Mr. Ely gasped. "This--this beats anything I ever heard of! Mr. Summers!"
"That's right, Ely, I'm awake. Wire in and lay me flat; I sha'n't mind a bit."
"In all this there may be something funny, sir, which commends it to your mind--if you have a mind--but I see nothing comic in desecrating nature's most sacred ties and in corrupting the innocence of youth."
"More don't I, Ely; not the way you put it--and I couldn't put it better if I tried."
"Are you aware that Miss Truscott has promised to be my wife?"
"Ah, that was a mistake!"
"A mistake! What the devil do you mean?"
"You see, Ely, I've been in love with her a good twelve months--aye, that and more. I fell in love with her the first moment she came across my path."
"What the dickens do I care if you've been in love with her twelve years? More shame you! Do you consider that a justification to the scoundrel who betrays another fellow's wife?"
"In love with her in a sense you do not understand--in love with her with my whole life."