"It will be very pleasant to have Claude at home," said Miss Richards; "the house is so dull when he is away."
"Yes," I said, "you must miss him very much, Miss Richards, but I suppose he will not be at home very long; when is he to be ordained?"
She did not answer me at once, and when I looked up, I saw that her face was very troubled and sorrowful, as she bent over her work.
"Claude will not be ordained, May," she said at length; "I think that is quite decided now."
"Why not, Miss Richards?" I asked in astonishment. "I thought that had been settled years ago, when Claude was a little boy."
"It was only settled conditionally, May," she said. "Claude was to go into the ministry if it was his own wish to do so; his father would never press him into such work, if he did not feel drawn to it himself."
"And Claude does not feel drawn to it?" I asked.
"Oh no, he has written to his father most decidedly, giving up all idea of becoming a clergyman, and expressing his wish to study for the bar."
"Is Mr. Ellis very disappointed, Miss Richards?" I said.
"Of course he is disappointed in one way, May, for he has made a great effort to give Claude a University education, in order to make him more fit for his work as a minister; but at the same time, he quite sees that with Claude's peculiar ideas (you know what I mean, May, those new views he has taken up at Oxford) his ordination is, at least for the present, out of the question."