“A refusal to renounce. That covers everything,” she concluded.

“Sometimes renunciation is weakness—isn't it?” he suggested.

“In what case for example?”

“Well, suppose we take love.”

“Very well, you may take it if you like it.”

“Suppose you loved a man!” he insisted.

“Let him beware! What then?”

“—And, suppose it would distress your family if you married him?”

“I'd give him up.”

“If you loved him?”