The lowered cadences of Diana's voice, a thread of bitterness in her utterance, quite turned the minister's thought from anything like a light or a gay answer. He said very gravely,
"Nobody's life need be that."
"How are you to get rid of it?"
"Of that result, you mean?"
"Yes."
"Will you state the difficulty, as it appears to you?"
"Why, look at it," said Diana, more hesitatingly; "what do most people's lives amount to?—what does mine? To dress oneself, and eat and drink, and go through a round of things, which only mean that you will dress yourself and eat and drink again and do the same things to-morrow, and the next day;—what does it all amount to in the end?"
"Is life no more than that to you?"
Diana hesitated, but then, with a tone still lowered, said, "No."
The minister was silent now, and presently Diana went on again.