It
would have been difficult to say why a man so splendidly
endowed by nature and so tireless in improving himself
was thus unsuccessful. Probably he lacked judgment;
indeed, that lack must have been the cause. He could
judge for Crossley; but not for himself, not when he
had the feeling of ultimate responsibility.
Mildred had anticipated the most repulsive associations--
men and women of low origin and of vulgar
tastes and of vulgarly loose lives. She found herself
surrounded by simple, pleasant people, undoubtedly
erratic for the most part in all their habits, but without
viciousness. And they were hard workers, all. Ransdell
--for Crossley--tolerated no nonsense. His people
could live as they pleased, away from the theater, but
there they must be prompt and fit. The discipline was
as severe as that of a monastery. She saw many signs
that all sorts of things of the sort with which she wished
to have no contact were going on about her; but as she
held slightly--but not at all haughtily--aloof, she
would have had to go out of her way to see enough to
scandalize her.
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