Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/232

 eyes telling me the secret of your soul. I am jealous of your hands when they are not touching me; I am jealous almost of the wind that comes between us. How did I ever live before I met you? But did I? What beautiful eyes you have, Perseus. Don’t drink, or dissipate, or do anything to spoil them. And you have been kind to women—kinder than they are to themselves. Poor women, they do make a dreadful hash of things. But we have only ourselves and our love, and when we give that we give all.”

“You do not regret?”

“I—no! What have I to regret? I read life in my own way, dear Perseus, not as others would have me read it, and if it brings happiness to me how have I misread?”

“And you are happy?”

“Can you doubt it?”

“Yet I confess with shame that there are times when the Philistine will not be denied.”

“Then deny him, starve him, let him die of thirst. Or worse still, deny him those joys which, witnessed in others, turn him green with envy. Your Philistine is still a man, Perseus dear, and the man must conquer. But