Wharton, Edith — The Age of Innocence [1639]

Shall I—once come to you; and then go home?” she suddenly hazarded in a low clear voice. … The blood rushed to the young man’s forehead. “Dearest!” he said, without moving. It seemed as if he held his heart in his hands, like a full cup that the least motion might overbrim. — Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, 1639

Note

The image of the heart as a brimming cup to be carried without motion makes the physical delicacy of the moment tangible—the cost of wanting is rendered as a physiological tremble.