The False Step Volume 2; And the Sisters

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1832 Excerpt: ...if not for ever, 1 considered that woman as deficient in gratitude, delicacy, and kindness of heart. I silently dwelt upon it as a proof of the ingratitude of the world, and the hard unkindness with which benefits may be requited, till it assumed the form of an injury. Then my father's grief and altered looks seemed to me sometimes to have been produced more by the death of Charles than of my mother--and this thought was almost madness to me. I had no right to make this assumption, and scarcely any rational grounds on which to raise it, but my mind was without aim or occupation, and my heart weaker than a child's. I was, however, sufficiently punished for this error by the pain it gave me, and by the upbraiding of my own conscience, when any word or look escaped my father, which proved that it had been one. Then, in the long summer evenings, he would walk with me from compassion; but if our ideas ever flowed in concert, we seldom communicated them, and he, as well as myself, grew tired of this constrained intercourse. It had, however, one most beneficial effect, --it gave me faith in his love, which I had never possessed before. This necessary belief awakened, too, a deeper sense of duly towards him than I had hitherto imbibed, either from my own reasonings on the subject, or from the events which I had witnessed, and, in time, I gained confidence enough to propose requests to him, whose object was simply my own gratification. My mother had left some pensioners; she had put some children to school, and clothed others; I was anxious to hold her place towards the unfortunate, and solicited to have an allowance sufficient for this purpose. I no sooner named the necessary sum than it was granted to me. I grew imboldened by success; and one day, when my father ma...