They had very soon come to understand each other in matters of
interest. Lalli had begun by taking all her large earnings. But
Bianca very quickly let her protector understand that such an
arrangement did not meet her views at all. The ingratitude, when she
owed everything to him alone! No, Bianca had no intention to be
ungrateful--anzi! she looked upon Lalli as her father, and hoped she
always should do so; but she had no intention of being treated like
a child. So long as she could earn anything, her adopted father
should want for nothing. She asked nothing better than to continue
to live with him, and work for both of them.
And, in truth, her grateful kindness and fondness for the old man
whom she had so long looked on as a father was Bianca's strongest
point in the way of moral excellence. In all their nine years of
partnership she had worked for him as much as for herself. But her
nine years of success ought to have made both the old man and his
adopted daughter comfortably well off. And it had done nothing of
the kind.
They had laid by nothing. Old Quinto had all his life been
recklessly extravagant and thriftless; and his mode of education had
not made Bianca less so. If he was fond of dissipation and pleasure,
she was not less fond of them on her side. Careful as her education
had been, it was hardly to be expected that it should have been
eminently successful in forming a high standard of moral character.
Pages:
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237