s another thing. When it was some one
else,--one younger, one who did not seem strong--then one distrusted the
feeling and saw large the pain. One _knew_ one could bear pain one's
self. There was something not to be borne in thinking of another's pain.
That was why, even among venturers, few had the courage to speak for
venturing. There was something in humankind--it was strongest in
womankind--made them, no matter how daring for themselves, cautious for
others. And perhaps that, all crusted round with things formal and
lifeless, was the living thing at the heart of the world's conservatism.

Harriett was talking of the monument Cyrus thought there should be at
the cemetery; Ruth listened and replied--seemed only tired, and all the
while these thoughts were shaping themselves in her inner confusion and
disheartenment. She would rather have stopped thinking of it, but could
not. She had been too alive when checked; there was too much emotion in
that inner confusion. She wondered if she would ever become sure of
anything; if she would ever have, and keep, that courage of confidence
which she had thought, for just a few radiant moments, she had. She
would like to talk to Annie about it, but she had a feeling that she was
not fit to talk to Annie. Annie was not one of those to run back at the
first thought of another's pain. That, too, Annie could face. Better let
them in for pain than try to keep them from life, Annie would say. She
could hear her saying it--saying that even that concern for others was
not the noblest thing. Fearing would never set the world free, would be
Annie's word. Not to keep people in the safe little places, but to shape
a world where there need not be safe little places! While she listened
to what Harriett said of how much such a monument as Cyrus wanted would
cost, she could hear Annie's sharp-edged little voice making those
replies to her own confusion, could hear her talking of a sterner,
braver people--hardier souls--who would one day make a world where fear
was not the part of kindness. Annie would say that it was not the women
who would protect other women who would shape the future in which there
need not be that tight little protection.

She sighed heavily and pushed back her hair with a gesture of great
weariness. "Poor Ruth!" it made Harriett murmur, "you haven't really got
rested at all, have you?"

She pulled herself up and smiled as best she could at her sister, who
had spoken to her