'
'I should have added a third curse,--pride, aunt,' I could not help
replying.
'Henry,' said she, pursing her thin lips, 'you have the obstinacy and
the courage of your race, that is to say, you have the obstinacy and
the courage of ten ordinary men, and yet a man you are not--a man you
will never be, if strength of character, and self-mastery and power
to withstand the inevitable trials of life, go to the making of a
man.'
'Pardon me, aunt; but such trials as mine are beyond your
comprehension.'
'Are they, boy?' said she. 'This fancy of yours for an insignificant
girl--this boyish infatuation which with any other young man of your
rank would have long ago exhausted itself and been forgotten--is a
passion that absorbs your life. And I tremble for you: I tremble for
the house you represent.'
But I saw by the expression on my mother's face that my aunt had now
gone too far. 'Prue,' she said, 'your tremblings concerning my son
and my family are, I assure you, gratuitous. Such trembling as the
case demands you had better leave to me.
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