“Nor the people?”
“Nor the people!” was the answer.
“And is your life to be passed amongst them?”
“Perhaps,” said she, with a slight gesture of her shoulders. “Don't you know, Mr. Massingbred,” added she, with more energy, “that a woman has no more power to shape her destiny than a leaf has to choose where it will fall? If I were a man,—you, for instance,—I would think and act differently.”
“I should like to hear what you would do if in my place,” said Jack, with a degree of deep interest in the remark.
“To begin, I'll tell you what I would not do,” said she, firmly. “I 'd not waste very good abilities on very small objects; I 'd neither have small ambitions nor small animosities. You have both.”
“As how?” asked he, frankly, and with no touch of irritation.
“Am I to be candid?”
“Certainly.”
“Even to rudeness?”