Howsoever valuable
the friendship of persons at once so accomplished and so excellent was
to Mr. and Mrs. Devoe, for their own sakes, they prized it yet more for
their Lilian's. She was their only child, and their poverty lost its
last sting when they saw her linked arm in arm with young Anna
Trevanion, the companion of her lessons and her sports. They could not
have borne to see her, so lovely in outward form, and with a mind so
full of intelligence, condemned either to the dreariness of a life
without companionship, or to the degradation of association with the
rude and uncultivated. That this feeling was wholly unconnected with any
false views of their own position, or vain estimation of the claims
derived from their birth and former condition, was evident from their
readiness to receive into their friendly regards those in their present
sphere in whose moral qualities they could confide, and who did not
repel their courtesies by a rude and coarse manner. There was one of
this latter class who held a place in their esteem not less exalted than
that occupied by Mr. Trevanion himself. This was a Scotchman, living
within two miles of Mr.
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