"I think I must try to find truth with my woman-brain, Aunt Polly. That was what my doctor-daddy always insisted upon. He wouldn't even let me take _his_ word when it came to anything that meant a lot to me." "He wanted you to marry Larry!" This was a telling stroke and a long silence followed. Then: "I wonder, Aunt Polly, I wonder." "Do you doubt, child?" "I don't know, but even if he did he was sick and so--so tired, and Larry always worried him. I know very surely that if my doctor were here, and knew everything, he'd say harder than ever: 'Use your woman-mind.' And I'm going to! Why, Aunt Polly, I haven't driven Larry away from his home. I meant to make it a better place, once I set the wrong aside. But you see, he wanted it just _his_ way and nothing else would do." The dear old face that had confronted life vicariously flushed gently; but the young face that had set itself to the stern facts of life showed neither weakness nor doubt. "It has come to me, dear"--Mary-Clare now turned and came close to Aunt Polly, resting her folded arms on the thin little knees--"It has come to me, dear, that things are not fixed right and when they are not, it won't do any good to keep on acting as if they were. Being married to Larry could never make it right for me to do what seems to me wrong. And oh! Aunt Polly, I wish that I could make you understand. Do try to understand, dear, there is a sacred place in my soul, and I just do believe it is in all women's souls if they dared to say so--that no one, not even a husband, has a right to claim. It is hers and--God's. But men don't know, and some don't care--and they just rush along and take and take, never counting what it may cost--and they make laws to help them when they might fail without, and--well, Aunt Polly, it is hard to stand all alone in the world. I think the really happy women are those who don't know what I mean, or those that have loved enough, loved a man true enough--to share that sacred place with him--the place he ought not ask for or have a law for. I know you do not understand, Aunt Polly. I did not myself until Peneluna told me." At this Aunt Polly braced against the pillows as if they were rocks. "Peneluna!" she gasped. "Let me tell you, Aunt Polly. It is such a wonderful thing." As she might have spoken to Noreen, so Mary-Clare spoke now to the woman who had only viewed life as Moses had the Promised Land, from her high mount.