I want
you to conquer the rest, as you've conquered Radcliffe."
"The rest?"
"Yes."
"What do you mean by the rest?"
"I mean circumstances. I mean obstacles. I mean, my mother--my sister."
"I don't--understand."
"Perhaps not."
"And suppose (forgive me if I seem rude), suppose I don't consider _the
rest_ worth conquering? Why should I? What one has to strive so for--"
"Is worth the most. One has to strive for everything in this world,
everything that is really worth while. One has to strive to get it, one
has to strive to keep it."
"Well, I don't think I care very much to-night, if I never get anything
ever again in all my life to come."
"Poor little tired girl!"
Claire's chin went up with a jerk. "I don't need your pity, I won't have
it. I am a stranger to you and to your friends. I am--" The defiant chin
began to quiver.
"If you were not so tired," Francis Ronald said gravely, "I'd have this
thing out with you, here and now. I'd _make_ you tell me why you so
wilfully misunderstand.
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