Elizabeth Bowen. Death of the heart (№ 415517)

Innocence is so often in a false position that people who are innocent at heart soon learn to be hypocritical. Not having mastered the language in which they could speak on their own behalf, they resign themselves to the fact that from now on they will be translated - and inaccurately. They are lonely, and when entering into a relationship, they make unnecessary compromises - because of fear, because of the desire to share warmth and feel it in return. Our love is too wicked for them. They inevitably stumble, after which they are reproached for infidelity. Their love, tender and destructive, turns into countless betrayals for those who are not so innocent. Being hopelessly alien in this world, they still - stubbornly, heroically - demand happiness from him. Their restlessness, their ruthlessness, their tireless movement towards one single goal doom them to cruelty - and to a cruel attitude towards themselves. Two innocent people rarely manage to meet - there are so few of them, but if this happens, then the land around them is usually littered with their victims.