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.
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