He had not seen her for so long that he was rather shy at
first, but her good nature soon set him at his ease. She was so strongly
biassed in favour of anything young that her heart warmed towards him at
once, though his appearance was less prepossessing than she had hoped.
She took him to a cake shop and gave him whatever he liked as soon as she
had got him off the school premises; and Ernest felt at once that she
contrasted favourably even with his aunts the Misses Allaby, who were so
very sweet and good. The Misses Allaby were very poor; sixpence was to
them what five shillings was to Alethea. What chance had they against
one who, if she had a mind, could put by out of her income twice as much
as they, poor women, could spend?
The boy had plenty of prattle in him when he was not snubbed, and Alethea
encouraged him to chatter about whatever came uppermost. He was always
ready to trust anyone who was kind to him; it took many years to make him
reasonably wary in this respect--if indeed, as I sometimes doubt, he ever
will be as wary as he ought to be--and in a short time he had quite
dissociated his aunt from his papa and mamma and the rest, with whom his
instinct told him he should be on his guard.
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