⌠I▓m not in my first youth √ I can do what I choose √ I belong quite to the independent class. I▓m poor and of a serious disposition; I▓m not pretty. I therefore am not bound to be timid and conventional; indeed I can▓t afford such luxuries. Besides, I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all. I don▓t wish to be a mere sheep in the flock; I wish to choose my fate and know something of human affairs beyond what other people <┘> tell me.■ HENRY JAMES, The Portrait of a Lady