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"I don't know. Perhaps I am only romancing. But for this
young woman I am convinced this expedition to Europe has
meant experience, harsh educational experience and very
profound mental disturbance. There have been love
experiences; experiences that were something more than the
treats and attentions and proposals that made up her life
when she was sheltered over there. And something more than
that. What it is I don't know. The war has turned an ugly
face to her. She has seen death and suffering and ruin.
Perhaps she has seen people she knew killed. Perhaps the man
has been killed. Or she has met with cowardice or cruelty or
treachery where she didn't expect it. She has been shocked
out of the first confidence of youth. She has ceased to take
the world for granted. It hasn't broken her but it has
matured her. That I think is why history has become real to
her. Which so attracts you in her. History, for her, has
ceased to be a fabric of picturesque incidents; it is the
study of a tragic struggle that still goes on. She sees
history as you see it and I see it. She is a very grown-up
young woman.
"It's just that," said Sir Richmond. "It's just that. If you
see as much in Miss Grammont as all that, why don't you want
to come on with us? You see the interest of her."
"I see a lot more than that. You don't know what an advantage
it is to be as I am, rather cold and unresponsive to women
and unattractive and negligible--negligible, that is the
exact word--to them. YOU can't look at a woman for five
minutes without losing sight of her in a mist of imaginative
excitement. Because she looks back at you. I have the
privilege of the negligible--which is a cool head. Miss
Grammont has a startled and matured mind, an original mind.
Yes. And there is something more to be said. Her intelligence
is better than her character."
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