I objected strenuously to that word. All but Henry agreed with me. It is always a word of scorn.
They spoke of “feeling sorry for” people who had suffered some loss, feeling sorry, but not pitying.
“Then,” said Marian, “one ought not to say ‘sorry for’ but ‘sorry with.’”
Virginia said if a girl’s mother had died, and one had not known the mother, one might be sorry for her, but not sorry with her. They had a little argument, and to stop it I said one might be both sorry for and sorry with, but certainly one would have the “with” feeling.
Ruth objected that when there was an argument I always made both sides right.
“Why not?” I asked. “By the light of complete vision we do see most things as true which first seemed contradictory. Our idea of completeness is to include many truths, and show them to be the same truth.”
She admitted that.
Marian spoke of people she liked, but could not respect.
“If you knew them from the inside,” I said, “as they know themselves, you might feel otherwise.”
“Yes,” said Virginia, “I have always thought that if anybody knew all about me, knew me just as I know myself, they could not help liking me.”