in
his hands to trouble my old age.

No mother and daughter can live together as Ada and I have without what
affects one of us affecting the other. When her babies were born I was
with her; I helped her bring them up; as I have grown older, though
she comes to me less and less, wishing to spare me, I seem to need less
telling; for I know myself when anything ails her.

It amazed me to see how Ada took Peggy's engagement, and when young
Henry Goward came to visit, I made up my mind that he should not go
away again without our finding out a little, at any rate, of what his
surroundings had been, and what his own principles were. As we grow
older we see more and more that character is the main thing in life,
and I would rather have a child of mine marry a young man of sound
principles whom she respected than one of undisciplined character and
lax ideas whom she loved. When I said things like this to Ada, she
replied:

"I'm afraid you're prejudiced against that poor boy because he and Peggy
happened to meet at college."

I answered: "I am not prejudiced at all, Ada, but I feel that all of us,
you especially, should keep our eyes and ears open. Wait! is all I say."

I know my own faults, for I have always believed that one is never too
old for character-building, and I know that being prejudiced is not one
of them. I realize too keenly that as women advance in years they
are very apt to get set in their ways unless they take care, and I am
naturally too fair-minded to judge a man before I have seen him. Maria
and Alice were prejudiced, if you like. Maria, indeed, had so much to
say to Ada that I interfered, though it is contrary to my custom.

"I should think, Maria," I said, "that however old you are, you would
realize that your father and mother are EVEN better able to judge than
you as to their children's affairs." I cannot imagine where Maria gets
her dominant disposition. It is very unlike the women of our family.

When he came, however, Mr. Goward's manners and appearance impressed me
favorably. Neither Ada nor Cyrus, as far as I could see, tried in the
least to draw him out. I sat quiet for a while, but at last for Peggy's
sake I felt I would do what I could to find out his views on important
things. I was considerably relieved to hear that his mother was a Van
Horn, a very good Troy family and distant connection of mother's.

When I asked him what he was, "My PEOPLE are Episcopalians," he replied.

"I supp