Either take me
fully into your confidence, as a son should take a father, and trust
me to deal with this matter as a clergyman and a man of the world-
or understand distinctly that I shall take the whole story to Dr.
Skinner, who, I imagine, will take much sterner measures than I
should."
"Oh, Ernest, Ernest," sobbed Christina, "be wise in time, and
trust those who have already shown you that they know but too well how
to be forbearing."
No genuine hero of romance should have hesitated for a moment.
Nothing should have cajoled or frightened him into telling tales out
of school. Ernest thought of his ideal boys: they, he well knew, would
have let their tongues be cut out of them before information could
have been wrung from any word of theirs. But Ernest was not an ideal
boy, and he was not strong enough for his surroundings; I doubt how
far any boy could withstand the moral pressure which was brought to
bear upon him; at any rate he could not do so, and after a little more
writhing he yielded himself a passive prey to the enemy. He consoled
himself with the reflection that his papa had not played the
confidence trick on him quite as often as his mamma had, and that
probably it was better he should tell his father, than that his father
should insist on Dr.
Pages:
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320