"I certainly don't think you have any right to sacrifice Fay's happiness to your own." "Then that settles it," I said. "Or to a false idea of what your conscience conceives to be your duty," he went on, as if I had not spoken. This gave me pause. "How do you mean?" I asked. "I mean that if you love Fay, as I know you do, and if she loves you, as I believe she does, you have no right to throw away this good and perfect gift for the sake of some home-made scruple of yours. I mean that you are not justified in spoiling Fay's life, even for the pleasure of spoiling your own at the same time. "Then what should you advise me to do?" "I should advise you to tell Fay that you love her and to ask her to marry you, and to abide by her decision whatever it is." "But she is so young," I pleaded--against my own cause. "If she is old enough to receive the gift of a good man's love, she is old enough to know she has received it, and to thank Heaven fasting for it." "But I am so old--compared with her." "That is her business--at least, so it seems to me," replied Blathwayte. "If she thinks you are too old, she can refuse you. It is a thing that has been done. But I do think that she is old enough to choose for herself, and not to have things settled for her as if she were a child or an imbecile. She has plenty of common sense." "But I doubt if she is old enough and experienced enough to choose in a thing like this. It would break my heart if she chose wrongly and regretted it afterwards." "Hearts run the risk of getting broken in this work-a-day world, and they had better run that risk than remain wrapped up in cotton wool until they stifle and suffocate. If you'll excuse my saying so, Reggie, you are too fond of transferring personal responsibilities. You let Miss Kingsnorth make up your mind for you, and in return you propose to make up Fay's. For my part, I think it is best for people to make up their own minds, and to be prepared to take the consequences. It is in acting for oneself and in bearing the consequences of one's actions that the education of life consists, also the saving dogma of Free Will."