“Sit down,” he invited. Two boxes stood against the hangar wall and he seated himself beside her. “I am speaking this way because I don’t want you to make a mistake. Have you ever,” he spoke lightly, almost gayly, but Gale could grasp their hidden meaning, “have you ever thought about what the French call—ze grande passion?”
“Y-Yes, some,” Gale admitted.
“Will you tell me what you think it is—love, I mean?” he asked softly.
“Well,” she said with difficulty, “it is probably the biggest thing in our lives, isn’t it? I mean—did you ever read Elizabeth Browning? She says—‘I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!’ I always thought—maybe—I should love someone like that some day.” Gale was so thankful for the darkness here against the hangar. He couldn’t see how her cheeks were burning. Never, never, had she thought she would ever talk to anyone like this!
Brent Stockton thoughtfully brushed an imaginary bit of dust from his jacket sleeve. “You are right,” he said. “You should love someone like that. You are young and—quite lovely.” He grinned down at her. “There will be a great many boys in love with you, Gale.”
Gale felt herself blushing more furiously than ever. How could he talk like that? She laughed lightly.
“Positively,” he insisted. “But you are still in school. You want to make something of yourself. Remember that! You don’t want love until you are ready for it. You want to finish growing up first. You will find it worth while in the end.” He laughed. “I sound like Old Man Experience himself, but I can’t quite see how to make you understand.”
Gale was fast regaining her composure. “I believe,” she said forcing a laugh, “that you are in a very good-natured way warning me not to fall in love with you and not to mistake a silly school-girl crush for the real thing.”
He cleared his throat in embarrassment. “Ah, now you have taken offense. I’m sorry, Gale—I only meant the best, to make you——”
Gale stood up, pulling her coat closer about her. “I don’t think I shall wait for Bruce after all. I shall go home.”