“That is the whole secret. You will see them everywhere usefully occupied, and delighted at the importance of the employments given them.”
“Oh, M. Agricola!” said Angela, timidly, “only compare these fine dormitories, so warm and healthy, with the horrible icy garrets, where children are heaped pell-mell on a wretched straw-mattress, shivering with cold, as in the case with almost all the workmen’s families in our country!”
“And in Paris, mademoiselle, it is even worse.”
“Oh! how kind, generous, and rich must M. Hardy be, to spend so much money in doing good!”
“I am going to astonish you, mademoiselle!” said Agricola, with a smile; “to astonish you so much, that perhaps you will not believe me.”
“Why so, M. Agricola?”
“There is not certainly in the world a man with a better and more generous heart than M. Hardy; he does good for its own sake and without thinking of his personal interest. And yet, Mdlle. Angela, were he the most selfish and avaricious of men, he would still find it greatly to his advantage to put us in a position to be as comfortable as we are.”
“Is it possible, M. Agricola? You tell me so, and I believe it; but if good can so easily be done, if there is even an advantage in doing it, why is it not more commonly attempted?”
“Ah! mademoiselle, it requires three gifts very rarely met with in the same person—knowledge, power and will.”
“Alas! yes. Those who have the knowledge, have not the power.”