DAUGHTERS 351 



word in high places. This is what transforms the tread- 

 mill and the burden and the labour into something so 

 worth while that it almost becomes a pleasure. 



In entertaining at home, our object should be rather 

 to help those who want help, and who may unex- 

 pectedly rise into positions of power and trust, than 

 always to be making up to those who are already in high 

 places, and who are full of suspicion with regard to the 

 civiUties that are paid to them. To practise the wisdom 

 of Ufe, without standing on the stilts of higher morahty, 

 is rather a virtue than a vice in the middle-aged. It is as 

 old as ^sop, who bids us not to despise making up to the 

 mice ; for though you yourself may be very much a Hon, 

 the day may come when you wiU need the services of a 

 mouse. We all know La Fontaine's summing-up of the 

 old story : — ' II faut, autant qu'on peut, obliger tout le 

 monde. On a souvent besoin d'un plus petit que soi.' 



One of the unexpected consolations to a woman who 

 is leaving her youth behind her, is that she can take 

 broader and more lenient views of the moral faults 

 indulged in by her friends and acquaintances. It is a 

 revelation that comes sooner or later to every woman 

 how much is excused and sanctioned by society which 

 in her youth would have seemed to her impossible. 

 The middle-aged woman may often say to herself, half in 

 fun, ' After aU, a httle remorse is better than a vast 

 amount of regret. At any rate,' she adds, ' I wUl not 

 poUce society. I might crush the weak, and I should do 

 no harm to the strong.' Is it not true and even beautiful 

 that ' tout comprendre e'est tout pardonner ' ? Middle-age 

 is essentially the time of a lowered moral standard. This 

 is the attitude of mind, let us say, between forty and fifty 

 — a little sooner or a little later, according to the tem- 

 perament. Then comes another phase, which is in no 

 sense an hypocritical one. As the young around us grow 



