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.
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