life-trial

Updated: June 3, 2025

It is redeemed from insignificance only by the contraction of her eyebrows into a near-sighted scowl. And, finally, her great life-trial seems to be, that, after sixty years of idleness, she finds it convenient to earn comfortable bread by setting up a shop in a small way.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - House of the Seven Gables