It does n't seem as if I could help myself if I wanted to . Something -- out beyond there -- is calling me , always has been calling me ever since I was a tiny girl and found out there was a big world far away from Racicot . And it always seemed to me that I would find a way to it some day . That was why I kept going to school long after the other girls stopped . Mother thought I 'd better stop home ; she said too much book learning would make me discontented and too different from the people I had to live along . But Father let me go ; he understood ; he said I was like him when he was young . I learned everything and read everything I could . It seems to me as if I had been walking along a narrow pathway all my life . And now it seems as if a gate were opened before me and I can pass through into a wider world . It is n't the luxury and the pleasure or the fine house and dresses that tempt me , though the people here think so -- even Mother thinks so . But it is not . It 's just that something seems to be in my grasp that I 've always longed for , and I must go -- Rob , I must go . '' `` Yes , if you feel like that you must go , '' he answered , looking down at her troubled face gently . `` And it 's best for you to go , Nora . I believe that , and I 'm not so selfish as not to be able to hope that you 'll find all you long for . But it will change you all the more if it is so . Nora ! Nora ! Whatever am I going to do without you ! '' The sudden passion bursting out in his tone frightened her .
`` Do n't , XXXXX , do n't !
Father Mother Nora Racicot Rob day girls house pathway tone