Some days I believe I can travel and look at the routes through Russia and beyond with Anne; I see myself there, with her, away from all the sadness here. But another day I will wake up with a fear in me that tells me I should not venture away from this place. If it were just to Europe again perhaps that would suit me, but she tells me she has finished with Europe and must go farther, especially for the travel book to be published; there are so many on European travels, she tells me, it must be somewhere new, that few have been to.

She makes it sound as if she must travel just to write about it. She talks of her readers as if they already exist. I suggest she should perhaps complete the article about her mountain ascent first and see how it is received, but this just riles her and she says it will not sell as Europe is not exotic, it’s not far enough away. All I see is that she still has something to prove, to whom I’m not sure: herself, her sister, the Halifax set, her London friends, the world? Her solution is always to leave, to run away. But where can she ever truly run to and not find herself there?

Miss Lister

Without the world looking on we cannot be measured, examined, labelled, misunderstood or insulted. I see the appeal of building high walls and with this new venture overseas I will cut any remaining local ties. I shall finally forgo my pew at the church, and if we return I will build us our own chapel. I shall be satisfied with all I am fortunate enough to have and not seek again to meet new acquaintances. Shibden Hall itself will be our Moss House, our sanctuary, our private place.

Little Halifax is not ready for us. It cannot cope with anything but the ordinary and so will never grow to much. It shall remain a nondescript town on the route to nowhere with its layer of smog and forlorn buildings and sense of a prosperous past which it could not maintain, its simple-minded people going about their dull daily lives. There can be no real progress when half the population is still shackled to men, with no rights of our own, denied education and any chance to make the world anew. The new Queen has done nothing to change that, despite my high hopes.

Miss Walker