CHAPTER LXIV
After Ernest had been sentenced, he was taken back to the cells to wait
for the van which should take him to Coldbath Fields, where he was to
serve his term.
He was still too stunned and dazed by the suddenness with which events
had happened during the last twenty-four hours to be able to realise his
position. A great chasm had opened between his past and future;
nevertheless he breathed, his pulse beat, he could think and speak. It
seemed to him that he ought to be prostrated by the blow that had fallen
on him, but he was not prostrated; he had suffered from many smaller
laches far more acutely. It was not until he thought of the pain his
disgrace would inflict on his father and mother that he felt how readily
he would have given up all he had, rather than have fallen into his
present plight. It would break his mother's heart. It must, he knew it
would--and it was he who had done this.
He had had a headache coming on all the forenoon, but as he thought of
his father and mother, his pulse quickened, and the pain in his head
suddenly became intense. He could hardly walk to the van, and he found
its motion insupportable.
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