I was afraid that she would accept me too promptly and give me at once what I would fain have purchased by long waiting or some great sacrifice. We men are built like that; and it is very fortunate that the imagination lends so much poetry to the senses, and that the desires of the body make thus much concession to the dreams of the soul. If any one had said to me, You shall have this woman to-night and be killed to-morrow, I would have accepted. If any one had said to me, You can be her lover for ten pounds, I would have refused.
