r met, and yet I seem to lose touch with her very easily!"

"Oh, I shouldn't count Cecily. Cecily is anybody's sweetheart!..."

"But it wasn't only Cecily. There was a girl ... a farm-girl in Antrim.
I never told you about her. Her name was Sheila Morgan ... she's married
now ... and I went straight from Mary to her. Of course, I was a kid
then, but still I'd told Mary I was fond of her, and we'd arranged to
get married when we grew up ... and then I went home and made love to
Sheila Morgan!"

"None of these women held you, Quinny!" said Gilbert.

"No, that's true, and Mary has, although I seldom see her. I thought
that I could never love anybody as I loved Sheila Morgan ... until I met
Cecily ... and then I thought I should never love any one as I loved her
... but somehow Cecily doesn't hold me now, and Mary does. I can't tell
you when I ceased to love Cecily ... I don't really know that I have
ceased to love her ... it just weakened, so gradually that I did not
notice it weakening. All the same, if I were to see Cecily now, I should
probably want her as badly as ever."

"You might, Quinny, but you wouldn't go on wanting her. You see, she
wouldn't want you for very long, and my general opinion is that you
can't keep on giving if you get nothing in return ... unless, of course,
you're a one-eyed ass. A healthy, intelligent man, if he loves a woman
who doesn't love him ... well he goes off and loves some one else ...
and quite right, too. These devoted fellows who cherish their blighted
affections forever ... damn it, they deserve it. They've got no
imagination! I don't think Cecily'd hold you now, Quinny, not for very
long anyhow. I wish you'd marry Mary. You quite obviously love her, and
she quite obviously loves you.... Oh, Lordy God, I wish I could love
somebody. I wish I were a young man in a novelette, with a nice,
clear-cut face and crisp, curly hair and frightfully gentlemanly ways
and no brains so that I could get into the most idiotic messes.... Why
aren't there any aphrodisiacs for men who cannot love any one in
particular, Quinny! If you'd had the sense to have a sister, I should
probably have married her. Roger's family runs to nothing but males, and
Rachel can't honestly recommend any of her female relatives to me. If I
thought Mary'd have me, I'd marry her, but I know she wouldn't. I used
to think it was awful to want to believe in God and not be able to
believe in Him, but it's a lot worse to want to