Between two such women as Madame de Florac and Lady Kew, of course there
could be little liking or sympathy. Religion, love, duty, the family,
were the French lady's constant occupation,--duty and the family,
perhaps, Lady Kew's aim too,--only the notions of duty were different in
either person. Lady Kew's idea of duty to her relatives being to push
them on in the world: Madame de Florac's to soothe, to pray, to attend
them with constant watchfulness, to strive to mend them with pious
counsel. I don't know that one lady was happier than the other. Madame de
Florac's eldest son was a kindly prodigal: her second had given his whole
heart to the Church: her daughter had centred hers on her own children,
and was jealous if their grandmother laid a finger on them. So Leonore de
Florac was quite alone. It seemed as if Heaven had turned away all her
children's hearts from her. Her daily business in life was to nurse a
selfish old man, into whose service she had been forced in early youth,
by a paternal decree which she never questioned; giving him obedience,
striving to give him respect,--everything but her heart, which had gone
out of her keeping.
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