“I kept her away from other children,” Edna went on. “After she could
talk I never trusted her to nurses until we could afford fashionable
servants. I got her the right sort of governesses--so that she should
speak French, Italian, and German, and should have a well-bred English
accent for her own language. I even trained her in the children’s
stories she read--had her read only the fairy tales and the other
stories that would fill her mind with ideas of nobility and titles and
the high things of life.”
“The high things of life,” said I.
She made an impressive gesture--she looked like a beautiful young
empress. “Let’s not cant,” said she. “Those _are_ the high things
of life. Ask any person you meet in America--young or old, high or
low--ask him which he’d rather be--a prince, duke, marquis, or a saint,
scientist, statesman. What would he answer?”