So he shrank out of sight of those whom in his boyish way he
idolised, never for a moment suspecting that he might have
capacities to the full as high as theirs though of a different kind,
and fell in more with those who were reputed of the baser sort, with
whom he could at any rate be upon equal terms. Before the end of the
half year he had dropped from the estate to which he had been raised
during his aunt's stay at Roughborough, and his old dejection, varied,
however, with bursts of conceit rivalling those of his mother, resumed
its sway over him. "Pontifex," said Dr. Skinner, who had fallen upon
him in hall one day like a moral landslip, before he had time to
escape, "do you never laugh? Do you always look so preternaturally
grave?" The Doctor had not meant to be unkind, but the boy turned
crimson, and escaped.
There was one place only where he was happy, and that was in the old
church of St. Michael, when his friend the organist was practising.
About this time cheap editions of the great oratorios began to appear,
and Ernest got them all as soon as they were published; he would
sometimes sell a school-book to a second-hand dealer, and buy a number
or two of the "Messiah," or the "Creation," or "Elijah," with the
proceeds.
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