argaret's love were
slipping away and all the old relations were being broken up, but yet
it had in it a certain moral condemnation that the New England spinster
could not conceal. Softened as it was by affectionate words, and all
the loving messages of the season, it was like a slap in the face to
Margaret. She read it in the first place with intense mortification, and
then with indignation. This was the way her loving spirit was flung back
upon her! They did not blame her! They blamed her husband, then. They
condemned him. It was his generosity that was spurned.

Is there a particular moment when we choose our path in life, when we
take the right or the left? At this instant, when Margaret arose with
the crumpled letter in her hand, and marched towards her husband's
library, did she choose, or had she been choosing for the two years
past, and was this only a publication of her election? Why had she
secretly been a little relieved from restraint when her Brandon visit
ended in the spring? They were against her husband; they disapproved of
him, that was clear. Was it not a wife's duty to stand by her husband?
She was indignant with the Brandon scrupulousness; it chafed her.. Was
this simply because she loved her husband, or was this indignation a
little due also to her liking for the world which so fell in with her
inclinations? The motives in life are so mixed that it seems impossible
wholly to condemn or wholly to approve. If Margaret's destiny had
been united with such a man as John Lyon, what would have been her
discernment in such a case as this? It is such a pity that for most
people there is only one chance in life.

She laid the letter and the check upon her husband's desk. He read it
with a slight frown, which changed to a smile of amusement as he looked
up and saw Margaret's excitement.

"Well, it was a miss-go. Those folks up there are too good for this
world. You'd better send it to the hospital."

"But you see that they say they do not blame me," Margaret said, with
warmth.

"Oh, I can stand it. People usually don't try to hurt my feelings that
way. Don't mind it, child. They will come to their senses, and see what
nonsense it all is."

Yes, it was nonsense. And how generous and kind at heart her husband
was! In his skillful making little of it she was very much comforted,
and at the same time drawn into more perfect sympathy with him. She was
glad she was not going to Brandon for Christmas; she woul