She never troubled herself about the impossible or the unthinkable.

She had feelings, and was rather quick in her sympathies and sorrows, but she was equally quick in getting over them, and she expected other people to do likewise.

Madeleine dissected her own feelings and was always wondering whether they were real or not; she had a habit of taking off her mental clothing, as she might take off a dress, and looking at it as though it belonged to some one else, and as though sensations were manufactured like clothes.

This seems to be one of the easier ways of deadening sorrow, as though the mind could teach itself to lop off its feelers.

Sybil particularly disliked this self-inspection.