"But you have a purpose; you follow it steadily. It is much to be able to say that."
"Do you mean it for consolation?"
"Not in any sense that you need resent," Miriam gave answer, a little coldly.
"I felt no resentment. But I should like to know what sanction of a life's effort you look for, now? We talked once, perhaps you remember, of one kind of work being 'higher' than another. How do you think now on that subject?"
She made delay before saying:
"It is long since I thought of it at all. I have been too busy learning the simplest things to trouble about the most difficult."
"To learn, then, has been your object all this time. Let me question you in turn. Do you find it all-sufficient?"
"No; because I have begun too late. I am doing now what I ought to have done when I was a girl, and I have always the feeling of being behindhand."
"But the object, in itself, quite apart from your progress? Is it enough to study a variety of things, and feel that you make some progress towards a possible ideal of education? Does this suffice to your life?"
She answered confusedly: