"But I love you!" he cried, retaining her hands by main force.
"Since yesterday?"
"Yesterday! A million years ago. The moment in which I felt I loved you, Janet, was a world-without-end moment. That is love's way."
"Don't profane the word love," she said, her voice rich and thrilling. "You can't love a girl you don't know."
"Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?" he said, quoting the line reproachfully, and releasing her hands as he did so.
"Do you believe that love always happens at first sight? What about the feeling that takes hold of us as we slowly learn to know another's splendid character? The feeling of tenderness and adoration. Isn't that love, too?"
"No, a thousand times, no! Call it friendship, comradeship, esteem, if you like. Call it glorified toleration. But don't call it love. Love doesn't come like that. It comes like the swift lightning that embraces a cloud."
"How I should love to love like that!" she exclaimed, with a mischievous imitation of rhapsody.
"Then you don't love me?" he demanded.
She refused to admit that she did. He pressed her for an answer.