Immediately he got any money he
would pay his debts; if there was any over he would spend it; if there
was not- and there seldom was- he would begin to go on tick again.
His finance was always based upon the supposition that he should
go back to school with L1 in his pocket- of which he owed say a matter
of fifteen shillings. There would be five shillings for sundry
school subscriptions- but when these cooks bills were paid the
weekly allowance of sixpence given to each boy in hall, his merit
money (which this half he was resolved should come to a good sum)
and renewed credit, would carry him through the half.
The sudden failure of 15/- was disastrous to my hero's scheme of
finance. His face betrayed his emotions so clearly that Theobald
said he was determined "to learn the truth at once, and this time
without days and days of falsehood" before he reached it. The
melancholy fact was not long in coming out, namely, that the
wretched Ernest added debt to the vices of idleness, falsehood, and
possibly -for it was not impossible -immorality.
How had he come to get into debt? Did the other boys do so? Ernest
reluctantly admitted that they did.
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