ABSTRACT
There is a degree of innate vanity which possesses enlightened minds, whether they are raised and refined by nature or by education, which renders the pain of suppressing their prouder feelings more intolerable than even the humiliations of poverty or neglect. Mrs. Sedgley felt this intuitive pride. She had been accustomed to respect, esteem, and attention, and she could not bear the idea of being treated as one divested of those claims which expansion of intellect entitled her to feel. Conscious that fortune was her foe, and labouring under a stigma, of which she knew herself undeserving, she resolved to lose no time in exciting an interest in Mrs. Morley’s bosom, by that candour which is the sure basis of friendship and affection.
