"If you had tried to give a reason, I should have been
greatly disappointed. No explanation of that suggestion could be based
on anything but family pride, which is one form of vanity."
"No," Marion differed thoughtfully. "There is one explanation based on
human caution and wisdom. I am afraid that you are misunderstood by
the very people whose confidence you should seek to cultivate, that is
the miners. Some of them don't like you very well. They think that
you personally are a hard taskmaster and that the attentions and
relief which really come from you in times of need, are bestowed on
them by persons who feel that they have to help them because of your
failure to do the right thing by them. Why don't you, papa, go right
among them and tell them that you are going to do everything you can
for them, raise their wages, maybe, and make them love you
personally?"
"It isn't my nature, Marion, to do it that way," Mr. Stanlock replied.
"There is nothing in the world that would be so distasteful to me as
assuming the role of a philanthropist or a hero. It spoils every man
to some extent who tries it. Personal vanity is the greatest enemy
that man has to guard against.
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