A God and His Gifts Read Online Free PDF

thing.”
    â€œI think it is quite different.”
    â€œSo it is, you perceptive sprite. I was making a false claim. I can’t go the whole length with her, and that is the truth. I see her qualities; I see the scale she is built on; I recognise my second place. But I can’t whole-heartedly go the full way. It is a thing I can’t explain.”
    â€œI think you have explained it.”
    â€œSo I have. And I have explained myself as well. And a poor figure I cut, in my own estimation anyhow. I hope it is disguised from other people. I think I have aright to that. For it is not my true level. I shall rise above it. I am determined, and that is half the battle. I will not lose hold of myself.”
    â€œA strong resolve,” said a resonant voice, as Miss Merton entered the room, a tall, spare, elderly woman, with an experienced expression, resigned, grey eyes and an untypical but definite face. “But one we can keep, if we will. We have ourselves in our own hands.”
    â€œSo we have, Aunt Penelope. And it is a power I am resolved to use. It does not matter along what line. We need not pursue it.”
    â€œWe will not, as we are not invited to,” said her aunt, smiling. “Our dealings with ourselves are our own.”
    â€œIs Father in his study? Is he happy by himself? I thought he seemed harassed at breakfast.”
    â€œThat was natural, as he was harassed. He is at the end of some work, and beset by the final troubles.”
    â€œI wish I could be of some help. How impotent I feel!”
    â€œYou wish you were older and more erudite. It is natural that you are not.”
    â€œI don’t wish she was either,” said Emmeline.
    â€œNo, I wish I had the nameless thing that you have, Aunt Penelope. I don’t think it depends on age and erudition. Those might come to me in the end; and one of them must come; but that will not. I am in no doubt about it. And neither are you.”
    Miss Penelope smiled again on her brother’s girls, her expression suggesting that she accepted them as they were. Ada was tall and strong and upright, with an opaque, clear skin, thick, brown hair, slightly puzzled, blue eyes and features that were pleasant and plain. Her sister was short and plump and fair, with a pale, full face and uneven, childish features that somehow attained the point of charm. She suggested the confidence in her own appeal, that her family accepted and encouraged.
    The house they lived in was book-lined and not without grace, and seemed like a home from an old universitymoved to the country, which in its essence and life it was.
    â€œWell, is my pupil prepared for me? I have given her time.”
    â€œI fear she is not,” said Ada. “And I fear the fault is mine. Other subjects arose, and I admit I myself was one of them.”
    â€œWell, they may have had their claim. Certainly the last one had.”
    â€œA little learning is a dangerous thing,” said Emmeline. “And I should never have much. So perhaps I am better without it.”
    â€œBetter than many of us, I believe,” said her aunt, smiling.
    â€œYou are right, Aunt Penelope,” said Ada. “It is large of you to see it. Ah, the old sayings are the best. Their wisdom never wears out. ‘A little learning’ and the rest. ‘He does much who does a little well’. They hold the truth.”
    â€œPerhaps the surface of it. I think not always more. When someone does a little well, that is what he does. And very little it can be. Is there more truth in the theory of the great failure?”
    â€œThere may be. And perhaps a little truth in that of the small one. I must hope there is, as that is what I shall be. I feel it more when I talk to you, and glimpse the something beyond myself. But I remain an advocate of sayings. They give us wisdom in a nutshell. And that is what we need.”
    â€œThere can’t be room for much in one,” said