The author relates a childhood story of when she accidentally broke one of her mother's prized china dishes, and speaks of the lessons she learned from such experiences.
With all the care of Michael Angelo or a Raphael putting the finishing touches to his work of art, but with a spirit as low and debased, in proportion to my maturity, as theirs must have been exalted, I placed the last broken fragment of a very much prized china butter dish into its niche and placed it in exactly the most likely spot for it to be accidentally bumped when the cupboard door was next opened.
