s!
it was not to close as it had begun; the fickle atmosphere in which he
lived was never more likely to breed a storm than after such an interval
of brilliant calm, and when Theobald returned Ernest had only to look in
his face to see that a hurricane was approaching.

Christina saw that something had gone very wrong, and was quite
frightened lest Theobald should have heard of some serious money loss; he
did not, however, at once unbosom himself, but rang the bell and said to
the servant, "Tell Master Ernest I wish to speak to him in the dining-
room."

CHAPTER XLI

Long before Ernest reached the dining-room his ill-divining soul had told
him that his sin had found him out. What head of a family ever sends for
any of its members into the dining-room if his intentions are honourable?

When he reached it he found it empty--his father having been called away
for a few minutes unexpectedly upon some parish business--and he was left
in the same kind of suspense as people are in after they have been
ushered into their dentist's ante-room.

Of all the rooms in the house he hated the dining-room worst. It was
here that he had had to do his Latin and Greek lessons with his father.
It had a smell of some particular kind of polish or varnish which was
used in polishing the furniture, and neither I nor Ernest can even now
come within range of the smell of this kind of varnish without our hearts
failing us.

Over the chimney-piece there was a veritable old master, one of the few
original pictures which Mr George Pontifex had brought from Italy. It
was supposed to be a Salvator Rosa, and had been bought as a great
bargain. The subject was Elijah or Elisha (whichever it was) being fed
by the ravens in the desert. There were the ravens in the upper right-
hand corner with bread and meat in their beaks and claws, and there was
the prophet in question in the lower left-hand corner looking longingly
up towards them. When Ernest was a very small boy it had been a constant
matter of regret to him that the food which the ravens carried never
actually reached the prophet; he did not understand the limitation of the
painter's art, and wanted the meat and the prophet to be brought into
direct contact. One day, with the help of some steps which had been left
in the room, he had clambered up to the picture and with a piece of bread
and butter traced a greasy line right across it from the ravens to
Elisha's mouth, after whic