For one of the most disappointing
things in high descent is, that the descent is occasionally into
depths of meanness. Some who are proudest of their lineage, instead
of finding therein a spur to nobility of thought and action, find in
it only a necessity for prostrating themselves with the more abject
humiliation at the footstool of Mammon, to be admitted into the
penetralia of which foul god's favours, they will hasten to mingle
the blood of their pure descent with that of the very kennels,
yellow with the gold to which a noble man, if poor as Jesus himself,
would loathe to be indebted for a meal. In 'the high countries'
there will be a finding of levels more appalling than strange.
Hence Amanda had been born and brought up in falsehood, had been all
her life witness to a straining after the untrue so energetic, as to
assume the appearance of conscience; while such was the tenor and
spirit of the remarks she was constantly hearing, that she grew up
with the ingrained undisputed idea that she and her mother, whom she
had only known as a widow, had been wronged, spoiled indeed of their
lawful rights, by a combination of their rich relatives; whereas in
truth they had been the objects of very considerable generosity,
which they resented the more that it had been chiefly exercised by
such of the family as could least easily afford it, yet accepted in
their hearts, if not in their words, as their natural right.
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