"I know very little, of course.

I can only guess.

But I think women gather up into themselves what they have been through much more than we do.

To them what is past becomes a real part of them, as much a part of them as a limb; to us it's always something external, at the best the rung of a ladder, at the worst a weight on the heel.

Don't you think so, too?
I phrase the thought badly.