Posted Monday morning, December 28, 2020.
Detail from “La Première Sortie (At The Theatre)” by Pierre-August Renoir, 1876, 1877. National Gallery, London. Via Wikipedia.
Lily Dale, the romantic heroine of Anthony Trollope's novel "The Last Chronicle of Barset" is torn between two suitors neither of which she dares marry: a bad man, Adolphus Crosbie, whom she loves despite herself, and a good man, Johnny Eames, whom she doesn't love---can't love because of her feelings for Crosbie. She's settled the matter with herself by resolving not to marry either, or, anyone. But on a trip up to London, she finds that her feelings aren't the same in the city as they are in the country...
This coming up to London, and riding in the Park, and going to the theatres, seemed to unsettle her. At home she had schooled herself down into quiescence, and made herself think that she believed that she was satisfied with the prospects of her life. But now she was all astray again, doubting about herself, hankering after something over and beyond that which seemed to be allotted to her,—but, nevertheless, assuring herself that she never would accept of anything else.
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