' I like you when you get philosophical."
She looked quietly at him; he was trying to turn her own weapons against
her.
"You are acting foolishly, Lyndall," he said, suddenly changing his manner,
and speaking earnestly, "most foolishly. You are acting like a little
child; I am surprised at you. It is all very well to have ideals and
theories; but you know as well as any one can that they must not be carried
into the practical world. I love you. I do not pretend that it is in any
high, superhuman sense; I do not say that I should like you as well if you
were ugly and deformed, or that I should continue to prize you whatever
your treatment of me might be, or to love you though you were a spirit
without any body at all. That is sentimentality for beardless boys. Every
one not a mere child (and you are not a child, except in years) knows what
love between a man and a woman means. I love you with that love. I should
not have believed it possible that I could have brought myself twice to ask
of any woman to be my wife, more especially one without wealth, without
position, and who--"
"Yes--go on. Do not grow sorry for me. Say what you were going to--'who
has put herself into my power, and who has lost the right of meeting me on
equal terms.' Say what you think. At least we two may speak the truth to
one another.
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