"What is known as fashionable social life has become an almost pitiful
sham, and you can scarcely conceive the relief it is to meet with one
utterly uncontaminated by its miserable deceits, its shallow
make-believes. It is no wonder you shock the nerves of such people;
the deed is easily accomplished."
"But I do not mean to." And she looked at him gravely, striving to
make him comprehend. "I try so hard to be--be commonplace, and--and
satisfied. Only there is so much that seems silly, useless, pitifully
contemptible that I lose all patience. Perhaps I need proper training
in what Miss Spencer calls refinement; but why should I pretend to like
what I don't like, and to believe what I don't believe? Cannot one act
a lie as well as speak one? And is it no longer right to search after
the truth?"
"I have always felt it was our duty to discover the truth wherever
possible," he said, thoughtfully; "yet, I confess, the search is not
fashionable, nor the earnest seeker popular."
A little trill of laughter flowed from between her parted lips, but the
sound was not altogether merry.
"Most certainly I am not.
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