He did not conceive of love as a nervous interchange

He did not conceive of love as a nervous interchange but as something absolute, out of the scope of thought, beyond himself, matter for a confident outward rather than anxious inward looking. He had sought and was satisfied with a few - he thought final - repositories for his emotions: his mother, country, dog, school, a friend or two, now - crowningly - Lois. Of these he asked only that they should be quiet and positive, not impinged upon, not breaking boundaries from their generous allotment. 

E. Bowen, The last September (1929), 41