The idea! Misplaced affection! I say, if any misanthrope were to put, in my presence, the question "Why were we born ?" I should reply, "To make an effort".' 'Very good indeed,' said Miss Tox, much impressed by the originality of the sentiment 'Very good.' 'Unhappily,' pursued Mrs Chick, 'we have a warning under our own eyes.
We have but too much reason to suppose, my dear child, that if an effort had been made in time, in this family, a train of the most trying and distressing circumstances might have been avoided.

Nothing shall ever persuade me,' observed the good matron, with a resolute air, 'but that if that effort had been made by poor dear Fanny, the poor dear darling child would at least have had a stronger constitution.' Mrs Chick abandoned herself to her feelings for half a moment; but, as a practical illustration of her doctrine, brought herself up short, in the middle of a sob, and went on again.
'Therefore, Florence, pray let us see that you have some strength of mind, and do not selfishly aggravate the distress in which your poor Papa is plunged.' 'Dear aunt!' said Florence, kneeling quickly down before her, that she might the better and more earnestly look into her face.

'Tell me more about Papa.

Pray tell me about him! Is he quite heartbroken ?' Miss Tox was of a tender nature, and there was something in this appeal that moved her very much.

Whether she saw it in a succession, on the part of the neglected child, to the affectionate concern so often expressed by her dead brother--or a love that sought to twine itself about the heart that had loved him, and that could not bear to be shut out from sympathy with such a sorrow, in such sad community of love and grief--or whether the only recognised the earnest and devoted spirit which, although discarded and repulsed, was wrung with tenderness long unreturned, and in the waste and solitude of this bereavement cried to him to seek a comfort in it, and to give some, by some small response--whatever may have been her understanding of it, it moved Miss Tox.