The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: solemn promise that he should be more industrious. The
promise, I am bound to say, was kept. We soon had a fine
pile of firewood at our door; and if Caliban gave me the cold
shoulder and spared me his conversation, I thought none the
worse of him for that, nor did I find my days much longer for
the deprivation.
The leading spirit of the family was, I am inclined to fancy,
Mrs. Hanson. Her social brilliancy somewhat dazzled the
others, and she had more of the small change of sense. It
was she who faced Kelmar, for instance; and perhaps, if she
had been alone, Kelmar would have had no rule within her
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