Ah, how can I express it?
I have never had any big things in my life; all has been more or less trivial--on the surface.

This need of you--this wanting you--is so huge.

It dwarfs all that went before; it would overwhelm all that is to come,--were it not that it will be the throne, the crown, the summit, of the future .-- Oh, Jane! I have admired so many women.

I have raved about them, sighed for them, painted them, and forgotten them.

But I never LOVED a woman before; I never knew what womanhood meant to a man, until I heard your voice thrill through the stillness--'I count each pearl.' Ah, beloved, I have learned to count pearls since then, precious hours in the past, long forgotten, now remembered, and at last understood.