With Miriam he was always on the high plane of abstraction, when his natural fire of love was transmitted into the fine stream of thought.

She would have it so.

If he were jolly and, as she put it, flippant, she waited till he came back to her, till the change had taken place in him again, and he was wrestling with his own soul, frowning, passionate in his desire for understanding.

And in this passion for understanding her soul lay close to his; she had him all to herself.

But he must be made abstract first.
Then, if she put her arm in his, it caused him almost torture.