Oh, Frank, Frank,
will you give me back my heart? What was it that you promised me when we
sat together upon the rocks at Portray?"
It is inexpressibly difficult for a man to refuse the tender of a woman's
love. We may almost say that a man should do so as a matter of course--
that the thing so offered becomes absolutely valueless by the offer--that
the woman who can make it has put herself out of court by her own
abandonment of privileges due to her as a woman--that stern rebuke and
even expressed contempt are justified by such conduct--and that the
fairest beauty and most alluring charms of feminine grace should lose
their attraction when thus tendered openly in the market. No doubt such is
our theory as to love and lovemaking. But the action to be taken by us in
matters as to which the plainest theory prevails for the guidance of our
practice, depends so frequently on accompanying circumstances and
correlative issues, that the theory, as often as not, falls to the ground.
Frank could not despise this woman, and could not be stern to her. He
could not bring himself to tell her boldly that he would have nothing to
say to her in the way of love.
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