She began to show her distress.
“Don’t, please. I know how generously you mean it all, but I’m so made that I can’t bear to be helped, even by you. Just now my pride is raw, and I want to go alone through some of these experiences. You may think it eccentric.”
He stared hard at nothing in particular.
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s in the air. Women are changing.”
“No, don’t believe that. It’s only some of the circumstances of life that are changing, and we are altering some of our methods. That’s what life is teaching me. That’s why I want to go on alone. I shall learn so much more.”
“I should have thought that most people would fight shy of learning in such a school.”
“Yes, and that is why most of us remain so narrow and selfish and prejudiced. We refuse to touch realities, and we won’t understand. I want to understand.”
He walked on, expanding his chest, and looking as though he were smothering a stout impulse to protest.
“All right; I see. Anyway, I shall be round the corner. You won’t forget that, will you?”
“No, for you have helped me already.”