Everyone whom he had to do with saw that he did not belong to what are
called the criminal classes, and finding him eager to learn and to save
trouble always treated him kindly and almost respectfully. He did not
find the work irksome: it was far more pleasant than making Latin and
Greek verses at Roughborough; he felt that he would rather be here in
prison than at Roughborough again--yes, or even at Cambridge itself. The
only trouble he was ever in danger of getting into was through exchanging
words or looks with the more decent-looking of his fellow-prisoners. This
was forbidden, but he never missed a chance of breaking the rules in this
respect.
Any man of his ability who was at the same time anxious to learn would of
course make rapid progress, and before he left prison the warder said he
was as good a tailor with his three months' apprenticeship as many a man
was with twelve. Ernest had never before been so much praised by any of
his teachers. Each day as he grew stronger in health and more accustomed
to his surroundings he saw some fresh advantage in his position, an
advantage which he had not aimed at, but which had come almost in spite
of himself, and he marvelled at his own good fortune, which had ordered
things so greatly better for him than he could have ordered them for
himself.
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