But love must either grow or wither: it must either soar or fall; it cannot hover motionless.
Adam longed for variety, for his books, for his verses, or even for the outer world, into which he had never found his way since his arrival in Eden. He could have taken a spade and trenched the ground, so satiated was he with the cloying idleness of his dreamy life; but there was no spade at hand, and he could make no labour for himself.
Yet he still loved Eve. The change was more with her than with him, and he could not understand it. Some vague shadow seemed to have come in between their hearts, and to have turned the sunshine of their life into a mysterious and unnatural darkness. Yet he hoped that all would still be fair again. Could Stella ever really cease to love him? No: he had been peevish or cold, and he had hurt her, perhaps; but he would make amends in the future. More than ever, thenceforth, he sought to forestall her every wish, and to win her back to the
