[The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker]@TWC D-Link bookThe Lady of the Shroud BOOK III: THE COMING OF THE LADY 23/97
I can truly say it was made only for her good, and out of the best of me, such as I am.
I felt impossibly awkward; and stuttered and stumbled before I spoke: "But surely--the convenances! Your being here alone at night! Mrs. Grundy--convention--the--" She interrupted me with an incomparable dignity--a dignity which had the effect of shutting me up like a clasp-knife and making me feel a decided inferior--and a poor show at that.
There was such a gracious simplicity and honesty in it, too, such self-respecting knowledge of herself and her position, that I could be neither angry nor hurt.
I could only feel ashamed of myself, and of my own littleness of mind and morals.
She seemed in her icy coldness--now spiritual as well as bodily--like an incarnate figure of Pride as she answered: "What are convenances or conventions to me! If you only knew where I have come from--the existence (if it can be called so) which I have had--the loneliness--the horror! And besides, it is for me to _make_ conventions, not to yield my personal freedom of action to them.
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