may hasten his plans; for I believe it to be from his wife.' He breathed deeply; and the letter was redirected to be promptly sent on to Angel.
'Dear fellow, I hope he will get home safely,' murmured Mrs. Clare. 'To my dying day I shall feel that he has been ill-used. You should have sent him to Cambridge in spite of his heterodoxy, and given him the same chance as the other boys had. He would have grown out of it under proper influence, and perhaps would have taken Orders after all. Church or no Church, it would have been fairer to him.'
This was the only wail with which Mrs. Clare ever disturbed her husband's peace in respect of their sons. And she did not vent this often; for she was as considerate as she was devout, and knew that his mind too was troubled by doubts as to his justice in this matter. Only too often had she heard him lying awake at night, stifling sighs for Angel with prayers. But the uncompromising Evangelical did not even now hold that he would have been justified in giving his son, an unbeliever, the same academic advantages that he had given to the two others, when it was possible, if not probable, that those very advantages might
