Baroness Orczy

“ When I was a young boy, they consisted of seeing the ears of corn, on my father’s fields, fuller and more golden, than those of any other man; later on, I dreamt of a quiet homestead, with my mother sitting placidly in her big armchair, while I gave her every comfort she could want, and perhaps, in my old age—when she was gone—with a good-looking wife, whose baking and weaving, should be famed throughout the land; of those ideals, father, most of our village lads have dreamt. ”

“ There is so little they would receive in compensation.”
“András” said the priest very gently, “you have suffered a great deal, and like all those, who have a terrible malady, you look about you blindly for its cause, so blindly that, as one who plays at blind man’s buff, you go tumbling very far short of the mark. Education gave you high aspirations; on their wings you went wandering into the kingdom of ideals, and, suddenly, when you thought to grasp them, your hand had as it were almost touched them, something snapped, and you were precipitated back to earth, very sore and bruised. ”

“ You settle it all ... it is your idea ... you carry it out as you think best. ... Good-bye! tell my mother I will be back to-morrow.”
“God bless you, András! I ...”
“Hush! I think, perhaps, He may do that later on. ... At present He is not thinking of me! ... Good-bye!”
The old priest had hoisted himself up on his horse. He seemed loth to go. Once or twice he looked back as Dandár started off at a slow majestic trot. The tall figure of the peasant stood for a long time looking after him at the crossroads; Pater Ambrosius could see him well, outlined against the brilliant sky. ”

“ You blame the aspirations that bore you upward, the ideals which you tried to grasp, and do not see that, perhaps, after all, they were overweighted with a burden of human passions, that dragged them back to earth. ”

“ They cannot help their own unattainable loveliness, and the Fury that guards them, has placed a solid bandage over their eyes. It is my own folly which I blame, my own arrogance, my passions, if you will ”