weather being very
hot, he had taken off his coat and waistcoat; in carrying them over his
arm his watch, his money, and his knife had dropped out of them. He had
got nearly home when he found out his loss, and had run back as fast as
he could, looking along the line he had followed, till at last he had
given it up; seeing the carriage coming back from the station, he had let
it pick him up and bring him home.

This covered everything, the running and all; for his face still showed
that he must have been running hard; the only question was whether he had
been seen about the Rectory by any but the servants for a couple of hours
or so before Ellen had gone, and this he was happy to believe was not the
case; for he had been out except during his few minutes' interview with
the cook. His father had been out in the parish; his mother had
certainly not come across him, and his brother and sister had also been
out with the governess. He knew he could depend upon the cook and the
other servants--the coachman would see to this; on the whole, therefore,
both he and the coachman thought the story as proposed by Ernest would
about meet the requirements of the case.

CHAPTER XL

When Ernest got home and sneaked in through the back door, he heard his
father's voice in its angriest tones, inquiring whether Master Ernest had
already returned. He felt as Jack must have felt in the story of Jack
and the Bean Stalk, when from the oven in which he was hidden he heard
the ogre ask his wife what young children she had got for his supper.
With much courage, and, as the event proved, with not less courage than
discretion, he took the bull by the horns, and announced himself at once
as having just come in after having met with a terrible misfortune.
Little by little he told his story, and though Theobald stormed somewhat
at his "incredible folly and carelessness," he got off better than he
expected. Theobald and Christina had indeed at first been inclined to
connect his absence from dinner with Ellen's dismissal, but on finding it
clear, as Theobald said--everything was always clear with Theobald--that
Ernest had not been in the house all the morning, and could therefore
have known nothing of what had happened, he was acquitted on this account
for once in a way, without a stain upon his character. Perhaps Theobald
was in a good temper; he may have seen from the paper that morning that
his stocks had been rising; it may have bee