"Oh!... I did not understand. I had not thought it mattered very greatly to men, so that they found their happiness—so that they found contentment in their sweethearts' yielding.... Then my surrender would mean nothing to you unless I yielded happily?"
"Nothing. Good God! In what school have you learned of love!"
She nodded thoughtfully, looking me in the eyes.
"What you tell me, Euan, is pleasant to think on. It reassures and comforts; nay, it is the sweetest thing you ever said to me—that you could find no happiness in my yielding unless I yield happily.... Why, Euan, that alone would win me—were it time. It clears up much that I have never understood concerning you.... Men have not used me gently.... And then you came.... And I thought you must be like the others, being a man, except that you are the only one to whom I was at all inclined—perhaps because you were from the beginning gentler and more honest with me.... What a way to win a woman's heart! To seek her happiness first of all!... Could you give me to another—if my happiness required it?"
"What else could I do, Lois?"
"Would you do that!" she demanded hotly.
"Have I any choice?"
"Not if your strange creed be sincere. Is it sincere?"
"There is no other creed for those who really love."
"You are wrong," she said angrily, looking at me with tightened lips.