“Tell her!”
“Just the simple fact that I have an affection for you, and that we are going to be fellow-workers. I shall tell her that there is nothing for her to fear, that we shall behave like sensible beings, that it is all clean, and wholesome, and rational.”
“But, my dear!”
She was overwhelmed for the moment by his audacious sincerity.
“But will she believe?”
“She will believe me. Gertrude knows that I have never shirked telling her the truth.”
“And will she consent?”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“But surely, to a woman——”
“Eve, this sort of problem has always been so smirched and distorted that most people seem unable to see its outlines cleanly. I am going to make her see it cleanly. It may sound strange to you, but I believe she is one of the few women capable of taking a logical and restrained view of it. The thing is not to hurt a woman’s self love publicly. Often she will condone other sorts of relationship if you save her that. In our case there is going to be no sexual, backstairs business. You are too sacred to me. You are part of the mystery of life, of the beauty and strangeness and wonder of things. I love the look in your eyes, the way your lips move, the way you speak to me, every little thing that is you. Do you think I want to take my flowers and crush them with rough physical hands? Should I love them so well, understand them so well? It is all clean, and good, and wholesome.”