retraced his steps slowly and reluctantly; finally, as though
constrained by some unseen power that overmastered his reserve, he
sat down on the bench and touched the youth lightly on the arm.

"You are in trouble, I fear; is there anything I can do to help
you?"

The words were simple almost to bluntness, but they were none the
worse for that, for they rang true from a good heart.

Malcolm's voice was pleasant; when he chose, it could be both
winning and persuasive; to the lad sitting there in the Egyptian
darkness of a terrifying despair, it sounded honey-sweet. He put out
a hot hand to his new friend, and then broke into a fit of tears and
sobs. "Oh, can you help me?" he gasped out. "I wanted to drown or
hang myself, sooner than disgrace them; only I thought of Dinah and
I couldn't do it;" and then as he grew calmer a little judicious
questioning and a few more kind words brought out the whole story.

He had fallen into bad hands; two or three men older and richer than
himself had got hold of him for their own purposes, and had led him
into mischief. The culminating misfortune had happened the previous
evening, when they had induced him to play at cards; the stakes were
high, though the boy was too much fuddled by champagne to guess
that.

"They made me drunk, sir," groaned Cedric; "and there was a
professional sharper there--Wright has just told me so--and he will
not let me off. If they found out things at headquarters I should be
rusticated, and I am only in my first term. The Proctor has vowed to