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A Little Journey in the World

Chapter 4 No.4

Word Count: 3381    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

house, Margaret describ

f Miss Forsythe. "The authorities

ful, aunt. I fear I should be inca

as so unn

ed me most strongly was that there is in the world still this lo

rgan, "that there was no demonstration from the spectators, that th

said I; "the world has become s

a moment came under the spell of the hour, and were awed by

ever, and as much of what we call faith, only it shows itself eccentrically. Breaking away from traditions and not

ek, on which she supported herself and her mother. It was hard work, but she did not mind it much. Her mother was quite feeble. She was an Adventist. 'And you?' I asked. 'Oh, yes; I am. I've been an Adventist twenty years, and I've been perfectly happy ever since I joined-perfectly,' she added, turning her plain face, now radiant, towards me. 'Are you one?' she asked, presently. 'Not an immediate Adventist,' I was obliged to confess. 'I thought you might be, there are so many now, more and more.' I learned that in our little city there were two Advent societies; there had been a split on account of some difference in the meaning of original sin. 'And you are not discouraged by the repeated failure of the predictions of the end of the world?' I asked. 'No. Why should we be? We don't fix any certain day now, but all the signs show that it is very near. We are all free to think as we like. Most of our members no

is an age of both f

scientific and the ignorant of something to come out of the dimly understood relati

l, Adventists, socialists, spiritualists, culturists, Sons and Daughters of Edom; from all the open windows of the tall buildings come notes of praying, of exhortation, the melancholy w

are well attended,

hall in the city as the announcement of inspirational preaching by some young woman who speaks at random on a text given her when

just as jammed when the clever attorney of Nothingism, Ham Sa

musing. All the same, they are credulous, and ent

hitherto been silent, "that you should drift in

th an established religion should drift over here. Great Britain, you

disestablished, and all churches should be broken up, society would somehow precipitate itself again spiritually.

an, "since Tolst

d to me that intelligent people accepted this sort of story as true on evidence on which they wouldn't risk five dollars if it were a question

produced in the freedom of a republic, where there was no court to give the tone and there were no class lines to determine position. He was restless under this sense of duty. The futu

e had become very much interested in studying a schoolteacher-a very charming school-teacher? He could see the vision raised in the minds of his mother and of the earl and of his elder sister as they should read this precious confession-a vision of a schoolma'am, of an American girl, and an American girl without any money at that, moving i

tensity of his interest in Margaret. For love is humble, and undervalues self in contrast with that which it desires. At this touchstone rank, fortune, all that go with them, seemed poor. What were all these to a woman's soul? But there were women enough, women enough in England, women more beautiful than Margaret, doubtless as amiable and

anything can be borne if he knows that he shall see her tomorrow. In short, he

or in any way disposed of except in the old way. Maidens dream about it; diplomats yield to it; stolid men are upset by it; the aged become young, the young grave, under its influence; the student loses his appetite-God bless him! I like to hear the young fellows at the club rattle on bravely, indifferent to

Mr. Lyon were

setting it out unreservedly-about the life he led at Oxford, about his travels, and so on to what he meant to do in the world. Margaret in return had little to tell, her own life had been so simple-not much except the maidenly reserves, the discontents with herself, which interested him

ere," Mr. Lyon was saying one day. "You seem to ma

s seem able to resist Darwin's theory, but in a

mer coming over that money in America

n't quit

of very old family and little fortune that 'b

orship wealth a good deal, and we worship family a good deal, but if any one presumes too

that determines social

es more and more of it to gain position. And then you will find that it is a good deal a matter of locality. For instance, in Virginia and Kentucky family is still very powerful, stronger than any distinc

rt of aristocracy is succum

e more uneasy just now. The one is hungry for social position, and is morose if he cannot buy it; and when the other is seduced by luxury and yields, he finds that his distinction is gone. For in his heart the newly rich only respects the rich. A stor

aret, demurely, "that this sort

t money is not run afte

ed as an awful satire on American women. It str

y to America as it is to

hey have for what they want. The Western man changes his pork in New York for pictures. I suppose tha

s Debree was so much of

earned is that England wants raw material; I thought I

from the point. As far as I can see, all sorts of people intermarry,

his was a suggestion little likely to help him. An

as to foreigners. There is a popular notio

ess is to be naturalized." Mr. Lyon tried to adopt her tone

be, except for a little w

the same; that is, individuals of t

bits and prejudices of a lifetime and of

would hav

t-great-grandfather was a Frenchman, but he became, I h

e been the one to give in

ness of marriage, depends upon a woman's having her own way in all social matters? Before our war all the men who married down South took t

e Northern women who ma

emselves, in appearance at least. Women can do that, and never

can women adapt themselves

ions. Do you know, Mr. Lyon, it seems to me that some people do not belong in the country where they were born. We have men who ought to have been born in England, and who only find themselves really they go there. There

ternational marria

rize on subjects

me very co

as too genuine to be consoling, "that you were trav

Lyon, rather ruefully. "I'm trying to fi

half seriously, "but you would

bush, this talk of nationality and all that, was nonsense; that if a woman loved a man she wouldn't care where he was born; that all the world would be as nothing to him; that all conditions and obstacles society an

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