CHAPTER XXIV 330
which a husband ' s ardour extends . Yet , after all , as a friend and companion , I hope never to become quite distasteful to my dear master ."
" Distasteful ! and like you again ! I think I shall like you again , and yet again : and I will make you confess I do not only LIKE , but LOVE you -- with truth , fervour , constancy ."
" Yet are you not capricious , sir ?"
" To women who please me only by their faces , I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts -- when they open to me a perspective of flatness , triviality , and perhaps imbecility , coarseness , and ill-temper : but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue , to the soul made of fire , and the character that bends but does not break -- at once supple and stable , tractable and consistent -- I am ever tender and true ."
" Had you ever experience of such a character , sir ? Did you ever love such an one ?"
" I love it now ."
" But before me : if I , indeed , in any respect come up to your difficult standard ?"
" I never met your likeness . Jane , you please me , and you master me -- you seem to submit , and I like the sense of pliancy you impart ; and while I am twining the soft , silken skein round my finger , it sends a thrill up my arm to my heart . I am influenced -- conquered ; and the influence is sweeter than I can express ; and the conquest I undergo has a witchery beyond any triumph I can win . Why do you smile , Jane ? What does that inexplicable , that uncanny turn of countenance mean ?"
" I was thinking , sir ( you will excuse the idea ; it was involuntary ), I was thinking of Hercules and Samson with their charmers -- "
" You were , you little elfish -- "