Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

5. CHAPTER V: NOT SAFE AGAINST LOVE-MAKING (continued)

'I hate talking of falling in love as though a woman had nothing else to think of whenever she sees a man.'

'A woman has nothing else to think of.'

'I have a great deal else. And so has he.'

'It's quite out of the question on his part, then?'

'Quite out of the question. I'm sure he likes me; I can see it in his face, and hear it in his voice, and am so happy that it is so. But it isn't in the way that you mean. Heaven knows that I may want a friend some of these days, and I feel that I may trust to him. His feelings to me will be always those of a brother.'

'Perhaps so. I have seen that fraternal love before under similar circumstances, and it has always ended in the same way.'

'I hope it won't end in any way between us.'

'But the joke is that this suspicion, as you call it which makes you so indignant is simply a suggestion that a thing should happen which, of all things in the world, would be the best for both of you.'

'But the thing won't happen, and therefore let there be an end of it. I hate the twaddle talk of love, whether it's about myself or about any one else. It makes me feel ashamed of my sex, when I find that I cannot talk of myself to another woman without being supposed to be either in love or thinking of love cither looking for it or avoiding it. When it comes, if it cornea prosperously, it's a very good thing. But I for one can do without it, and I feel myself injured when such a state of things is presumed to be impossible.'

'It is worth any one's while to irritate you, because your indignation is so beautiful.'