She had loved neither Glenn Kilbourne nor life itself.

False education, false standards, false environment had developed her into a woman who imagined she must feed her body on the milk and honey of indulgence.
She was abased now--woman as animal, though saved and uplifted by her power of immortality.

Transcendental was her female power to link life with the future.

The power of the plant seed, the power of the earth, the heat of the sun, the inscrutable creation-spirit of nature, almost the divinity of God--these were all hers because she was a woman.

That was the great secret, aloof so long.