After this the regular succession of dates was broken, and there followed a few scraps of verse, irregular and unfinished, bound together by the thread of a name--“Claire among her Roses,” “A Ride through the Pines with Claire,” “An Old Song of Claire's” “The Blue Flower in Claire's Eyes.” It was not poetry, but such an unconscious tribute to the power and beauty of poetry as unfolds itself almost inevitably from youthful love, as naturally as the blossoms unfold from the apple trees in May. If you pick them they are worthless. They charm only in their own time and place. A date told of his change from Larmone to the village, and this was written below it: “Too heavy a sense of obligation destroys freedom, and only a free man can dare to love.” Then came a number of fragments indicating trouble of mind and hesitation; the sensitiveness of the artist, the delicate, self-tormenting scruples of the lonely idealist, the morbid pride of the young poor man, contending with an impetuous passion and forcing it to surrender, or at least to compromise. “What right has a man to demand everything and offer nothing in return except an ambition and a hope? Love must come as a giver, not as a beggar.” “A knight should not ask to wear his lady's colours until he has won his spurs.” “King Cophetua and the beggar-maid--very fine! but the other way--humiliating!” “A woman may take everything from a man, wealth and fame and position. But there is only one thing that a man may accept from a woman--something that she alone can give--happiness.” “Self-respect is less than love, but it is the trellis that holds love up from the ground; break it down, and all the flowers are in the dust, the fruit is spoiled.” “And yet”--so the man's thought shone through everywhere--“I think she must know that I love her, and why I cannot speak.” One entry was written in a clearer, stronger hand: “An end of hesitation. The longest way is the shortest. I am going to the city to work for the Academy prize, to think of nothing else until I win it, and then come back with it to Claire, to tell her that I have a future, and that it is hers. If I spoke of it now it would be like claiming the reward before I had done the work. I have told her only that I am going to prove myself an artist, AND TO LIVE FOR WHAT I LOVE BEST. She understood, I am sure, for she would not lift her eyes to me, but her hand trembled as she gave me the blue flower from her belt.” The date of his return to Larmone was marked, but the page was blank, as the day had been. Some pages of dull self-reproach and questioning and bewildered regret followed. “Is it possible that she has gone away, without a word, without a sign, after what has passed between us? It is not fair. Surely I had some claim.” “But what claim, after all? I asked for nothing. And was it not pride that kept me silent, taking it for granted that if I asked, she would give?” “It was a mistake; she did not understand, nor care.”