I asked if that was her test for all her friends? since so few could stand it.
She laughed.
“Possibly not. When one comes to reflect, there are very few whose company one can tolerate so well as one's own.”
“Which is itself not always agreeable.”
“No, but the less evil of the two. I don't believe there is a creature living whose society I could endure, without intermission, for a month, a week, or even two days. No. Emphatically no.”
She must then, though a member of a family, live a good deal alone—a fact I had already begun to suspect.
“Therefore, as I try to make Lisa feel—being the elder, I have a right to preach, you know—what an awful thing marriage must be, even viewed as mere companionship. Putting aside love, honour, obedience, and all that sort of thing, to undertake the burthen of any one person's constant presence and conversation for the term of one's natural life! the idea is frightful!”
“Very, if you do put aside love, honour, and all that sort of thing.'”
She looked up, as if she thought I was laughing at her.
“Am I talking very foolishly? I am afraid I do so sometimes.”