“But you won’t be like that, Miss Pride.”

“I’m not at all sure. If I am, though, I hope you’ll have the goodness to lock me up. Even my father, a most sensible man, got notions toward the end. He confused me with my sister Charity and believed that neither of us was his daughter but that our surname was Fleet. ‘Charity Fleet,’ he would say to me, ‘I want you to take my green bag which is full of peanuts and go feed the squirrels in the Common.’ He had never fed a squirrel in his life, and until he was in his dotage always referred to them as ‘the Common rodents.’ And of course his bag hadn’t so much as a peanut shell in it, but only his rice-paper books.”

She fell silent, thinking perhaps of her father, and I started toward the door to leave her to her reverie, but she looked up. “I don’t know how I started on that digression. We were talking about your friends, or rather, your friends-to-be. I dare say it isn’t my place to say this as it’s the duty of one’s mother, but since yours is not accessible, I must look upon myself as your guardian. To put it bluntly, Sonia, you don’t consider marrying, do you?”

“I don’t know. I suppose I’ve never thought much about it. Perhaps I shall want to after . . . that is, when I’m older.”

“But, my dear child, don’t you see? Hasn’t Dr. McAllister ever discussed the matter with you? I think it’s a pity he’s your doctor. He’s a perfect scamp in many ways and has always been a heart-breaker, but that’s beside the point. He ought at least to guide you, knowing what he does.”

“Do you mean that I shouldn’t marry because of my bad heredity? Because, why, yes, he has talked to me about it and has told me I shouldn’t think of such things.” This was not quite true. He had one time compared me to himself and had said our misfortunes could be turned to good account if we looked upon them as symbols, perhaps of original sin or of mortality, like Dr. Galbraith’s memento mori. However, this had been in one of his religious moods when he was gathering all manner of disparate elements into his train of thought. He had never actually spoken to me of marriage and I, who seldom thought of it, had not solicited his advice.

“Times change. Nowadays children aren’t spanked, don’t learn Latin, don’t respect their elders. And I haven’t a doubt it’s thought old-fashioned to be wary of insanity in the family. But, Sonie, there have been two instances of it in your lifetime, very close to you. I must say it would give me pause.”