Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/156

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THE FAULTLESS ADELINA

I HATE to admit a preference for doing things my own way simply because it is my own way after being advised to another and better one. It savors of obstinate narrow-mindedness.

But there is always at the back of one's mind the question whether the new and better way is better enough to compensate for the cost of changing, a point which is apt to remain obscure to your adviser. It all really depends, of course, on how old you are, and since we have given up going by calendar count, that is difficult to determine. We can make a guess at other people's ages, but scarcely at our own because we feel so many different ages all at one and the same time.

It was Adelina who drove me to these reflections. It was she, indeed, who first brought home to me the horrid suspicion that I might unconsciously be drifting behind the times, not to say graying about the temples of my

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