Quotation from: The Little Lady of the Big House

Written by: Jack London

"And every act, every permitted touch of you, does make him pitiable.
Don't you see how tangled it is for me? And then there is my own
pride. That you should see me disloyal to him in little things, such
as this--" (she caught his hand again and caressed it with soft
finger-tips) "--hurts me in my love for you, diminishes me, must
diminish me in your eyes. I shrink from the thought that my disloyalty
to him in this I do--" (she laid his hand against her cheek) "--gives
you reason to pity him and censure me."