of the house, in such contrast with that in which he lived, and the
mere nearness to her, sent him forth each time with a firmer grip on his resolve
to climb the heights. In spite of the beauty in him, and the aching desire to
create, it was for her that he struggled. He was a lover first and always. All
other things he subordinated to love. Greater than his adventure in the world of
thought was his love-adventure. The world itself was not so amazing because of
the atoms and molecules that composed it according to the propulsions of
irresistible force; what made it amazing was the fact that Ruth lived in it. She
was the most amazing thing he had ever known, or dreamed, or guessed.
    But he was oppressed always by her remoteness. She was so far from him, and
he did not know how to approach her. He had been a success with girls and women
in his own class; but he had never loved any of them, while he did love her, and
besides, she was not merely of another class. His very love elevated her above
all classes. She was a being apart, so far apart that he did not know how to
draw near to her as a lover should draw near. It was true, as he acquired
knowledge and language, that he was drawing nearer, talking her speech,
discovering ideas and delights in common; but this did not satisfy his lover's
yearning. His lover's imagination had made her holy, too holy, too
spiritualized, to have any kinship with him in the flesh. It was his own love
that thrust her from him and made her seem impossible for him. Love itself
denied him the one thing that it desired.
    And then, one day, without warning, the gulf between them was bridged for a
moment, and thereafter, though the gulf remained, it was ever narrower. They had
been eating cherries - great, luscious, black cherries with a juice of the color
of dark wine. And later, as she read aloud to him from »The Princess,« he
chanced to notice the stain of the cherries on her lips. For the moment her
divinity was shattered. She was clay, after all, mere clay, subject to the
common law of clay as his clay was subject, or anybody's clay. Her lips were
flesh like his, and cherries dyed them as cherries dyed his. And if so with her
lips, then was it so with all of her. She was woman, all woman,