It is very easy, of course, to _overdo_ that sort of thing, to become so inflexible that one is the slave and victim of one's own rules. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath... On the other hand, I have no patience with the people who say one thing to-day and another to-morrow, so that you never know where you are with them. Surely the wise course is to discover the great laws and hold to them unswervingly, only stepping aside by a hair's breadth to left or right when the great laws quite obviously apply no longer. In the realm of principle I admit no compromise; Right is Right, and Wrong is Wrong, and no amount of special pleading can blur _that_ distinction... But, though I hold no _brief_ for consistency, I should be vastly entertained to know exactly where you think I have been inconsistent... Not you personally, of course! We have known each other long enough to look out on life with very much the same eyes. But the people who are good enough to criticize me without, perhaps, taking the trouble to ascertain even the facts of the case. I have always said that I would not stir a finger to interfere with my boy Will, or any one else of that age, where the heart was concerned. They, for all their inexperience, must be the ultimate judges; the wisdom of _instinct_ and so on and so forth. The responsibility on an outsider is too great even for advice; and the advice of a mother to the son who adores her... There is such a thing as having too much power put into one's hands. I don't say I'm _right_; but, if Will married a girl whom I considered the most unsuitable person in the world... So long as _he_ loved _her_, and _she_ loved _him_... Have I been inconsistent there? I have always said that for a boy of his tastes and upbringing _some_ little money is essential as light and air. A truism! Have I been inconsistent here? I don't want to blow my own trumpet, as they say; and I resent this modern practice of proclaiming to the whole world how much one loves one's own flesh and blood--as though it were something very new and wonderful; but _you_ have never doubted that I would sell the clothes from off my back and the roof from over my head if Will's happiness depended on it. You are good enough to talk about my "sacrifices", but am I being anything more than normal, natural and consistent, a mother brought up in a certain school of a certain period? I think that, if the facts were ever known, you would find I had been loyal to my principles. They never will be--for obvious reasons... With you, of course, it is different; I have told you everything and laid my heart bare. Should I have done that, if there was anything to conceal? And if the last chapter would really interest you...