If, again, I had known of his
illness I should not have dared to lay any heavier burden on his back
than he had to bear already; but not being uneasy about his health, I
thought a few years of roughing it and of experience concerning the
importance of not playing tricks with money would do him no harm. So I
decided to keep a sharp eye upon him as soon as he came out of prison,
and to let him splash about in deep water as best he could till I saw
whether he was able to swim, or was about to sink. In the first case I
would let him go on swimming till he was nearly eight-and-twenty, when I
would prepare him gradually for the good fortune that awaited him; in the
second I would hurry up to the rescue. So I wrote to say that Pryer had
absconded, and that he could have 100 pounds from his father when he came
out of prison. I then waited to see what effect these tidings would
have, not expecting to receive an answer for three months, for I had been
told on enquiry that no letter could be received by a prisoner till after
he had been three months in gaol. I also wrote to Theobald and told him
of Pryer's disappearance.
As a matter of fact, when my letter arrived the governor of the gaol read
it, and in a case of such importance would have relaxed the rules if
Ernest's state had allowed it; his illness prevented this, and the
governor left it to the chaplain and the doctor to break the news to him
when they thought him strong enough to bear it, which was now the case.
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