Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 3, March 1852Various
Science
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 3, March 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
An old
touch of religious fanaticism reigned in that part of the country, and
men, even the most atheistical in profession and in action, which is
still more, could quote Scripture for their purpose when it served their
purpose.
We are told that the devil does the same—and I think it very likely.
The sum thus received from Jeanette—swelled by every item she could
think of, was by no means inconsiderable; but she had not cheated a
fraudulent and oppressive civic government for her own peculiar benefit.
The sum which had been left her by Father Bonneville, and the wages
which had been paid her, sufficed to maintain her for several months in
Angoumois—in her frugal mode of living—and to carry her across the
whole of France, leaving her with some dozen or two of livres at the
time she reached us in Germany. The money which she had obtained from
the commune, all carefully deposited in a canvas bag, she produced and
placed in the hands of Father Bonneville, who, to say sooth, did not
well know what to do in the peculiar circumstances of the case. Jeanette
justified her acts and deeds toward the commune upon the same principle
on which some members of the commune had justified her supposed acts
toward Father Bonneville. She did not know much about spoiling the
Egyptians indeed; but her mind was not sufficiently refined to see the
harm of cheating cheats, or spoiling plunderers of part of their
plunder.
I believe the good Father talked to her seriously on the subject when I
was not present; but what became of the money I do not know. All I can
tell, is, that the good Father never seemed to be actually in want of
money, and that all those romantic distresses which hinge upon the
absence of a crown-piece, were spared us even in our exile.
Time passed. Jeanette was fully established in her old post in the
household, with the addition of another German maid-servant. The one
whom she found with us was strongly imbued with despotic ideas; and was,
for good reasons, unwilling to submit either to the orders of a foreign
superior in her peculiar department, or to the inspection of accounts
and prices which she soon found was to be established. Another German
girl, consequently, was sought for and found, who being younger in age,
unhardened by experience, and of a diffident nature, willingly undertook
to receive a dollar and a half a month, and do the harder work of the
house under the orders of Jeanette, of which she did not understand one
word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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