Two Worlds and Their Ways Read Online Free

though she regretted his existence and his grandfather’s, never questioned their right to it.
    Her life was dominated by her love for her children, and her desire for them to advance and impress their father rose to a passion and held its threat. Sir Roderick had no great feeling for personal success, but Maria had no suspicion that they did not see things through the same eyes. That her children should excel their brother in his sight was the ambition of her life and of her heart.
    â€œSo my governesses have written again,” said Mr. Fire-brace, looking at her letters. “I remember those envelopes in Oliver’s youth. They wrote at the same time and never knew it. Laid their plans together and forgot to plan ahead.A pair of simple women. You had the best of the three, Roderick.”
    â€œI was never in any doubt of it.”
    â€œThey are anxious for Clemence and Sefton to go to their schools,” said Maria, with a suggestion that the relations of the first wife had claims to make on the second.
    â€œPeddling their wares! You would think they would have more opinion of themselves, when they hold their heads so high.”
    â€œOne of the letters is from Oliver’s uncle,” said Sefton.
    â€œAn upright person and a worthy governess.”
    â€œHe is a man and a schoolmaster, Grandpa.”
    â€œWell, that may be part of the truth.”
    â€œMiss Petticott is a governess.”
    â€œGood morning, Miss Petticott. I did not know you were here. It is your habit to be elsewhere. What does the boy mean by what he says of you?”
    â€œHe means that Miss Petticott is like anyone else,” said Clemence. “And you seemed to think a governess was different.”
    â€œI was talking of the male of the species.”
    â€œThe masculine of governess would be governor,” said Sefton.
    â€œThere is no such thing, as Miss Petticott will tell you. Not that you do not show she has told you many things.”
    â€œI see what you mean, Mr. Firebrace. And you are right in a sense.”
    â€œYes, yes. You are a sensible girl, my dear. And now what causes your pupils to mock at me?”
    â€œThey are amused by your calling me a girl, Mr. Firebrace.”
    â€œAnd you are not to them. Well, no doubt you would have them remember it.”
    â€œYou went to your uncle’s school, Oliver. I forgot that,” said Maria. “Of course that was in its early days. But what would you say of it?”
    â€œThat I gave it nothing, and took what it had to give. I liked that, or I like looking back on it.”
    â€œYour uncle was a young man then,” said Sir Roderick, “though he did not seem so to you.”
    â€œI despised him for his youth.”
    â€œHe was over thirty,” said Maria. “How do you feel about him now when he is sixty-two?”
    â€œI pity his age.”
    â€œThe prime of life is short according to your view.”
    â€œAccording to anyone’s.”
    â€œWell, what did the school give you?” said Maria.
    â€œIt taught me to trust no one and to expect nothing,” said her stepson, in his deep, smooth, rapid tones. “To keep everything from everyone, especially from my nearest friends. That familiarity breeds contempt, and ought to breed it. It is through familiarity that we get to know each other.”
    â€œI dislike that sort of easy cynicism.”
    â€œSo do I, but because it is not easy. It is necessary, and necessity is the mother of invention. The hard mother of a sad and sorry thing.”
    â€œI wonder if you know what you mean. I certainly do not. Can you tell me plainly if you were happy at the school?”
    â€œI learned to suffer, and that is the basis of happiness. It teaches the difference, which is the deepest of all lessons.”
    â€œI cannot think how you can be your father’s son.”
    â€œI am my mother’s son, and the nephew of her sisters, and her father’s