' He was the great seminarian in your
father's family--the portrait in the hall, you know. I shall not
decide whether you or Dent must inherit this; decide for
yourselves; I imagine you will end it in the quarrel. How black it
is, and what black sermons flew out of it--ravens, instead of white
doves, of the Holy Spirit. He was the friend of Jonathan Edwards."
She made a wry face as he put the box back into the closet; and she
laughed again as she locked it in.
"Here are some things from my side of the family." And she drew
open a long drawer and spoke with proud reticence. They stood
looking down at part of the uniform of an officer of the
Revolution. She lifted one corner of it and disclosed a sword
beneath. She lifted another corner of the coat and exposed a roll
of parchment. "I suppose I should have had this parchment framed
and hung up downstairs, so that it would be the first thing seen by
any one entering the front door; and this sword should have been
suspended over the fireplace, or have been exposed under a glass
case in the parlors; and the uniform should have been fitted on a
tailor's manikin; and we should have lectured to our guests on our
worship of our ancestors--in the new American way, in the
Chino-American way. But I'm afraid we go to the other extreme,
Rowan; perhaps we are proud of the fact that we are not boastful.
Instead of concerning ourselves with those who shed glory on us, we
have concerned ourselves with the question whether we are shedding
glory on them.
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