"I don't know why."
"There is no reason! If in you there happen to be faculties sensitive beyond ours, senses more complex, more exquisitely attuned to what others are blind and deaf to, intuitions that to us seem miraculous, a spirituality, perhaps, more highly developed, what is there in that to cause you either embarrassment or concern? That in certain individualities such is the case is now generally understood and
recognised. You happen to be one of them."
She looked up at him very quietly, but still flushed.
"Why do you wish me to try—make any effort to develop this—thing?"
"So that—if you could see him again—and if, perhaps, he had anything to say to me—"
"I understand."
"Will you try, Athalie?"
"I'll try—if you wish it. And if I can learn how to try."
Had he asked her to strip her gown from her shoulders under his steady gaze, it had been easier than the promise she gave him.