“ Yes,” said Miriam.
“ That’s what one must have , I think,” he continued—“the real, real flame of feeling through another person—once, only once, if it only lasts three months. See, my mother looks as if she’d had everything that was necessary for her living and developing. There’s not a tiny bit of feeling of sterility about her.”
“ No,” said Miriam.
“ And with my father, at first, I’m sure she had the real thing. She knows; she has been there. You can feel it about her, and about him, and about hundreds of people you meet every day; and, once it has happened to you, you can go on with anything and ripen.”
“ What happened, exactly?” asked Miriam.
“ It’s so hard to say, but the something big and intense that changes you when you really come together with somebody
