“We have all gone in—that inner band—to devote a lifetime to it if necessary.”
“Don’t you suspect that those women have an extra something in their make-up that the rest of us lack?”
“I have accomplished as much as any of them—”
“Quite so. And enough. Don’t you feel that the spring has gone out of you?”
“Just now, yes.”
“You’ll never work with the same spirit again, for you never can be impersonal again. You would feel a hypocrite, for you would always be resenting the loss of what you really want most in life. You’ve a duty to yourself, to say nothing of Mr. Tay; and you’re not going to a frivolous useless life—not with him! No one is indispensable to any real cause, and in ours there are too many to carry on the work without the supreme sacrifice on your part. Promise me, at least, that you will go at once to Nevis. It would be the beginning of the solution.”
“I’d like to go.”
“You really must want to see your mother, and your old home,” continued Ishbel, insinuatingly. “One’s mother and one’s birthplace are the great refuges in time of trouble. You were very fond of your mother when you were a child.”
“I’m fond of her now, but she seems to have lost all affection for me.”
“Never believe it. She is a strange proud old woman, but she has always loved you. Go back to her. There is your refuge.”