I can understand how you have opened to him a new heaven and a new earth, but what has he given you?
Nothing.

On the other hand any finely gifted girl would have given you something.

If you had really touched her heart, you would have found in her some instinctive tenderness, some proof of unselfish, exquisite devotion that would have made your eyes prickle with a sense of inferiority.
"After all, the essence of love, the finest spirit of that companionship you speak about, of the sisterhood of soul, is that the other person should quicken you, too; open to you new horizons, discover new possibilities; and how could your soldier boy help you in any way?
He brought you no new ideas, no new feelings, could reveal no new thoughts to you.

I can see no romance, no growth of soul in such a connection.
But the girl is different from the man in all ways.

You have as much to learn from her as she has from you, and neither of you can come to ideal growth in any other way: you are both half-parts of humanity--complements, and in need of each other." "You have put it very cunningly, Frank, as I expected you would, to return your compliment, but you must admit that with the boy, at any rate, you have no jealousy, no mean envyings, no silly inanities.