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Leila's Books
The History of a Merchant's Widow and Her Young Family
The History of a Merchant's Widow and Her Young Family
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This ebook edition has been proofed and corrected and compiled to be read with without errors!
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An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I.
Mr. Daventree was a merchant in a very extensive line of business, in which he justly enjoyed a high character for probity, regularity, and activity. He had succeeded his father in the concern, so that his whole life had been passed in the enjoyment of wealth, but under such restrictions as taught him its proper use and just value. He had not to contend with those difficulties which arise from narrow means and unformed connexions; he had never experienced the necessity of small savings and perpetual self-denials, such as his good parent had felt before him; but he had been taught by that parent justly to estimate his own advantages, and to know that every business, however well established, requires the eye of a master; and that the most splendid income calls for the boundaries of economy, and the hand of management. His own excellent understanding and education enabled him to see the propriety of dispensing a large income with dignified liberality without affecting the pageantry of rank on one hand, or stooping to petty detail on the other; and as he regarded the character of a British merchant to be justly one of sufficient importance to satisfy all proper ambition, he did not seek to embellish it with ornaments to which it had no pretension: thus he never sought to intrude into those walks of life which he conceived appropriate to nobility; and while his hospitable board was open to all, and frequently surrounded by men of the first talents and highest offices in the country, he yet neither sought celebrity, nor awakened satire, by the splendour of his fetes, or the crowding of his routs; but blending the plenty of past times with the elegance of the present, obtained good-will from all, and envy from none.
Mr. Daventree was enabled to pursue a line of life agreeable to his situation, his judgment, and his principles, by being united to a lady whose disposition and opinions entirely coincided with his own, and whose affections were so entirely given to him and to her children, that in every point where she had formed a wish that did not precisely accord with his ideas, she had a pleasure in abandoning it for his sake. This conduct, while it rendered her inexpressibly dear to him, inspired him with an uncommon anxiety to procure her every blessing and comfort in his power; and he felt as if he could never sufficiently guard one whose tenderness rendered her so entirely dependent upon him; in fact, he considered her as more dependent upon him than she really was, for Mrs. Daventree was not only an accomplished, elegant woman, but (notwithstanding the mildness of her manners, and the gentle timidity which marked her conduct as a wife) she possessed a strong mind, an enlightened understanding, and that sense of power which is derived from the constant exercise of religious principles; her sense of justice and integrity was particularly acute, for it had been early instilled into her mind by her venerable grandsire, who was himself a merchant, and who had been brought up at a period when regularity and order were the peculiar characteristics of men of his description.
Mrs. Daventree had the misfortune to lose both her parents during her infancy; but their loss had been supplied by the parents of her father, in the best manner they were able; and in their declining years she had amply returned their kindness, by an affectionate attention to their comforts, not often supplied by beautiful and rich girls to their aged relatives. The docile temper she cultivated for their sakes, and the patience she exercised towards them, doubtless laid the foundation of those virtues which she eminently practised towards her own family in after-life; for the cares claimed by old age and early infancy are very similar.
***
An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I.
Mr. Daventree was a merchant in a very extensive line of business, in which he justly enjoyed a high character for probity, regularity, and activity. He had succeeded his father in the concern, so that his whole life had been passed in the enjoyment of wealth, but under such restrictions as taught him its proper use and just value. He had not to contend with those difficulties which arise from narrow means and unformed connexions; he had never experienced the necessity of small savings and perpetual self-denials, such as his good parent had felt before him; but he had been taught by that parent justly to estimate his own advantages, and to know that every business, however well established, requires the eye of a master; and that the most splendid income calls for the boundaries of economy, and the hand of management. His own excellent understanding and education enabled him to see the propriety of dispensing a large income with dignified liberality without affecting the pageantry of rank on one hand, or stooping to petty detail on the other; and as he regarded the character of a British merchant to be justly one of sufficient importance to satisfy all proper ambition, he did not seek to embellish it with ornaments to which it had no pretension: thus he never sought to intrude into those walks of life which he conceived appropriate to nobility; and while his hospitable board was open to all, and frequently surrounded by men of the first talents and highest offices in the country, he yet neither sought celebrity, nor awakened satire, by the splendour of his fetes, or the crowding of his routs; but blending the plenty of past times with the elegance of the present, obtained good-will from all, and envy from none.
Mr. Daventree was enabled to pursue a line of life agreeable to his situation, his judgment, and his principles, by being united to a lady whose disposition and opinions entirely coincided with his own, and whose affections were so entirely given to him and to her children, that in every point where she had formed a wish that did not precisely accord with his ideas, she had a pleasure in abandoning it for his sake. This conduct, while it rendered her inexpressibly dear to him, inspired him with an uncommon anxiety to procure her every blessing and comfort in his power; and he felt as if he could never sufficiently guard one whose tenderness rendered her so entirely dependent upon him; in fact, he considered her as more dependent upon him than she really was, for Mrs. Daventree was not only an accomplished, elegant woman, but (notwithstanding the mildness of her manners, and the gentle timidity which marked her conduct as a wife) she possessed a strong mind, an enlightened understanding, and that sense of power which is derived from the constant exercise of religious principles; her sense of justice and integrity was particularly acute, for it had been early instilled into her mind by her venerable grandsire, who was himself a merchant, and who had been brought up at a period when regularity and order were the peculiar characteristics of men of his description.
Mrs. Daventree had the misfortune to lose both her parents during her infancy; but their loss had been supplied by the parents of her father, in the best manner they were able; and in their declining years she had amply returned their kindness, by an affectionate attention to their comforts, not often supplied by beautiful and rich girls to their aged relatives. The docile temper she cultivated for their sakes, and the patience she exercised towards them, doubtless laid the foundation of those virtues which she eminently practised towards her own family in after-life; for the cares claimed by old age and early infancy are very similar.
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