“She will be a power by and by, unless some blight comes across her.”
“Will me, will me, it seems as if we had to do it. Even Mamma, whose ideal was chivalry, Church and home, has to be drawn out to take a certain public part; Aunt Jane, who only wished to live to potter about among neighbours, poor and rich, must needs come out of her traditional conventions, and relate her experiences, and you—”
“Oh, I am only trying to do the work Gerald aimed at!”
“Any way we have our work before us, whether we call it for the Church or mankind.”
“Charity or Altruism,” said Dolores.
“May not altruism lead to charity?” said Gillian.
“Sometimes, but sometimes disappointment leads only to intolerance of those whose methods differ. Altruism will not stand without a foundation,” said Dolores.
“Mysie has been impressing on me, with what she heard from Phyllis Devereux, of the work Sister Angela has been doing at Albertstown—the most utter self-abnegation, through bitter disappointment in her most promising pupils—only the charity that is rooted could endure. It is just the old difference Tennyson points out between Wisdom and Knowledge.”
“And with wisdom come those feminine attributes that Agatha began asking about.”
“Yes, softening, gentleness, tact. If people have not grown up to them, they must be taught as parts of wisdom.”