Charlie started for home in the highest spirits, which, however, became considerably lower on his discovering his mother’s view of his late exploits was very different from his own.  Mrs. Ellis’s fondness and admiration of her son, although almost amounting to weakness, were yet insufficient to prevent her from feeling that his conduct, even after making due allowance for the provocation he had received, could not be wholly excused as mere boyish impetuosity and love of mischievous fun.  She knew that his father would feel it his duty, not only to reprimand him, but to inflict some chastisement; and this thought was the more painful to her from the consciousness, that but for her own weak compliance with Mrs. Thomas’s request, her boy would not have been placed in circumstances which his judgment and self-command had proved insufficient to carry him through.  The day, therefore, passed less agreeably than Charlie had anticipated; for now that he was removed from the scene of his trials, he could not disguise from himself that his behaviour under them had been very different from what it ought to have been, and this had the salutary effect of bringing him into a somewhat humbler frame of mind.  When his father returned in the evening, therefore, Charlie appeared so crest-fallen that even Caddy could scarcely help commiserating him, especially as his subdued state during the day had kept him from committing any of those offences against tidiness which so frequently exasperated her.  Mr. Ellis, though very strict on what he thought points of duty, had much command of temper, and was an affectionate father.  He listened, therefore, with attention to the details of Charlie’s grievances, as well as of his misdemeanours, and some credit is due to him for the unshaken gravity he preserved throughout.  Although he secretly acquitted his son of any really bad intention, he thought it incumbent on him to make Charlie feel in some degree the evil consequences of his unruly behaviour.  After giving him a serious lecture, and pointing out the impropriety of taking such measures to deliver himself from the bondage in which his parents themselves had thought fit to place him, without even appealing to them, he insisted on his making the apologies due both to Mrs. Thomas and aunt Rachel (although he was fully aware that both had only got their deserts); and, further, intimated that he would not be reinstated in his parents’ good graces until he had proved, by his good conduct and docility, that he was really sorry for his misbehaviour.  It was a severe trial to Charlie to make these apologies; but he well knew that what his father had decided upon must be done—­so he made a virtue of necessity, and, accompanied by his mother, on the following day performed his penance with as good a grace as he was able; and, in consideration of this submission, his father, when he came home in the evening, greeted him with all his usual kindness, and the recollection of this unlucky affair was at once banished from the family circle.