Read "Chasse-Croise" by Israel Zangwill online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Walter Bassett had spoken truly. He did not admire love -- that blind force. Women seemed to him delightfully aesthetic objects -- to be kept at a distance, however closely one embraced them. They were unreasoning beings at the best, even when unbiassed by that supreme prejudice -- love.
It was not his conception of the strong man that he must needs become as water at some woman's touch and go dancing and babbling like a sylvan brook. Women were the light of life -- he was willing enough to admit it, but one must be able to switch the light on and off at will. All these were reasons for not falling in love -- they were not reasons for not marrying. And so, Amber being determined to marry him, there was really less difficulty than if it had been necessary for him to fall in love with her.