Theodore Winthrop

“ The old steady, faithful look in the gray eyes. The same pale, saddened beauty. The unblenching gaze of patient waiting.
She looked at me vaguely, while life paused one pulse. Then, as I stepped forward, the eloquent blood gushed into her face, — for she knew that the friend could not long outrun the lover. She sprang into my arms. Forgive me, John Brent, if I did put my lips close to her burning cheek. It was only to whisper, “He is in London, searching for you. He has never rested one moment since you were lost to us. In an hour he will be here.” ”

“ But then there is a cabman who is my friend for life, if a giant fare can win a cabman’s heart.
By the side of the remembrance of my gallop down Luggernel Alley, I have a picture in my mind of myself, in a cab, cutting furiously through the cañons of London in chase of a lover. The wolves and cayotes of the by-streets — there are no antelopes in London — did not attempt to follow our headlong speed. ”

“ Was it true that this long love-chase over land and sea was at its ending? Joy is always a giant surprise, — success a disappointment among the appointed failures. Was this grim dwarf to be a conjurer of happiness? ”