"
"Will you let me tell you how the thing looks to me?" said Mary.
"Certainly. You do not suppose I care for the opinions of the
people about me! I, too, have my way of looking at things."
So said Hesper; yet it was just the opinions of the people about
her that ruled all those of her actions that could be said to be
ruled at all. No one boasts of freedom except the willing slave--
the man so utterly a slave that he feels nothing irksome in his
fetters. Yet, perhaps, but for the opinions of those about her,
Hesper would have been worse than she was.
"Am I right, then, in thinking," began Mary, "that people of your
class care only that a man should wear the look of a gentleman,
and carry himself like one?--that, whether his appearance be a
reality or a mask, you do not care, so long as no mask is removed
in your company?--that he may be the lowest of men, but, so long
as other people receive him, you will, too, counting him good
enough?"
Hesper held her peace. She had by this time learned some facts
concerning the man she had married which, beside Mary's question,
were embarrassing.
"It is interesting," she said at length, "to know how the
different classes in a country regard each other." But she spoke
wearily: it was interesting in the abstract, not interesting to
her.
"The way to try a man," said Mary, "would be to turn him the
other way, as I saw the gentleman who is taking your portrait do
yesterday trying a square--change his position quite, I mean, and
mark how far he continued to look a true man.
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