and he was a good deal cross-examined about it. He would
sometimes write in for articles necessary for his education, such as a
portfolio, or a dictionary, and sell the same, as I have explained, in order to
eke out his pocket money - probably to buy either music or tobacco. These frauds
were sometimes, as Ernest thought, in imminent danger of being discovered, and
it was a load off his breast when the cross-examination was safely over. This
time Theobald had made a great fuss about the extras but had grudgingly passed
them; it was another matter however with the character and the moral statistics
with which the bill concluded.
    The page on which these details were to be found was headed:
 

Report of the Conduct and Progress of Ernest Pontifex Upper Vth Form - half year
                             ending Midsummer 1851

I recommend that his pocket money be made to depend upon his merit money.
                                                         S. Skinner, Headmaster.
 

                                   Chapter 38

Ernest was thus in disgrace from the beginning of the holidays, but an incident
soon occurred which led him into delinquencies compared with which all his
previous sins were venial.
    Among the servants at the rectory was a remarkably pretty girl named Ellen;
she came from Devonshire, I think from near Torquay, and was daughter of a
fisherman who had been drowned when she was a child. Her mother set up a small
shop in the village where her husband had lived, and just managed to make a
living; Ellen remained with her till she was fourteen, when she first went out
to service. Four years later when she was about eighteen, but so well grown that
she might have passed for twenty, she had been strongly recommended to Christina
who was then in want of a housemaid, and had now been at Battersby about twelve
months.
    As I have said, the girl was remarkably pretty; she looked the perfection of
health and good temper, indeed there was a serene expression upon her face which
captivated almost all who saw her; she looked as if matters always had gone well
with her and were always going to do so, and as if no conceivable combination of
circumstances could put her for long together out of temper either with herself
or anyone else. Her complexion was clear, but high; her eyes were grey and
beautifully shaped; her lips were full and restful - with something of an
Egyptian Sphinx-like character about them; when I learned that she came from
Devonshire I fancied I saw a strain of far-away Egyptian blood in her, for I had
heard, with what truth I know not, that the Egyptians made settlements on