You ask her (at least so she averred to Mrs. Peters,
although she has since qualified her statement) whether it had been
given away or sold. You conduct this examination in such a mode, as to
make it evident to our servant-girl that you consider Sophia and Mrs.
Peters as combining in a depredation on your property.
You follow this up with a note of remonstrance to Sophia, in which you
take her to task not merely for giving away some of the fruit, but for
presuming to choose her own time to gather it for our own use. Now let
us suppose the perfectly parallel case, that Mrs. Ward should take
upon herself to pursue the same course in regard to the fruit of
Highwood. Would Mrs. Tappan have responded to Mrs. Ward by a gentler
assertion of right than Sophia's to yourself? I think not. I do not
see how you could. And if you did so, it would be purely out of your
own abundant grace and good nature, and would by no means be due to
any propriety in the supposed behavior of Mrs. Ward.
Finally in your note of last evening, you give us very clearly to
understand that you look upon us as having no rights here whatever.
Allow me to say that this is precisely the crisis which I contemplated
when I felt it essential to be understood that I had bought my rights,
even from persons so generously disposed as yourself and Mr. Tappan.
The right of purchase is the only safe one. This is a world of bargain
and sale; and no absurdity is more certain to be exposed than the
attempt to make it anything else.
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