Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/243

Rh To Harry the news was a sad disappointment. The intimacy which had grown so dear to him seemed now forever brought to an end. He and Rupert were going to different colleges, their homes were in cities far apart; it was unlikely that their paths would ever cross in after life. The parting from friends was the inevitable sorrow which the close of school life would bring; but this premature separation from the best beloved of all, this sudden breaking off of an intimacy that had already been cruelly interrupted, seemed to Harry very hard to bear.

Francis Stoddard was equally depressed, but he surprised Harry after the first day or two of gloom by urging the duty of cheerfulness.

"I tell you," he declared to Harry and Herrick, on a stormy afternoon, when they sat together over a "brew" of chocolate, "we ought to be so thankful his life was spared that we should never be sad again. That's enough in itself to make us happy, and I'm going to be as happy as I can."

"That's the way to talk," said Herrick.