hands were large and packed all over with knuckles and her feet
would have turned inwards at the toes, only that she was aware of and
corrected their perversities.

She was sitting all alone, and did not look up as I approached--

"Tell me," said I, "why you have sat for more than an hour with your
eyes fixed on nothing, and your hands punching your lap?"

She looked at me for a fleeting instant, and then, looking away again,
she began to speak.--Her voice was pleasant enough, but it was so
strong that one fancied there were bones in it--

"I do not dislike women," said she, "but I think they seldom speak of
anything worth listening to, nor do they often do anything worth
looking at: they bore and depress me, and men do not."

"But," said I, "you have not explained why you thump your lap with your
fist?"

She proceeded--

"I do not hate women, nor do I love men. It was only that I did not
take much notice of the one, and that I liked being with the other,
for, as things are, there is very little life for a person except in
thinking. All our actions are so cumbered by laws and customs that we
cannot take a step beyond the ordinary without finding ourselves either
in gaol or in Coventry."

Having said this, she raised her bleak head and stared like an eagle
across the wastes.

After I had coughed twice I touched her arm, and said--

"Yes?"

"One must live," said she quickly. "I do not mean that we must eat and
sleep--these mechanical matters are settled for many of us, but life
consists in thinking, and nothing else, yet many people go from the
cradle to the grave without having lived differently from animals. I
do not want to be one of them. Their whole theory of life is
mechanical. They eat and drink. They invite each other to their
houses to eat and drink, and they use such speech as they are gifted
with in discussing their food and whatever other palpable occurrence
may have chanced to them in the day. It is a step, perhaps, towards
living, but it is still only one step removed from stagnation. They
have some interest in an occurrence, but how that occurrence happened,
and what will result from it does not exercise them in the least, and
these, which are knowledge and prophecy, are the only interesting
aspects of any event."

"But," said I, "you have not told me why you sit for a full hour
staring at vacancy, and thumping on your knee with your hand?"

She continued--.

"Sometimes one meets certain