She did not wish to learn the piano, and from that point
of vantage informed her family that it was a waste of
money. She would hide in the hayloft with a novel; she
would be off by herself in a canoe at six o'clock in the
morning; she would go for walks in the rain of windy
October twilights and be met kicking the wet leaves along
in front of her "in a dream." No one could dream with
impunity in Elgin, except in bed. Mothers of daughters
sympathized in good set terms with Mrs Murchison. "If
that girl were mine--" they would say, and leave you with
a stimulated notion of the value of corporal punishment.
When she took to passing examinations and teaching, Elgin
considered that her parents ought to be thankful in the
probability that she had escaped some dramatic end. But
her occupation further removed her from intercourse with
the town's more exclusive circles: she had taken a definite
line, and she pursued it, preoccupied. If she was a brand
snatched from the burning, she sent up a little curl of
reflection in a safe place, where she was not further
interrupted.
Abby, inheriting all these prejudices, had nevertheless
not done so badly; she had taken no time at all to
establish herself; she had almost immediately married.
In the social estimates of Elgin the Johnsons were "nice
people," Dr Henry was a fine old figure in the town, and
Abby's chances were good enough.
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