Page:Confessions of a wife (IA confessionsofwif00adamiala).pdf/83

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CONFESSIONS OF A WIFE
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And if you are disappointed, I am sorry. But perhaps I am what Goethe called a Nature; if I am, you will accept my Nature as you do everything about me, faults and all, and not complain? You are generous and noble to me, Dana! I never knew how many faults I had until it befell me that I wished to be a very superior girl for your sake. I never felt so sorry and ashamed of them as I have since I began to wish my soul a perfect ruby,—like this of yours I wear,—deep, deep down, pure fire, and flawless. I wonder do you like my tourmalin? You never said very much about it (and I could not, somehow, ask you). I know it is a reserved stone, not talking much. It seemed to me shy, like a betrothed girl's heart; a stone that waits for something, and has the beauty of that which is unexpressed, although quite understood.

"I think I meant to say something quite different a page back. I will look and see. Yes, it was about wines. I suspect I was a little afraid to say it, and so strayed off to jewels, a less fluent subject. My pen has stiffened up on it.

"Ah, yes, now I know; it was about the difference between exhilaration and exaltation—which seems to me the difference between different kinds of Love. And I believe I began to say:

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