All sensible people would hasten to join
them, and any opposition would be quenched at once. Then such a glorious
condition of mankind would ensue as has never been known in this
world--peace, wealth, universal happiness, gaiety, dancing everywhere,
no more shabby clothes, no more dreary Sundays. How do you like the
thought of it?"
"Well, some of it sounds very nice; but I don't see the use of universal
justice. Justice means having one's own rights; and it is impossible
for everybody to do that, because of other people. And as for the French
coming to put things right, they had better attend to their own affairs
first. And as if any Englishman would permit it! Why, even Frank would
mount his wig and gown (for he is a full-fledged barrister now, you
know), and come and help to push them back into the sea. And I hope that
you would do so too. I am not going to marry a Frenchman. You belong to
an old English family, and you were born in England, and your name is
English, and the property that ought to belong to you. I hope you don't
consider yourself a Frenchman because your mother is a great French
lady, after so many generations of Carnes, all English, every bit of
them. I am an English girl, and I care very little for things that I
don't see--such as justice, liberty, rights of people, and all that. But
I do care about my relations, and our friends, and the people that live
here, and the boats, and all the trees, and the land that belongs to
my father.
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