She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significanceShe wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be not be powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.