Dorothea sometimes wondered what her own fate would have been, with this naughtiness in her young blood--and this seriousness.
It was sentiment, of course; but it is also a fact that this ghost of a kinswoman brought help to her.

For such a hurt as hers the specific is to get away from self and look into such human thought as is kindly yet judicial.

Some find this help in philosophy, many more in wise Dorothea had no philosophy, and no human being to consult; for admirably as Endymion had behaved, he remained a person with obvious limits.

The General held aloof: she had no reason to fear that he suspected her secret.

And so _Natura inventrix_, casting about for a cure, found and brought her this companion of her own sex from between the covers of a book.
I set down the fact merely and its share in Dorothea's recovery..