But I did it for the best; I did, indeed.

I did so want Felicia to be happy." "I am sure you did." "You see, all my life I had taken an inferior position socially, and the iron of it had entered into my soul.

I daresay it was sinful of me, but I used to mind so dreadfully when my husband and I were always asked to second-rate parties, and introduced to second-rate people; and I longed and prayed that my darling Felicia should be spared the misery and the humiliation which I had had to undergo.

You won't understand it, Elisabeth.

People in a good position never do; but to be alternately snubbed and patronized all one's life, as I have been, makes social intercourse one long-drawn-out agony to a sensitive woman.