“Then you don’t think experiences change people, that it is—well, just making decisions that grow out of the experiences. It is reaching a crisis and then making a choice of which way you will go.”
“I think that is it. I don’t see how any event can change a person if he remains merely a spectator. I don’t think any sort of happening will really alter a person for good and all unless it has compelled him to use every bit of his will and courage and intelligence to make up his mind what he will do about it. If he chooses the right way, then he becomes stronger; if he chooses the wrong way or dodges the decision, he becomes weaker.”
“There’s no dodging the choice,” he said.
“And that is what’s the matter with you, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And the choice?” She knew very well what problem he was laboring over.
“Is Andree,” he said.
“She was bound to be the problem. Couldn’t you see that from the beginning?”
“That doesn’t matter now—what I saw at the beginning. All that has happened has happened”—he paused and stared down at the table-cloth—“and I’m glad it did happen.... But now I’ve got to settle the bill.”
“And you want my advice?” She looked at him queerly. “You have come to me for advice about this?”