In these matters,
moreover, a few degrees make really an immense difference. There is all
the inequality which exists between the soldier who wields his sword in
a disastrous hollow, and one who strikes triumphant blows from the
hillock above. The elevation is to be measured in inches, perhaps, but
that range reaches from failure to success. Whether social ambition is
proper pride or vulgar presumption depends not upon the feeling itself
so much as upon the grade from which it is exercised, and Miss
Merrivale very quickly understood that while she was placed upon one
side of the dividing line between the two, her hostess was unhappily to
be found upon the other.
Indeed Miss Frances had hardly recognized what Mrs. Sampson's
surroundings were until she found herself established in the little
apartment as a guest of that lady. Her newly found cousin had at the
mountains spoken of her father, the late judge, and of her own
acquaintances among the great and well known of Boston, with an air
which carried conviction to one who had not known her too long. She
spoke with playful pathos of her poverty, it is true, but when a
woman's gowns will pass muster, talk of poverty is not likely to be
taken too seriously. Miss Merrivale knew, moreover, that the widow,
like herself, could boast a connection with the Staggchase family.
Now she found herself at the top of an apartment house in a street of
Nottingham lace curtains carefully draped back to show the Rogers'
groups on neat marble stands behind their precise folds.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191