But before he can do so, Van Cheele walks into his morning-room for a cigarette and finds the mysterious youth (still without any clothes on) reclining on the ottoman, perfectly relaxed. The next day, he resolves to go and visit Cunningham and ask his friend what he had seen to prompt his remark about a вЂwild beastвЂ™ living in the woods. Van Cheele initially dismisses the youth as a prankster, but on his walk home he remembers that the millerвЂ™s wife had lost a child вЂ“ reportedly swept away by the millrace вЂ“ several months ago, and Van Cheele connects this with the remark made by the mysterious youth. He asks what the boy is doing there, and the boy tells Van Cheele that he lives in the woods and that he feeds on animal flesh вЂ“ and on the flesh of children, when he can get his hands on it, though he hasnвЂ™t tasted any for two months. Van Cheele dismisses this idea, but shortly after his friend has left he encounters a boy of sixteen sunning himself naked by a pool in the forest. Cunningham, an artist-friend who has been visiting his friend Van Cheele, the owner of some woodland, tells him that there is a wild beast living there. We will say more about the wittiness of the story later.ДЇirst, a brief summary of the plot of вЂGabriel-ErnestвЂ™. James ghost story in his refusal to believe the youth when he openly admits he feeds on childrenвЂ™s flesh. (The second half of the name вЂGabriel-ErnestвЂ™ even recalls WildeвЂ™s characters, Jack and Algernon, who use the name Ernest as an alias in the Wilde play, The Importance of Being Earnest.) Indeed, Van Cheele, the owner of the woods in which Gabriel-Ernest hunts for his prey, is like a protagonist of an M. ItвЂ™s as if Oscar Wilde had been crossed with M. But the story is still shot through with SakiвЂ™s characteristic wit and irony.

вЂGabriel-ErnestвЂ™ is worthy of closer analysis because it explores a similar idea, but using Gothic horror fiction as its vehicle. As we revealed in our analysis of SakiвЂ™s вЂThe Lumber-RoomвЂ™, much of SakiвЂ™s fiction reads like a direct challenge to the Victorian notion that children are paragons of innocence.

The lost symbol sparknotes