Say that my greatest pain is the thought of
the disgrace I have inflicted upon them, and that above all things else I
will study to avoid paining them hereafter; but say also that if they
write to me I will return their letters unopened, and that if they come
and see me I will protect myself in whatever way I can."
By this time he was at the prison gate, and in another moment was at
liberty. After he had got a few steps out he turned his face to the
prison wall, leant against it for support, and wept as though his heart
would break.
Giving up father and mother for Christ's sake was not such an easy matter
after all. If a man has been possessed by devils for long enough they
will rend him as they leave him, however imperatively they may have been
cast out. Ernest did not stay long where he was, for he feared each
moment that his father and mother would come out. He pulled himself
together and turned into the labyrinth of small streets which opened out
in front of him.
He had crossed his Rubicon--not perhaps very heroically or dramatically,
but then it is only in dramas that people act dramatically. At any rate,
by hook or by crook, he had scrambled over, and was out upon the other
side.
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