“What does Claire say?”
“She says they may do as they like, but she doesn’t care for the idea very much. For one thing, she thinks Mrs. Harter—Diamond Ellison—will feel out of her element.”
“I wonder. After all, she’s been for years in Cairo, and must have met all sorts of people. And I’m convinced that she’s intelligent, Miles, and probably very adaptive. Martyn says that she’s an exceptional person altogether.”
“Does he know her?”
“No. But both my children tell me that they are natural psychologists of a high order.”
We laughed and then Mary said:
“I sometimes wonder if it’s a mistake to have let their critical faculties—Sallie’s especially—develop quite unchecked. She finds people more interesting than anything else, but it’s all so very impersonal and analytical.”
“You might divide humanity into those who put people first, those who put things first, and those who put ideas first.”
“Which do you put first, Miles?”
(Claire would have said, “Which do I put first?”)