A sort of shamefacedness prevents him from avowing it, as a boy at boarding-school hides his homesickness, or a lad his love.

He shrinks from appearing less pachydermatous than the rest.
Or else he flies to the other extreme, and affects the odd; pretends, poses, parades, and at last succeeds half in duping himself, half in deceiving other people.

But with Far Orientals the case is different.
Their love has all the unostentatious assurance of what has received the sanction of public opinion.

Nor is it still at that doubtful, hesitating stage when, by the instrumentality of a third, its soul-harmony can suddenly be changed from the jubilant major key into the despairing minor.

No trace of sadness tinges his delight.