FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   >>   >|  
d enough, they would be happy. Sometimes some one of them fancied he was just upon the point of making the immortal discovery; but there he always broke down." "They were looking in the wrong place," said Lois thoughtfully. "Is there a _right_ place to look then?" Lois smiled. It was a smile that struck Philip very much, for its calm and confident sweetness; yes, more than that; for its gladness. She was not in haste to answer; apparently she felt some difficulty. "I do not think gold ever made anybody happy," she said at length. "That is what moralists tell us. But, after all, Miss Lothrop, money is the means to everything else in this world." "Not to happiness, is it?" "Well, what is, then? They say--and perhaps you will say--that friendships and affections can do more; but I assure you, where there are not the means to stave off grinding toil or crushing poverty, affections wither; or if they do not quite wither, they bear no golden fruit of happiness. On the contrary, they offer vulnerable spots to the stings of pain." "Money can do a great deal," said Lois. "What can do more?" Lois lifted up her eyes and looked at her questioner inquiringly. Did he know no better than that? "With money, one can do everything," he went on, though struck by her expression. "Yes," said Lois; "and yet--all that never satisfied anybody." "Satisfied!" cried Philip. "Satisfied is a very large word. Who is satisfied?" Lois glanced up again, mutely. "If I dared venture to say so--you look, Miss Lothrop, you absolutely look, as if _you_ were; and yet it is impossible." "Why is it impossible?" "Because it is what all the generations of men have been trying for, ever since the world began; and none of them ever found it." "Not if they looked for it in their money bags," said Lois. "It was never found there." "Was it ever found anywhere?" "Why, yes!" "Pray tell me where, that I may have it too!" The girl's cheeks flushed; and what was very odd to Philip, her eyes, he was sure, had grown moist; but the lids fell over them, and he could not see as well as he wished. What a lovely face it was, he thought, in this its mood of stirred gravity! "Do you ever read the Bible, Mr. Dillwyn?" The question occasioned him a kind of revulsion. The Bible! was _that_ to be brought upon his head? A confused notion of organ-song, the solemnity of a still house, a white surplice, and words in measured caden
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Philip

 

wither

 

happiness

 
affections
 

Lothrop

 
looked
 

impossible

 
satisfied
 

struck

 

Satisfied


glanced

 

mutely

 

Because

 

generations

 
venture
 
absolutely
 
brought
 

revulsion

 

Dillwyn

 

question


occasioned
 

confused

 

notion

 
surplice
 

measured

 

solemnity

 

cheeks

 

flushed

 
stirred
 
gravity

thought
 

wished

 
lovely
 

answer

 
apparently
 

gladness

 

sweetness

 

confident

 

difficulty

 

moralists


length

 

smiled

 

making

 

fancied

 

Sometimes

 

immortal

 

discovery

 
thoughtfully
 

lifted

 

questioner