And
meantime their husbands are men in whom ardent love naturally,
inevitably, and rightly produces a desire for intimacy. They may be
willing to be patient. They may study their wives' moods, and try to
learn to be chivalrous lovers. But if day after day they meet with no
response--if on the contrary they find their wives deliberately
checking all response, is it not clear that a situation is created that
cannot but threaten married happiness? Is it not inevitable that
husbands so treated should begin to wonder whether their wives really
love them? For love makes people unselfish, and equally it makes them
understanding. On the other hand, when wives do understand, and learn
in this respect to be generous, they bind their husbands to them in new
chains of affection. In some husbands almost the strongest emotion
they have towards their wives is a sense of profound gratitude for a
generosity that made those wives willing to meet them again and again
in love's high places, and allow them that ultimate expression of
their passion through which nature is restored to balance and peace.
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