, if there was need."

"Yes, I believe you could," said Howard.

"As long as one is not dependent upon money," said Mrs. Graves, "it
doesn't very much matter. The real point is to take the world as it
comes, and to be sure that one is on the side of what is true and
simple and sincere; but I do not pretend to have solved everything, and
I am hoping to learn more. I do learn more every day. One can't
interfere with the lives of people; poverty is not the worst evil. It
is nice to be clean, but I sometimes think that the only good I get
from money is cleanliness--and that is only a question of habit! The
real point is to be in life, to watch life, to love it, to live it; to
be in direct relations with everyone, not to be superior, not to be
KIND--that implies superiority. I just plod along, believing, fearing,
hoping, loving, glad to live while I may, not afraid to die when I
must. The only detachment worth having is the detachment from the idea
of making things one's own. I can't appropriate the sunset and the
spring, the loves and cares of others; it is all divided up, more
fairly than we think. I have had many sorrows and sufferings; but I am
more interested than ever in life, glad to help and be helped, ready to
change, desiring to change. It isn't a great way of living; but one
must not want that--and believe me, dear Howard, it is the only way."

VIII

THE INHERITANCE

The first day or two of Howard's stay at Windlow seemed like a week,
the succeeding week seemed like a day, as soon as he had settled down
to a certain routine of life. He became aware of a continued
sympathetic and quite unobtrusive scrutiny of him, his ways, his
tastes, his thoughts, on the part of his aunt--her questions were
subtle, penetrating, provocative enough for him to wish to express an
opinion. He did not dislike it, and used no diplomacy himself; he found
his aunt's mind shrewd, fresh, unaffected, and at the same time
inspiring. She habitually spoke with a touch of irony--not bitter
irony, but the irony that is at once a compliment and a sign of
affection, such as Socrates used to the handsome boys that came about
him. She was not in the smallest degree cynical, but she was very
decidedly humorous. Howard thought that she did people even more than
justice, while she was frankly delighted if they also provided her with
amusement. She held nothing inconveniently sacred, and Howard admired
the fine balance of interest and detac