“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.”

“She loved him not only in spite of but because he himself was incapable of love.”

“Konstantin Levin did not like talking and hearing about the beauty of nature. Words for him took away the beauty of what he saw.”

“He looked at her as a man looks at a faded flower he has gathered, with difficulty recognizing in it the beauty for which he picked and ruined it. And in spite of this he felt that then, when his love was stronger, he could, if he had greatly wished it, have torn that love out of his heart; but now when as at that moment it seemed to him he felt no love for her, he knew that what bound him to her could not be broken.”

“What if she let falling in love with him be as natural as gravity?”

“He did not playfully shake him, as was his wont, or murmur soft love curses; but he whispered in his ear.'As you love me, Buck. As you love me,' was what he whispered.--Call of the Wild”