“How much courage does she need? We can’t help our thoughts.”
“More than it is possible to have. She is having to manage without it. And that needs a different courage. And she is not showing any lack of it. And her opinion of herself and what she does may uphold her.”
“The same might be said of Hermia. But she does not need to be upheld.”
“She does not indeed. She is established on the heights, and Mater is cast down from them. How the first can be last, and the last first!”
About the Author
After Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett died, in August 1969, it was found that she had appointed no literary executor. It has therefore fallen to her publisher to prepare her final manuscript for press. For assistance in this work I am much indebted to Miss Cicely Greig, Miss Elizabeth Sprigge and Mr. Charles Burkhart, all of whom have made suggestions which have been most valuable in deciding on the text printed here.
L. Gollancz