As
soon as he had collected himself sufficiently he recognised the
magistrate as the old gentleman who had spoken to him in the train
on the day he was leaving school, and saw, or thought he saw, to his
great grief, that he too was recognised.
Mr. Ottery, for this was our attorney's name, took the line he had
proposed. He called no other witnesses than the rector, Towneley and
myself, and threw himself on the mercy of the magistrate. When he
had concluded, the magistrate spoke as follows: "Ernest Pontifex,
yours is one of the most painful cases that I have ever had to deal
with. You have been singularly favoured in your parentage and
education. You have had before you the example of blameless parents,
who doubtless instilled into you from childhood the enormity of the
offence which by your own confession you have committed. You were sent
to one of the best public schools in England. It is not likely that in
the healthy atmosphere of such a school as you can have come across
contaminating influences; you were probably, I may say certainly,
impressed at school with the heinousness of any attempt to depart from
the strictest chastity until such time as you had entered into a state
of matrimony.
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