“Because you always seem so satisfied to live quite alone. I hate solitude. I’m afraid of it.”
Suddenly she felt that she must be partially frank with her hostess.
“Is self-respect a real companion for a woman?” she said. “Can one sit with it and be contented? Does it repay a woman for all the sacrifices she has offered up to it? Is it worth the sacrifices? That’s what I want to know.”
“I dare say that depends on the woman’s mental make up,” replied Miss Briggs. “One woman, perhaps, might find that it was, another that it was not.”
“Yes, we are all so different, so dreadfully different, one from another.”
“It would be very much duller if we weren’t.”
“Even as it is life can be very dull.”
“I should certainly not call your life dull,” said Miss Briggs.
“Anyhow, it’s dreadful!” said Lady Sellingworth, with sudden abandonment.
“Why is it dreadful?”