When she went to school, she considered the moral
standpoint of the other girls a great deal more sensible than the
moral standpoint of Herminia's attic. She accepted the beliefs and
opinions of her schoolfellows because they were natural and
congenial to her character. In short, she had what the world calls
common-sense: she revolted from the unpractical Utopianism of her
mother.
From a very early age, indeed, this false note in Dolly had begun
to make itself heard. While she was yet quite a child, Herminia
noticed with a certain tender but shrinking regret that Dolly
seemed to attach undue importance to the mere upholsteries and
equipages of life,--to rank, wealth, title, servants, carriages,
jewelry. At first, to be sure, Herminia hoped this might prove but
the passing foolishness of childhood: as Dolly grew up, however, it
became clearer each day that the defect was in the grain--that
Dolly's whole mind was incurably and congenitally aristocratic or
snobbish. She had that mean admiration for birth, position,
adventitious advantages, which is the mark of the beast in the
essentially aristocratic or snobbish nature.
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