oyish idea of her, as we generally do become conscious, by
degrees, of the traits (as they are estimated by others) of even those
who are nearest and dearest, save in the case of our parents, who remain
always, beautifully always, "father" and "mother" to the end, precious
beyond all analysis, all comparison. Separating itself, therefore, from
the delightful indulgence with which she had sweetened his boyhood days,
separating itself from his own unquestioning childish belief in her,
there had gradually come to Evert Winthrop (though without any
diminution of his affection for her) the consciousness that his aunt's
nature was a narrow one. Her narrowness could have been summed up
roughly in the statement that her views upon every subject were purely
personal ones. It was difficult to realize how personal they were,
Winthrop himself, well as he knew her, had only within the past five or
six years become fully conscious of the absolute predominance of the
principle. No one besides himself had had the opportunity to make the
same discovery, save possibly--so he had sometimes thought with a
smile--the departed Peter Rutherford, the lady's husband. But Peter
Rutherford, among many excellent qualities, had not been endowed with a
delicate observation, and indeed having been of a robust and simple
nature, he had had small respect for the talent, at least in a man,
associating it vaguely with a knowledge of millinery, with a taste for
spelling-games and puzzles, for cake and religious novels--things he
considered unworthy of the masculine mind. His wife's nephew, however,
though not a judge of millinery, and not interested in the mild
entertainments and literature referred to, possessed observation in
abundance, and with regard to his aunt he had not been able to keep it
from exercising itself, at least to a certain degree. He had
discovered--he had been unable to help discovering--the secret springs
that moved much of her speech; and these springs were so simple that, in
a complicated age, they seemed extraordinary. Her opinions of persons
(he knew it now) were based entirely upon the narrow but well-defined
foundation of their behavior to herself.

Concerning people with whom she had no personal acquaintance, she was
utterly without opinions; no matter how eminent they might be, they were
no more to her than so much sand of the shore. You might talk to her
about them by the hour, and she would listen approvingly, or at least
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