young. It gives you bigger ideas of things. You could see a long way
with the sun behind you, from Skaw Fell."

He spoke in a low voice, and her eyes drew back from the distance and
turned on him. She smiled.

"I don't know. I suppose it gives one proportion, though I've been told
by Donovan Pasha and the Consul that I have no sense of proportion. What
difference does it make? It is the metier of some people of this world
to tell the truth, letting it fall as it will, and offend where it will,
to be in a little unjust maybe, measure wrongly here and there, lest the
day pass and nothing be done. It is for the world to correct, to adjust,
to organise, to regulate the working of the truth. One person cannot do
all."

Every minute made him more and more regretful, while it deepened his
feelings for her. He saw how far removed was her mind from the sordid
views of things, and how sincere a philosophy governed her actions and
her mission.

He was about to speak, but she continued: "I suppose I've done unwise
things from a worldly, a diplomatic, and a political point of view.
I've--I've broken my heart on the rock of the impossible, so my father
says. . . . But, no, I haven't broken my heart. I have only given it
a little too much hope sometimes, too much disappointment at others. In
any case--can one be pardoned for quoting poetry in these days? I don't
know, I've been so long out of the world--

'Bruised hearts when all is ended,
Bear the better all after-stings;