She knew she could not interfere effectually then, and wisely forebore
to make too many enquiries. Her time, if ever it was to come, would be
when the children were no longer living under the same roof as their
parents. It ended in her making up her mind to have nothing to do with
either Joey or Charlotte, but to see so much of Ernest as should
enable her to form an opinion about his disposition and abilities.
He had now been a year and a half at Roughborough and was nearly
fourteen years old, so that his character had begun to shape. His aunt
had not seen him for some little time, and, thinking that if she was
to exploit him she could do so now perhaps better than at any other
time, she resolved to go down to Roughborough on some pretext which
should be good enough for Theobald, and to take stock of her nephew
under circumstances in which she could get him for some few hours to
herself. Accordingly in August, 1849, when Ernest was just entering on
his fourth half year, a cab drove up to Dr. Skinner's door with Miss
Pontifex, who asked and obtained leave for Ernest to come and dine
with her at the Swan Hotel. She had written to Ernest to say she was
coming and he was of course on the lookout for her.
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