I
take the people that come, and never think of those who do not. But
of course it must be so."
"To be in the world is to have a great many brothers and sisters you
do not know!" said Donal.
"My mother told me," she rejoined, "of a man who had had so many
wives and children that his son, whom she had met, positively did
not know all his brothers and sisters."
"I suspect," said Donal, "we have to know our brothers and sisters."
"I do not understand."
"We have even got to feel a man is our brother the moment we see
him," pursued Donal, enhancing his former remark.
"That sounds alarming!" said Miss Graeme, with another laugh. "My
little heart feels not large enough to receive so many."
"The worst of it is," continued Donal, who once started was not
ready to draw rein, "that those who chiefly advocate this extension
of the family bonds, begin by loving their own immediate relations
less than anybody else. Extension with them means slackening--as if
any one could learn to love more by loving less, or go on to do
better without doing well! He who loves his own little will not
love others much."
"But how can we love those who are nothing to us?" objected Miss
Graeme.
"That would be impossible. The family relations are for the sake of
developing a love rooted in a far deeper though less recognized
relation.--But I beg your pardon, Miss Graeme.
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