To thee, O woman, 't is the reverberating thunder that, echoing, rolls for ever after unceasing in thy ears. Is this why,
Between a man and a woman, a single look will sometimes change the complexion of an intimacy of a life-time? And
Not until that look comes—not until eyes look into eyes with a penetration supernatural—is acquaintanceship metamorphosed into love.
* * *
It is a favorite fiction amongst women that a rejected suitor either will not marry or marries the first girl he meets. Because,
To marry another woman after having offered inalienable and unalterable fidelity to one, would otherwise be a blow to "amour propere". And yet, strangely enough, or perhaps not so strangely,
This is a fiction but rarely maintained with regard to her own cardiac transportations. And for this reason:—
Woman is, and knows herself to be, a multiple personality;
Man, a tyro in emotions, is cast in a simpler mould. So,
A woman may donate herself piecemeal, or over and over again, yet deem herself perfectly loyal.—And perhaps naturally and legitimately; for,