"
Lilian was still tremulous, and she listened with an intensity which
gave her a look of pain. She was about to speak, but Mrs. Wade
anticipated her.
"You mustn't trouble much about anything I say when it crosses your
own judgment or feeling. There are so few people with whom I can
indulge myself in free speech. I talk just for the pleasure of it;
don't think I expect or hope that you will always go along with me.
But you are not afraid of thinking--that's the great thing. Most
women are such paltry creatures that they daren't look into their
own minds--for fear nature should have put something 'improper'
there."
She broke off with laughter, and, as Lilian kept silence, fell into
thought.
In saying that she thought her Companion a "womanly woman," Lilian
told the truth. Ever quick with sympathy, she felt a sadness in Mrs.
Wade's situation, which led her to interpret all her harsher
peculiarities as the result of disappointment and loneliness. Now
that the widow had confessed her ill-fortune in marriage, Lilian was
assured of having judged rightly, and nursed her sentiment of
compassion. Mrs. Wade was still young; impossible that she should
have accepted a fate which forbade her the knowledge of woman's
happiness. But how difficult for such a one to escape from this
narrow and misleading way! Her strong, highly-trained intellect
could find no satisfaction in the society of every-day people, yet
she was withheld by poverty from seeking her natural sphere.
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