hitherto had been prosperous and very creditable. He had gone early to
Cambridge, and at twenty-two had become a fellow of his college. This
fellowship he could hold for five or six years without going into
orders. It would then lead to a living, and would in the meantime afford
a livelihood. But, beyond this, Harry, with an energy which he certainly
had not inherited from his father, had become a schoolmaster, and was
already a rich man. He had done more than well, and there was a great
probability that between them they might be able to buy the next
presentation to Clavering, when the time should come in which Sir Hugh
should determine on selling it. That Sir Hugh should give the family
living to his cousin was never thought probable by any of the family at
the rectory; but he might perhaps part with it under such circumstances
on favorable terms. For all these reasons the father was very anxious
that his son should follow out the course for which he had been
intended; but that he, being unenergetic and having hitherto done little
for his son, should dictate to a young man who had been energetic, and
who had done much for himself, was out of the question. Harry,
therefore, was to be the arbiter of his own fate. But when Harry
received back the check from Julia Brabazon, then he again returned to
his resolution respecting Messrs. Beilby & Burton, and took the first
opportunity of telling his father that such was the case.

After breakfast he followed his father into his study, and there,
sitting in two easy chairs opposite to each other, they lit each a
cigar. Such was the reverend gentleman's custom in the afternoon, and
such also in the morning. I do not know whether the smoking of four or
five cigars daily by the parson of a parish may now-a-day be considered
as a vice in him, but if so, it was the only vice with which Mr.
Clavering could be charged. He was a kind, soft-hearted, gracious man,
tender to his wife, whom he ever regarded as the angel of his house,