His
favourite maxim was, "Always look for motives." And he once summed up his
own character and idea of life by saying: "I often wake at night and laugh
as I think how many men are lying awake in their beds, scheming to get
something out of me for nothing."
There could be but one result of such an education by such an educator.
Danvers was acutely suspicious, saved from cynicism and misanthropy by his
vanity only. He was the familiar combination of credulity and incredulity,
now trusting not at all and again trusting with an utter incapacity to
judge. Had he been far more attractive personally, he might still have
failed to find genuine affection. To be liked for one's self alone or even
chiefly is rarely the lot of any human being who has a possession that is
all but universally coveted--wealth or position or power or beauty.
Danvers and Marian had known each the other from childhood. And she perhaps
came nearer to liking him for himself than did any one else of his
acquaintance. She was used to his conceit, his selfishness, his meanness
and smallness in suspicion, his arrogance, his narrow-mindedness. She knew
his good qualities--his kindness of heart, his shamed-face generosity, his
honesty, the strong if limited sense of justice which made him a good
employer and a good landlord.
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