On reflection, she determined that they were not. And even
if they had been, why should Peg have been their accuser? And after
all, is there not an element of selfishness in every nature? Was Peg
herself entirely immune?
And in a family with traditions to look back on and live up to, have
they not a greater right to being self-centred than the plebeian
with nothing to look back on or forward to? And, all things
considered, is not selfishness a thoroughly human and entirely
natural feeling? What right had she to condemn people wholesale for
feeling and practising it?
These were the sum and substance of Peg's self-analysis during the
first days of her voyage home.
Then the thought came to her,--were the Chichesters really selfish?
Now that she had been told the situation, she knew that her aunt had
undertaken her training to protect Ethel and Alaric from distress
and humiliation. She realised how distasteful it must have been to a
lady of Mrs. Chichester's nature and position to have occasion to
receive into her house, amongst her own family, such a girl as Peg.
And she had not made it easy for her aunt. She had regarded the
family as being allied against her.
Was it not largely her own fault if they had been? Peg's sense of
justice was asserting itself.
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