“As queer as it may seem to you,” went on Clarinda. “The lady thinks, but she has thought for sometime past. The lady has come to know you two. She knows also that both of you think no woman should think. Nevertheless, they do think but at all times their thoughts are not pleasant.”
“What have you thought?” her father asked as if to encourage her.
“I’ve thought of my life and how extremely foolish it is. I’ve made a review of it, just while I was looking into the fire, and while I looked, it spread itself out before me, and made me ashamed. It is curious how rapidly one can think, and how a life that has covered years is gone over in a moment. I don’t like this big house. It comes to me just what my position will be.”
“The house is yours. You have the deed for it. I gave it to you,” said Peter.
“That’s true. I’ve a piece of paper that recites that fact, but it is of no value to me. The thing I want has gone out of the window.”
“I don’t follow you, Clarinda,” broke in her father.
“You will understand, Father.”
“Will I understand?” asked Peter.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
“Why won’t we understand?” asked Peter.