Little Davie alone
is my pupil, and I forget myself."
"I am very glad to listen to you," returned Miss Graeme. "I cannot
say I am prepared to agree with you. But it is something, in this
out-of-the-way corner, to hear talk from which it is even worth
while to differ."
"Ah, you can have that here if you will!"
"Indeed!"
"I mean talk from which you would probably differ. There is an old
man in the town who can talk better than ever I heard man before.
But he is a poor man, with a despised handicraft, and none heed
him. No community recognizes its great men till they are gone."
"Where is the use then of being great?" said Miss Graeme.
"To be great," answered Donal, "--to which the desire to be known of
men is altogether destructive. To be great is to seem little in the
eyes of men."
Miss Graeme did not answer. She was not accustomed to consider
things seriously. A good girl in a certain true sense, she had
never yet seen that she had to be better, or indeed to be anything.
But she was able to feel, though she was far from understanding
him, that Donal was in earnest, and that was much. To recognize
that a man means something, is a great step towards understanding
him.
"What a lovely garden this is!" remarked Donal after the sequent
pause. "I have never seen anything like it."
"It is very old-fashioned," she returned.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177