So long as you are yourself, your friends will be well content.

At the same time, I may add, while this dear face is under discussion, that I can look back to times when I have felt that I would gladly walk twenty miles for a sight of it; and in its absence I have always wished it present, and in its presence I have never wished it away." "Ah, but, Deryck, you did not have to have it always opposite you at meals," insisted Jane gravely.
"Unfortunately not.

But I enjoyed the meals more on the happy occasions when it was there." "And, Deryck--YOU DID NOT HAVE TO KISS IT." The doctor threw back his head and shouted with laughter, so that Flower, passing up the stairs, wondered what turn the conversation could be taking.
But Jane was quite serious; and saw in it no laughing matter.
"No, dear," said the doctor when he had recovered; "to my infinite credit be it recorded, that in all the years I have known it I have never once kissed it." "Dicky, don't tease! Oh, Boy, it is the most vital question of my whole life; and if you do not now give me wise and thoughtful advice, all this difficult confession will have been for nothing." The doctor became grave immediately.

He leaned forward and took those clasped hands between his.
"Dear," he said, "forgive me if I seemed to take it lightly.

My most earnest thought is wholly at your disposal.