Good God! what harm novels do!"
"We should live them, my dear father, whether people wrote them or
not; I think it is better to read them. There are not so many
adventures in these days as there were under Louis XIV. and Louis XV.,
and so they publish fewer novels. Besides, if you have read those
letters, you must know that I have chosen the most angelic soul, the
most sternly upright man for your son-in-law, and you must have seen
that we love one another at least as much as you and mamma love each
other. Well, I admit that it was not all exactly conventional; I did,
if you _will_ have me say so, wrong--"
"I have read your letters," said her father, interrupting her, "and I
know exactly how far your lover justified you in your own eyes for a
proceeding which might be permissible in some woman who understood
life, and who was led away by strong passion, but which in a young
girl of twenty was a monstrous piece of wrong-doing."
"Yes, wrong-doing for commonplace people, for the narrow-minded
Gobenheims, who measure life with a square rule. Please let us keep to
the artistic and poetic life, papa.
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