him, that you may help him with your sympathy. Oh, Elspeth, you think
yourself unhappy just now when you are really in the middle of one of
the pleasantest bits of it! Love is a series of thrills, the one
leading to the other, and, as your careful guardian, I would not have
you miss one of them. You will come to the final bang quickly enough,
and find it the finest thrill of all, but it is soon over. When you
have had to tell him that you are not for him, there are left only the
pleasures of memory, and the more of them there were, the more there
will be to look back to. I beg you, Elspeth, not to hurry; loiter
rather, smelling the flowers and plucking them, for you may never be
this way again."

All these things he might have pointed out to Elspeth had he wanted
her to look at the matter rationally, but he had no such wish. He
wanted her to enjoy herself as the blessed do, without knowing why. No
pity for the man, you see, but no ill will to him. David was having
his thrills also, and though the last of them would seem a staggerer
to him at the time, it would gradually become a sunny memory. The only
tragedy is not to have known love. So long as you have the
experiences, it does not greatly matter whether your suit was a
failure or successful.

So Tommy decided, but he feared at the same time that there had been
no quarrel--that David had simply drawn back.

How he saw through Elspeth's brave attempts to show that she had never
for a moment thought of David's having any feeling for her save
ordinary friendship--yes, they were brave, but not brave enough for
Tommy. At times she would say something bitter about life (not about
the doctor, for he was never mentioned), and it was painful to her