We can only say that it reaches
its highest point when a man and a woman, intelligent, appreciative,
sympathetic, endowed with youth, health and freedom, are devoting their
energies solely and determinedly to verifying each a preconceived idea of
the other.
"And what do you think of it by this time?"
Marian asked the question in the pause after a twenty minutes' canter over
a straightaway stretch through the pines.
"Of what?" Howard inquired. "I mean of what phase of it. Of you?"
"Well,--yes, of me--after a week."
"As I expected, only more so--more than I could have imagined. And you,
what do you think?"
"It's very different from what I expected. It seemed to me beforehand that
you, even you, would 'get on my nerves' just a little at times. I didn't
expect you to appreciate--to feel my moods and to avoid doing--or is it
that you simply cannot do--anything jarring. You have amazing instincts or
else--" Marian looked at him and smiled mischievously, "or else you have
been well educated. Oh, I don't mind--not in the least. No matter what the
cause, I'm glad--glad--glad that you have been taught how to treat a
woman."
"I see you are determined to destroy me," Howard was in jest, yet in
earnest. "I am not used to being flattered.
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