Theodore Winthrop

“ Densdeth, the brilliant, the accomplished, — who fascinates old and young, who has been everywhere, who has seen everything, who knows the world de profundis, — a very Midas with the gold touch, but without the ass’s ears? ”

“ As an old friend, they will see you, of course. In fact, conspicuous people, like the Denmans, cannot long shelter themselves behind a sorrow. But come, old fellow, I have been talking solemnly long enough. ”

“ Yet some people do not hesitate to say that she drowned herself rather than be forced to marry Densdeth.”
“These are not the days of forced marriages.”
“Moral pressure is more despotic than physical force. I fancy our old friend Churm may think there was tyranny in the business, though he never speaks of it. You know he was a supplementary father and guardian of those ladies. He was absent when it all happened.”
“And the Denmans, — how do they seem to bear it?” ”