"Of course you needn't be ordained: nobody will compel you; you are
perfectly free; you are twenty-three years of age, and should know
your own mind; but why not have known it sooner, instead of never so
much as breathing a hint of opposition until I have had all the
expense of sending you to the University, which I should never have
done unless I had believed you to have made up your mind about taking
orders? I have letters from you in which you express the most perfect
willingness to be ordained, and your brother and sisters will bear me
out in saying that no pressure of any sort has been put upon you. You
mistake your own mind, and are suffering from a nervous timidity which
may be very natural but may not the less be pregnant with serious
consequences to yourself. I am not at all well, and the anxiety
occasioned by your letter is naturally preying upon me. May God guide
you to a better judgement.--Your affectionate father, G. PONTIFEX."
On the receipt of this letter Theobald plucked up his spirits. "My
father," he said to himself, "tells me I need not be ordained if I do not
like. I do not like, and therefore I will not be ordained.
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