Page:E Nesbit - The Literary Sense.djvu/174

162 home on that I am frightened for you. Suppose you got tired of my kisses, and here was nothing more in me that you did care for. And that sort of. . . lover's love doesn't last for ever—without the other kind of love—"

"Oh, don't say any more," she cried, jumping up from her chair. "I did love you with all my heart. I was sorry for you. I thought you were so different. Oh, how could you say these things to me? Go!"

"Shall I come back in a year?" he asked, smiling rather sadly.

"Come back? Never! I'll never speak to you again. I'll never see you again. I hope to God I shall never hear your name again. Go at once!"

"You'll be grateful to me some day," he said, "when you've found out that love and being in love are not the same thing."

"What is love, then? The kind of love you'd care for?"

"I care for it all," he said. "I think love is tenderness, esteem, affection, interest, pity, protection, and passion. Yes, you needn't be frightened by the word; it is the force that