'Privilege?'
'"Right," if you prefer the word; one of our rights. If one could attain the end by more dignified means, it might be as well; but the grandest of heroines occasionally shed tears; so I suppose it is the best known method of making one's self comfortable; and harmless enough when used with discretion—as heroines use it.'
'Ah, Mary, you are not talking like yourself. When you talk like that, I sometimes think it is to conceal'——
'Well, dear; why do not you go on? To conceal what—that I am not a heroine?' I asked in a jesting tone, only too glad to be able to draw her sufficiently away from painful reflection for a little nonsense-talk.
'I sometimes think that having larger needs than other people'——
'Well, dear?'
'Which needs have not been satisfied'——
'There is something still required to make a complete sentence, you know.'
'Are large needs ever quite satisfied, Mary?'
'Dear Lilian—dear sister—perhaps not.'