This cannot take her!
If of herself she do not love,
Nothing will make her!
The devil take her!'
How do you like that?"
"To you I say quit, quit for shame;" replied Flemming. "Why quote the songs of that witty and licentious age? Have you no better consolation to offer me? How many, many times must I tell you, that I bear the lady no ill-will. I do not blame her for not loving me. I desire her happiness, even at the sacrifice of my own."
"That is generous in you, and deserves a better fate. But you are so figurative in all you say, that a stranger would think you had no real feeling,--and only fancied yourself in love."
"Expression of feeling is different with different minds. It is not always simple. Some minds, when excited, naturally speak in figures and similitudes. They do not on that account feel less deeply. This is obvious in our commonest modes of speech. It depends upon the individual."
"Kyrie Eleëson!"
"Well, abuse my figures of speech as much as you please. What I insist upon is, that you shall not abuse the lady. When did you ever hear me breathe a whisper against her?"