"Oh, yes—I knew!"
"And how was it, that you ceased to be sure?"
"I think—people disappointed me—people I believed in—"
"But you believe in something that isn't people, don't you—some rule of right and wrong that is above human life—"
"I did—yes, I was very religious—I believed in a rule and measured people by it—"
"And when they didn't measure up to it, you—"
"Yes, I—didn't forgive. Even now I despise people, for all sorts of reasons—can't help it.... But now I think I was wrong. I don't think I was religious at all—because, you see, it didn't stand the test—I lost it—"
"And when was that—that you lost it?"
"I don't know. It seems as if it had been going on for a long time, dying.... I used to think that happiness didn't count, that we ought not to think of it. But now I think that was when I was really happy. It isn't so easy to live without it, really, for many years—it isn't so easy!"