The advantage of doing one's praising for
oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right
places.
Theobald wrote Ernest a short and surly letter _a propos_ of his aunt's
intentions in this matter.
"I will not commit myself," he said, "to an opinion whether anything will
come of it; this will depend entirely upon your own exertions; you have
had singular advantages hitherto, and your kind aunt is showing every
desire to befriend you, but you must give greater proof of stability and
steadiness of character than you have given yet if this organ matter is
not to prove in the end to be only one disappointment the more.
"I must insist on two things: firstly that this new iron in the fire does
not distract your attention from your Latin and Greek"--("They aren't
mine," thought Ernest, "and never have been")--"and secondly, that you
bring no smell of glue or shavings into the house here, if you make any
part of the organ during your holidays."
Ernest was still too young to know how unpleasant a letter he was
receiving. He believed the innuendoes contained in it to be perfectly
just. He knew he was sadly deficient in perseverance.
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