Nor was it a delusion under which he laboured. Aveline Calveley was all
his imagination painted her. Purity of heart, gentleness of disposition,
intellectual endowments, were as clearly revealed by her speaking
countenance as the innermost depths of a fountain are by the pellucid
medium through which they are viewed. Hers was a virgin heart, which,
like his own, had received no previous impression. Love for her father
alone had swayed her; though all strong demonstrations of filial
affection had been checked by that father"s habitually stern manner.
Brought up by a female relative in Cheshire, who had taken charge of her
on her mother"s death, which had occurred during her infancy, she had
known little of her father till late years, when she had come to reside
with him, and, though devout by nature, she could ill reconcile herself
to the gloomy notions of religion he entertained, or to the ascetic mode
of life he practised. With no desire to share in the pomps and vanities
of life, she could not be persuaded that cheerfulness was incompatible
with righteousness; nor could all the railings she heard against them
make her hate those who differed from her in religious opinions. Still
she made no complaint. Entirely obedient to her father"s will, she
accommodated herself, as far as she could, to the rule of life
prescribed by him. Aware of his pertinacity of opinion, she seldom or
ever argued a point with him, even if she thought right might be on her
side; holding it better to maintain peace by submission, than to hazard
wrath by disputation. The discussion on the May Games was an exception
to her ordinary conduct, and formed one of the few instances in which
she had ventured to assert her own opinion in opposition to that of her
father.
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