Did I see any signs of a decrease in the
bitter animosity which parties feel towards each other here, I might
think differently; but there is no prospect of peace and goodwill
returning in your time, and therefore, no object in your father and I
toiling on for the rest of our lives, when the return of our labour will
be of little worth to you. Such being so, I do not regret that your
thoughts turn to the world of which you have read in books. The world is
but a secondary consideration to us, 'tis true, but I can see no special
goodness in a life of dull monotony.'"
"I wonder where your mother got hold of her ideas, John. She is so
different from most of your people."
"She is indeed," John agreed. "It was from her mother that she received
her teaching. I know she was not happy with her husband, who was as
gloomy and fanatical as is my grandfather, and she ever looked back to
the happy days of her girlhood in England. I think she did for my mother
just what my mother has done for me, only the difference is that she
never had sufficient influence with her husband to enable her to carry
out her views for her daughter, while my mother--"
"Has managed to have her own way," Walter laughed.
"I suppose so, and that in spite of my grandfather.
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