Page:Comin' Thro' the Rye (1898).djvu/297

Rh it was strange she should have fallen in love with him all at once like that?"

"It is a poor love that is afraid to discover itself as soon as felt," he says, "and that beats about the bush until it is certain of the same being returned. I believe that the strongest and most enduring love is that which is sudden, or fallen into."

"I am glad they both died," I say; "perhaps if Romeo had lived he would have loved some one else and spoilt the whole story."

"Yes, I think he would have forgotten in time and loved again, as you say; why should he not? Do you believe that a man cannot care as much the second time as the first?"

"I do not know about men," I answer; "I only know that a woman could not. Juliet would have had no second lover, I am very sure."

"If you had been Juliet," he says, stooping his head to look into my face, "and Romeo had died, what would you have done?"

"I should not have killed myself, but I should have loved him dead as passionately as I had loved him living; and no word of love from another should ever have shamed his memory."

"I am going to ask you a question, Nell; an impertinent one you will no doubt consider but I will have an answer. Have you ever had a lover?"

My heart stands still as I lift my eyes to him, standing there by my side. For a moment I hesitate then, for speaking the truth has always come more naturally to me than to tell lies, I answer, "Yes."

He turns away. "They are all alike," he mutters half-aloud, 'all alike!"

"And he makes love to you, I suppose?"

"Yes, indeed!" I say, with a rueful sigh, given to the memory of how bootless that love-making has proved.