Absolute independence he believed to be his only chance of very life
itself.
Over and above this- if this were not enough- Ernest had a faith
in his own destiny such as most young men, I suppose, feel, but the
grounds of which were not apparent to anyone but himself. Rightly or
wrongly, in a quiet way he believed he possessed a strength which,
if he were only free to use it in his own way, might do great things
some day. He did not know when, nor where, nor how his opportunity was
to come, but he never doubted that it would come in spite of all
that had happened, and above all else he cherished the hope that he
might know how to seize it if it came, for whatever it was it would be
something that no one else could do so well as he could. People said
there were no dragons and giants for adventurous men to fight with
nowadays; it was beginning to dawn upon him that there were just as
many now as at any past time.
Monstrous as such a faith may seem in one who was qualifying himself
for a high mission by a term of imprisonment, he could no more help it
than he could help breathing; it was innate in him, and it was even
more with a view to this than for other reasons that he wished to
sever the connection between himself and his parents; for he knew that
if ever the day came in which it should appear that before him too
there was a race set in which it might be an honour to have run
among the foremost, his father and mother would be the first to let
him and hinder him in running it.
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