Isabel looked at him with serious eyes. ‘I wonder whether you know what's good for me – or whether you care.’

‘If I know depend upon it I care. Shall I tell you what it is? Not to torment yourself.’

‘Not to torment you, I suppose you mean.’

‘You can't do that; I'm proof. Take things more easily. Don't ask yourself so much whether this or that is good for you. Don't question your conscience so much – it will get out of tune like a strummed piano. Keep it for great occasions. Don't try so much to form your character – it's like trying to pull open a tight, tender young rose. Live as you like best, and your character will take care of itself. Most things are good for you; the exceptions are very rare…’. Ralph paused, smiling; Isabel had listened quickly. ‘You've too much power of thought – above all too much conscience’, Ralph added. ‘It's out of all reason, the number of things you think wrong. Put back your watch. Diet your fever. Spread your wings; rise above the ground. It's never wrong to do that.’

‘To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. In the first case you are a man, in the second you're no better than a bird.’