have an answer for you—hear it. I have watched you ever since we first
met: I have made you my study for ten months. I have proved you in that
time by sundry tests: and what have I seen and elicited? In the village
school I found you could perform well, punctually, uprightly, labour
uncongenial to your habits and inclinations; I saw you could perform it
with capacity and tact: you could win while you controlled. In the calm
with which you learnt you had become suddenly rich, I read a mind clear
of the vice of Demas: —lucre had no undue power over you. In the
resolute readiness with which you cut your wealth into four shares,
keeping but one to yourself, and relinquishing the three others to the
claim of abstract justice, I recognized a soul that revelled in the
flame and excitement of sacrifice. In the tractability with which, at my
wish, you forsook a study in which you were interested, and adopted
another because it interested me; in the untiring assiduity with which
you have since persevered in it—in the unflagging energy and unshaken
temper with which you have met its difficulties—I acknowledge the
complement of the qualities I seek. Jane, you are docile, diligent,
disinterested, faithful, constant, and courageous; very gentle, and very
heroic: cease to mistrust yourself—I can trust you unreservedly. As a
conductress of Indian schools, and a helper amongst Indian women, your
assistance will be to me invaluable
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李维宁