And you call that honour ?" "Well, then, call it choice!" said Mary Ellen, with what she took to be a noble lie upon her lips.

"It is ended!" Franklin sat cold and dumb at this, all the world seeming to him to have gone quite blank.

He could not at first grasp this sentence in its full effect, it meant so much to him.

He shivered, and a sigh broke from him as from one hurt deep and knowing that his hurt is fatal.

Yet, after his fashion, he fought mute, struggling for some time before he dared trust his voice or his emotions.
"Very well," he said.