Life appeared all at once very full and very beautiful, and as she thought of the thronging city around her it seemed to her that she herself and the people in the street and the revolving stars were held securely in the hand of God.

The belief awoke in her that she was shielded and set apart for a predestined good, an exalted purpose, and she wondered if the purpose were already moving toward her out of the city and if its end would be only the fulfilling of the law of her own nature.

Then she thought of Angela in her closed chamber.

Had she been shielded?
Was she also set apart?
But the thought did not disturb her, for she herself seemed of a larger growth, of a braver spirit, than Angela or than her aunts or than Uncle Percival, who had missed life also.

They had been defeated, but was it not because they had lacked in themselves the courage to attain?
The next morning, after she had had her tea and toast in her room, she went, as was her custom, into Angela's chamber.