The coolness and calmness with which such people ignore their responsibilities, or allow strangers to assume them, would be an occasion for humour, if it were not an opportunity for indignation: though indeed it would take a very exceptionally sober-minded spectator not to get some fun out of the blissful self-satisfaction and unconsciousness which characterize the most negligent of 'caretakers.' Mrs.Reffold was not the only sinner in this respect.

It would have been interesting to get together a tea-party of invalids alone, and set the ball rolling about the respective behaviours of their respective friends.
Not a pleasing chronicle: no very choice pages to add to the book of real life; still, valuable items in their way, representative of the actual as opposed to the ideal.

In most instances there would have been ample testimony to that cruel monster, known as Neglect.
Bernardine spoke once to the Disagreeable Man on this subject.

She spoke with indignation, and he answered with indifference, shrugging his shoulders.
"These things occur," he said "It is not that they are worse here than everywhere else; it is simply that they are together in an accumulated mass, and, as such, strike us with tremendous force.

I myself am accustomed to these exhibitions of selfishness and neglect.