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 "No, I don't seem to want to. You see, I'm not at all good."

"All the more reason"

She ignored the interruption. "It's power that's what some people have; they're what I call good people—saints. And you know, these friends I was talking about; they're not at all conventional and they never go to church, except, perhaps, to weddings. And one or two of them are—oh, very unconventional. You'd be surprised."

They walked across the churchyard, just able to see the path by the reflected light on the wet flagstones. The Vicar tried to help her: "And you find that contact with certain personalities brings with it healing and invigoration?"

She grasped eagerly at the phrase. "Healing and invigoration, yes, that's what I mean. It isn't anything to do with love or friendship. When I was younger I thought that loving people was meant to help one; it led me—oh, so wrong. Loving is only giving, isn't it, just a sort of luxury, like giving this window. It doesn't do you any good, or the person either. But people like "—she named a