"I wonder if you appreciate what you say. If you
do, you take a great responsibility."
"You frighten me a little, but I think I'm right," said Ralph,
persisting in cheer.
"All the same what you say is very true," Isabel pursued. "You could
say nothing more true. I'm absorbed in myself- I look at life too much
as a doctor's prescription. Why indeed should we perpetually be
thinking whether things are good for us, as if we were patients
lying in a hospital? Why should I be so afraid of not doing right?
As if it mattered to the world whether I do right or wrong!"
"You're a capital person to advise," said Ralph; "you take the
wind out of my sails!"
She looked at him as if she had not heard him- though she was
following out the train of reflexion which he himself had kindled.
"I try to care more about the world than about myself- but I always
come back to myself. It's because I'm afraid." She stopped; her
voice had trembled a little. "Yes, I'm afraid; I can't tell you. A
large fortune means freedom, and I'm afraid of that. It's such a
fine thing, and one should make such a good use of it. If one
shouldn't one would be ashamed.
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