ked the selection of
this day, but the bishop was pressed by many engagements, and had been
compelled to make the arrangement as it then stood. Ernest was among
those who had to be confirmed, and was deeply impressed with the solemn
importance of the ceremony. When he felt the huge old bishop drawing
down upon him as he knelt in chapel he could hardly breathe, and when the
apparition paused before him and laid its hands upon his head he was
frightened almost out of his wits. He felt that he had arrived at one of
the great turning points of his life, and that the Ernest of the future
could resemble only very faintly the Ernest of the past.

This happened at about noon, but by the one o'clock dinner-hour the
effect of the confirmation had worn off, and he saw no reason why he
should forego his annual amusement with the bonfire; so he went with the
others and was very valiant till the image was actually produced and was
about to be burnt; then he felt a little frightened. It was a poor thing
enough, made of paper, calico and straw, but they had christened it The
Rev. Theobald Pontifex, and he had a revulsion of feeling as he saw it
being carried towards the bonfire. Still he held his ground, and in a
few minutes when all was over felt none the worse for having assisted at
a ceremony which, after all, was prompted by a boyish love of mischief
rather than by rancour.

I should say that Ernest had written to his father, and told him of the
unprecedented way in which he was being treated; he even ventured to
suggest that Theobald should interfere for his protection and reminded
him how the story had been got out of him, but Theobald had had enough of
Dr Skinner for the present; the burning of the school list had been a
rebuff which did not encourage him to meddle a second time in the
internal economics of Roughborough. He therefore replied that he must
either remove Ernest from Roughborough altogether, which would for many
reasons be undesirable, or trust to the discretion of the head master as
regards the treatment he might think best for any of his pupils. Ernest
said no more; he still felt that it was so discreditable to him to have
allowed any confession to be wrung from him, that he could not press the
promised amnesty for himself.

It was during the "Mother Cross row," as it was long styled among the
boys, that a remarkable phenomenon was witnessed at Roughborough. I mean
that of the head boys under certain con