"If he is such a smart doctor, why doesn't he cure himself ?" she asked.
She heard steps on the stairs, then the murmur of voices, and the sound of the door opening into her mother's room.

A frightful sense of isolation came over her.

She realized that it was infinitely worse to be left by herself outside, suffering, than outside happiness.

She tried again to pray, then she stopped.

"It is no good praying," she reflected, "God did not stop mother's pain.