"It's--it's simply"-- he said, flushing darkly, and turning his face away from John's calm and friendly gaze--"that to me--to _me_, the idea is--ridiculous." "Ah!" said John.

He rose from the stone bench.

A spark of anger came to him, too, as he looked at Peter, but he controlled his voice and his temper.

"The time will come," he said, "when your imagination will be able to grasp the possibility of love between a man in the forties and a woman in the thirties.

At least, for your sake, I hope it will." "Why for my sake ?" said Peter.
"Because I should be sorry," said John, "if you died young.".