William Wilkie Collins

“ Oh! my friend, my friend, if ever I have deserved well of you, put away these thoughts from your heart! Face me again, with the stainless look of a man who has trampled under his feet the bloody superstitions of revenge, and knows them no more! Never, never, let the time come when I cannot offer you my hand as I offer it now—to the man I can still admire, to the brother I can still love!"
The heart that no other voice could touch felt that appeal. The fierce eyes, the hard voice, softened under Crayford's influence. ”

“ Wardour proceeded—still following the old recollections, still preserving his gentler tones.
"I should have quarrelled with any other man who had surprised me at that moment," he said. "There was something, I suppose, in your voice when you asked my pardon for disturbing me, that softened my heart. I told you I had met with a disappointment which had broken me for life. There was no need to explain further. The only hopeless wretchedness in this world is the wretchedness that women cause."
"And the only unalloyed happiness," said Crayford, "the happiness that women bring." ”

“ Crayford drew back in silent horror. Wardour noticed the action—he resented it—he appealed, in defence of his one cherished conviction, to Crayford's own experience of him.
"Look at me!" he cried. "Look how I have lived and thriven, with the heart-ache gnawing at me at home, and the winds of the icy north whistling round me here! I am the strongest man among you. Why? I have fought through hardships that have laid the best-seasoned men of all our party on their backs. ”