A Child of the Cloth Read Online Free PDF

talking of an impending engagement, and she was suffering the embarrassment of having to tell them that no such relationship existed. Father then asked me tell him of this man, as he felt it was wrong of him to judge without knowing anything about him. I told him that his name was Arthur Halfpenny. I told my father what I knew of Arthur’s family and gave a general picture of him as a person.
    â€œMy father then asked the question that I was most dreading, ‘is he of our church; if not, what church does he follow?’ It had all been going so well until that question, I answered as calmly as I could and said he did not follow any religious belief; he was an atheist.
    â€œMy father instantly stood up, repeating the word with anger in his voice, ‘Atheist! You mean Communist! Under no circumstances will I receive such a man as him in our home; I could never give my blessing to you marrying an Antichrist and I urge you to stop seeing him at once’. As I attempted to plead for a fair hearing, my father raised his hand in a stern gesture and said there will be silence on this matter. You will speak no more of this man or of this unwise association. I fled my father’s study in a flood of tears.
    â€œLater in the day when I met Arthur I hardly knew how to tell him of my father’s attitude. He saw my tear stained face and put a comforting arm around me saying it was as he expected. He did not for one moment think that my parents would accept him. I told him I was not going to be dictated to by my parents.
    â€œI was nineteen years old and had an independent income from a trust my grandparents had created for me. I said we should marry as quickly as possible to prove to them how wrong they are. Arthur at first agreed but then began to have some doubts because he said he was very concerned that he was causing so much trouble in my family. He felt it would be terribly wrong for us to run away and marry without the consent of my father as in his view this would only confirm to my father that he was a man of no principles.
    â€œHe said it was necessary to demonstrate his true love for me by proving, by his actions, that he was a man of his word, reminding me that our marriage was compliant on my father’s agreement. This was an Arthur I had not seen before. I knew he was right but I was anxious to know what the outcome would be if my father refused to reconsider, and withheld his blessing of our marriage. He said he would write at once to my father confirming it was not his intention to take me from my family and marry without his consent. He said he was convinced that my father, on receiving such an assurance, would look more favourably on his proposal of marriage.
    â€œThe next day when we met he showed me the letter, it was written in his beautiful copperplate handwriting. My initial reservations about him writing to my father were somewhat overcome. As I read the letter it was obvious that it was not written in the language that my father might have expected from a working man. It was, in fact, written in the language of an educated man who was at peace with himself. Knowing my father well, I was convinced that he would find this letter disarming but my heart stopped when I got to the final line in which he informed my father that he would be going to Tisbury to see his mother, to tell her of his proposal of marriage and would be away for one month to allow my parents time to give his proposal of marriage to me the proper consideration that he felt it was due.
    â€œI had anxious days awaiting the arrival of Arthur’s letter to my father. The post was usually delivered just after eight o’clock in the morning, while we were at breakfast. I would hear the post being pushed into the letterbox and, each morning, Lily would bring the letters to the dining room on a small tray and place it on the table next to my father. He would look through the letters putting them in order. I suffered