There was no doubt that she coveted Everest personally, with all the force of which she was capable, and Nature is always on the side of any individual fighting for a mate. She lends beauty and charm to the female as she lends power and magnetism to the male.
And Everest closely in contact with this young, beautiful, insistent woman, who was new to him, felt that transient sensory desire for her which is a purely natural spontaneous impulse in natures like his, full to the brim of energy and vigour, possessing both far in excess of the demands of daily life.
His love for Regina went very deep into his whole organisation, and his power of self-control was strong, therefore had he realised at the first that he was going to do anything to make his idol unhappy he would have strenuously resisted the new invading passion. But, as in all these cases the beginnings are imperceptible, the slope of the hill is far slipped down by the unwary feet before they even feel they are descending.
In this case Sybil had masked her advances with infinite care. Of course there could be no love-making, no flirtation, between them now. He was a married man, she knew, bound to that lovely and exquisite Regina for ever and ever; but there could be such a nice camaraderie between them; they were such old friends and cousins, and cousins might kiss each other, as they had always done, and her kisses were cousinly little things at first, so that, without in the least alarming him at the beginning, she established forms of intimacy that gradually afterwards she could fill with passion.
When he awoke to the passion in them it was too late: it had set fire to his own; he knew that he wanted those kisses, desired them, as he did the woman herself!
It is useless for those who read this record to frown and scowl and talk of his love for Regina and regard him as a monster because, while loving and possessing her, he desired another. His love for Regina had nothing to do with the question. One might as well argue that because one dines every night at home one never wants to dine out with a friend.
The idea of replacing Regina with Sybil never occurred to him. Regina was for him something he could never part with, a portion of his own life. All the feelings for her were so deep, so real, so intertwisted with the mental emotions, it was impossible to compare them with those for Sybil. But she had the amazing power of novelty on her side; she had that charm for Everest that the unlearned language has for the student, the unknown country for the explorer; and when Regina at last appealed to him about the matter, he suddenly realised that the presence of Sybil, her society, the sight of her, her kisses, gave him a keen pleasure that now he did not at all wish to give up.
The first time that Regina spoke to him of her own pain and distress was in their tent at night, alone, and Everest had come up to her and taken her into his arms.
"Dear little girl, how can you be so foolish? There is no one in the world for me except yourself."
And this was quite true, for Everest had never felt for any woman the same feelings as he had done for her, and it never occurred to him that he could ever part with her. But the curious pleasure that his cousin's face gave him, the momentary physical delight of her kiss, the joy of putting his arm round the tiny form and seeing her little teeth gleam in a smile upon him, all these were very dear to him, though he did not ever dream of her in any lasting relationship.