“By my own heart. Love, _love_ is always mutual! and in my heart lives no love for you beyond the sisterly affection I must ever feel; but that, Gusty, is deeper and stronger than often sisters feel for brothers. But when you talk to me of other love, you shock and repulse me; and that, Gusty, teaches me that _you_ do not really love me, but are only self-deceived by ‘the strong necessity of loving,’ that ‘strong necessity of loving’ that leads so many impatient hearts to ruin. Listen, Gusty. Marriages are made in heaven, but most marriages are seldom consummated. God, who doeth all things well, places on earth the mutual instincts of attraction in such souls as are intended for each other. In the whirl and jostle of this world, it is often that these souls never meet, but it is oftener that the impatience of the heart to _love_ and to _be_ loved, leads it into the delusion that it _does_ love and _is_ loved. Wait, Gusty; do not add to the confusion by marrying when you only fancy you love. Wait, and your chance of meeting your own will be greater!” “But, my heart, my heart!” said Gusty. “Oh, your heart, your heart! _Still_ the wailing of the spoiled child if you can, but do not let it have the serpent it cries for—illusory love!” “You, who know so much about love, whom do you love, Hagar?” The color deepened to crimson on the girl’s dark cheek, and touching her horse, she rode forward. He followed, and again overtaking her, said, “Hagar, you have talked a great deal of nonsense. You say that love is always mutual?” “Yes.” “And that a one-sided love is an illusion?” “Yes.” “How comes it, then, that this one-sided love, this illusion, is sometimes so strong as to drive its victim to madness or suicide?” “In the first place, Gusty, all that _appears_ to be one-sided love, is _not so_. Love is often returned where it is not acknowledged—often proffered where it is not felt; there is so much false semblance in the world; and then again, Gusty, the fact of the one-sided love _being_ an illusion is the great cause of its eventuating in insanity. Moral illusions, mental illusions, are only other names for insanity.” They rode on towards the Hall in silence; then suddenly out spoke Gusty with energy, and said “Hagar, this is all phantasy of _yours_, not of mine. I love you—I wish to pass my life with you—now do not tell me that my case is hopeless. Hagar! do not—I will be so patient, although mother used to say that I was Gusty by name and Gusty by nature. Come, Hagar, let me hope, and I will be so—” She wheeled her horse suddenly around, and, confronting him, said, very earnestly, “Gusty, you must never think of me as a wife, for I can never love you as a wife.” “Oh, Hagar, if you would only try to like me a little—” “_Try!_” exclaimed the wild girl, and her laugh rang out upon the air, awaking the echoes, “_Try!_—there, I said you knew nothing about love—_Try!_”