'That may be error. You have to think into the future.'
'My sufferings and experiences are not bad guides.'
'They count. How can you be sure you have all the estimates?'
'Was I ever a wife?'
'You were and are the Countess of Ormont.'
'Not to the world. An unacknowledged wife is a slave, surely.'
'You step down, if you take the step.'
'From what? Once I did desire that station—had an idea it was glorious.
I despise it: or rather the woman who had the desire.'
'But the step down is into the working world.'
'I have means to live humbly. I want no more, except to be taught to work.'