Whatever the
cause, his answering letter made Mark feel that the Rector did not
appreciate Father Rowley as thoroughly as he ought.
The Rectory,
Wych-on-the-Wold.
Oxon.
Dec. 1.
My dear Mark,
I was glad to get your long and amusing letter of last week. I am
delighted to think that as the months go by you are finding work
among the poor more and more congenial. I would not for the world
suggest your coming back here for Christmas after what you tell me
of the amount of extra work it will entail for everybody in the
Mission House; at the same time it would be useless to pretend that
we shan't all be disappointed not to see you until the New Year.
On reading through your last letter again I feel just a little
worried lest, in the pleasure you derive from Father Rowley's
treatment of what was no doubt a very irritating young man, you may
be inclined to go to the opposite extreme and be too ready to laugh
at real piety when it is not accompanied by geniality and good
fellowship, or by an obvious zeal for good works. I know you will
acquit me of any desire to defend extreme "churchiness," and I have
no doubt you will remember one or two occasions in the past when I
was rather afraid that you were tending that way yourself.
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