"Strange about the Bible!"
"English people, and even Americans, at any rate. There is a sort of queer, absurd tradition. One begins to think of oratorio."
She paused. Claude said nothing. He was feeling hot all over.
"I can't help wishing, for your own sake, that you wouldn't always go to the Bible for your inspiration."
"I daresay it is very absurd of me."
"Claudie, you could never be absurd."
"Anybody can be absurd."
"I could never think you absurd. But I suppose everyone can make a mistake. It seems to me as if there are a lot of channels, some short, ending abruptly, some long, going almost to the center of things. And genius is like a liquid poured into them. I only want you to pour yours into a long channel. Is it very stupid, or perverse, of me?"
As she said the last words she felt deeply conscious of her feminine intelligence, of that delicate ingenuity peculiar to women, unattainable by man.
"No, Charmian, of course not. So you think I've been pouring into a very short channel?"