"Why? Because he cannot marry her?"
"Yes."
"If you ever fell in love with me—would you wish to marry me?"
"If I ever did," he said, "I'd go through hell to marry you."
She considered him, curiously, as though trying to realise something inconceivable.
"I do not think of you that way," she said. "I do not think of you sentimentally at all.... Only that I care for you—deeply. I don't believe it's in me to love. I mean—as the world defines love.... So don't fall in love with me, Clive.... But, if you ever do, tell me."
"Why?" he asked unsteadily.
"Because you ought to tell me. I should not wish to die and never know it."
"Would you care?"