'Really? What a pity. I suppose the fool of a girl's engaged, or
something.'

'She won't come back any more,' answered Edith.

'Will you have to get a new Miss Townsend?'

'I thought of being their governess myself--during the holidays,
anyhow.'

'But that will leave you hardly any time--no leisure.'

'Leisure for what?'

'For anything--for me, for instance,' said Aylmer boldly. He was full
of the courage and audacity caused by the immense relief of seeing her
again and finding her so responsive.

There is, of course, no joy so great as the cessation of pain; in fact
all joy, active or passive, is the cessation of some pain, since it
must be the satisfaction of a longing, even perhaps an unconscious
longing. A desire is a sort of pain, even with hope, without it is
despair. When, for example, one takes artistic pleasure in looking at
something beautiful, that is a cessation of the pain of having been
deprived of it until then, since what one enjoys one must have longed
for even without knowing it.

'Look here,' said Aylmer suddenly. 'I don't believe I can do without
you.'