"Well ... I reckon I can give a mighty shrewd guess at it," said the Judge.
"It's very simple," Sophy said. "I want to be free. I don't think I've any false vanity about it. I did have at first. But then, you see, I was mistaken, as well as Morris. I don't feel hard to Morris. It really isn't all his fault...."
"Oh!" said Charlotte. She was quite crimson now.
"No, Chartie, it is not," Sophy persisted. "But I can't enter into all that...."
"I should think not!"
"I only want to get free and to set him free, as soon as possible."
"He oughtn't to be free—the idea!" cried Charlotte indignantly.
Sophy shook her head at her, smiling.
"Oh, Chartie," she said, "we aren't in the 'dark backward' of the Victorian era! Why shouldn't he be free to live his life as he wants to, as well as I?"
"That's downright irreligious, Sophy!" cried her sister with passion.