A just conception of life is too large a thing to grasp during the short interval of passing through it.' 'Will the fact of a woman being fond of jewellery be likely to make her life, in its higher sense, a failure ?' 'Nobody's life is altogether a failure.' 'Well, you know what I mean, even though my words are badly selected and commonplace,' she said impatiently.

'Because I utter commonplace words, you must not suppose I think only commonplace thoughts.

My poor stock of words are like a limited number of rough moulds I have to cast all my materials in, good and bad; and the novelty or delicacy of the substance is often lost in the coarse triteness of the form.' 'Very well; I'll believe that ingenious representation.

As to the subject in hand--lives which are failures--you need not trouble yourself.

Anybody's life may be just as romantic and strange and interesting if he or she fails as if he or she succeed.