Mansfield: A Novel

Her happiness persisted through the night and was with her in the morning, even though at some half-waking moment in the small hours it had come to her that what Carco felt for her was affection, gratitude, good will and good fellowship; that he was not, despite the protestations of his letters, in love with her at all, and that (consequently? - she asked herself was it a consequence and was unsure) she was not in love with him. It was a recognition which, she decided, cleared the air, made the whole business between them simpler, cleaner. This was an adventure. It was not an earthquake, not the destruction of the old city requiring the building of a new.