The love of teasing in a small way when he felt
safe in doing so had remained part of his nature from the days when he
told his nurse that he would keep her on purpose to torment her. I
suppose it is so with all of us. At any rate I am sure that most
fathers, especially if they are clergymen, are like Theobald.
He did not in reality, I am convinced, like Joey or Charlotte one
whit better than he liked Ernest. He did not like anyone or
anything, or if he liked anyone at all it was his butler, who looked
after him when he was not well, and took great care of him and
believed him to be the best and ablest man in the whole world. Whether
this faithful and attached servant continued to think this after
Theobald's will was opened and it was found what kind of legacy had
been left him I know not. Of his children, the baby who had died at
a day old was the only one whom he held to have treated him quite
filially. As for Christina he hardly ever pretended to miss her and
never mentioned her name; but this was taken as a proof that he felt
her loss too keenly to be able ever to speak of her. It may have
been so, but I do not think it.
Theobald's effects were sold by auction, and among them the
Harmony of the Old and New Testaments which he had compiled during
many years with such exquisite neatness and a huge collection of MS.
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