Ernest was not used to vicissitudes of this kind, and they made him so anxious that his health was affected.  It was arranged therefore that he had better know nothing of what was being done.  Pryer was a much better man of business than he was, and would see to it all.  This relieved Ernest of a good deal of trouble, and was better after all for the investments themselves; for, as Pryer justly said, a man must not have a faint heart if he hopes to succeed in buying and selling upon the Stock Exchange, and seeing Ernest nervous made Pryer nervous too—­at least, he said it did.  So the money drifted more and more into Pryer’s hands.  As for Pryer himself, he had nothing but his curacy and a small allowance from his father.

Some of Ernest’s old friends got an inkling from his letters of what he was doing, and did their utmost to dissuade him, but he was as infatuated as a young lover of two and twenty.  Finding that these friends disapproved, he dropped away from them, and they, being bored with his egotism and high-flown ideas, were not sorry to let him do so.  Of course, he said nothing about his speculations—­indeed, he hardly knew that anything done in so good a cause could be called speculation.  At Battersby, when his father urged him to look out for a next presentation, and even brought one or two promising ones under his notice, he made objections and excuses, though always promising to do as his father desired very shortly.

CHAPTER LVI

By and by a subtle, indefinable malaise began to take possession of him.  I once saw a very young foal trying to eat some most objectionable refuse, and unable to make up its mind whether it was good or no.  Clearly it wanted to be told.  If its mother had seen what it was doing she would have set it right in a moment, and as soon as ever it had been told that what it was eating was filth, the foal would have recognised it and never have wanted to be told again; but the foal could not settle the matter for itself, or make up its mind whether it liked what it was trying to eat or no, without assistance from without.  I suppose it would have come to do so by and by, but it was wasting time and trouble, which a single look from its mother would have saved, just as wort will in time ferment of itself, but will ferment much more quickly if a little yeast be added to it.  In the matter of knowing what gives us pleasure we are all like wort, and if unaided from without can only ferment slowly and toilsomely.

My unhappy hero about this time was very much like the foal, or rather he felt much what the foal would have felt if its mother and all the other grown-up horses in the field had vowed that what it was eating was the most excellent and nutritious food to be found anywhere.  He was so anxious to do what was right, and so ready to believe that every one knew better than himself, that he never ventured to admit to himself that he might be all the while on a hopelessly wrong tack.  It did not occur to him that there might be a blunder anywhere, much less did it occur to him to try and find out where the blunder was.  Nevertheless he became daily more full of malaise, and daily, only he knew it not, more ripe for an explosion should a spark fall upon him.