Page 4 (1/1)

Egbert Haldane had an enemy who loved him very dearly, and he sincerely returned her affection, as he was in duty bound, since she was his mother If, inspired by hate and malice, Mrs Haldane had brooded over but one question at the cradle of her child, How can I most surely destroy this boy? she could scarcely have set about the taskany such n and unnatural intention, Mrs Haldane idolized her son To ive hiainst her knee Bible tales were told him, not merely for the sake of the marvellous interest which they ever have for children, but in the hope, also, that theseed At an early age the ave hie as his restless eyes wandered from the venerable face in the pulpit In brief, the apparent influences of his early life were sieneral principles, it ht be hoped that the boy's future would be all that his friends could desire; nor did he himself in early youth promise so badly to superficial observers; and the son of the wealthy Mrs Haldane was, on the part of the world, more the object of envy than of censure But a close observer, who judged of characteristic tendencies and their results by the light of experience, ly done her child irreparable wrong

She had made him a tyrant and a relentless task-master even in his infancy As his baby-will developed he found it supreed to be a slave who must patiently humor every whim He was petted and coaxed out of his frequent fits of passion, and beguiled from his obstinate and sulky moods by bribes He was the eldest child and only son, and his little sisters were taught to yield to hi it over them with the capricious lawlessness of an Eastern despot Chivalric deference to woman, and a disposition to protect and honor her, is a necessary element of aHaldane was as truly an Oriental as if he had been permitted to bluster around a Turkish harem; and those whom he should have learned to wait upon with delicacy and tact beca that essential brutality which mars the nature of every man who looks upon woman as an inferior and a servant He loved his ht ever upperht she to do for ht I to do for her?" and any effort to curb or guide on her part was met and thwarted by passionate or obstinate opposition from him He loved his sisters after a fashion, because they were his sisters; but so far fro to think of them as those whom it would be his natural task to cherish and protect, they were, in his estiirls," and of no account whatever where his interests were concerned