s her turn to color. But, elbowing instinctive resentment, came
uneasiness. His love seemed to her of the sort that flowers in the
romances--the love that endures all, asks nothing, lives forever upon its
own unfed fire. As is so often the case with women whose charms move men
to extravagance of speech and emotion, it was a great satisfaction to
her, to her vanity, to feel that she had inspired this wonderful immortal
flame; obviously, to feed such a flame by giving love for love would
reduce it to the commonplace. All women start with these exaggerated
notions of the value of being loved; few of them ever realize and rouse
themselves, or are aroused, from their vanity to the truth that the value
is all the other way. Adelaide was only the natural woman in blindly
fancying that Dory was the one to be commiserated, in not seeing that she
herself was a greater loser than he, that to return his love would not be
a concession but an acquisition. Most men are content to love, to compel
women to receive their love; they prefer the passive, the receptive
attitude in the woman, and are even bored by being actively loved in
return; for love is exacting, and the male is impatient of exaction.
Adelaide did not understand just this broad but subtle difference between
Dory and "most men"--that he would feel that he was violating her were he
to sweep her away in the arms of his impetuous released passion, as he
knew he could. He felt that such a yielding was, after all, like the
inert obedience of the leaf to the storm wind--that what he could compel,
what women call love, would be as utterly without substance as an image
in a mirror, indeed, would be a mere passive reflection of his own
love--all most men want, but worthless to him.

Could it be that Dory's love had become--no, not less, but less ardent?
She saw that he was deep in thought--about her, she assumed, with an
unconscious vanity which would have excited the mockery of many who have
more vanity than had she, and perhaps with less excuse. In fact, he was
not thinking of her; having the ability to turn his mind completely where
he willed--the quality of all strong men, and the one that often makes
the weak-willed think them hard--he was revolving the vast and inspiring
plans Arthur and he had just got into practical form--plans for new
factories and mills such as a university, professing to be in the
forefront of progress need not be ashamed to own or to offer to its
student