I trust you will not think this letter improper;
nothing is further from my wish than to cause you any uneasiness. I
hope you will make allowance for my present feelings which, indeed,
spring from nothing but from that respect for my conscience which no
one has so often instilled into me as yourself. Pray let me have a few
lines shortly. I hope your cold is better. With love to Eliza and
Maria, I am, your affectionate son,
"THEOBALD PONTIFEX."
"DEAR THEOBALD,- I can enter into your feelings and have no wish
to quarrel with your expression of them. It is quite right and natural
that you should feel as you do except as regards one passage, the
impropriety of which you will yourself doubtless feel upon reflection,
and to which I will not further allude than to say that it has wounded
me. You should not have said 'in spite of my scholarships.' It was
only proper that if you could do anything to assist me in bearing
the heavy burden of your education, the money should be, as it was,
made over to myself. Every line in your letter convinces me that you
are under the influence of a morbid sensitiveness which is one of
the devil's favourite devices for luring people to their
destruction.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69