house of a clergyman, who
was an old friend and intimate friend of his father's. This clergyman
had one other, and only one other, pupil--the young Lord Lufton; and
between the two boys, there had sprung up a close alliance. While they
were both so placed, Lady Lufton had visited her son, and then invited
young Robarts to pass his next holidays at Framley Court. This visit
was made; and it ended in Mark going back to Exeter with a letter full
of praise from the widowed peeress. She had been delighted, she said,
in having such a companion for her son, and expressed a hope that the
boys might remain together during the course of their education. Dr
Robarts was a man who thought much of the breath of peers and
peeresses, and was by no means inclined to throw away any advantage
which might arise to his child from such a friendship. When, therefore,
the young lord was sent to Harrow, Mark Robarts went there also.
That the lord and his friend often quarrelled, and occasionally
fought,--the fact even that for a period of three months they never
spoke to each other--by no means interfered with the doctor's hopes.
Mark again and again stayed a fortnight at Framley Court, and Lady
Lufton always wrote about him in the highest terms. And then the lads
went together to Oxford, and here Mark's good fortune followed him,
consisting rather in the highly respectable manner in which he lived,
than in any wonderful career of collegiate success. His family was
proud of him, and the doctor was always ready to talk of him to his
patients; not because he was a prize-man, and had gotten a scholarship,
but on account of the excellence of his general conduct. He lived with
the best set--he incurred no debts--he was fond of society, but able to
avoid low society--liked his glass of wine, but was never known to be
drunk; and above all things, was one of the most popular men in the
University. Then came the question of a profession for the young
Hyperion, and on this subject Dr Robarts was invited himself to go
over to Framley Court to discuss the matter with Lady Lufton. Dr
Robarts returned with a very strong conception that the Church was the
profession best suited to his son.
Lady Lufton had not sent for Dr Robarts all the way from Exeter for
nothing. The living of Framley was in the gift of Lady Lufton's family,
and the next presentation would be in Lady Lufton's hands, if it should
fall vacant before the young lord was twenty-five years of age, and in
the young lord's hands if it should fall afterwards. But the mother and
the heir consented to give a joint promise to Dr Robarts. Now, as the
present incumbent was over seventy, and as the living was worth 900
pounds a year, there could be no doubt as to the eligibility of the
clerical profession. And I must further say, that the dowager and the
doctor were justified in their choice by the life and principles of the
young man--as far as any father can be justified in choosing such a
profession for his son, and as far as any lay impropriator can be
justified in making such a promise. Had Lady Lufton had a second son,
that second son would probably have had the living, and no one would
have thought it wrong;--certainly not if that second son had been such a
one as Mark Robarts.
Lady Lufton herself was a woman who thought much on religious
matters, and would by no means have been disposed to place any one in
a living, merely because such a one had been her son's friend. Her
tendencies were High Church, and she was enabled to perceive that
those of young Mark Robarts ran in the same direction. She was very
desirous that her son should make an associate of his clergyman, and
by this step she would ensure, at any rate, that. She was anxious that
the parish vicar should be one with whom she could herself fully
co-operate, and was perhaps unconsciously wishful that he might in
some measure be subject to her influence. Should she appoint an elder
man, this might probably not be the case to the same extent; and should
her son have the gift, it might probably not be the case at all. And,
therefore, it was resolved that the living should be given to young
Robarts.
He took his degree--not with any brilliancy, but quite in the manner
that his father desired; he then travelled for eight or ten months with
Lord Lufton and a college don, and almost immediately after his return
home was ordained.
The living of Framley is in
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