“I know how hard it is for us to remain silent in the first flush of what has so sweetly happened to us both. I know how natural it is for you to speak of it and for me to listen. But if I were to listen, now, and when one dear word of yours had followed another, and the next another still; and when our hands had met, and then our lips — alas, dear lad, I had become so wholly yours, and you had so wholly filled my mind and heart that — I do not know, but l deeply fear — something of my virgin resolution might relax. The inflexible will — the undeviating obstinacy with which I have pursued my quest as far as this forest place, might falter, be swerved, perhaps, by this new and other passion — for I am as yet ignorant of its force and possibilities. I would not have it master me until I am free to yield.