Her good-for-nothing brother would not
do anything for her, if he could, and the Princess, who was amusing
herself in Poland, if not in Paris, was capable of forgetting her
existence for a year at a time.
All these things greatly enhanced the outward and visible merit of the
Volterra couple, but made Sabina's position daily less endurable. So
the Baroness laid up treasures in heaven while Sabina unwillingly
stored trouble on earth.
She was proud, to begin with. It was bad enough to have been ordered
by her mother to accept the hospitality of people she did not like,
but it was almost unbearable to realize by degrees that she was living
on their effusive charity. If she had been as vain as she was proud,
she would probably have left their house to take refuge in her
sister's convent, for her vanity could not have borne the certainty
that all society knew what her position was. The foundation of pride
is the wish to respect oneself, whatever others may think; the
mainspring of vanity is the craving for the admiration of others, no
matter at what cost to one's self-respect. In the Conti family these
qualities and defects were unevenly distributed, for while pride
seemed to have been left out in the character of Sabina's brother, who
was vain and arrogant, she herself was as unspoilt by vanity as she
was plentifully supplied with the characteristic which is said to have
caused Lucifer's fall, but which has been the mainstay of many a
greatly-tempted man and woman.
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