Both ladies nodded.
“These are Anne’s secret journals. I have no idea if they are actually secret, but Anne presented them to me as such and asked me to analyse them mathematically.”
Less shocked than Elizabeth expected, Lady Catherine asked, “Why you? Why mathematically?”
“Let us say that I have some talent in dealing with other people’s…difficulties. I use mathematics as a handle to pry into things that should not be my business, so I might extract some rough approximation of truth. As to why me, I have a history of successful interventions, though whether that is luck or skill is anybody’s guess.”
Lady Catherine studied her. “It sounds like you have been in some awkward conversations.”
Surprised at how quickly the lady arrived at that conclusion, Elizabeth nodded.
“And this is yet one more? I take it you do not particularlyenjoythese activities; at least by your demeanour.”
“I do not. I am, however, honour bound to help as I am asked, whether it is a good idea or not.”
“Duty is not always enjoyable, so I applaud your intentions. Might you answer the first question? Why mathematics?”
“Because it is my particular skill, and in many cases, the clarity of the mathematical expressions helps me think. You probably know it has nearly infinitely precision, but itsapplicationis highly variable and error prone. You can determine with perfect clarity whether an apple is larger or denser than a pear, and, given enough information about the markets, you might determine their relative values with some precision. You cannot, however, tell if a person prefers one over the other, or why; but, given enough information, you could determine the preferences of the average Englishman or Irishman. Its application I can manage well enough to suit my purposes. The tools of mathematics help bring clarity, though the clarity may be as wrong as right, because everything depends on how well you map reality to the mathematical world—a task rife with for error.”
“Carry on.”
Elizabeth opened the first notebook. “This journal begins on Anne’s 15thbirthday, when she was absolutely certain she was unlikely to survive another day, let alone another year.”
Lady Catherine gasped and turned to Anne, who stared at her hands. “Is this true?”
Anne snapped, “It is, and you cannot deny you thought the same.”
Ignoring Anne’s peevish tone, Lady Catherine leaned forward to take her hands. “I admit I had such dark thoughts. We all tried to hide them from you, but we were clearly unsuccessful.”
Anne sighed and squeezed her mother’s hands. “You did your best. I cannot fault you.”
“May I continue?” Elizabeth asked. Perhaps she should have let the discussion go on longer, but it seemed unlikely to produce the results she wanted.
“3 times Anne was absolutely certain she would die in the month before she started writing, 5 the next month, then back to 3, and so forth. Each time, it was either because the pain was so intense she was not certain shewantedto survive, because the clues from her caregivers were overly pessimistic, or some combination.”
Elizabeth took out a chart showing the incidents in a line graph. “As you can see, for the first year of the journal, these incidents rose and fell, varying between 2-5 incidents per month, but finally dropping to 0 the last month of the year.”
Anne and Lady Catherine studied the chart.
“That is very interesting,” Lady Catherine said, “but you could have concluded that easily enough without the graph.”
“Of course. Sometimes mathematics adds clarity; sometimes it restates the obvious; sometimes it is harmful, giving a veneer of respectability to a mistake or falsehood. In this case, it let me see the pattern. That was only the beginning, though. There is more.”
“Pray continue,” Anne said, looking more interested.
“I noticed the feelings of despair and fear ebbed and flowed, and sometimes they did not correlate with her condition. Sometimes Anne felt worse than objective evidence suggested; sometimes the converse.”
Anne asked, “What do you mean by objective?”
“Those are scientific terms.Subjectivemeans matters subject to interpretation or opinion, whileobjectivemeans measures true in themselves. Of course, there is dispute about what is subjective and what is objective.”
Anne laughed. “You suggest the difference between subjective, and objective is subjective?”
Elizabeth laughed along. “Very clever.”
Lady Catherine said, “Are we to spend the entire time discussing vocabulary?”
“My apologies. The point is that the tools of mathematics are not completely appropriate here, because while it isobjective, the inputs aresubjectiveand highly due to interpretation. However, I still believe it might be useful, so long as you admit that the analysis is considerably less exact than it might appear. I tried to map all the different feelings in Anne’s diaries into a graph independently, so I could see the relationships between them, but it became hopelessly muddled.”
