Chapter LXXIII: What Fanny Thinks About Friendship

"And so you have 'the blues' hey? Well, I pity you! No I don't either; there's no _need_ of it. If _one_ friend proves a Judas, never mind! plenty of _warm_, _generous_, _nice_ hearts left for the winning! If you are poor and have to sell your _free-agency_ for a sixpence a week to some penurious relative, or be everlastingly thankful for the gift of an old garment that won't hang together till you get it home! just go to work like ten thousand evil spirits, and make yourself _independent_! and see with what a different pair of spectacles you'll get looked at! Nothing like it, my dear; you can have everything on earth you want, when you don't _need_ anything. Don't the Bible say, 'to him that _hath_ shall be given?' no mistake, you see! When the wheel turns round with you on the top, saints and angels! you can do anything you like, play any sort of a prank, pout or smile, be grave or gay, saucy or courteous, it will pass muster! you never need trouble yourself--can't do anything _wrong_ if you try! At the most it will only be an '_eccentricity_!' But you never need be such a fool as to expect that anybody will find out you're a _diamond_ till you get a _showy setting_! you'll get knocked and cuffed round, and roughly handled, with paste and tinsel, and rubbish, till that auspicious moment arrives. _Then!_ won't all the _sheaves bow down to your sheaf_?--not _one_ rebellious straggler left in the field! But stay a little. In your adversity found you one faithful heart that stood firmly by your side and shared your tears; when skies were dark, and your pathway thorny and steep, 'and summer friends fell off like autumn leaves?' By all that's noble in a woman's heart, give that one the first place in it now. Let the world see _one_ heart proof against the sunshine of prosperity. You can't _repay_ such a friend--all the mines of Golconda couldn't do it! But in a thousand delicate ways, prompted by a woman's unerring tact, let your heart come forth, gratefully, generously, lovingly. Pray heaven he be on the shady side of fortune--that your heart and hand may have a wider field for gratitude to show itself. Extract every thorn from his pathway, chase away every cloud of sorrow, brighten his lonely hours, smooth the pillow of sickness, and press lovingly his hand in death."