Skinner's making an enquiry. His papa's
conscience "jabbered" a good deal, but not as much as his mamma's. The
little fool forgot that he had not given his father as many chances of
betraying him as he had to Christina.
Then it all came out. He owed this at Mrs. Cross's, and this to Mrs.
Jones, and this at the "Swan and Bottle" public house, to say
nothing of another shilling or sixpence or two in other quarters.
Nevertheless, Theobald and Christina were not satiated, but rather the
more they discovered the greater grew their appetite for discovery; it
was their obvious duty to find out everything, for though they might
rescue their own darling from this hotbed of iniquity without
getting to know more than they knew at present, were there not other
papas and mammas with darlings whom also they were bound to rescue
if it were yet possible? What boys, then, owed money to these
harpies as well as Ernest?
Here, again, there was a feeble show of resistance, but the
thumbscrews were instantly applied, and Ernest, demoralised as he
already was, recanted and submitted himself to the powers that were.
He told only a little less than he knew or thought he knew.
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