would appear was very severe on cases
of this description, and that the fact of his being a clergyman would
tell against him. "Ask for no remand," he said, "and make no defence. We
will call Mr Pontifex's rector and you two gentlemen as witnesses for
previous good character. These will be enough. Let us then make a
profound apology and beg the magistrate to deal with the case summarily
instead of sending it for trial. If you can get this, believe me, your
young friend will be better out of it than he has any right to expect."

CHAPTER LXII

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, tha