“Was Mrs. Wilcox one of the unsatisfactory people – there are many of them – who dangle intimacy and then withdraw it? They evoke out interests and affections, and keep the life of the spirit dawdling round them. Then they withdraw. When physical passion is involved, there is a definite name for such behavior – flirting – and if carried far enough it is punishable by law. But no law – not public opinion even – punishes those who coquette with friendship, though the dull ache that they inflict, the sense of misdirected effort and exhaustion, may be as intolerable. Was she one of those?”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . from Howards End
Erin
Alan Schmierer