Children -- Death -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Farm life -- Juvenile fiction; Siblings -- Juvenile fiction
"I don't know," said Rose; "he said Mr. Brick, -- or the noted
Mr. Brick -- I suppose that's the man."
"Dustus O. Brick!" said Mr. Haye -- "he's one of the best men
in the bar, and a very clever man too; a distinguished lawyer;
there's no one more thought of."
"That's what Mr. Satterthwaite said, -- he said so, -- he said
it was a great triumph for Mr. Landholm; -- and now Mr. Haye,
_won't_ you ask him to come here again as he used to?"
"Who?"
"Winthrop Landholm."
"What for?"
"Why I want to _see_ him -- and so do you, Mr. Haye. Now Mr.
Haye, won't you? -- Though I don't know but Elizabeth would be
the best one to ask him."
"Why?" dryly said the master of the house.
"I guess he'd be more likely to come."
"If I thought so, and it were my part to do it, I certainly
should ask him," said Elizabeth. "There isn't any person so
pleasant as he to take his place, among all that come here."
"You were glad of what Mr. Satterthwaite told us last night
weren't you?" said Rose with a sinister smile.
"Very glad!"
"Did you ever hear Mr. Satterthwaite go on so about anybody?
One would have thought Mr. Landholm was his own brother. I
wonder if that was for your sake, Lizzie?"
"I presume it was for his own sake," said Elizabeth. "I should
think anybody who had the privilege of being Mr. Landholm's
friend, would know how to value it."
"_You_ would value it, for instance, I suppose?"
"I have no doubt I should."
"It seems to me you are a little too sure of valuing it," said
Mr. Haye, -- "for a young lady who has _not_ that privilege."
Elizabeth's cheeks burned on the instant, but her eye was
steady, and it looked full on her father while she asked him,
"Why, sir?"
"It is not worth while for you to like other people faster
than they like you?"
"Why not?" -- said Elizabeth, her cheek and eye both deepening
in their fire, but her look as steady and full, -- "Why not? --
if it should happen that I am less likeable than they?"
"Pshaw!" said Mr. Haye.
"If I were to gauge the respect and esteem I give others, by
the respect and esteem they might be able to give me, -- I
should cut off maybe the best pleasures of my life."
"Are respect and esteem the best pleasures of your life?" said
Rose satirically.
"I have never known any superior to them," said Elizabeth. But
she brought, as she spoke, her eye of fire to bear upon her
cousin, who gave way before it and was mum.
"And what may respect and esteem lead to?" said Mr. Haye.
"I don't know," said Elizabeth. "And I don't care -- even to
ask."
"Suppose they are not returned?"
"I have supposed that in the first place," she answered.
"At that rate you might be over head and ears in your regard
for several people at once, none of whom cared a straw for
you," said Mr. Haye.
"When I find _several_, men or women, that deserve the sort of
respect and esteem I am talking of," said Elizabeth -- "I am
not talking of a common kind, that you can give common people
-- I shall be in a new world!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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