'He only kissed the air in front of me--ever so far off.' 'Was it six inches off ?' 'No, not six inches.' 'Nor three.' 'It was quite one,' she said with an ingenuous air.
'I don't call that very far.' 'A miss is as good as a mile, says the time-honoured proverb; and it is not for us modern mortals to question its truth.' 'How can you be so off-hand ?' broke out Somerset.

'I love you wildly and desperately, Paula, and you know it well!' 'I have never denied knowing it,' she said softly.
'Then why do you, with such knowledge, adopt an air of levity at such a moment as this! You keep me at arm's-length, and won't say whether you care for me one bit, or no.

I have owned all to you; yet never once have you owned anything to me!' 'I have owned much.

And you do me wrong if you consider that I show levity.

But even if I had not owned everything, and you all, it is not altogether such a grievous thing.' 'You mean to say that it is not grievous, even if a man does love a woman, and suffers all the pain of feeling he loves in vain?
Well, I say it is quite the reverse, and I have grounds for knowing.' 'Now, don't fume so, George Somerset, but hear me.