At first he quite broke down, and I was so pained at the
state in which I found him, that I was on the point of breaking my
instructions then and there. I contented myself, however, for the time,
with assuring him that I would help him as soon as he came out of prison,
and that, when he had made up his mind what he would do, he was to come
to me for what money might be necessary, if he could not get it from his
father. To make it easier for him I told him that his aunt, on her death-
bed, had desired me to do something of this sort should an emergency
arise, so that he would only be taking what his aunt had left him.
"Then," said he, "I will not take the 100 pounds from my father, and I
will never see him or my mother again."
I said: "Take the 100 pounds, Ernest, and as much more as you can get,
and then do not see them again if you do not like."
This Ernest would not do. If he took money from them, he could not cut
them, and he wanted to cut them. I thought my godson would get on a
great deal better if he would only have the firmness to do as he
proposed, as regards breaking completely with his father and mother, and
said so. "Then don't you like them?" said he, with a look of surprise.
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