The more intimate the boy had been or was supposed to be with Ernest
the more he was declared to be naught, till in the end he had hit upon
the plan of saying, concerning any boy whom he particularly liked,
that he was not one of his especial chums, and that indeed he hardly
knew why he had asked him; but he found he only fell on Scylla in
trying to avoid Charybdis, for though the boy was declared to be
more successful, it was Ernest who was naught for not thinking more
highly of him.
When she had once got hold of a name she never forgot it. "And how
is So-and-so?" she would exclaim, mentioning some former friend of
Ernest's with whom he had either now quarrelled, or who had long since
proved to be a mere comet and no fixed star at all. How Ernest
wished he had never mentioned So-and-so's name, and vowed to himself
that he would never talk about his friends in future, but in a few
hours he would forget and would prattle away as imprudently as ever;
then his mother would pounce noiselessly on his remarks as a
barn-owl pounces upon a mouse, and would bring them up in a pellet six
months afterwards when they were no longer in harmony with their
surroundings.
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