so certain to her that it was no more a wonder than rain is, or
sunshine, or the rising of the moon....

He had spoken of it to her one evening in the dusk. She had smiled, her
grave beautiful smile.

"Of course I know, Shane. I always knew."

"But how did you know, Granya?"

"I think," she said, "I think all good women know, Shane. Men are so
complete, so welded. Mind and body seem to be themselves; the body and
mind function so that one doesn't see that there is anything within that
directs them. They are compact. But a woman is diffuse, Shane. Her mind
is not a man's mind; it is a thing she can use when she wants to and
then forget.... When women sit and think, you know, they aren't
thinking. They are feeling, Shane. It comes like a little wind. There
may be a place by the sea-shore, sparse heather and sandy dunes, and the
little waves come chiming, and the curlew calls. And you sit. And a very
strange peace comes to you, so that in a low soft voice you sing a verse
of song.... Or it may come on the cold winds of winter, through the
ascetic trees.... But women are always cognizant of God.... Even bad
women, Shane, who mistake the Unknown God for the true.... And a woman
is very much apart from her body. It is just a nuisance at times, or at
times a thing of beauty, or at times a thing one expresses something
with, something that is too deep for words, as with a violin. And to
some it is a curse.... But a body is always apart from one, and a mind
is, too.... Shane, you have seen very beautiful old women.... Women with
a beauty that is like a flame that does not burn, that have a light
within them somewhere ... that is not of the mind or of the body ...
that is of these things worn thin so that they themselves show.... See,
heart?"

"But Granya, why must a man find out, and a woman know?"

"Shane of my heart, because it is necessary to women that they may live.
A man can live without knowing God, as blind men live without ever
seeing the moon. For they have minds, Shane, pursuits--the amassing of
money, the little light of fame, that is only a vanity--not real.... But
Shane, no matter how hard a man has to work, a woman has more terrible
things.... There is no man on earth can understand the bearing of
children.... And there is no man, were he to think of it, try to know,
but would rather die than submit to what he thinks that terror.... And
yet, Shane, it is not so much.... After a little agony, when one goes