"
"Ah! doubtless there you have wives and children for whom your heart is
hungry."
"Nay, now I have neither wife nor child."
"Then once you had a wife. Tell me of that wife. Was she fair?"
"Why should I tell you a sad story? She is dead."
"Dead or living, you still love her, and where there is love there is no
death."
"Nay, I only love what I thought she was."
"Was she false, then?"
"Yes, false and yet true. So true that she died because she was false."
"How can a woman be both false and true?"
"Woman can be all things. Ask the question of your own heart. Can you
not perchance be both false and true?"
She thought awhile and, leaving this matter, said:
"So, having once loved, you can never love again."
"Why not? Perchance I can love too much. But what would be the use when
more love would but mean more loss and pain?"
"Whom should you love, my lord Hurachi, seeing that the women of your
own folk are far away?"
"I think one who is very near, if she would pay back love for love."
Quilla made no answer, and I thought that she was angry and would go
away.
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