When an opportunity presented I talked with mother, told her what I had
heard, and all that Louis had said to me, almost word for word, and the
result was her confidence. When our talk closed, she said in her own
impressive way:
"I will trust you, my daughter, and only one thing more I have to say:
Let me urge upon you the importance of testing your own deepest, best
feelings in regard to this and every other important step--yes, and
unimportant ones as well. There is a monitor within that will prove an
unerring guide to us at all times. If we do not permit ourselves to be
hurried and driven into other than our own life channels we shall gather
from the current an impetus, which comes from the full tide of our
innate thought. Such thought develops an inner sense of truth and
fitness, which is a shield ever covering us, under any and all
circumstances. It holds us firmly poised, no matter which way the wind
may be, or from what quarter it strikes us."
This thought I could not then appreciate fully, but I did what I could
toward it, and it was, in after years, even then, an anchor. My mother's
eyes were beautiful; they looked like wells, and when thoughts like
these rose to mingle with their light, they seemed twice as large and
full and deep as on ordinary occasions. I never wanted to disobey her,
and in those days we read through together the chapters in life's book
that opened every sunrise with something new. Our souls were blent as
one in a delightful unity, that savored more of Paradise than earth, and
now with Hal's returning strength, there was a triple pulsation of
mingled thought.
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