MARRIAGE In that atmosphere of perfect bliss Godfrey's cure was quick.

For bliss it was, save only that there was another bliss beyond to be attained.
Remember that this man, now approaching middle life, had never drunk of the cup of what is known as love upon the earth.
Some might answer that such is the universal experience; that true, complete love has no existence, except it be that love of God to which a few at last attain, since in what we know as God completeness and absolute unity can be found alone.

Other loves all have their flaws, with one exception perhaps, that of the love of the dead which fondly we imagine to be unchangeable.

For the rest passion, however exalted, passes or at least becomes dull with years; the most cherished children grow up, and in so doing, by the law of Nature, grow away; friends are estranged and lost in their own lives.
Upon the earth there is no perfect love; it must be sought elsewhere, since having the changeful shadows, we know there is a sky wherein shines the sun that casts them.
Godfrey, as it chanced, omitting Isobel, had walked little even in these sweet shadows.

There were but three others for whom he had felt devotion in all his days, Mrs.Parsons, his tutor, Monsieur Boiset, and his friend, Arthur Thorburn, who was gone.