" If you look for perfection, you will never be satisfied.

And it's true, as papa says,--that when we were brought up there was one extreme--we were kept in the basement, while our parents lived in the best rooms; now it's just the other way--the parents are in the wash house, while the children are in the best rooms.

Parents now are not expected to live at all, but to exist altogether for their children.

" "Well, what if they like it better?" Lvov said, with his beautiful smile, touching her hand.

" Anyone who didn't know you would think you were a stepmother, not a true mother.