Limbo, and Other Essays; To which is now added Ariadne in Mantua

by Vernon Lee

Princess

I am not a child.

DIEGO

But not yet a woman.

PRINCESS (meditatively)

You think, then——

DIEGO

I do not think; I know. And you will know, some day. And then——

PRINCESS

Then I shall suffer. Why, we must all suffer. Say that, having a heart, a heart for husband or child, means certain grief,—well, does not riding, walking down your stairs, mean the chance of broken bones? Does not living mean old age, disease, possible blindness or paralysis, and quite inevitable aches? If, as you say, I must needs grow a heart, and if a heart must needs give agony, why, I shall live through heartbreak as through pain in any other limb.