" I gave vent to such noble
sentiments that in a quarter of an hour I glowed with pride in my
borrowed plumes of virtue. I would have taken a slug to my bosom
and addressed a rattlesnake as Uncle Toby did the fly. I wonder
whether it is not through some such process as this that parsons
manage to keep themselves good.
The soothing warmth of conscious merit restored me to good
temper; and when Carlotta slid her hand into mine and asked me if
I had forgiven her, I magnanimously assured her that all the past
was forgotten.
"Only," said I, "you will have to get out of this habit of tears.
A wise man called Burton says in his 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' a
beautiful book which I'll give you to read when you are sixty,
'As much count may be taken of a woman weeping as a goose going
barefoot.'"
"He was a nasty old man," said Carlotta. "Women cry because they
feel very unhappy. Men are never unhappy, and that is the reason
that men don't cry. My mamma used to cry all the time at
Alexandretta; but Hamdi!--" she broke into an adorable trill of
a chuckle, "You would as soon see a goose going with boots and
stockings, like the Puss in the shoes --the fairy tale--as Hamdi
crying.
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