"Such ways I do
not understand. For me love means something tender and true which could
never want to injure the thing it loved."
He looked at her gravely.
"Lately I have wondered what love could mean for me. Tell me what you
think, Madame," he said.
She resolved not to allow any emotion to master her, though she was
conscious of a sudden beating of her heart.
"You would torture sometimes, and then you would caress."
"I would certainly caress."
He moved from his position and walked across the room, while he talked
as though the words burst from him.
"Yes, I should demand unquestioning surrender, and if it were refused
me, then I might be cruel. And if my love were cold or capricious,
_then_ I would leave her. But if she loved me truly--my God, it would
be bliss."
"Think how it would hurt her when you did those foolish things though,"
Tamara said.
He stopped short in his restless walk.
"No one does foolish things when he is happy, Madame. All such
outbursts are the froth of a soul in its seething. But if one were
satisfied--" he paused, and then he went on again. "Oh! If you knew!--
In the desert in Egypt I used to think I had found rest, sometimes. I
am sated with this life here. A quoi bon, Madame!--the same thing year
after year!--and then since I have known you. I have wondered if
perhaps you in your country could teach me peace.
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