"But you see so many beautiful things in nature."
"The horse on the tread-wheel can look through a crack, and see a flower growing outside."
"Has your life been really hard?" she asked.
"Yes, desperately hard, at times."
"But you don't show it. You seem so kind and gentle."
"If I do, it is out of charity for those who have suffered."
"But I don't see any sign of your suffering, you write so beautifully."
"I had to suffer before I could write. The heart cannot express a joy until it has felt a sorrow."
She gave him her frank, admiring eyes. "Why haven't I met such men as you are? I have not lived here all my life; I have travelled with my aunt, who knew the world, and she took me to many strange places, and I met many men, but they didn't appeal to me or interest me any more than those I met at home. It was all the same old commonplace flattery."
"You have never found a man so interesting because you have never had the opportunity to see a man standing in the light I stand in now," he replied. "Our relationship has given me a new color."