________________________________________________
_ This advice, besides being obviously sensible, would end in saving
Ernest both time and suspense of mind, so we had no hesitation in
adopting it. The case was called on about eleven o'clock, but we
got it adjourned till three, so as to give time for Ernest to set
his affairs as straight as he could, and to execute a power of
attorney enabling me to act for him as I should think fit while he
was in prison.
Then all came out about Pryer and the College of Spiritual
Pathology. Ernest had even greater difficulty in making a clean
breast of this than he had had in telling us about Miss Maitland,
but he told us all, and the upshot was that he had actually handed
over to Pryer every halfpenny that he then possessed with no other
security than Pryer's I.O.U.'s for the amount. Ernest, though still
declining to believe that Pryer could be guilty of dishonourable
conduct, was becoming alive to the folly of what he had been doing;
he still made sure, however, of recovering, at any rate, the greater
part of his property as soon as Pryer should have had time to sell.
Towneley and I were of a different opinion, but we did not say what
we thought.
It was dreary work waiting all the morning amid such unfamiliar and
depressing surroundings. I thought how the Psalmist had exclaimed
with quiet irony, "One day in thy courts is better than a thousand,"
and I thought that I could utter a very similar sentiment in respect
of the Courts in which Towneley and I were compelled to loiter. At
last, about three o'clock the case was called on, and we went round
to the part of the court which is reserved for the general public,
while Ernest was taken into the prisoner's dock. As soon as he had
collected himself sufficiently he recognised the magistrate as the
old gentleman who had spoken to him in the train on the day he was
leaving school, and saw, or thought he saw, to his great grief, that
he too was recognised.
Mr Ottery, for this was our attorney's name, took the line he had
proposed. He called no other witnesses than the rector, Towneley
and myself, and threw himself on the mercy of the magistrate. When
he had concluded, the magistrate spoke as follows: "Ernest
Pontifex, yours is one of the most painful cases that I have ever
had to deal with. You have been singularly favoured in your
parentage and education. You have had before you the example of
blameless parents, who doubtless instilled into you from childhood
the enormity of the offence which by your own confession you have
committed. You were sent to one of the best public schools in
England. It is not likely that in the healthy atmosphere of such a
school as Roughborough you can have come across contaminating
influences; you were probably, I may say certainly, impressed at
school with the heinousness of any attempt to depart from the
strictest chastity until such time as you had entered into a state
of matrimony. At Cambridge you were shielded from impurity by every
obstacle which virtuous and vigilant authorities could devise, and
even had the obstacles been fewer, your parents probably took care
that your means should not admit of your throwing money away upon
abandoned characters. At night proctors patrolled the street and
dogged your steps if you tried to go into any haunt where the
presence of vice was suspected. By day the females who were
admitted within the college walls were selected mainly on the score
of age and ugliness. It is hard to see what more can be done for
any young man than this. For the last four or five months you have
been a clergyman, and if a single impure thought had still remained
within your mind, ordination should have removed it: nevertheless,
not only does it appear that your mind is as impure as though none
of the influences to which I have referred had been brought to bear
upon it, but it seems as though their only result had been this--
that you have not even the common sense to be able to distinguish
between a respectable girl and a prostitute.
"If I were to take a strict view of my duty I should commit you for
trial, but in consideration of this being your first offence, I
shall deal leniently with you and sentence you to imprisonment with
hard labour for six calendar months."
Towneley and I both thought there was a touch of irony in the
magistrate's speech, and that he could have given a lighter sentence
if he would, but that was neither here nor there. We obtained leave
to see Ernest for a few minutes before he was removed to Coldbath
Fields, where he was to serve his term, and found him so thankful to
have been summarily dealt with that he hardly seemed to care about
the miserable plight in which he was to pass the next six months.
When he came out, he said, he would take what remained of his money,
go off to America or Australia and never be heard of more.
We left him full of this resolve, I, to write to Theobald, and also
to instruct my solicitor to get Ernest's money out of Pryer's hands,
and Towneley to see the reporters and keep the case out of the
newspapers. He was successful as regards all the higher-class
papers. There was only one journal, and that of the lowest class,
which was incorruptible. _
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