"'
'How delightful,' she added, 'how inspiring it is to see a young man
so devoted to science, particularly to this neglected science! I
shall be charmed to know more of his psychology and observe his
observations.'
'He is extremely clever.'
'I have no doubt of it from what you tell me, both clever and
ingenious.'
'And his cottage is lovely; it will be finished and furnished by next
summer,--Queen Anne, you know.'
Now, this was so purely irrelevant that there was a wicked hint of
intention about it; and though Mistress Mary was smiling (and
quaking) in the very depths of her heart, she cruelly led back the
conversation into safe educational channels. 'Isn't it curious,' she
said, 'that we should have thought Lisa, not the twins, the
impossible problem? Yet, as I have written you, her solution is
something to which we can look forward with reasonable confidence.
It is scarcely eighteen months, but the work accomplished is almost
incredible, even to me, and I have watched and counted every step.'
'The only explanation must be this,' said Rhoda, 'that her condition
was largely the fruit of neglect and utter lack of comprehension.
The state of mind and body in which she came to us was out of all
proportion to the moving cause, when we discovered it.
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