" Considering it, he realized that somehow he never worried about Miriam, and that was wrong. He did not worry about her because she seemed so self-sufficient, so strong. She was like their mother had been, only more so, much more so. But he felt it was wrong to think of a girl that way…It was wrong for any man to consider a girl self-sufficient, for men wanted to do something for a woman and when there was nothing they could do, there was no place for love.

Love was, he suspected, much a matter of service. One loved and was loved, as one needed and was needed. Or so it seemed to him. "

― Louis L'Amour , Taggart