Barker would know how to deal with the people he met; Claudius could understand a hero if he ever met one, but he bore himself toward ordinary people by fixed rules of his own, not caring or attempting to comprehend the principles on which they acted.
If any one had asked the Doctor if he loved the Countess, he would have answered that he certainly did not.

That she was the most beautiful woman in the world, that she represented to him his highest ideal, and that he was certain she came up to that ideal, although he knew her so little, for he felt sure of that.

But love, the Doctor thought, was quite a different affair.

What he felt for Margaret bore no resemblance to what he had been used to call love.

Besides, he would have said, did ever a man fall in love at such short notice?
Only in books.