One quite rubs one's eyes when the younger generation knocks at the door in this way. How old would you say Phyllida was? Twenty-two, I assure you; and I know what I am talking about. It will be my boy's turn next, I suppose; he is nearly thirty-one. And, though I do not want to lose him, I shall not be sorry to see him safely married.
I hope that Phyllida will make a success of her life. I have every reason to think she will, but I refuse to accept any responsibility for guiding young people to their affinities. After one irrational period in which I was the wicked stepmother, I suddenly find myself regarded as the good fairy...
It is really too ridiculous...
Oh, I think you can congratulate them at once. They are to be "Morning-Posted", as Will would say, to-morrow...
XII
LADY ANN SPENWORTH DEFENDS HER CONSISTENCY
Lady Ann (to a friend of proved discretion): Consistency?
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?