William MacLeod Raine

“ She shook her head, a sweet, clouded smile in her eyes. “I think you might have a career as a lawyer, too, you versatile boy. You make a very pretty argument out of nothing. I'd just love to have been convinced. But I’m not. This happiness is not meant for us, dear. We must look at it wisely. We shall always be friends, but you must find your ‘superlative joy’ with another woman, one that would ask no more than to make you a happy home. You'll find her some day. Almost any woman would love you. ”

“ It’s a synonym for impertinent.”
“You school your eyes, dear, to make them say anything—to sweetly mock, to pity divinely, to run the gamut of all emotions. It is part of your charm that you are so pulsingly alive, that you see ‘naught common on Thy earth.’ But back of those lovely windows, what passes in your heart, I wonder.”
“Sir, when you are through with my chin, may I borrow it again?” she asked humbly.
“In a minute. Just now I want it. I can’t read what passes behind your eyes. If they are windows of the soul, they are stained glass.” ”

“ But if we married—we should have to find the same interests, come closer together, or we should drift apart. I can’t give up my career for you, Devvie, and you are too big to be a tail to my kite, no matter how high it soars. ”

“ If I am going to write plays, I must know my medium and its technique more intimately. If I am going to write novels, I must touch realities more nearly than I can do from the easy chair in my club. Marriage with you offers me the very chance I need. ”

“ I’m proud to know any man that could do what you did, and I’m all the prouder of you because I know how a man of your temperament must have shrunk from it. You like to get along easily with people, Devvie. ”

“ He shrugged and waved himself aside as a candidate for greatness. “I don’t seem to be particularly ambitious. It takes a good many kinds to make a world. My kind does not care much for the lime-light.” ”

“ The king can do no wrong. That is the attitude you want them to take. I must regretfully decline. I’m only an American, you know, and I’m embarrassed with the surplusage of humor and common sense. The trouble with you is that you exaggerate yourself so extraordinarily. ”

“ It isn’t that you seek for popular approval; rather that you inevitably like most decent people, and are liked by them. You’re not naturally a crusader, but I’d go a good way to meet a better fighter when you get started. ”