t the worst that might be.
They discovered this to their discomfiture when shortly after he
announced to them one morning at the breakfast-table that on the
following week he should leave for Princeton.

A theological course at Princeton! A true-blue Presbyterian, a
long-faced, puritanical minister, who would deem it a sin to laugh,
speak, or wink on a Sunday. And this was what their brother was coming
to. This was why it had been impossible to get him to go with them to
St. Mark's Church, though they had told him how beautifully _High_
Church it was; how it had a high altar and candles, almost like the
Romanists, only that it was not at all Romish, but entirely and truly
Catholic! Was ever such like woful perversity? When they had just got a
brother to be proud of, who could take them to theatres, concerts,
balls, operas, and everywhere, for him to go and degenerate into an old
solemn Presbyterian minister! It would be bearable, if he must be a
minister, if he would only be a High Churchman, and would be called a
priest, and wear the surplice, and read the service in his charming
voice, and be rector of such a fine, rich church as our own St. Mark's!
They could put up with that, because he could still go with them to
places of amusement, and would not be likely to scold them for dancing
all night and sleeping all day. Besides, his praise would be in
everybody's mouth, he would speedily get a D. D. to his name, the ladies
would all admire him, and he would still be their own, own brother. They
wished he had never seen Newberg, nor Colonel Selby's family, nor
Dartmouth College. They forgot or were ungrateful for his transformation
from a state of good-for-nothingism to comparative Christian virtue.

Philip perceived and was pained at the folly and frivolousness of his
mother's household, but any attempt at change more favorable appeared to
him so herculean, that he made scarcely an effort in its behalf. He was
conscious that therein lay neglect of duty; they might owe to him what
he owed to Mary Selby. Often when he thought of her he bowed his head
reverently, and said: I have two saviours--an earthly and a
heavenly--Mary Selby and my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

To the near relatives of Philip his going to Princeton was so much like
burying him, that when, after three years, he returned finally to his
home and announced that in one month he was both to marry and sail as
missionary to Turkey they were scarcely surpr