Some touch of acid, of roughness in the
fruit--that drew him, in politics, thought, love. And if she married him
he vowed to himself, proudly, that she would find him no tyrant. Many a
man might marry her who would then fight her and try to break her. All
that was most fastidious and characteristic in Ashe revolted from such a
notion. With him she should have
freedom--whatever it might cost. He
asked himself deliberately, whether after marriage he could see her
flirting with other men, as she had flirted that day with Cliffe, and
still refrain from coercing her. And his question was answered, or
rather put aside, first by the confidence of nascent love--he would love
her so well and so loyally that she would naturally turn to him for
counsel; and then by the clear perception that she was a creature of
mind rather than sense, governed mainly by the caprices and curiosities
of the
intelligence, combined with a rather cold, indifferent
temperament. One moment throwing herself wildly into a dangerous or
exciting intimacy, the next, parting with a laugh, and without a
regret--it was thus he saw her in the future, even as a wife.
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