Don't tell yourself that I am
notional and frivolous; I know you have put a great deal of hope and
faith and affection into that child's career. It would disappoint you
dreadfully if she were not interesting and harmonious to people in
general. It seems a familiar fact now that she should have come to
live with you, that she should be growing up in your house; but the
first thing we know she will be a young lady instead of an amusing
child, and I think that you cannot help seeing that a great deal of
responsibility belongs to you. She must be equipped and provisioned
for the voyage of life; she must have some resources."

"But I think she has more than most children."

"Yes, yes, I dare say. She is a bright little creature, but her
brightness begins to need new things to work upon. She does very well
at school now, I hear, and she minds very well and is much less
lawless than she used to be; but she is like a candle that refuses to
burn, and is satisfied with admiring its candlestick. She is quite the
queen of the village children in one way, and in another she is quite
apart from them. I believe they envy her and look upon her as being of
another sort, and yet count her out of half their plans and pleasures,
and she runs home, not knowing whether to be pleased or hurt, and
pulls down half a dozen of your books and sits proudly at the window.
Her poor foolish mother had some gifts, but she went adrift very soon,
and I should teach Nan her duty to her neighbor, and make her take in
the idea that she owes something to the world beside following out her
own most satisfying plans. When I was a young woman it was a most
blessed discovery to me--though I was not any quicker at making it
than other people, perhaps,--that, beside being happy myself and
valuable to myself, I must fit myself into my place in society. We are
seldom left to work alone, you know. No, not even you. I know too much
about you to believe that. And it isn't enough that we are willing to
talk about ourselves. We must learn to understand the subjects of the
day that everybody talks about, and to make sure of a right to stand
upon the highest common ground wherever we are. Society is a sort of
close corporation, and we must know its watchwords, and keep an
interest in its interests and affairs. I call a gentleman the man who,
either by birth or by nature, belongs to the best society. There may
be bad gentlemen and good gentlemen, but one must feel instinc