"Hold your tongue, you foolish, impertinent creature; your high-flown novelist's phrases weary me."
"You can impose silence on me, but not prevent me from thinking."
"Silly pride! pride of a poor worm! you abuse the compassion I have had for you! But you will soon see that this mighty will can be subdued without too much difficulty."
"I don't advise you to try it; your repose would suffer, and you would gain nothing in dignity."
"Do you think so?" he said, crushing her hand between his thumb and forefinger.
"I do think so," she said, without wincing.
Ralph stepped forward, grasped the colonel's arm in his iron hand and bent it like a reed, saying in a pacific tone:
"I beg that you will not touch a hair of that woman's head."
Delmare longed to fly at him; but he felt that he was in the wrong and he dreaded nothing in the world so much as having to blush for himself. So he simply pushed him away, saying:
"Attend to your own business."