Two paths lie before you; you conscientiously wish to choose the right one, even though it be the most steep, strait, and rugged; but you do not know which is the right one; you cannot decide whether duty and religion command you to go out into the cold and friendless world, and there to earn your living by governess drudgery, or whether they enjoin your continued stay with your aged mother, neglecting, _for the present_, every prospect of independency for yourself, and putting up with daily inconvenience, sometimes even with privations.

I can well imagine, that it is next to impossible for you to decide for yourself in this matter, so I will decide it for you.

At least, I will tell you what is my earnest conviction on the subject; I will show you candidly how the question strikes me.

The right path is that which necessitates the greatest sacrifice of self-interest--which implies the greatest good to others; and this path, steadily followed, will lead, I believe, in time, to prosperity and to happiness, though it may seem, at the outset, to tend quite in a contrary direction.
Your mother is both old and infirm; old and infirm people have but few sources of happiness--fewer almost than the comparatively young and healthy can conceive; to deprive them of one of these is cruel.

If your mother is more composed when you are with her, stay with her.