I was looking in the glass, and"-- She started. "Then you were
in love with me last night?"
"I began to be in love with you from the moment I saw you."
"Then how could you have behaved as you did?"
"Because I was a pedant. I tried to ignore you, as pedants always do
try to ignore any fact they cannot fit into their pet system. The
basis of my pet system was celibacy. I don't mean the mere state of
being a bachelor. I mean celibacy of the soul--egoism, in fact. You
have converted me from that. I am now a confirmed tuist."
"How dared you insult me?" she cried, with a stamp of her foot. "How
dared you make a fool of me before those people? Oh, it is too
infamous!"
"I have already asked you to forgive me for that. You said there was
nothing to forgive."
"I didn't dream that you were in love with me."
"What difference can that make?"
"All the difference! All the difference in life!"
"Sit down! You bewilder me," said the Duke. "Explain yourself!" he
commanded.
"Isn't that rather much for a man to ask of a woman?"
"I don't know. I have no experience of women. In the abstract, it
seems to me that every man has a right to some explanation from the
woman who has ruined his life.
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