In that moment of mad happiness that she should go out with him, go to a lecture with him--with him, Martin Eden--she soared so far above him that there seemed nothing else for him to do than die for her.

It was the only fit way in which he could express the tremendous and lofty emotion he felt for her.

It was the sublime abnegation of true love that comes to all lovers, and it came to him there, at the telephone, in a whirlwind of fire and glory; and to die for her, he felt, was to have lived and loved well.

And he was only twenty-one, and he had never been in love before.
His hand trembled as he hung up the receiver, and he was weak from the organ which had stirred him.

His eyes were shining like an angel's, and his face was transfigured, purged of all earthly dross, and pure and holy.
"Makin' dates outside, eh ?" his brother-in-law sneered.