"You are quite right to pity me," she said, and tears surged beneath both eyes and voice.

"Whether scoffingly or genuinely--you were quite right.
Feeling just enough to feel there _is_ something--but not a big enough feeling to go to that something, knowing just enough to know I'm being cheated, but without either the courage or the knowledge to do anything about it--I'm surely a pitiable and laughable object.

Come, Worth," she said sharply, "we're going home." But Worth had begun upon the construction of a raft, and was not in a home-going mood.

Thus encouraged by his young friend the man who mended the boats sat down on a log.
"When did you begin to want to know about the 'underlying principles of life' ?" His smile quoted it, though less mockingly than tenderly.
Katie was silent.
"Was it the day _she_ came ?" he asked quietly.
She gasped.

Was he--a wizard?
But looking at him and seeing he looked very much more like a man than like anything else, she met him as man should be met.