condescension when she married the self-made merchant--if the little
lady had sinned very deeply in wishing to secure for her only child a
husband in every way suitable, in her opinion, to a descendant of the
Leveridges of Leveridge, she was destined to a full expiation of her
wrong, and her towering pride to a fall so great that those who had
envied her her life-long prosperity, would say with ill-concealed
delight--"served them right! what will become of their lofty ambition
and refined sensibilities now, I wonder?"--"I knew it would not last
forever."--"It's a long lane that never turns;" with many more remarks
to the same effect.

"Between you and me and the four walls of this room," said one Mrs.
Crane to her neighbor, "I don't pity them Graystones as much as I
should, if they hadn't always carried their heads so high above
everybody else, who was just as good as themselves, if they couldn't
trace back their descent to the landin' of the Pilgrims."

"This is a free and glorious republic, where every man can follow the
bent of his own inclinations, provided he don't intrude upon his
neighbor's rights. Who gave their blood and sinew to the putting down of
them are southern secessionists that threatened the dissolution of our
Union? Who, indeed, but P. Crandall Crane! and I'm proud to say that I'm
the wife of that patriotic man. True, he could not go to war himself, on
account of me and the children; but, I dare say, if he could have
prevailed upon me to give him up to the cause of liberty, he'd have
clomb rapidly to the highest pinnacle of earthly glory, and to-day I'd
have been Mrs. General Crane, a leader of the brilliant society at
Washington, with _my_ name in the papers as 'the wife of our
distinguished General Crane,' or the 'stately and dignified lady of the
brave General;'" &c., &c.