The day for the operation came.  When it was over, poor Russell seemed to amend, and the removal of the perpetual pain gave him relief.  They were all deeply moved at his touching resignation; no murmur, no cry escaped him; no words but the sweetest thanks for every little office of kindness done to him.  A few days after, he asked Dr. Underhay “if he might see Eric?”

“Yes, my boy,” said the doctor kindly, “you may see him, and one or two other of your particular friends if you like, provided you don’t excite yourself too much.  I trust you will get better now.”

So Eric and Montagu were told by Dr. Rowlands that at six they might go and see their friend.  “Be sure,” he added, “that you don’t startle or excite him.”

They promised, and after school on that beautiful evening of early summer they went to the sick-room door Stopping, they held their breath, and knocked very gently.  Yes! it was the well-known voice which gave the answer, but it was faint and low.  Full of awe, they softly opened the door, which admitted them into the presence of the dear companion whom they had not seen for so long.  Since then it seemed as though gulfs far deeper than the sea had been flowing between him and them.

Full of awe, and hand in hand, they entered the room on tiptoe—­the darkened room where Russell was What a hush and oppression there seemed to them at first in the dim, silent chamber; what an awfulness in all the appliances which showed how long and deeply their schoolfellow had suffered.  But all this vanished directly they caught sight of his face.  There he lay, so calm, and weak, and still, with his bright, earnest eyes turned towards them, as though to see whether any of their affection for him had ceased or been forgotten!

In an instant they were kneeling in silence by the bed with bowed foreheads; and the sick boy tenderly put his hands on their heads, and pushed the frail white fingers through their hair, and looked at them tearfully without a word, till they hid their faces with their hands, and broke into deep suppressed sobs of compassion.

“Oh hush, hush!” he said, as he felt their tears dropping on his hands while they kissed him.  “Dear Eric, dear Monty, why should you cry so for me?  I am very happy.”

But they caught the outline of his form as he lay on the bed, and had now for the first time realized that he was a cripple for life; and as the throng of memories came on them—­memories of his skill and fame at cricket, and racquets, and football—­of their sunny bathes together in sea and river, and all their happy holiday wanderings—­they could not restrain their emotion, and wept uncontrollably.  Neither of them could speak a word, or break the holy silence; and as he patted their heads and cheeks, his own tears flowed fast in sympathy and self-pity.  But he felt the comforting affection which they could not utter; he felt it in his loneliness, and it did him good.