. The pride I have in you,
Lætitia, definitely cures me of that insane passion - call it an insatiable
hunger. I recognize it as a folly of youth. I have, as it were, gone the tour,
to come home to you - at last? - and live our manly life of comparative equals.
At last, then! But remember, that in the younger man you would have had a despot
- perhaps a jealous despot. Young men, I assure you, are orientally inclined in
their ideas of love. Love gets a bad name from them. We, my Lætitia, do not
regard love as a selfishness. If it is, it is the essence of life. At least it
is our selfishness rendered beautiful. I talk to you like a man who has found a
compatriot in a foreign land. It seems to me that I have not opened my mouth for
an age. I certainly have not unlocked my heart. Those who sing for joy are not
unintelligible to me. If I had not something in me worth saying, I think I
should sing. In every sense you reconcile me to men and the world, Lætitia. Why
press you to speak? I will be the speaker. As surely as you know me, I know you;
and ...«
    Lætitia burst forth with, »No!«
    »I do not know you?« said he, searchingly mellifluous.
    »Hardly.«
    »How not?«
    »I am changed.«
    »In what way?«
    »Deeply.«
    »Sedater?«
    »Materially.«
    »Colour will come back: have no fear; I promise it. If you imagine you want
renewing, I have the specific, I, my love, I!«
    »Forgive me - will you tell me, Sir Willoughby, whether you have broken with
Miss Middleton?«
    »Rest satisfied, my dear Lætitia. She is as free as I am. I can do no more
than a man of honour should do. She releases me. To-morrow or next day she
departs. We, Lætitia, you and I, my love, are home birds. It does not do for the
home bird to couple with the migratory. The little imperceptible change you
allude to, is nothing. Italy will restore you. I am ready to stake my own health
- never yet shaken by a doctor of medicine: - I say medicine advisedly, for
there are Doctors of Divinity who would shake giants: - that an Italian trip
will send you back - that I shall
