ago, a self-willed or self-indulgent girl escaped
from the monotony of home duties by the door which led into slums and
hospitals. Nowadays the same girl finds that duties can be evaded by the
simpler plan of staying at home and having "a good time." I do not think
this will last, any more than slumming, as a mere fashion, has lasted. I
hope not, for it means that girls have had very full liberty given to
them, and that their sense of responsibility has not yet grown in
proportion to their freedom. Just now, pending the growth of that sixth
sense, "a good time" is very easily to be had--at the cost of a little
want of consideration for others--since the elders of to-day are curiously
large-hearted in giving freely and asking very little in return.

But it would be an ungenerous nature which took advantage of generosity,
and was content to take much and give little.

Surely it is utterly ignoble that any living soul sent into the great
battle should ask to pick flowers, while every one worth their salt was
hard at work fighting the foe, protecting the weak, nursing the wounded. I
do not believe a girl would do it if she thought twice; every generous
instinct would cry out against it. But a girl may drift into a very
selfish pleasure-seeking life, and the tendency of the day is to regard
this as a defendable and lawful line of life. Duty will hold its own with
the morally thoughtful and with generous natures, but it is no longer an
unquestioned motto for every one as it used to be in Nelson's days.

I have heard a girl rebel against her life, on the ground that she had a
right to a good time; youth was the time for pleasure, she would never
again have such a power of enjoyment, and it was absolutely criminal on
her parents' part not to provide her with more. I thought she already had
more than most; but in any case, I did not agree with her in saying that
she must enjoy now, or not at all. In case it should be any comfort to
those of you who may have a dull life, I can tell you that it is not so. I
am convinced we all have a certain power of enjoyment, and if you can get
your fill of pleasure in youth, you do not find as much keen enjoyment in
middle life as if you had been kept on a shorter allowance. It is true you
do not enjoy quite the same things--there are youthful amusements which
you can only enjoy at a certain stage; but take comfort, if you do not get
as much as you would like now, it will only mean keener enjoy