If M cannot confide in N, it probably means that K and L have, or that O
and P will.
* * *
So tremendous are the results of the gift of self that Nature herself
seems to have ordained that the feminine sacrifice shall be utter and
complete. For,
A man's interests may be many and and behold, a bold girl will appear and
carry off the shy man! Perhaps to the life-long chagrin and sorrow of all
three.
Often, oh! how often, an awkward and sophisticated youth and a prim maid
with down-cast eyes will sit together, waltz together, and the one never
get one inch the nearer to the other, though soul and mind and body crave
a closer union. The youth would give the solid earth--nay, the solid
earth would be naught--to gain him the courage to clasp the maiden to
his breast; yet, so intense his awe, he would not strain a spider's web
to risk the maid's good will.--The maid--who shall say what passes in
her mind? That the youth should adventure, she could wish; yet his very
hesitancy bespeaks his devotion true. Were he to fall about her neck,
embrace her close, and demand the kiss of love--most like she would
recoil aghast--at first! Yet if he desisted--she would also recoil
aghast.--What should he do, poor awkward youth? what she?--One thing
onlookers will do: smile, and simper, and smile again; but in their
inmost heart of hearts they will envy that awkward youth, that simple
maid. For because, in this the first symptoms of unsolicited and
reciprocal love, they will recognize something of the divine and mystical
nature of Love itself, of Love untrammeled by convention or law; of Love
itself, in its purity, its intensity, its diffidence, its terrifying yet
restraining force.