"Ah, do you think I have no heart, no mind that likes to talk its thoughts, no sympathies?
I think that if _anyone_--man, woman, or child--were to come to me from out the big world, where people have such thoughts and feelings as I have, and offer to talk to me, I could not do anything else than desire their companionship.

Do you think that I am hard-hearted?
I am so lonely that the affection even of a dog or a bird would be a temptation to me, if it was a thing that I dared not accept, because it would make me weaker to live the life that is right.

That is the way we must tell what is right or wrong." In spite of himself, he gathered comfort from the fact that, pausing here, without adequate reason that was apparent, she took for granted that the friendship he offered would be a source of weakness to her.
She never stooped to try to appear reasonable.

As she had been speaking, a new look had been coming out of the habitual calmness of her face, and now, in the pause, the calm went suddenly, and there was a flash of fire in her eyes that he had never seen there before: "If I were starving, would you come and offer me bread that you knew I ought not to eat?
It would be cruel." She rose up suddenly, and he stood before her.

"It is cruel of you to tantalize me with thoughts of happiness because you know I must want it so much.