*    *    *    *    *

The only reason why anyone comes away from a summer at Marois Bay unbetrothed
is because there are so many girls that he falls in love with that his holiday is
up before he can, so to speak, concentrate.

*    *    *    *    *

Wilton weighed thirteen stone, and his muscles were like steel cables; but he
could not have shown less pluck in this crisis if he had been a poached egg.

*    *    *    *    *

But Wilton, whom grief had reduced to the mental level of an oyster,
did not reason this out; and the sight of her deprived him of practically
all his faculties, including speech.

*    *    *    *    *

Neither showed any disposition to exercise that gift of speech which places Man in a class
of his own, above the ox, the ass, the common warthog, and the rest of the lower animals.

*    *    *    *    *

Then she uttered a cry in which relief, surprise, and indignation were so
nicely blended that it would have been impossible to say which predominated.

*    *    *    *    *