“The pleasure of obliging me.”
“Good! You shall have them.”
“Thank you. Aunt Anne will like the story, and Dorothy—it is strange how easily that woman is interested. Don’t you like her?”
“Yes, very much. But, then, we are rather old friends. I was not here last year, and this year I find Hiram a good deal changed. It seems as though Fate had dealt hardly with Dorothy. She has so much tact, such natural good manners, and you would smile if I said distinction.”
“No, I should not. It is a word which has acquired a fine flavor, and is well applied here. I am always tempted to feel sorry, when with her, that she must always have this narrow life.”
“I do not think the idea ever occurred to her.”
“Possibly not. She is by nature contented, and a source of contentment, which is more rare.”
“That is true. I never see her without feeling that I have gained something. She is in a real sense influential.”
“It seems odd, or perhaps it is not, but she has the same effect upon me. I hardly fancy that in her class you could find this creature repeated.”
“She has a similar effect on Ellett, and human nature does not repeat itself. I mean that even the type is rare. It is purely natural,—owes little to the education of events.”