Volume I Part 15 (2/2)
Carleton has been speaking of ? very rarely! But, Mr.
Carleton, don't you think it is generally found in that cla.s.s of society where the habits of life are constantly the most polished and refined?”
”Possibly,” answered he, diving into the core of his apple.
”No, but tell me; I want to know what you think.”
”Cultivation and refinement have taught people to recognize and a.n.a.lyze and imitate it; the counterfeits are most current in that society; but as to the reality, I don't know; it is nature's work, and she is a little freaky about it.”
”But, Guy!” said his mother, impatiently, ”this is not selling but giving away one's birthright. Where is the advantage of birth if breeding is not supposed to go along with it? Where the parents have had intelligence and refinement, do we not constantly see them inherited by the children? and in an increasing degree from generation to generation?”
”Very extraordinary!” said Mrs. Thorn.
”I do not undervalue the blessings of inheritance, mother, believe me, nor deny the general doctrine; though intelligence does not always descend, and manners die out, and that invaluable legacy, a name, may be thrown away. But this delicate thing we are speaking of is not intelligence nor refinement, but comes rather from a happy combination of qualities, together with a peculiarly fine nervous const.i.tution; the _essence_ of it may consist with an omission, even with an awkwardness, and with a sad ignorance of conventionalities.”
”But even if that be so, do you think it can ever reach its full development but in the circ.u.mstances that are favourable to it?” said Mrs. Evelyn.
”Probably not often; the diamond in some instances wants the graver; ? but it is the diamond. Nature seems now and then to have taken a princess's child and dropped it in some odd corner of the kingdom, while she has left the clown in the palace.”
”From all which I understand,” said Mr. Thorn, ”that this little chestnut girl is a princess in disguise.”
”Really, Carleton!” ? Rossitur began.
Mrs. Evelyn leaned back in her chair, and quietly eating a piece of apple, eyed Mr. Carleton with a look half amused and half discontented, and behind all that, keenly attentive.
”Take for example those two miniatures you were looking at last night, Mrs. Evelyn,” the young man went on; ? ”Louis XVI.
and Marie Antoinette ? what would you have more unrefined, more heavy, more _animal_, than the face of that descendant of a line of kings?”
Mrs. Evelyn bowed her head acquiescingly, and seemed to enjoy her apple.
”_He_ had a pretty bad lot of an inheritance, sure enough, take it all together,” said Rossitur.
”Well,” said Thorn, ? ”is this little stray princess as well- looking as t'other miniature?”
”Better, in some respects,” said Mr. Carleton, coolly.
”Better!” cried Mrs. Carleton.
”Not in the brilliancy of her beauty, but in some of its characteristics; ? better in its promise.”
”Make yourself intelligible, for the sake of my nerves, Guy,”
said his mother. ”Better looking than Marie Antoinette!”
”My unhappy cousin is said to be a fairy, Ma'am,” said Mr.
Rossitur; ”and I presume all this may be referred to enchantment.”
”That face of Marie Antoinette's,” said Mr. Carleton, smiling, ”is an undisciplined one ? uneducated.”
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