He gave his dreadful little treble giggle.
"And I am to bind up your broken heart ?" he asked.
Michael drew himself up to his full height.

This was an indiscretion, for it but made his father recognise how short he was.

It brought farce into the tragic situation.
"Oh, by no means," he said.

"My heart is not going to break yet.

I don't give up hope." Then, in a flash, he thought of his mother's pale, anxious face, her desire that he should not vex his father.
"I am sorry," he said, "but that is the case.