“Oh, Fred is horrid!” said Rosamond. She would not have allowed herself so unsuitable a word to anyone but Mary.

“What do you mean by horrid?”

“He is so idle, and makes papa so angry, and says he will not take orders.”

“I think Fred is quite right.”

“How can you say he is quite right, Mary? I thought you had more sense of religion.”

“He is not fit to be a clergyman.”

“But he ought to be fit.”⁠—“Well, then, he is not what he ought to be. I know some other people who are in the same case.”

“But no one approves of them. I should not like to marry a clergyman; but there must be clergymen.”

“It does not follow that Fred must be one.”

312