Those
occasional victories, however, which he gained over her with reluctance,
never prevented her from treating him, in the ordinary business of life,
with a systematic exhibition of abuse and scorn. Much of this he bore,
as we have said; but whenever he chose to retort upon her with her own
weapons in their common and minor skirmishes, she found his sarcasm too
cool and biting for a temper so violent as hers, and the consequence
was, that nothing enraged her more than to see him amuse himself at her
expense.
This woman had a brother, who also lived in the same neighborhood, and
who, although so closely related to her by blood, was, nevertheless, as
different from her in both character and temper as good could be from
evil. He was wealthy and generous, free from everything like a worldly
spirit, and a warm but unostentatious benefactor to the poor, and
to such individuals as upon inquiry he found to be entitled to his
beneficence. His wife had, some years before, died of decline, which,
it seems, was hereditary in her family. He felt her death as a calamity
which depressed his heart to the uttermost depths of affliction, and
from which, indeed, he never recovered.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25