I hope
it will be several years yet before you think seriously of such
things, but when the time comes, I hope you will have seen some
young girl--there are such for every one of us--whom it is
civilisation and enlightenment, refinement, and elevation, simply to
know. On the other hand, a silly girl's influence is degrading and
ruinous. She either drags those attached to her down to her own
level; or she remains a weight and a clog upon the life of a man who
loves her."
"Yes," said Lemuel, with a sigh which Sewell interpreted as that of
relief from danger recognised in time.
He pursued eagerly. "I could not warn any one too earnestly against
such an entanglement."
Lemuel rose and looked about with a troubled glance. Sewell
continued: "Any such marriage--a marriage upon any such conditions--
is sure to be calamitous; and if the conditions are recognised
beforehand, it is sure to be iniquitous. So far from urging the
fulfilment of even a promise, in such a case, I would have every
such engagement broken, in the interest of humanity--of morality----"
Mrs. Sewell came into the room, and gave a little start of surprise,
apparently not mixed with pleasure, at seeing Lemuel. She had never
been able to share her husband's interest in him, while insisting
upon his responsibility; she disliked him not logically, but
naturally, for the wrong and folly which he had been the means of
her husband's involving himself in; Miss Vane's kindliness toward
Lemuel, which still survived, and which expressed itself in
questions about him whenever she met the minister, was something
that Mrs.
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