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- 4563
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z
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- 4491
- text
- here, he seems to grow too cold. Pray, favor us with your views, Mr.
Glendinning?"
"I will not think now of the man," said Pierre, slowly, and looking away
from both his auditors--"let us speak of Delly and her infant--she has,
or had one, I have loosely heard;--their case is miserable indeed."
"The mother deserves it," said the lady, inflexibly--"and the
child--Reverend sir, what are the words of the Bible?"
"'The sins of the father shall be visited upon the children to the third
generation,'" said Mr. Falsgrave, with some slight reluctance in his
tones. "But Madam, that does not mean, that the community is in any way
to take the infamy of the children into their own voluntary hands, as
the conscious delegated stewards of God's inscrutable dispensations.
Because it is declared that the infamous consequences of sin shall be
hereditary, it does not follow that our personal and active loathing of
sin, should descend from the sinful sinner to his sinless child."
"I understand you, sir," said Mrs. Glendinning, coloring slightly, "you
think me too censorious. But if we entirely forget the parentage of the
child, and every way receive the child as we would any other, feel for
it in all respects the same, and attach no sign of ignominy to it--how
then is the Bible dispensation to be fulfilled? Do we not then put
ourselves in the way of its fulfilment, and is that wholly free from
impiety?"
Here it was the clergyman's turn to color a little, and there was a just
perceptible tremor of the under lip.
"Pardon me," continued the lady, courteously, "but if there is any one
blemish in the character of the Reverend Mr. Falsgrave, it is that the
benevolence of his heart, too much warps in him the holy rigor of our
Church's doctrines. For my part, as I loathe the man, I loathe the
woman, and never desire to behold the child."
A pause ensued, during which it was fortunate for Pierre, that by the
social sorcery of such occasions as the present, the eyes of all three
were intent upon the cloth; all three for the moment, giving loose to
their own distressful meditations upon the subject in debate, and Mr.
Falsgrave vexedly thinking that the scene was becoming a little
embarrassing.
Pierre was the first who spoke; as before, he steadfastly kept his eyes
away from both his auditors; but though he did not designate his mother,
something in the tone of his voice showed that what he said was
addressed more particularly to her.
"Since we seem to have been strangely drawn into the ethical aspect of
this melancholy matter," said he, "suppose we go further in it; and let
me ask, how it should be between the legitimate and the illegitimate
child--children of one father--when they shall have passed their
childhood?"
Here the clergyman quickly raising his eyes, looked as surprised and
searchingly at Pierre, as his politeness would permit.
"Upon my word"--said Mrs. Glendinning, hardly less surprised, and making
no attempt at disguising it--"this is an odd question you put; you have
been more attentive to the subject than I had fancied. But what do you
mean, Pierre? I did not entirely understand you."
"Should the legitimate child shun the illegitimate, when one father is
father to both?" rejoined Pierre, bending his head still further over
his plate.
The clergyman looked a little down again, and was silent; but still
turned his head slightly sideways toward his hostess, as if awaiting
some reply to Pierre from her.
"Ask the world, Pierre"--said Mrs. Glendinning warmly--"and ask your own
heart."
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