Beyond the Breakers. a Story of the Present Day

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ...truth, be set down just as he said it, even though he lose caste in consequence. Deal not too hardly with a villager's ignorance, O fair young aristocrat, reading these pages, perhaps, in the boudoir of a Fifth Avenue palace! You know better than to mistake a poor forty thousand dollars for riches; but plain people, with country ways, who find that one can obtain all one needs or desires in this world for that paltry pittance, should be forgiven if they rise not to the level of your enlightened views, and forget to add on the right hand of the sorry sum that additional cipher which would make it worth talking about. When Celia stated the rate at which her uncle had charged her for maintenance, Ethan, simple fellow! not at all in jest, said: "By a guardian who has a rich heiress for ward the charge is moderate enough. Good board and lodging can scarcely be had in Chiskauga under four dollars a week." "But the dear child," interrupted Alice, "does not cost Mr. Hartland half that sum. Her chamber would stand empty if she did not occupy it. We should not have one servant the less. We have our own washing done in the house: what matters it whether her's is thrown in or not? Does the butcher, even, send us one pound of meat the more on her account?" "Perhaps not," said Ethan. "Yet an additional person in a family must, necessarily, add to the expense, were it but in the consumption of tea, coffee, sugar, flour and the like; lamplight also, and many trifling incidentals." "While you're about it, Ethan," said Alice, half amused, half indignant, "I think you'd better take out your pencil and make a nice calculation how much ought to be charged against the poor child for wear and tear...