"
"Yes," said Howard, "and if I may speak quite frankly, I do very
much respect your own judgment and your convictions. It seems to me
that you have a very sceptical turn of mind, which has acted as a
solvent upon a whole host of stupid and conventional beliefs. I
don't think you take things for granted, and it always seems to me
that you have got rid of a great many foolish traditions which
ordinary people accept--and it's a fine attitude."
"I'm not too old to be insensible to a compliment," said Mrs.
Graves, smiling. "What you are surprised at is to find that I have
any beliefs left, I suppose? And I expect you are inclined to think
that I have done the feminine thing ultimately, and compromised, so
as to retain just the comfortable part of the affair."
"No," said Howard, "I don't. I am much more inclined to think that
there is something which is hidden from me; and I want you to
explain it, if you can and will."
"Well, I will try," said Mrs. Graves. "Let me think." She sate
silent for a little, and then she said: "I think that as I get
older, I recognise more and more the division between the rational
part of the mind and the instinctive part of the mind. I find more
and more that my deepest convictions are not rational--at least not
arrived at by reason--only formulated by it. I think that reason
ought to be able to formulate convictions; but they are there,
whether expressed or not. Most women don't bring the reason to bear
at all, and the result is that they hold a mass of beliefs, some
simply inherited, some mere phrases which they don't understand,
and some real convictions.
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