"I am glad to hear it!" The Countess was beginning to lose her temper. "If you thought you had, you would be quite capable of taking the veil."
"Yes," the young girl replied. "If I wished to be a nun, and if I were sure that I should be a good nun, I would enter a convent at once. But I am not naturally devout, I suppose."
"In my time," said the Countess, with emphasis, "when young girls did not take the veil, they married."
As an argument, this was weak and lacked logic, and Cecilia felt rather pitiless just then.
"There are only two possible ways of living," she said; "either by religion, if you have any, and that is the easier, or by rule."
"And pray what sort of rule can there be to take the place of religion?"
"Act so that the reason for your actions may be considered a universal law."
"That is nonsense!" cried the Countess.
"No," replied Cecilia, unmoved, "it is Kant's Categorical Imperative."
"It makes no difference," retorted her mother. "It is nonsense."