Jasper was the first man who had
ever evinced a man's interest in her. Until she met him she had
not known a look of compliment or a word addressed to her
emotions. He was as far as possible from representing the lover
of her imagination, but from the day of that long talk in the
fields near Wattleborough the thought of him had supplanted
dreams. On that day she said to herself: I could love him if he
cared to seek my love. Premature, perhaps; why, yes, but one who
is starving is not wont to feel reluctance at the suggestion of
food. The first man who had approached her with display of
feeling and energy and youthful self-confidence; handsome too, it
seemed to her. Her womanhood went eagerly to meet him.
Since then she had made careful study of his faults. Each
conversation had revealed to her new weakness and follies. With
the result that her love had grown to a reality.
He was so human, and a youth of all but monastic seclusion had
prepared her to love the man who aimed with frank energy at the
joys of life. A taint of pedantry would have repelled her.
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