Page:Hermione and her little group of serious thinkers (1923, c1916).djvu/27

 HOW SUFFERING PURIFIES ONE!

H, to go through fire and come out purified! Suffering is wonderful, isn't it? Simply wonderful!

The loveliest man talked to us the other night—to our Little Group of Serious Thinkers, you know—about social ideals and suffering.

The reason so many attempts to improve things fail, you know, is because the people who try them out haven't suffered personally.

He had the loveliest eyes, this man.

He made me think. I said to myself, "After all, have I suffered? Have I been purified by fire?"

And I decided that I had—that is spiritually, you know.

The suffering—the spiritual suffering—that I undergo through being misunderstood is something frightful!

Mamma discourages every Cause I take up. So does Papa.

I get no sympathy in my devotion to my ideals. Only opposition!

And from a child I have had such a high-strung, [13]