Reading Mary Balogh, "The Proposal":
And there:
(...) She turned her head away from him once more.
“You are the head of the house now, Hugo,” she said bitterly. “If you choose to bring my mother here, I cannot stop you.”
He opened his mouth to say more but then shut it again. She did not feel she could say yes, he supposed, without somehow losing face. So she had put the responsibility of the decision upon his shoulders. Well, they were broad enough.
(...) All people, he thought with a sigh as he left the room, had their own demons to be fought—or not fought. Perhaps that was what life was all about. Perhaps life was a test to see how well we deal with our own particular demons, and how much sympathy we show others as they tread their own particular path through life. As someone had once said—was it in the Bible?—it is easy enough to see the speck of dust in someone else’s eye while remaining unaware of the plank in one’s own.(...)
And everyone will see the above thoughts differently. Some will learn something, some will just think "I know better...". Hugo, the hero of this particular novel, has his own demons that he has to fight with. But he also has to fight with other people demons. Some of them are benign, but some are nasty. I love this book! And love the author.
P.S. Here is the interview with Mary Balogh kindly provided in a comment by Laura:
