Perhaps the pleasure intermixed with love's pangs arises from the thought
that the other is the cause of our suffering. For,

In all love, it is the sacrifice of oneself for the other that brings
keenest joy. And yet

There is an element of self-love in the very extremest of love. Since

Love, after all, is a debtor and creditor affair. (Who ever loved with
no hope of return?) It is when one of the parties declares him-or
her-self insolvent that the account is closed--with many tears and sighs
on the part of the chief creditor. At all events

The intenser the love, the more flawless does its object appear. For

The surest test of the sincerity of love is that it thinketh no evil.

The surest test of a waning love is that it begins not to content itself
when it sees its object suffer.

The surest test of a dead love is that it forgets how to be jealous.

* * *

The falling-out of lovers true is a renewing may be of love. (1) Still it
is not to be recommended. In fact, it might be said that

Every falling-out of lovers true is a nail in love's coffin. Yet,

A blessing it is that in love we remember the sweet rather than the