Between Zero and One by Mavis Gallant

"She looked out – not at me. She said the worst thing of all. Remembering it, I see the unwashed window pane. She said, 'Don't you girls ever know when you're well off? Now you've got no one to lie to you, to belittle you, to make a fool of you, to stab you in the back.' But we were different – different ages, different women, two lines of a graph that could never cross.

Mostly when people say 'I know exactly how I felt' it can't be true, but here I am sure – sure of Mrs. Ireland and the window and of what she said. The recollection has something to do with the blackest kind of terror, as stunning as the bolts of happiness that strike for no reason. This blackness, this darkening, was not wholly Mrs. Ireland, no; I think it had to do with the men, with squares and walls and limits and numbers. How do you stand if you stand upon Zero? What will the passage be like between Zero and One? And what will happen at One? Yes, what will happen?"

– "Between Zero and One"
Mavis Gallant