Christina saw that something had gone very wrong, and was quite
frightened lest Theobald should have heard of some serious money loss;
he did not, however, at once unbosom himself, but rang the bell and
said to the servant, "Tell Master Ernest I wish to speak to him in the
dining-room."
CHAPTER XLI
LONG before Ernest reached the dining-room his ill-divining soul had
told him that his sin had found him out. What head of a family ever
sends for any of its members into the dining-room if his intentions
are honourable?
When he reached it he found it empty- his father having been
called away for a few minutes unexpectedly upon some parish
business- and he was left in the same kind of suspense as people are
in after they have been ushered into their dentist's ante-room.
Of all the rooms in the house he hated the dining-room worst. It was
here that he had had to do his Latin and Greek lessons with his
father. It had a smell of some particular kind of polish or varnish
which was used in polishing the furniture, and neither I nor Ernest
can even now come within range of the smell of this kind of varnish
without our hearts failing us.
Over the chimney-piece there was a veritable old master, one of
the few original pictures which Mr.
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