"Oh, I haven't the slightest idea," she said. "Catherine, I do like him awfully--I like him most awfully. No one has ever attracted me like that. Good gracious! how indelicate I am! But I don't care one straw. I should like to put all my affairs and all poor Thurso's into his hands. I should do it with the utmost confidence, and I should then just curl round as one does in bed, and feel everything is all right. Is that being in love? I don't know or care. He is so strong, and so windy and so sunny. He is surrounded by sun, and--and it is as if he had just had a cold bath and stepped into the sun. I love that strength and wind. Don't you like it? I want somebody who would go on playing undoubled spades at bridge in the middle of an earthquake. He would--for a shilling a hundred. Am I in love with him? I tell you I don't know. Certainly this sort of thing has never happened to me before, and, again, I certainly have never been in love. So perhaps 'these are the ones.' Oh, do tell me! When Thurso proposed to you, was it like that? Did you feel there wasn't anybody else who _really_ mattered? Oh dear! poor Mr. Cochrane, to have all this put upon him! He hasn't shown the slightest sign of doing more than admire my fishing. Lots of people have done that. But about you and Thurso, did you feel that? Is that the one?" There was a fine irony about this, and Catherine, in spite of the previous discussion on Christian Science, which laid down that all that had any real existence was good, felt disposed to believe in the malice that lurked in chance questions. She evaded the direct answer. "Oh, there are as many ways of love as there are people in the world," she said. "But, dear, I regard you with suspicion. There are certain symptoms----" "Oh, don't," said Maud. "Very well. But I feel with you about strength. It is an adorable quality to women. And it is that which so troubles me about Thurso. I know--the throwing away of the bottle proves it--that he is fighting; but is he strong enough? He was weak when he allowed himself to form a habit that he knew was harmful." She threw her hands wide. "Oh, it is so awful!" she said. "One begins by saying, 'I shall do this when I choose,' and so soon. This says, 'You shall do it when I choose.' Personally, I always make it a rule to give anything up before I begin to want it very badly." There was an irony in this, too. The remembrance of what chiefly kept her awake last night made her know that her rule was not always quite easy to follow. But this was secret from Maud. "You, who get all you want!" she said, speaking from outside.