For instance: he would help any one
whose necessity happened to make an impression upon him, but he never
took pains to enter into the feelings of others--to understand them
from their own point of view: he never had said to himself, "That is
another me."
Correspondent to this condition were some of Kate's theories of life
and its duties.
The question came up, whether a certain lady in fiction had done right
in running away with her lover. Mrs Forbes made a rather decided remark
on the subject. Kate said nothing, but her face glowed.
"Tell us what you think about it, Katie," said Mrs Forbes.
Katie was silent for a moment. Then with the air of a martyr, from whom
the rack can only extort a fuller confession of his faith--though I
fear she had no deeper gospel at the root of it than Byron had brought
her--she answered:
"I think a woman must give up everything for love."
She was then precisely of the same opinion as Jean Paul's Linda in
_Titan_.
"That is very true, I daresay," said Mrs Forbes; "but I fear you mean
only one kind of love. Does a woman owe no love to her father or mother
because she has a lover?"
To this plain question Kate made no reply, but her look changed to one
of obstinacy.
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