Kabanata Kabanata 42 · 第42章

. About a week before he went back to school his father again sent for

him into the dining-room, and told him that he should restore him his

watch, but that he should deduct the sum he had paid for it—for he had

thought it better to pay a few shillings rather than dispute the

ownership of the watch, seeing that Ernest had undoubtedly given it to

Ellen—from his pocket money, in payments which should extend over two

half years. He would therefore have to go back to Roughborough this

half year with only five shillings’ pocket money. If he wanted more he

must earn more merit money.

Ernest was not so careful about money as a pattern boy should be. He

did not say to himself, “Now I have got a sovereign which must last me

fifteen weeks, therefore I may spend exactly one shilling and fourpence

in each week”—and spend exactly one and fourpence in each week

accordingly. He ran through his money at about the same rate as other

boys did, being pretty well cleaned out a few days after he had got

back to school. When he had no more money, he got a little into debt,

and when as far in debt as he could see his way to repaying, he went

without luxuries. Immediately he got any money he would pay his debts;

if there was any over he would spend it; if there was not—and there

seldom was—he would begin to go on tick again.

His finance was always based upon the supposition that he should go

back to school with £1 in his pocket—of which he owed say a matter of

fifteen shillings. There would be five shillings for sundry school

subscriptions—but when these were paid the weekly allowance of sixpence

given to each boy in hall, his merit money (which this half he was

resolved should come to a good sum) and renewed credit, would carry him

through the half.

The sudden failure of 15/- was disastrous to my hero’s scheme of

finance. His face betrayed his emotions so clearly that Theobald said

he was determined “to learn the truth at once, and _this time_ without

days and days of falsehood” before he reached it. The melancholy fact

was not long in coming out, namely, that the wretched Ernest added debt

to the vices of idleness, falsehood and possibly—for it was not

impossible—immorality.

How had he come to get into debt? Did the other boys do so? Ernest

reluctantly admitted that they did.

With what shops did they get into debt?

This was asking too much, Ernest said he didn’t know!

“Oh, Ernest, Ernest,” exclaimed his mother, who was in the room, “do

not so soon a second time presume upon the forbearance of the

tenderest-hearted father in the world. Give time for one stab to heal

before you wound him with another.”

This was all very fine, but what was Ernest to do? How could he get the

school shop-keepers into trouble by owning that they let some of the

boys go on tick with them? There was Mrs Cross, a good old soul, who

used to sell hot rolls and butter for breakfast, or eggs and toast, or

it might be the quarter of a fowl with bread sauce and mashed potatoes

for which she would charge 6d. If she made a farthing out of the

sixpence it was as much as she did. When the boys would come trooping

into her shop after “the hounds” how often had not Ernest heard her say

to her servant girls, “Now then, you wanches, git some cheers.” All the

boys were fond of her, and was he, Ernest, to tell tales about her? It

was horrible.

“Now look here, Ernest,” said his father with his blackest scowl, “I am

going to put a stop to this nonsense once for all. Either take me fully

into your confidence, as a son should take a father, and trust me to

deal with this matter as a clergyman and a man of the world—or

understand distinctly that I shall take the whole story to Dr Skinner,

who, I imagine, will take much sterner measures than I should.”

“Oh, Ernest, Ernest,” sobbed Christina, “be wise in time, and trust

those who have already shown you that they know but too well how to be

forbearing.”

No genuine hero of romance should have hesitated for a moment. Nothing

should have cajoled or frightened him into telling tales out of school.

Ernest thought of his ideal boys: they, he well knew, would have let

their tongues be cut out of them before information could have been

wrung from any word of theirs. But Ernest was not an ideal boy, and he

was not strong enough for his surroundings; I doubt how far any boy

could withstand the moral pressure which was brought to bear upon him;

at any rate he could not do so, and after a little more writhing he

yielded himself a passive prey to the enemy. He consoled himself with

the reflection that his papa had not played the confidence trick on him

quite as often as his mamma had, and that probably it was better he

should tell his father, than that his father should insist on Dr

Skinner’s making an inquiry. His papa’s conscience “jabbered” a good

deal, but not as much as his mamma’s. The little fool forgot that he

had not given his father as many chances of betraying him as he had

given to Christina.

Then it all came out. He owed this at Mrs Cross’s, and this to Mrs

Jones, and this at the “Swan and Bottle” public house, to say nothing

of another shilling or sixpence or two in other quarters. Nevertheless,

Theobald and Christina were not satiated, but rather the more they

discovered the greater grew their appetite for discovery; it was their

obvious duty to find out everything, for though they might rescue their

own darling from this hotbed of iniquity without getting to know more

than they knew at present, were there not other papas and mammas with

darlings whom also they were bound to rescue if it were yet possible?

What boys, then, owed money to these harpies as well as Ernest?

Here, again, there was a feeble show of resistance, but the thumbscrews

were instantly applied, and Ernest, demoralised as he already was,

recanted and submitted himself to the powers that were. He told only a

little less than he knew or thought he knew. He was examined,

re-examined, cross-examined, sent to the retirement of his own bedroom

and cross-examined again; the smoking in Mrs Jones’ kitchen all came

out; which boys smoked and which did not; which boys owed money and,

roughly, how much and where; which boys swore and used bad language.

Theobald was resolved that this time Ernest should, as he called it,

take him into his confidence without reserve, so the school list which

went with Dr Skinner’s half-yearly bills was brought out, and the most

secret character of each boy was gone through _seriatim_ by Mr and Mrs

Pontifex, so far as it was in Ernest’s power to give information

concerning it, and yet Theobald had on the preceding Sunday preached a

less feeble sermon than he commonly preached, upon the horrors of the

Inquisition. No matter how awful was the depravity revealed to them,

the pair never flinched, but probed and probed, till they were on the

point of reaching subjects more delicate than they had yet touched

upon. Here Ernest’s unconscious self took the matter up and made a

resistance to which his conscious self was unequal, by tumbling him off

his chair in a fit of fainting.

Dr Martin was sent for and pronounced the boy to be seriously unwell;

at the same time he prescribed absolute rest and absence from nervous

excitement. So the anxious parents were unwillingly compelled to be

content with what they had got already—being frightened into leading

him a quiet life for the short remainder of the holidays. They were not

idle, but Satan can find as much mischief for busy hands as for idle

ones, so he sent a little job in the direction of Battersby which

Theobald and Christina undertook immediately. It would be a pity, they

reasoned, that Ernest should leave Roughborough, now that he had been

there three years; it would be difficult to find another school for

him, and to explain why he had left Roughborough. Besides, Dr Skinner

and Theobald were supposed to be old friends, and it would be

unpleasant to offend him; these were all valid reasons for not removing

the boy. The proper thing to do, then, would be to warn Dr Skinner

confidentially of the state of his school, and to furnish him with a

school list annotated with the remarks extracted from Ernest, which

should be appended to the name of each boy.

Theobald was the perfection of neatness; while his son was ill

upstairs, he copied out the school list so that he could throw his

comments into a tabular form, which assumed the following shape—only

that of course I have changed the names. One cross in each square was

to indicate occasional offence; two stood for frequent, and three for

habitual delinquency.

Smoking Drinking beer Swearing Notes at the “Swan

and Obscene and Bottle.” Language. Smith O

O XX Will smoke next half Brown

XXX O X Jones X

XX XXX Robinson XX XX