"
This was the first time Ernest had heard that there were any
difficulties, and he not unnaturally enquired in a vague way after
their nature.
"That, my dear boy," rejoined Christina, "is a question which I am
not fitted to enter upon either by nature or education. I might easily
unsettle your mind without being able to settle it again. Oh, no! Such
questions are far better avoided by women, and, I should have thought,
by men, but papa wished me to speak to you upon the subject, so that
there might be no mistake hereafter, and I have done so. Now,
therefore, you know all."
The conversation ended here, so far as this subject was concerned,
and Ernest thought he did know all. His mother would not have told him
he knew all- not about a matter of that sort- unless he actually did
know it; well, it did not come to very much; he supposed there were
some difficulties, but his father, who at any rate was an excellent
scholar and a learned man, was probably quite right here, and he
need not trouble himself more about them. So little impression did the
conversation make on him, that it was not till long afterwards that,
happening to remember it, he saw what a piece of sleight of hand had
been practised upon him.
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