"Great, isn't it?
Magnificent tribute! You could get a dozen of 'em for fifty dollars.
That's what I got for being best man at my sister's funeral, and, by God, it's more than I deserved at that.

He had me sized up properly, I'll say that for him." He bowed his head dejectedly, his lips working in a sort of spasmodic silence.

Dodge eyed him with a curious, new-born commiseration.

The boy's self-abasement, his misery, his flouting of his own weakness were not altogether the result of maudlin reaction.

He presented a combination of manliness and effectiveness that perplexed and irritated Simeon Dodge.