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The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) by Marion Harland
page 36 of 250 (14%)




CHAPTER III.

THE PARABLE OF THE RICH WOMAN AND THE FARMER'S WIFE.


The rich woman was born and brought up in New York City; the farmer's
wife in Indiana.

They were as far apart in education and social station as if they had
belonged to different races and had lived in different hemispheres.

They were as near akin in circumstances and in suffering as if they
had been twin sisters, and brought up under the same roof.

The husband of one wrote "Honorable" before his name, and reckoned his
dollars by the million. He was, moreover, a man of imposing
deportment, bland in manner and ornate in language. As riches
increased he set his heart upon them and upon the good things that
riches buy. He had four children, and he erected ("built" was too
small a word) a palatial house in a fashionable street.

Each child had a suite of three rooms. Each apartment was elaborately
decorated and furnished. The drawing-rooms were crowded with
bric-a-brac and monuments of the upholsterer's ingenuity. It was a
work of art and peril to dust them every day. He developed a taste for
entertaining as time went on and honors thickened upon him, and he
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