"Because even if I returned your love, I am not for you, Hadron of Hastor," she replied coldly.
"You cannot love me then, Sanoma Tora?" I asked.
"I did not say that," she replied.
"You could love me?"
"I could love you if I permitted myself the weakness," she said, "but what is love?"
"Love is everything," I told her.
Sanoma Tora laughed. "If you think that I would link myself for life to a threadbare Padwar even if I loved him, you are mistaken," she said haughtily. "I am the daughter of Tor Hatan, whose wealth and power are but little less than those of the royal families of Helium. I have suitors whose wealth is so great that they could buy you a thousand times over. Within the year an emissary of the Jeddak Tul Axtar of Jahar waited upon my father; he had seen me and he said that he would return, and, merely for love, you would ask me, who may some day be Jeddara of Jahar, to become the wife of a poor Padwar."
I arose. "Perhaps you are right," I said. "You are so beautiful that it does not seem possible that you could be wrong, but deep in my heart I cannot but feel that happiness is the greatest treasure that one may possess, and love the greatest power. Without these, Sanoma Tora, even a Jeddara is poor indeed."
"I shall take my chance," she said.
"I hope that the Jeddak of Jahar is not as greasy as his emissary," I remarked rather peevishly, I am afraid.