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Then she grew smaller and smaller, until she had disappeared entirely. The bubbles rose steadily in the glass as if nothing had happened. My eyes turned slowly to Adam’s, even as his turned searchingly toward mine. Softly, almost wanly, he asked, “Did you see her?” I nodded slowly, and I saw he understood that his own feelings were not strange to me. Soon the liquid in the glass lowered to the halfway point. It was being drained away as mysteriously as it had been brought in. The two young marines were looking toward our table very intently. We could not know whether they had heard the music or had pieced together any comprehensive story from what they must have overheard. We did not care, because they had become to us just what they were—two average, intelligent human beings. True enough, life was all one thing, no matter what the individual experience might be at the time. We remained silent for a while. In the silence I gathered some insight into the person Adam, this Adam who sat before me. He had had an experience of the heart which seasoned his person and his soul, yet seemed to be gone from his hold forevermore. The greater part of him—his life, his emotions, his motives—all these must have gone with her passing out of his life, whoever she was. In such experiences, the one that hurts the most is usually the most recent. Yet, according to Adam’s own story, this must have been his first love, and certainly it would be his last. Again, I reflected, one who has had a hundred love affairs gets no more impact from all of them combined than one who experiences only one. More than that, the one has more impact than the one hundred. Like life itself, love remains one thing. Any coloring of it remains for the disposition of the individuals. Any abuse of it comes from the inferior nature of the individuals. Any from the of the comes from the inferior nature of the individuals. Any miscomprehension of iti is due to thei ignorance of the individuals. ad rower 4 a Coe ted 1 o4 nature comes Adam exuded in his every aspect the fact that he had once hit the zenith in love. He made me feel as if I had not 34 SON OF THE SUN yet come upon its first note. At the same time, it was clear that