"You asked what would be _said_." I was fairly at a loss.

The figure which Martial grammarians call "the suppressed alternative" is a great favourite, and derives peculiar force from the varied emphasis their syntax allows.

But, resolved not to understand a meaning much more distinctly conveyed in her words than in my translation, I replied, "_I_ shall say nothing then, except--don't do it again;" and I extricated myself promptly if ignominiously from the dilemma, by leaving the cabin and closing the door, so sharply and decidedly as to convey a distinct intimation that it was not again to be opened.
We breakfasted earlier than usual.

My gentle bride had been subdued into a silence, not sullen, but so sad that when her wistful eyes followed my every movement as I prepared to start, I could willingly, to bring back their brightness, have renounced the promise of the day.
But this must not be; and turning to take leave on the threshold, I said-- "Be sure I shall come to no harm; and if I did, the worst pang of death would be the memory of the first sharp words I have spoken to you, and which, I confess, were an ill return for the inconvenient expression of your affectionate anxiety." "Do not speak so," she half whispered.

"I deserved any mark of your displeasure; I only wish I could persuade you that the sharpest sting lies in the lips we love.