Edison Marshall

“ Doomsdorf would strike the life from him in an instant at the first hint of revolt.
It was wholly conceivable that such a thing could occur. Ned could endure grinding toil till he died; even such personal abuse as he had received an hour or so before might find him crushed and unresisting, but yet there remained certain offenses that could not be endured. Ned could not forget that both Lenore and Bess were wholly in Doomsdorf's power. A brutal, savage man, it was all too easy to believe that the time would come soon when he would forget the half-promise he had given them. ”

“ Ned, deeply appalled and unspeakably revolted, looked to Lenore for directions. Her glorious head was on her arms, and she shook it in utter misery. “I can't go out there now,” she said. “I'll just die if I do—I'm so cold still, so weakened. I wish I had died out there in the storm.”
Ned turned once more to Doomsdorf. “She's telling the truth—I think she simply can't stand to go,” he urged gravely. “But though she's absolutely in your power, there are some things even a beast can't do. You just the same as gave me your word——”
“There are things a beast can't do, but I'm not a beast. ”

“ It was his own unpardonable conceit, his own self-sufficiency that made him start out to meet the North half prepared, daring to disturb its ancient silences with the sound of his wild revelry; and to live, in its grim desolation, the same trivial life he lived at home. ”