"How can you say such things!" cried the Countess, not at all satisfied.
Cecilia shrank a little in her corner of the deep phaeton and instinctively drew the edges of her little silk mantle together over her chest, as if to protect herself from something.
"You know," she said, almost sharply.
"I shall never understand you," her mother sighed.
"Give me time to understand myself, mother," answered the young girl, suddenly unbending. "I am only eighteen; I have never been into the world, and the mere idea of marrying—"
She stopped short, and her firm lips closed tightly.
"No, I do not understand," said the Countess. "The thought of marriage was never disagreeable to me, even when I was quite young. It is the natural object of a woman's life."
"There are exceptions, surely! There are nuns, for instance."
"Oh, if you wish to go into a convent—"
"I have no religious vocation," Cecilia answered gravely. "Or if I have, it is not of that sort."