to be caught in the middle

"He had not overtaken his brothers, but he paused to take breath, and looked back.

He could see the white figures of the girls in the green enclosure whirling about as

they had whirled when he was among them. They seemed to have quite forgotten

him already. All of them, except, perhaps, one. This white figure stood apart by the

hedge alone. From her position he knew it to be the pretty maiden with whom he had not danced.

Trifling as the matter was, he yet instinctively felt that she was hurt by his oversight.

He wished that he had asked her; he wished that he had inquired her name.."

photography by Ellen Rogers.

excerpt from Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.

Have you ever been pulled in multiple directions at the same time?

When your heart goes one way, and your head goes another?

Why must mine do so now..