CHAPTER LXIV
AFTER Ernest had been sentenced, he was taken back to the cells to
wait for the van which should take him to Coldbath Fields, where he
was to serve his term.
He was still too stunned and dazed by the suddenness with which
events had happened during the last twenty-four hours to be able to
realise his position. A great chasm had opened between his past and
future; nevertheless he breathed, his pulse beat, he could think and
speak. It seemed to him that he ought to be prostrated by the blow
that had fallen on him, but he was not prostrated; he had suffered
from many smaller laches far more acutely. It was not until he thought
of the pain his disgrace would inflict on his father and mother that
he felt how readily he would have given up all he had, rather than
have fallen into his present plight. It would break his mother's
heart. It must, he knew it would- and it was he who had done this.
He had had a headache coming on all the forenoon, but as he
thought of his father and mother, his pulse quickened, and the pain in
his head suddenly became intense. He could hardly walk to the van, and
he found its motion insupportable. On reaching the prison he was too
ill to walk without assistance across the hall to the corridor or
gallery where prisoners are marshalled on their arrival.
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