Bressant

Sophie's life, as has been said, was preeminently an ideal one.

Materialism disturbed and perplexed her, and she ignored it as much as

possible. She was inspired and excited by the ideal she had conceived of

Bressant, and of her sphere of action with regard to him. But, had the

physical personality of the man been thrust upon her in the first place,

she would have very likely recoiled, her finer intuitions would have

been jarred, and their precision paralyzed. Standing aloof, however,

living and acting only in the realm of her pure maiden creeds, every

thing seemed clear and simple enough. Right should be done, and wrong be

righted; there would be no material conditions or hinderances; results

were attained immediately.

But life is not what the pure-hearted girl painted it in her ideal

dreams. The unconsidered obstacles rise into frowning and insurmountable

barriers. Those we would make our beneficiaries often fail to appreciate

their position, and turn our good into a worse evil than their own. We

may theorize about the human soul, but, to put our theories to the test,

is to assume an awful responsibility.