And it is too late for us to learn to ignore them now.
"I think that you will feel--I think that a large part of the world might consider our attitude toward such a woman as you have shown yourself to be, narrow, prejudiced, provincial.

The modern world would scarcely arm us with any warrant for interfering in a matter which a man nearly thirty is supposed to be able to manage for himself.

But my father and mother are old, and they will never change in their beliefs and prejudices inherited from their parents, who, in turn, inherited their beliefs.
"It was for them more than for myself--more even than for my brother--that I appealed to you.

The latter end of their lives should not be made unhappy.

And your generous decision assures me that it will not be made so.
"As for myself, my marriage permitted me an early enfranchisement from the obsolete conventional limits within which my brother and I were brought up.
"I understand enough of the modern world not to clash with, it unnecessarily, enough of ultra-modernity not to be too much afraid of it.
"But even I, while I might theoretically admit and even admire that cheerful and fearless courage which makes it possible for such a self-respecting woman as yourself to face the world and force it to recognise her right to earn her own living as she chooses--I could not bring myself to contemplate with equanimity my brother's marrying you.
And I do not believe my father would survive such an event.
"To us, to me, also, certain fixed conventional limits are the basis of all happiness.