Indeed, she was once nearly giving
warning, because she thought the boy was being ill-used. The
occasion was this: Leonard had for some time shown a strange, odd
disregard of truth; he invented stories, and told them with so
grave a face, that unless there was some internal evidence of
their incorrectness (such as describing a cow with a bonnet on)
he was generally believed, and his statements, which were given
with the full appearance of relating a real occurrence, had once
or twice led to awkward results. All the three, whose hearts were
pained by this apparent unconsciousness of the difference between
truth and falsehood, were unaccustomed to children, or they would
have recognised this as a stage through which most infants, who
would have lively imaginations, pass; and, accordingly, there was
a consultation in Mr. Benson's study one morning. Ruth was there,
quiet, very pale, and with compressed lips, sick at heart as she
heard Miss Benson's arguments for the necessity of whipping, in
order to cure Leonard of his story-telling. Mr. Benson looked
unhappy and uncomfortable. Education was but a series of
experiments to them all, and they all had a secret dread of
spoiling the noble boy, who was the darling of their hearts. And,
perhaps, this very intensity of love begot an impatient,
unnecessary anxiety, and made them resolve on sterner measures
than the parent of a large family (where love was more spread
abroad) would have dared to use.
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