But failing such a law, I do
not think a grown-up woman is obliged to promise that she will
henceforth take a vow of chastity. One must not give a promise only to
break it, and, my dear Magna, I do not think you are the woman to keep a
vow of that kind.
For this reason you ought never to have made yourself dependent upon
strangers by accepting their money for the education of your children.
At the same time I quite see how hard it would be to find yourself
empty-handed with a pack of children all in need of something. If you
had not courage to try to live on the small pension allowed by the
State, you would have done better to find some means of earning a
livelihood with the help of your own people.
You never thought of this; while I was too much taken up with my own
affairs just then to have any superfluous energy for other people's
welfare or misfortune.
But now we come to the heart of the question. For some years past you
have confided in me--more fully than I really cared about.
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