Her arm rested warmly and confidently within his; the cold had made her cheeks very pink and had crisped the tendrils of her brown hair under the fur toque.
“If,” she said happily, “you have found in me a friend, it is because my heart is much too small for all the love I bear my fellow beings.”
“That’s a quaint thing to say,” he said.
“It’s really true. I care so deeply, so keenly, for my fellow beings whom God made, that there seemed only one way to express it––to give myself to God and pass my life in His service who made these fellow creatures all around me that I love.”
“I suppose,” he said, “that is one way of looking at it.”
“It seemed to be the only way for me. I came to it by stages.... And first, as a child, I was impressed by the loveliness of the world and I used to sit for hours thinking of the goodness of God. And then other phases came––socialistic cravings and settlement work––but you know that was not enough. My heart was too full to be satisfied. There was not enough outlet.”
“What did you do then?”
“I studied: I didn’t know what I wanted, what I needed. I seemed lost; I was obsessed with a desire to aid––to be of service. I thought that perhaps if I travelled and studied methods–––”
She looked straight ahead of her with a sad little reflective smile:
“I have passed by many strange places in the world.... And then I saw the little Grand Duchess at the xv Charity Bazaar.... We seemed to love each other at first glance.... She asked to have me for her companion.... They investigated.... And so I went to her.”