An impulse that he would have found difficult to analyze led him
to descend the steps and pick up the symbolic bud, now torn and
withering fast, and to place it between the leaves of his note-book.
If she had only seen this act it would have made a great difference;
but, ever present to her thought, it lay where he had tossed it,
the emblem of herself.
Chapter XXXII. The Dangers of Despair.
Discouragement and despair are dangerous and often destructive to
character. This would be especially true of one like Ida Mayhew;
for even in her imperfection she possessed a simplicity and unity
which made it impossible for a part of such moral nature as she
possessed to stand, if another part were undermined or broken down.
The whole fabric would stand or fall together.
She had been a wayward child, more neglected than petted, and
had naturally developed a passion for having her own will, right
or wrong. As she grew older, her extraordinary dower of beauty
threatened to be a fatal one. It brought her attention continuous
admiration and flattery from those who cared nothing for her
personally. She had received in childhood but little of the praise
which love prompts, the tender, indulgent idolatry which, although
dangerous indeed to one's best development, sometimes softens and
humanizes, instead of rendering selfish and arrogant.
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