"How can I tell you in a few words? I found that a part of me had never been cultivated or enjoyed life at all, it was sleeping—almost dead. It began to wake up, and every day or so I saw fresh things."
"Oh, I suppose you set to work to study Nature with microscopes, and that kind of thing?"
"I must tell you about it another day," said Rowena, smiling down upon the puzzled face of the girl. "Anyhow, I learnt some of the secret joys of solitude; and when I was frivolously inclined, Shags whiled away my time with his tricks and gambols. I wish you loved the loch and glen as I do. Now tell me about your life in town."
"Oh, I'm not quite so ambitious as Joyce. She means to go into Parliament, but I'm not keen on politics. I work a good deal for women's industries. We aren't idlers, I can assure you. We mean to take our proper place in the world now."
"It's splendid having work like that," said Rowena enthusiastically. "Are you an idealist, I wonder? What is your goal?"
"Oh, I suppose it is to do something worth living for before one dies," said Dora. "We can dispense with men, you know; they're very good for recreation and amusement, but as for settling down with one in these wilds, as you have done, I couldn't, to save my life!"
"You think it waste of time."
"You're right. Utter waste!"
Rowena shook her head, with her sunny smile.
"No," she said; "I hope and trust I'm not wasting my life. I have my own scheme of work, and I can pursue it even here. I would like to press you into it as a recruit, but we must know each other better first before I can venture to give you a full explanation of it."