338 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



girls would be much happier if at twenty-one they were 

 given allowances sufficient, not only for dress which 

 should begin, as with boys, much earlier but to cover 

 all expenses, except board and lodging : namely, journeys, 

 theatres, doctors, dentists, amusements, masters, and so 

 on. One girl would spend her allowance in one way and 

 one in another, but she would get as much profit or pleasure 

 to her individual self out of it as she could afford. If she 

 were well, she would not want doctors and dentists ; if 

 she were ill, she would not want amusements : and in 

 either case she would be learning the value of money. 

 We all know the discussions that go on in every family. 

 In one case the mother wishes her daughter to have 

 singing and piano lessons, though the daughter is 

 indifferent ; the master is hired, and the money and time 

 are more or less wasted. In another case the daughter 

 is pining for drawing lessons, and the mother looks upon 

 i t as rather a waste of money. Both these cases would 

 be adjusted if the deciding of their own education and 

 the paying of the lessons rested with the grown-up 

 daughters. This ought not to prevent mothers and 

 daughters from discussing together what is the most 

 desirable course to adopt ; it merely leaves the ultimate 

 decision with the learner. In fact, I would extend these 

 family discussions to all the important matters of life, and 

 even call in some reliable friend or relation, whose opinion 

 is valued by all parties, to help in the decision, on the 

 lines of that powerful legal arrangement which, in 

 French family life, is called conseil de famille. We get 

 so many useful hints on family life by the reading of 

 biographies that, to my mind, it is the most interesting of 

 all literature for the middle-aged. In Darwin's ' Life ' I 

 was immensely struck by an uncle interfering to over- 

 rule the decision of the good kind father, who had 

 refused the offer that young Darwin should go for the 



