back looking
stunned. He hardly spoke till they were in the fly that Julius had
brought from Backsworth, and then the untamed school-boy broke
forth: "What are you doing with me? I say, I can't go back to
Compton like a dog in a string."

"Where will you go?"

"I don't care. To Jericho at once, out of the way of every one. I
tell you what, Rector, it was the most ridiculous examination I ever
went up for, and I'm not the only man that says so. There was
Rivers, of St. Mary's at Backsworth,--he says the questions were
perfectly unreasonable, and what no one could be prepared for. This
fellow Danvers is a new hand, and they are always worst, setting one
a lot of subjects of no possible use but to catch one out. I should
like to ask him now what living soul at Compton he expects to be the
better for my views on the right reading of--"

Julius interrupted the passionate tones at the lodge by saying, "If
you wish to go to Jericho, you must give directions."

Herbert gave something between a laugh and a growl.

"I left the pony at Backsworth. Will you come with me to Strawyers
and wait in the park till I send Jenny out to you?"

"No, I say. I know my father will be in a greater rage than he ever
was in his life, and I won't go sneaking about. I'd like to go to
London, to some hole where no one would ever hear of me. If I were
not in Orders already, I'd be off to the ivory-hunters in Africa,
and never be heard of more. If this was to be, I wish they had
found it out a year ago, and then I should not have been bound,"
continued the poor young fellow, in his simplicity, thinking his
thoughts aloud, and his sweet candid nature beginning to recover its
balance. "Now I'm the most wretched fellow going. I know what I've
undertaken. It's not your fault, nor poor Joanna's. You've all
been at me, but it only made me worse. What could my father be
thinking of to make a parson of a fellow like me? Well, I must face
it out sooner or later at Compton, and I had better do it there than
at home, even if my father would have me."

"I must go to Strawyers. The Bishop gave me a letter for your
father, and I think it will break it a little for your mother.
Would you wait for me at Rood House? You could go into the chapel,
and if they wish for you, I could return and fetch you."

Herbert caught at this as a relief, and orders were given
accordingly. It seemed a cruel moment to tell him of young
Hornblower's evasi