No! Since you ask my opinion, I'm convinced that it would be a thousand pities to drop any of your athletic interests. I'd rather advise you to put more grist into them, and come to the front as much as possible; short, of course, of interfering with your studies. When you have a parish of your own, or assist another man in his parish, you will have a big work to do among the boys and young men, and how do you think it will affect _them_ to hear that you have pulled stroke in your boat, or played for the 'Varsity in football or cricket? Will they think less of you, or more? If I know masculine nature, it will give you an immediate influence which scarcely anything else could command. They will know you for a man, and a manly man into the bargain, a man who has like interests with themselves, and is not merely a puppet stuck up in the pulpit to babble platitudes, as so many fellows do nowadays--more shame to them! Play with the young fellows on Saturday;--let them feel that you understand and enter into their interests, and my name's not Terence Digby if your serious words don't have a tenfold influence on Sunday. We must have a good talk on this subject when you come home. It is one on which I feel very strongly. Let me know at any time if you want help as to books, or any other expenses. Your father has enough to do with the rest of the family, and it is a pleasure to me to pretend now and again that you belong to me. All goes well at Brompton Square. Your mother wears well--a wonderful woman! None of her daughters will ever equal her, though Betty is twice the girl she used to be, and Mademoiselle Jill makes havoc among the young fellows. My dear wife looks after me so carefully that my gout is steadily on the decline, and I grow younger year by year. Get the right woman for your wife, young fellow! I waited twenty years for mine, and she's cheap at the price.--Your friend, Terence Digby. _Christabel Rendell to her sister Nan Vanburgh_.