It is not my business to find
fault; I don't want to find fault; but I have often thought over Miss
Francie--her occupations, her theories, her personal disposition, even
her dress--and I've wondered where the improvement was to be suggested.
You see, she might be a very good woman, and yet have no sense of humor;
she might be very charitable, and also a little vainglorious about it;
she might have very exalted ideas of duty, and be a trifle hard on those
who did not come up to her standards; but in Miss Francie's case these
qualifications haven't to be put in at all. She always seems to me to be
doing the right thing, and just in the right way--with a kind of fine
touch that has no namby-pambiness about it. Oh, she can be firm, too;
she can scold them well enough, those children--when she doesn't laugh
and pat them on the shoulder the minute after."
"This is, indeed, something, as coming from you, Maurice!" Lionel
exclaimed. "Has it been left for you to discover an absolutely perfect
human being?"
"It isn't for you to find fault with her, anyway," the other said,
rather sharply. "She's fond enough of you."
"Who said I was finding fault with her?--not likely I am going to find
fault with Francie!" Lionel replied, with sufficient good-humor.
Pages:
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486