Altruism is Ugly?

These words,

“The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism– are forced, indeed, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all this.”

Bear down upon the simple story being told here,

A beautiful young woman, Adair, leaves her loving Nebraska family and community to go to NYC. There, she meets a woman named Ghislaine.

This could be Adair speaking, though Adair was never a divorcee, nor did she work as a hostess in a hotel restaurant.

This woman, who could be Adair, but isn’t, goes on to say,

This woman, who could be Adair, but isn’t, wonderfully, and I would say learnedly, and virtuously, has been the beneficiary of altruism. (Philanthropy plays the most remarkable role in Adair’s, this woman’s, and in Mannahattas’s stories.) Beneficiary, if LOVE is SPAM.