Page:A Virgin Heart.pdf/106

102 "You are mixing up the different species," said Leonor. "You must, if we are to understand one another, allow words to keep their traditional sense with all its shades of meaning. Love is at the base of all emotions either as a negative or positive principle; one can say that, and when one has said it one is no forwarder. Do you think there's no point in the way verbal usage employs the words 'passion, caprice, inclination, taste, curiosity' and other words of the kind? It would surely be better to create new shades, rather than set one's wits to work to dissolve all the colours and shades of sensation and emotion into a single hue."

Like a village musician plunged into the midst of a discussion on counterpoint and orchestration, Rose listened, a little disquieted, a little irritated, but at the same time fascinated. They were speaking of something that ﬁlled her heart and set her nerves tingling; she did not understand, she felt. She would have liked to understand.

"Xavier will explain it all to me. How silly I look in the middle of the conversations where I can't put in a word."