You may say that on my part it is selfishness, and I may say that it is more just than selfish.

But you must _not_ say that I don't care for you." "Oh, it is easy enough for you to say that you _do_ care for me," she replied.

"It costs but a breath that must be breathed anyway; but if you really cared for me you would do as I ask you--as I beg of you." "Well," and he laughed at her, "there is a charming narrowness in that view, I must say.

If I love you I will grant whatever you may ask; and if you love me--then what?
Shall I answer ?" "Yes," she said, "as you seem to know what answer will be most acceptable to you." "No, not the answer most acceptable to me, but the one that seems to be the most consistent.

And if you love me," he continued, in answer to the question, "you will not ask me to make a painful sacrifice." He looked earnestly at her and added: "I think you'd better call me a crank and dismiss the subject." He expected her to take this as a humorous smoothing of their first unpleasant ruffle, but if she did she shrewdly deceived him, for she looked at him with the soberest of inquiry as she asked: "Do you really think you are a crank ?" "I sometimes think so," he answered.
"Isn't it simply that you take a pride in being different from other people.