes, and the
only seeming alternative, he grasped the candle that flickered
before him, gave a glance round the room, as if taking a last look
at each familiar object that met his eyes, and retired.






CHAPTER V.

THE MAROONING PARTY.





A MAROONING pic-nic had been proposed and arranged by the young