"Why am I?" she asked.
"Because you are. I didn't think you could think so keenly yet. I thought you would some day. But, how have you reasoned this out?"
"Did you ever read 'Anna Karénina'?" she asked him meditatively.
"Yes," he said, wondering that she should have read it at her age.
"What did you think of that?"
"Oh, it shows what happens, as a rule, when you fly in the face of convention," he said easily, wondering at the ability of her brain.
"Do you think things must happen that way?"
"No, I don't think they must happen that way. There are lots of cases where people do go against the conventions and succeed. I don't know. It appears to be all a matter of time and chance. Some do and some don't. If you are strong enough or clever enough to 'get away with it,' as they say, you will. If you aren't, you won't. What makes you ask?"
"Well," she said, pausing, her lips parted, her eyes fixed on the floor, "I was thinking that it needn't necessarily be like that, do you think? It could be different?"
"Yes, it could be," he said thoughtfully, wondering if it really could.