“But you are not very young, Archer.”
“I know it, dear madam. I have arrived at that age at which men do not make imprudent marriages for love.”
“But when they too often make unhappy marriages of convenience. Dear Archer, it is a false and sinful principle that keeps you and Catherine apart. Will you spoil two lives by your pride? Your hesitation between inclination and prejudice, weakens you and destroys her.”
“‘Prejudices,’ dear madam! Well, I suppose they are prejudices, but just think of the horror of having Carl Kavanagh, the farm laborer, for a brother-in-law, and being called ‘uncle’ by his ragged progeny!”
“Oh, Archer, your inhumanity shocks me—they are human creatures, after all—this Carl and his family.”
“And don’t you see besides, madam, that if I should marry Catherine, and introduce her into society, the first question would be, ‘Who is she?’ and the answer by some good-natured friend, ‘The sister of one of his farm-laborers,’ would expose us to contempt, if it did not rule us out of good company.”
“Archer! Archer! can it be that you weigh these falsities with the deep realities of life?”
“It is a deplorable thing, indeed, that a girl of such noble nature should come of such ignoble parentage.”
“No! it is a congratulatory thing!—or would be so, if it were not such a usual thing! Archer, you will find more moral worth, and it may be more mental worth, among the so-called lower classes, than among the higher; for instance, among the men, look at some of their brows, of Shaksperian height and breadth—think what they would be with cultivation! And I tell you, with all their disadvantages, the lower classes will give to our republic the greatest of her future great men.”[[2]]
[2]. The history of most prominent men of the day verifies the prediction.