[Compulsion it was, then. Or at least seemed to be. It's easier to focus on that than the strange wave of. Disappointment, if she had to put a name to it, that she experiences. She'd have thought herself beyond such naivete- to think or hope humanity would be beyond that by his time.]

...we have not changed much at all, then. Pity. We're capable of better, or at least I thought as much as a younger, more optimistic woman.