212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

12 A SHABBY GENTEEL STORY
and my Lady in a comedy—a couple of painted grinning fools,
talking parts that they have learned out of a book)—as we sit and
look at the smiling actors, we get a glimpse behind the scenes from
time to time ; and alas for the wretched nature that appears there !
—among women especially, who deceive even more than men, having
more to hide, feeling more, living more than we who have our
business, pleasure, ambition, which carries us abroad. Ours are
the great strokes of misfortune, as they are called, and theirs the
small miseries. While the male thinks, labours, and battles without,
the domestic woes and wrongs are the lot of the women ; and the
little ills are so bad, so infinitely fiercer and bitterer than the great,
that I would not change my condition—no, not to be Helen, Queen
Elizabeth, Mrs. Coutts, or the luckiest she in history.
Well, then, in the manner we have described lived the Gann
family. Mr. Gann all the better for his " misfortunes," Mrs. Gann
little the worse; the two young ladies greatly improved by the
circumstance, having been cast thereby into a society where their
expected three thousand pounds made great heiresses of them ; and
poor Caroline, as luckless a being as any that the wide sun shone
upon. Better to be alone in the world and utterly friendless, than
to have sham friends and no sympathy ; tics of kindred which bind
one as it were to the corpse of relationship, and oblige one to
bear through life the weight and the embraces of this lifeless cold
connection.
I do not mean to say that Caroline would ever have made use
of this metaphor, or suspected that her connection with her mamma
and sisters was anything so loathsome. She felt that she was illtreated,
and had no companion; but was not on that account
envious, only humble and depressed, not desiring so much to resist
as to bear injustice, and hardly venturing to think for herself.
This tyranny and humility served her in place of education, and
formed her manners, which were wonderfully gentle and calm. It
was strange to see such a person growing up in such a family ; the
neighbours spoke of her with much scornful compassion. " A poor
half-witted thing," they said, " who could not say bo! to a goose ;"
and I think it is one good test of gentility to be thus looked down
on by vulgar people.
It is not to be supposed that the elder girls had reached their
present age without receiving a number of offers of marriage, and
been warmly in love a great many times. But many unfortunate
occurrences had compelled them to remain in their virgin condition.
There was an attorney who had proposed to Rosalind ; but
finding that she would receive only £750 down, instead of £1500,
the monster had jilted her pitilessly, handsome as she was. An