"Rose has no spiritual outlook," she observed one evening, over the nightly glass of hot water which she sipped with an enjoyment a toper might evince while imbibing his grog. "Her attitude towards the Hereafter is frankly pagan. She will perhaps be brought some day through suffering to recognise the vanity of this world, and the importance of the Future Life. No one can escape responsibility for his acts." "Quite possibly Rose's record will be finer than the records of many people who lead seemingly exemplary lives," returned Prudence, to whom her mother-in-law's narrow views were particularly irritating. "`How strange it will be,' as Lewis Hind says, `if, when we awake from the dream of death, we find that we are judged only by the good we have done.' That would cause a considerable readjustment of the balance." "People who lead good lives do good by example," Mrs Morgan insisted; "those who spend their days in a feverish round of pleasure exert an evil influence." "The warm impulses which make for kindly human acts and brighten life for others have for me greater virtue than any prayer," came the quick retort, which scandalised Edward Morgan as well as his mother, and provoked him into joining in the discussion. "I don't like to hear any disparagement of prayer," he said quietly. "Your training in a pious home should have taught you at least respect for such things. I say nothing against pleasure, except where it clashes with duty. In the lives of upright people duty ranks above everything." "I've heard so much about the paramount importance of duty that I am a little weary of it. It seems good to turn instead to the more genial side of human nature. I think Rose's practical idea of a God-speed to the men by sending them off smiling is just splendid. They all kissed her in sheer gratitude when they left her house the other night." "I hope," Edward Morgan said stiffly, "that you don't allow them to take those liberties with you?" Prudence laughed suddenly. "I'd just love it, if they did," she said. "But I am too near their own age for them to attempt it. I've, promised to write to quite a number of them though. That includes parcels. They will all be glad of gifts from home. They are so young and jolly and full of life--just like Bobby."