FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  
more of the real social difficulties of this crowded country than ever I did before. Bringing my own talents and acquirements into the market, and finding myself elbowed out by competition, I think of those who have to do the real hard necessary work of the world with more sympathy and more respect. Not that I ever despised them--you must not imagine me to be so hard-hearted as that; but my feeling for them is deepened and heightened wonderfully of late. Now they are apt to say that PARVENUS are of all men the most exacting and the most purse-proud; and that a mistress who has been a servant is harsher to her female dependants than one who has been accustomed to keep domestics all her life. It is difficult for me to conceive this; but there must be truth in it, or it would not be a proverb in all languages. You will be an exception, Francis. You will have my uncle's real kindness without his crotchets and his dictatorial manner. You must not be offended if I call you a parvenu in spite of your birth. You have come suddenly into wealth that you were not brought up to expect." "If I do not recollect my past life, I will certainly remember your present advice whenever I am tempted to think too much of myself and too little of others." "Everything is to lead to the perfecting of your character, you see," said Jane. "I cannot bear even improvement at the expense of any one's suffering but my own," said Francis. "I have been thinking so much about that sermon I heard at your church. I do not know that the preacher brought out the particular point; but we are made such dependent beings, not only on God, but on each other, that we do indirectly profit by what we do not purchase by our own effort or pains. We would not choose to have it so; but when Providence brings on ourselves or others sorrows we grieve for, we are right to draw from them all the good we can. It is something if my uncle's rather unjust will has given you property with a sobered sense of its privileges and a strong sense of its duties--something to set against Elsie's sufferings and mine. And, besides, the loss of it has done me one great benefit." "Tell me what," said Francis, eagerly. "It is quite possible, though I cannot tell how probable, that I might have married a man to whom I am not well suited in any respect, and who was still less adapted to make me happy if I had not been disinherited. I am thus frank with you, cousin Francis, for I
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Francis

 

brought

 

respect

 
profit
 
purchase
 

indirectly

 
effort
 

choose

 

Providence

 

beings


church
 

preacher

 

sermon

 

disinherited

 

suffering

 
thinking
 

dependent

 

brings

 

adapted

 
sorrows

eagerly

 
strong
 

expense

 

duties

 

privileges

 

sufferings

 

benefit

 
sobered
 

cousin

 

grieve


married

 

unjust

 

property

 

probable

 

suited

 

wonderfully

 

feeling

 

deepened

 

heightened

 

PARVENUS


harsher

 

female

 

dependants

 

accustomed

 

servant

 

mistress

 
exacting
 

hearted

 

imagine

 

Bringing