She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted.
 Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920). copy citation

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Author Edith Wharton
Source The Age of Innocence
Topic sacrifice safety want
Date 1920
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/541/541-h/541-h.htm

Context

“"I didn't," echoed Archer with a kind of solemnity.
"No: you date, you see, dear old boy. But mother said—"
"Your mother?"
"Yes: the day before she died. It was when she sent for me alone—you remember? She said she knew we were safe with you, and always would be, because once, when she asked you to, you'd given up the thing you most wanted."
Archer received this strange communication in silence. His eyes remained unseeingly fixed on the thronged sunlit square below the window. At length he said in a low voice: "She never asked me."
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Meaning and analysis

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