Nevertheless the judge and his wife were deeply anxious about their
daughter's future. She was good--as girls go; she attended regularly
the church of which the family, including herself, were members; she
had no bad habits or bad tastes; her associates were carefully
selected; and yet the judge and his wife spent many hours, which should
have been devoted to sleep, in endeavoring to forecast her future.
It was all a matter of heredity. At middle age the judge and his wife
were fully deserving of the high esteem in which they were held by the
entire community. They were an honest, honorable, Christian couple,
living fully up to the professions they made. In their youthful days
they had been different--in some respects. Well off, handsome, and
brilliant, they had both been among the most persistent and successful
of pleasure-seekers. Reviewing those days, Mrs. Prency could say that
utter selfishness and self-love had been her deepest sins. Her husband,
looking back at his own life, could truthfully say the same, but the
details were different. He had looked upon the wine-cup and every other
receptacle in which stimulants were ever served. He had tried every
game of chance and gone through all other operations collectively known
as "sowing one's wild oats." Respect for his wife caused him to break
from all his bad habits and associations, at first haltingly and with
many relapses, but afterwards by joining the church and conforming his
life to his faith.
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