When these
are past, and you retire into yourself, then comes back the pain,
the languor, the excessive weariness. Is it not so, Delia? Is not
this your sad experience?"
I paused. Her eyes had fallen to the floor. She sat very still, like
one who was thinking deeply.
"The plodding housekeeper, whose picture you drew just now--humble,
even mean in your regard though she be--sinks to peaceful sleep when
her tasks are done, and rises refreshed at coming dawn. If she is
happier than your fine lady, whose dainty hands cannot bear the soil
of these common things, why? Ponder this subject, Delia. It concerns
you deeply. It is the happiest state in life that we all strive to
gain; but you may lay it up in your heart as immutable truth, that
happiness never comes to any one, except through a useful employment
of all the powers which God has given to us. The idle are the most
miserable--and none are more miserable in their ever-recurring
ennuied hours, than your fashionable idlers. We see them only in
their holiday attire, tricked out for show, and radiant in reflected
smiles.
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