Eleanor H. Porter

“ He pictured her life, barren and wasted, without love. He pictured his own work, come to naught, a failure, because of the lack of her love and her presence as an incentive. He pictured themselves grown old with love and youth lost forever. As he drew it, it was a picture calculated to strike cold terror to the stoutest heart.
Sister Sue, caught up in the whirlwind of his wooing, was lifted to an exaltation of surrender and self-sacrifice that saw only love and the world well lost. And Martin Kent went away that evening with her promise to marry him in July. ”

“ To-night, when Martin Kent called, Sister Sue was alone in the living-room. John Gilmore was closeted in the library with two men who had come on business soon after dinner; and May and Gordon were off for the evening. Sister Sue was glad that there was a prospect of having the room quite to themselves. She had much that she wanted to say to Martin Kent; and she did not want to be interrupted. She knew, too, that first she must listen to what Martin Kent himself had to say of his own doings. Martin Kent always spoke first and listened afterwards. ”

“ May regarded her future brother-in-law as the most thrillingly handsome man she had even seen"and May's experience was not limited. She was familiar with the features of nearly every Adonis of the screen and the footlights. As for John Gilmore—John Gilmore was not a movie fan, neither was he thrilled at the sight of Adonises in everyday life. He knew little of the Great American Novel, and he cared less. He knew little of Martin Kent—and perhaps he cared less also. ”