"Because every man likes freedom. But I like you better." "I can
tell you the reason," she said in her gentle unwavering voice. "I
am Lady Meryon's governess, and an undesirable. You have felt
that?"

"Don't make me out such a snob. No - yes. You force me into
honesty. I did feel it at first like the miserable fool I am, but
I could kick myself when I think of that now. It is utterly
forgotten. Take me and make me what you will, and forgive me.
Only tell me your secret of joy. How is it you understand
everything alive or dead? I want to live - to see, to know."

It was a rhapsody like a boy's. Yet at the moment I was not even
ashamed of it, so sharp was my need.

"I think," she said, slowly, looking straight before her, "that I
had better be quite frank. I don't love you. I don't know what
love means in the Western sense. It has a very different meaning
for me. Your voice comes to me from an immense distance when you
speak in that way. You want me - but never with a thought of what
I might want. Is that love? I like you very deeply as a friend,
but we are of different races. There is a gulf."

"A gulf? You are English."

"By birth, yes. In mind, no. And there are things that go deeper,
that you could not understand. So I refuse quite definitely, and
our ways part here, for in a few days I go. I shall not see you
again, but I wish to say good-bye."