Cornelia Bowker was not a Severence; in fact she was by birth
indisputably a nobody. Her maiden name was Lard, and the Lards
were "poor white trash." By one of those queer freaks wherewith
nature loves to make mockery of the struttings of men, she was
endowed with ambition and with the intelligence and will to make
it effective. Her first ambition was education; by performing
labors and sacrifices incredible, she got herself a thorough
education. Her next ambition was to be rich; without the beauty
that appeals to the senses, she married herself to a rich New
Englander, Henry Bowker. Her final and fiercest ambition was
social power. She married her daughter to the only son and
namesake of Lucius Quintus Severence. The pretensions of
aristocracy would soon collapse under the feeble hands of born
aristocrats were it not for two things--the passion of the masses
of mankind for looking up, and the frequent infusions into
aristocratic veins of vigorous common blood. Cornelia Bowker, born
Lard, adored "birth." In fulfilling her third ambition she had
herself born again. From the moment of the announcement of her
daughter's engagement to Lucius Severence, she ceased to be Lard
or Bowker and became Severence, more of a Severence than any of
the veritable Severences.
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