S. SKINNER, Head-master.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
ERNEST was thus in disgrace from the beginning of the holidays,
but an incident soon occurred which led him into delinquencies
compared with which all his previous sins were venial.
Among the servants at the Rectory was a remarkably pretty girl named
Ellen. She came from Devonshire, and was the daughter of a fisherman
who had been drowned when she was a child. Her mother set up a small
shop in the village where her husband had lived, and just managed to
make a living. Ellen remained with her till she was fourteen, when she
first went out to service. Four years later, when she was about
eighteen, but so well grown that she might have passed for twenty, she
had been strongly recommended to Christina, who was then in want of
a housemaid, and had now been at Battersby about twelve months.
As I have said, the girl was remarkably pretty; she looked the
perfection of health and good temper, indeed there was a serene
expression upon her face which captivated almost all who saw her;
she looked as if matters had always gone well with her and were always
going to do so, and as if no conceivable combination of
circumstances could put her for long together out of temper either
with herself or with anyone else.
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