A Child of the Cloth Read Online Free PDF Page A

Curate. I assured Arthur that at the first opportunity I would tell my father of his wish to speak to him.
    â€œWe stayed together until just after lunchtime, when I suggested that it would be right if I returned home, as I thought that, by now, my father would have had sufficient time to speak with my mother. We arranged to meet at our special place the next day. I entered the house with some trepidation, not knowing quite what to expect, but the last thing I expected was the total silence which greeted me.
    â€œAs I walked down the hall to my father’s study our maid, Lily, met me. I asked her if she knew whether my father was in his study. She said yes, he was in the study but had requested not to be disturbed, and added that the mistress had gone to her room. This unnerving silence continued for some days. Each time I attempted to broach the subject of Arthur and me, it came to no avail. There was now an atmosphere in the house that had never been there before.
    â€œI even overheard Mrs. Wiggins and Lily speculating on what they thought might be wrong, suggesting that there must be something really terribly wrong. I had never thought for one moment that my parents would accept my involvement with Arthur with the same pleasure they would have done had it had been my father’s Curate, but this total denial was impossible to deal with. I did try to speak to my mother, but her only reply was ‘don’t be so silly, this man is not right for you, he is not of your class, and never could be, your father is in complete agreement with me’. I must admit that it was nothing less than I expected from my mother as she had a very rigid view on one’s station in life but, from my father, it was extremely unnerving, as I had never before heard him referring to anyone’s ‘class’. My father was a man of high principle and intellect and a good Christian. It had been inconceivable to me that he would not offer good counsel and put my happiness first.
    â€œA week later, quite unexpectedly after breakfast, my father said that he would like talk to me in his study. We walked through the hallway to the study in total silence. I felt extremely nervous, I sat down on the old leather sofa but this time my father did not come and sit next to me. He remained at his desk. I experienced a distance and coldness between my father and me that I had never experienced before. There was one of those awful long moments of silence when no one spoke, and then I could not contain myself much longer and said, ‘Father please help me. I so need your help and your good counsel. Please let me tell you about Arthur, so you may judge him fairly. I know that you and mother must be suffering tremendous disappointment that I did not fall in love with the son of Wilson your old university friend, but I have never had any feelings for him, nor he for me, I did not seek to fall in love with Arthur, it just happened and I can see no wrong in it. Though he has not had the benefit of a university education, he is extremely well read, musical, and highly principled. He has asked me to become his wife, and it is compliant only on your approval and he wishes to speak to you. I am sure if you agreed to meet him you would instantly see in him a man whom you would consider a worthy husband for me’.
    â€œThe coolness that had initially been between us started to disappear, he left his desk and came and sat next to me on the sofa. Taking hold of my hand he told me that he was at a loss as to what to say to me but said he felt some sense of guilt concerning my mother’s attitude, as he had told her of his suspicion when he thought there was a relationship developing between me and the son of his old friend. He said he could now see that his thoughts had been driven by a wish for such a relationship, and now he realised what trouble his mistake had caused. Unbeknown to him, my mother had been confiding in some of her friends,