They still recognise the claims of the wealthiest or strongest, and
their love of luxury and ease is so keen that if the nest they lie in
is only soft enough, they will not grieve long over the fact that it
was not of their own choosing. Arguing from these untrustworthy
premises, he came to the conclusion that Ida would soon get over her
repugnance to marrying him, when she found how many comforts and good
things marriage with so rich a man would place at her disposal, and
would, if for no other reason, learn to look on him with affection and
gratitude as the author of her gilded ease. And so indeed she might
have done had she been of another and more common stamp. But,
unfortunately for his reasoning, there exist members of her sex who
are by nature of an order of mind superior to these considerations,
and who realise that they have but one life to live, and that the
highest form of happiness is /not/ dependent upon money or money's
worth, but rather upon the indulgence of mental aspirations and those
affections which, when genuine, draw nearer to holiness than anything
else about us. Such a woman, more especially if she is already
possessed with an affection for another man, does not easily become
reconciled to a distasteful lot, however quietly she may endure it,
and such a woman was Ida de la Molle.
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