It is so irritating to be justified in expecting more
than seems likely to come. Mrs Murchison's ideas circulated
strictly in the orbit of equity and reason; she expected
nothing from anybody that she did not expect from herself;
indeed, she would spare others in far larger proportion.
But the sense of obligation which led her to offer herself
up to the last volt of her energy made her miserable when
she considered that she was not fairly done by in return.
Pressed down and running over were the services she
offered to the general good, and it was on the ground of
the merest justice that she required from her daughters
"some sort of interest" in domestic affairs. From her
eldest she got no sort of interest, and it was like the
removal of a grievance from the hearth when Advena took
up employment which ranged her definitely beyond the
necessity of being of any earthly use in the house.
Advena's occupation to some extent absorbed her
shortcomings, which was much better than having to
attribute them to her being naturally "through-other,"
or naturally clever, according to the bias of the moment.
Mrs Murchison no longer excused or complained of her
daughter; but she still pitied the man.
"The boys," of course, were too young to think of matrimony.
They were still the boys, the Murchison boys; they would
be the boys at forty if they remained under their father's
roof.
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