“Nonsense,” said the girl, “you know that is nonsense. It is not Christianity, it is because I love several people very much.” “You do not love several people very much,” said Cromartie, interrupting her. “You cannot possibly love people like your aunts. Nobody could. No, you do not really love anybody. You imagine that you do because you have not got the courage to stand alone.” “I know whom I love, and whom I do not,” said Josephine. “And if you should drive me to choose between you and everybody else, I should be a fool to give myself to you.” +--------------------------+ | DINGO ♂ | | _Canis familiaris var._ | |NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA| +--------------------------+ “Poor little Dingo,” said Cromartie. “They do shut up creatures here on the thinnest pretexts. He is only the familiar dog.” [Illustration] The Dingo whined, and wagged his tail. He knew that he was being spoken of. Josephine turned from her lover to the Dingo, and her face softened as she looked at it. “I suppose they have got to have everything here, every single kind of beast there is, even if it turns out to be nothing but an ordinary dog.” They left the Dingo, walked to the next cage, and stood side by side looking at the creature in it. “The slender dog,” said Josephine, reading the label. She laughed, and the slender dog got up and walked away. “So that is a wolf,” said Cromartie, as they stopped six feet further on. “Another dog in a cage.... Give yourself to me, Josephine, that sounds to me as if you were crazy. But it shows anyway that you are not in love with me. If you are in love it is all or nothing. You cannot be in love with several people at once. I know because I am in love with you, and other people are all my enemies, necessarily my enemies.” “What nonsense!” said Josephine. “If I am in love with you,” Cromartie went on, “and you with me, it means that you are the only person who is not my enemy, and I am the only person who is not yours. A fool to give yourself to me! Yes, you are a fool if you fancy you are in love when you are not, and I should be a fool to believe it. You do not give yourself to the person with whom you are in love, you are yourself instead of being dressed up in armoured plate.” “Has this place got nothing in it besides tame dogs?” asked Josephine. They walked together towards the lion house, and Josephine took John’s arm in hers. “Armoured plate. It doesn’t seem to me to make sense. I cannot bear to hurt the people I love, and so I am not going to live with you, or do anything that they would mind if they found out.”