"Mr. Clancy," she said hotly, "we have differed so greatly before that I might have been saved the pain of this interview, but we never differed as we do at this moment. I cannot listen to you any longer. It would be disloyalty to those who are true friends—friends that I love and honor."
"Do you love Captain Bodine?"
"Certainly I do. He was my father's friend; he is my honored friend."
"Do you love Captain Bodine?"
"What do you mean?" she asked angrily, flushing to her very brow.
"Mara, be calm. Listen to me as you value your life, as you value your own soul. Do you think I would come here for slight cause at such cost to us both?"
"I think you are strangely mistaken in coming here, and using language which makes me doubt your sanity."
"Please do me the justice to note that there is nothing wild in my manner, nor any excitement in my words."
"Noting this, I find it more difficult to explain your course, or to pardon it."
"It is not necessary at present, that you should do either. Please be patient a few minutes longer and my mission is ended. I am not pleading for myself, but for you. Please listen, or a time may come when in a bitterness beyond words you may regret that you did not hear me. Thank Heaven! it is clear that I have not come too late. Captain Bodine is more than your friend in his feelings; he is your lover, and you are so morbid, unfriended, unguided, that you are capable of sacrificing yourself—"