'I do rather wonder that after that, she can bring herself to talk about—the unfortunate women of the world.'
'The effrontery of it!' said her aunt.
'Or—the courage!' The girl put her hand up to her throat as if the sentence had caught there.
'Even presumes to set me right! Of course I don't mind in the least, poor soul—but I feel I owe it to your dead mother to tell you about her, especially as you're old enough now to know something about life.'
'And since a girl needn't be very old to suffer for her ignorance'—she spoke slowly, moving a little away. But she stopped on the final sentence: 'I felt she was rather wonderful!'
'Wonderful!'
'To have lived through that, when she was—how old?'
Mrs. Heriot rose with an increased irritation. 'Nineteen or thereabouts.'
'Five years younger than I!' Jean sat down on the divan and stared at the floor. 'To be abandoned, and to come out of it like this!'