"I did not only mean love of oneself," said Mrs. Evelyn, gently.
"I was thinking of the fine gold we heard of this morning. When our
boys once have found that secret, the chief of our work is done."
"Ah! and I never understood how to give them that," said Caroline.
"We have been all astray ever since their father left us."
"Do you know," said Mrs. Evelyn, with a certain sweet shyness, "I
can't help thinking that your dear Lucas found that gold among the
stones of the moraine, and will help my poor weak Cecil to keep a
fast hold of it."
Mrs. Evelyn's opinion was confirmed, when a few days later came the
answer to Jock's letter to his tutor, pleasing and touching both
friends so much that each showed it to his mother. Another important
piece of intelligence came in a letter from John to his cousin,
namely that the present Captain of the house, with two or three more
"fellows," were leaving Eton at the Midsummer holidays, and that his
tutor had been talking to him about becoming Captain.
Jock and Cecil greatly rejoiced, for the departing Captain had been a
youth whose incapacity for government had been much better known to
his subordinates than to his master, and the other two had been the
special tempters and evil geniuses of the house, those who above all
had set themselves to make obedience and religion seem contemptible,
and vice daring and manly.
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