and therefore I'm justified.

Now do you understand a little, Miss Cardinal ?" She half understood.

She understood that he was compelled to do it just as some men are compelled to go to race meetings and just as Uncle Mathew was compelled to drink.
But she nevertheless thought it a dreadful pity that he was unable to stop and interest himself in something else.

Then he could see it so plainly and yet go on! She admired and at the same time pitied him.
It seemed, this private history of Mr.Magnus, at first sight so far from Maggie's immediate concerns, her new life, her aunts, the Chapel and the Chapel world.

It was only afterwards, when she looked back, that she was able to see that all these private affairs of private people radiated inwards, like the spokes of a wheel, towards the mysterious inner circle--that inner circle of which she was already dimly aware, and of which she was soon to feel the heat and light.