In the society of cities, most men give only the shallow,
flashy surface of their natures to the young women they meet, and
Miss Bartram, after that revelation of the dumb strength of an
ignorant man, sometimes grew very impatient of the platitudes and
affectations which came to her clad in elegant words, and
accompanied by irreproachable manners.
She had various suitors; for that sense of grace and repose and
sweet feminine power, which hung around her like an atmosphere,
attracted good and true men towards her. To some, indeed, she gave
that noble, untroubled friendship which is always possible between
the best of the two sexes, and when she was compelled to deny the
more intimate appeal, it was done with such frank sorrow, such
delicate tenderness, that she never lost the friend in losing
the lover. But, as one year after another went by, and the younger
members of her family fell off into their separate domestic orbits,
she began to shrink a little at the perspective of a lonely life,
growing lonelier as it receded from the Present.
Pages:
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394