Do you think one could fill up one's whole life with reading and study ?" "I can not say; I'm not clever myself, you know." "Oh, but you are--with a sort of practical cleverness.

And so is Alick, in his own way.

How happy Alick must be, going out into the world, with plenty to do all day long! How bright he looked this morning!" "He sees only the sunny side of things, he is still no more than a boy." "Not exactly; he is a year older than I am." Helen hardly knew what to reply.

She guessed so well the current of the earl's thoughts, which were often her own too, as she watched his absent or weary looks, though he tried hard to keep his attention to what Mr.
Cardross was reading or discussing.

But the distance between twenty and sixty--the life beginning and the life advancing toward its close-- was frequently apparent; also between an active, original mind, requiring humanity for its study, and one whose whole bent was among the dry bones of ancient learning--the difference, in short, between learning and knowledge--the mere student and the man who only uses study as a means to the perfecting of his whole nature, his complete existence as a human being.
All this Helen felt with her quick, feminine instinct, but she did not clearly understand it, and she could not reason about it at all.