"But how can you be certain that you will do it well?" Joan inquired.
"I don't know, but one is certain—at least, I am."
"Will you live in Seabourne when you've taken your degree?"
"Good Lord, no, of course not! No one who wants to get on could do anything in a place like this!"
"It's not such a bad place," she protested. She felt an urgent need to uphold Seabourne just then.
"It's not a bad place for old people and mental deficients; no, I suppose it's not."
"But your mother isn't old and she isn't mentally deficient."
"Of course not; but she doesn't stick here. She goes up to London for months on end sometimes; besides, she's different!"
"I don't see how she's different. How is she different from my mother, for instance? And my mother never gets away from Seabourne."
It was on the tip of his tongue to say: "Oh! but she is different!" but he checked himself and said: "Well, perhaps some people can stick here and remain human; only I know I couldn't, that's all."